tale of two missions

[humesy]

There seems to be two types of fishing trips for me. The trips I plan in advance with friends and the spur of the moment trips when a window of opportunity presents itself. I have had 2 weeks of holiday and done one of each. Being a new dad, this is about all that seems likely at this stage but tonight was successful enough to restock the freezer with jewie cutlets.

My spur of the minute trips are infinitely more successful than my planned trips. So much so, that the friends who come on my boat have begun to accuse me of shopping for my fish at DeCostis.

Last Friday fishraider Geoff and I set out on a trip that had been postponed once, hoping to hit the hawkesbury. I had it all planned. Seabreeze was showing calm conditions 4 days in advance, there was a nice big high tide at about 10; I had 3 spots in mind for a big jew. The forecast was out by a day and our day on the water began in a screaming Sou-westerly. We headed out from Brisbane waters and were greated by whitecaps. We tucked in behind Lion Island where there were schools of salmon at play, berleyed up and pulled in a few horse sized yakkas. One salmon also hoovered a bait jig for a bit of excitement. By 9 o'clock, the whitecaps had become bigger and more furious and a trip up the Hawkesbury was plainly going to be too much punishment for any hope of a fish. We went back into brisbane waters where frustrations continued as tide and wind were opposed and holding anchor over the chosen spots was almost impossible. The last throw of the dice was to the back of one of the bays for some flattie drifts and lure casting. It was very pleasant by comparison but totally fishless.

Tonight looked good on all fronts with conditions I favour. I love a calm evening with low light due to cloud cover, nice high barometer reading and a high tide at about 6.30 (due to tidal lag), close to dusk. Having returned from a romantic aniversary getaway, I did the good hubby thing and cooked up dinner and did the grocery shopping. Then I legged it down to the boat ramp to allow 1 and a 1/2 hours to gather bait and 2 hours of fishing either side of high tide. Livies were a little hard to come by but I managed 5. I had some freshish frozen squid as well. Managed 3 nice jewies from 60-70cm, all within 1/2 an hour; 2 on the squid, 1 on a livie. Beautiful evening on the water.

Thanks Geoff for your company last friday. Apologies if my frustrations with the conditions spoiled the enjoyment of the day. It was a precious leave pass spent on that day and it just doesn't always pan out the way you want it of course. I really do enjoy good company of course when I am fishing, its just that I never seem to catch a damn thing.

Edited October 5, 2011 by humesy

[Formosan]

That's some awesome Jews there mate.

[zen801]

Hi Andrew,

Yeah I now what you mean regarding results for planned and window of opportunity fishing trips. The weather has been average considering at the moment conditions are very good for jewfish captures. Our old MH spot has fired up in the last few weeks with soaps and kings. I was going to hit these nice tides ATM but got car problems until Friday arvo. Hope the coast is treating you well mate and nice jewies caught, good to see ya cracked it up there for em as well. I fully expect to read your post one day soon on a monster mulloway of at least 20kg's. You better hurry man coz I am trying to beat you to it this year. There out there. Lol

Mike

[castwide]

good see the jwie.

on the boat best eating fish

cheers castwide

[GregL]

NIce jews Humesy.

Our off the cuff missions are always more sucessful, mainly the conditions are always better.

Plan a trip, and the weather turns from beautiful and mild to out right scary with wind and rain:ranting2:

Usually doesn't stop us from going but thems the days we catch fish and hardly anyone else does.....

Greg