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Well from a few years ago when boat reports were rare we now seem to have loads to read ..... brilliant stuff .... Is this because we are all becoming reporters or because theres more to report about .. 
.. probs a bit of both I think .....
Well lets start by saying ... "It's early yet, just the middle of April so don't expect too much set target for today at 6 fish to the boat" ..... ha no chance of that , what with all the reports of fish in abundance we , as I expect everyone else as well, set off today with a feeling of great anticipation for a good catch ..........
With the tide not at its best and the tide times even worse we set off at first light to get as much of the ebb tide as possible and met at RQ Marina for 5.15am, When I say we, Tony and I welcomed the return of Steve (the scotchie hunter), his first trip with Slinky for over a year.
After the short trip from Marina to piers, we stopped off at close in areas and had a few short drops but not a touch so decided it was to be a wrecking day today.
On a serious note, we decided today to carry out a very controlled
experiment. We chose a wreck, set the drift then simultaneously dropped three different rigs. We decided we would fish differing rigs in an effort to evaluate which over a period of time would catch most .........
Tony dropped a pirk, Steve stuck with tried and tested baited hokkais and I lowered a sidewinder minnow shad .........
after only a short while I struck into the first fish of the day, a small codling of 3 lbd or so on the shad .............
That was it ------ Panic, blood, sweat and tears for the next 4 or 5 minutes as Tony and Steve decided to forget the experiment and went crazy to install shads to the ends of their tackle, I swear before I`d unhooked and turned around they were throwing shads to the deeps with innocent grins on their faces.
The weather was good to us and the sea flat as can be, we travelled far and wide from wreck to wreck picking up a couple or so on each however not the manic tens of fish per wreck that we had seen late into last season.
I stuck with shads all day whilst Steve and Tone experimented with a variety of baits (however I do feel shads won the day on catches).
Steve as ever boated his first fish of the day to find it was ...... yes, a scotchie ... welcome back steve......
Tone boated the first ling of the season with a nice 6lbder well done mate, and I got the best cod of the day at about 7lbd.
At about 11.00am after the tide had started to flood we decided to give St Marys a go as it's had a lot of good press lately, but today for us, it just didn't fish, never mind it was a bit on the cold and windy side as we came inshore anyway so decided to go back to the wrecks .......
What a good decision, there was an onshore breeze some 4 -5 miles out that counteracted the westerly blowing from the shore, this resulted in beautiful calm seas no wind and warm sunny spells all afternoon.
Added to this the fish started to turn on on the wrecks.....
Not a big catch by any means but by the end of the day we had twice the target of 6 to end up with 11 good cod/codling and 1 nice ling.
Highpoint of the day ..... Steve catching his first Shad caught fish ......
Low point of the day - "good luck with the electrical repair Rich"
as ever a few pictures of the day ......
Sunrise, well as close we could get to sunrise as we had to wait for it to get up above some clouds first
First fish of the day ... to myself
Steve (back in business) scotchie haul
Tony and first ling of the season
myself with another shaded cod
Steve with his first Shad caught fish
Tony with what he thought on the way up was a ling (and maybe a record)
so frantic was the travelling and fishing there was no time to relax between wrecks, just barely time to tie the next rig ....
Tone proving he too can catch cod as well ........
What turned out to be best fish of the day - 7lbd cod
steve with yet another .....
as ever ... the end result ......
A great day was had by all, many thanks to my crew of the day Tony and Steve .......
Great to see the season off to an early start .........
cheers
norm
.. probs a bit of both I think .....Well lets start by saying ... "It's early yet, just the middle of April so don't expect too much set target for today at 6 fish to the boat" ..... ha no chance of that , what with all the reports of fish in abundance we , as I expect everyone else as well, set off today with a feeling of great anticipation for a good catch ..........
With the tide not at its best and the tide times even worse we set off at first light to get as much of the ebb tide as possible and met at RQ Marina for 5.15am, When I say we, Tony and I welcomed the return of Steve (the scotchie hunter), his first trip with Slinky for over a year.
After the short trip from Marina to piers, we stopped off at close in areas and had a few short drops but not a touch so decided it was to be a wrecking day today.
On a serious note, we decided today to carry out a very controlled
experiment. We chose a wreck, set the drift then simultaneously dropped three different rigs. We decided we would fish differing rigs in an effort to evaluate which over a period of time would catch most .........Tony dropped a pirk, Steve stuck with tried and tested baited hokkais and I lowered a sidewinder minnow shad .........
after only a short while I struck into the first fish of the day, a small codling of 3 lbd or so on the shad .............
That was it ------ Panic, blood, sweat and tears for the next 4 or 5 minutes as Tony and Steve decided to forget the experiment and went crazy to install shads to the ends of their tackle, I swear before I`d unhooked and turned around they were throwing shads to the deeps with innocent grins on their faces.
The weather was good to us and the sea flat as can be, we travelled far and wide from wreck to wreck picking up a couple or so on each however not the manic tens of fish per wreck that we had seen late into last season.
I stuck with shads all day whilst Steve and Tone experimented with a variety of baits (however I do feel shads won the day on catches).
Steve as ever boated his first fish of the day to find it was ...... yes, a scotchie ... welcome back steve......
Tone boated the first ling of the season with a nice 6lbder well done mate, and I got the best cod of the day at about 7lbd.
At about 11.00am after the tide had started to flood we decided to give St Marys a go as it's had a lot of good press lately, but today for us, it just didn't fish, never mind it was a bit on the cold and windy side as we came inshore anyway so decided to go back to the wrecks .......
What a good decision, there was an onshore breeze some 4 -5 miles out that counteracted the westerly blowing from the shore, this resulted in beautiful calm seas no wind and warm sunny spells all afternoon.
Added to this the fish started to turn on on the wrecks.....
Not a big catch by any means but by the end of the day we had twice the target of 6 to end up with 11 good cod/codling and 1 nice ling.
Highpoint of the day ..... Steve catching his first Shad caught fish ......
Low point of the day - "good luck with the electrical repair Rich"
as ever a few pictures of the day ......
Sunrise, well as close we could get to sunrise as we had to wait for it to get up above some clouds first
First fish of the day ... to myself
Steve (back in business) scotchie haul
Tony and first ling of the season
myself with another shaded cod
Steve with his first Shad caught fish
Tony with what he thought on the way up was a ling (and maybe a record)
so frantic was the travelling and fishing there was no time to relax between wrecks, just barely time to tie the next rig ....
Tone proving he too can catch cod as well ........
What turned out to be best fish of the day - 7lbd cod
steve with yet another .....
as ever ... the end result ......
A great day was had by all, many thanks to my crew of the day Tony and Steve .......
Great to see the season off to an early start .........
cheers
norm
. Great to sea some nice fish and a smile on everyone's faces.
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