Fishing Trip Of Crookhaven Heads

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

Hi All

Headed down to Crookhaven yesterday for a "serious" fish - first one since January! The aim was to arrive 12am, sleep till 5am, and head out off Crookhaven heads. Depending on the wind and waves, perhaps to the banks or further. The wind report looked better and better as the week wore on - but pulled back the night before :-(. Our aim: Winter Kingies - or snapper. Or, well, any fish we could find.

Left at 5am, and spent 20minutes attempting to grab some livies off the Crookhaven lighthouse. No go. Not even a nibble. Weird.

Oh well - with a slight westerly blowing, the ocean was dead flat - so we said stuff it - let's hit the banks. Headed east at full throttle - a rare occurrence. At we approached, the sea started to pick up, and had to back off a little. In fact, at one point a wave broke over the bow, ran up the windscreen, into my face, and down the front of my top and pants. GOOD MORNING!

As we hit the banks, I back off the throttle, and the "slight" westerly had blown up to 20k. The sea was being whipped up badly, and over the banks (which is an offshore reef that goes from 80m to 15m deep in about 100m), there was a massive current from the north. With the combination of swell, large sea from the west, and the current from the north, the banks was a nightmare. Standing waves breaking. Swirls, whirlpools - very scary. Looked so bad I didn't even want to drive the boat through it (and didn't).

We heavy hearts, decided discretion was the better part of valour - and headed in towards Beecroft Peninsular. Well protect from the westerly.

Fish there most the day, working our way up and down it. Saw dolphins, seals, and a couple of whales. In terms of fish - caught a heap, but mostly reef fish. Moari Wrasse, Sergent Bakers, Red Rock Cod, massive sweep, and one snapper.

A great day - came back with an esky of fish, but none of the "good" fish we were hoping for.

A good day.

Mike

[mr magoo]

lovely part of the world down there ,i spend a week every year and cant wait to get back

cheers arman

[michaelrdoyle@gmail.com]

Couldn't have said it better myself. A bad days fishing is better then a good day in the office. And we had an awesome day fishing.

Great to be out there - and great to be bringing in fish after fish, no matter what they are.

And it is a great part of the world. Truly awesome!

Mike