queensland Maiden Voyage - Flat Battery, Firsts & Pb's

[kmcrosby78]

Sunday was finally going to be the day to get my new boat wet. Couple of hiccups between going to bed and getting to the ramp ....... woke in the middle of the night with my shoulder/neck problem back but not too bad/annoying so wasn't going to stop me. Opted to only set the alarm for 6:30am so I didn't wake everyone up (was planning to be on the water for most of the day), got ready and hopped in the car ready to pick the boat up from Dad's place (still need to sell the tinny so I can bring the new boat home). Car wouldn't start - luckily RACQ guy turned up within 5 minutes and it was a flat battery, so problem sorted.

Picked the boat up, wife and kids met me at the ramp (managed to get a park - phew!) and we putted out of Manly Harbour and then cruised over to the south western side of Green Island to deploy the crab pots. Unfortunately the sounder was refusing to work (it worked when I did the test drive so I'll look into that next weekend) so I had to rely on what the GPS was telling me as far as contours/depths was concerned. Dropped the pots off in about 3m of water - first time putting them there then anchored up on the south eastern end of Green. Wife had a legal tuskie on straight away so it went into the esky, then 3 yr old George started keeping me busy, first catching a legal bartailed flattie (solid little nugget), then a squire, then a 42cm grinner (heir to the throne @Old Scaley .... ). My 6yr old Liam was getting almost constant bites but wasn't hooking up and getting a bit frustrated before he finally scored a little whiptail to get on the scoreboard. I was itching to throw a squid jig but was too busy rebaiting hooks and netting and releasing fish, then my wife started bringing in a small squire and exclaimed that 'something' was following it up. Intrigued I looked and it appeared to be a squid, so I told her to keep it in the water and said 'watch this'. She was pretty impressed/surprised that the squid would just volunteer to join our esky so easily ......   Good sized tiger too, yum!! 

Checked two of the pots for nothing before taking them back to the ramp (very busy and one of the huge Coastguard boats was about to be launched also so I was lucky to be able to sneak in sideways on the end of the ramp to drop them off). Headed back out to collect the other two pots but could only find one so am assuming it was either taken or someone had driven over the rope, oh well just cheapies. Had a quick flick for squid again but no love on the outgoing tide (fair bit of seaweed floating through) so went for a troll for school mackerel and got one within a minute (just legal - 52cm) then continued east towards the Hope Banks and had two more to the boat but they both fell off as I went to swing them in which is frustrating as wanted another one to give to my parents.

So a good first outing - hopefully work out the issue with the sounder next weekend. George was telling everyone at Daycare today about all his fish  Will have to go exploring for new spots some other time.

[ellicat]

Congratulations on the inauguration of the new vessel.

Sounds like you're keeping the whole family happy. (Bonus)

[Drop Bear]

Thats awesome mate. How did it travel? Nice day for it.

[Old Scaley]

Sensational @kmcrosby78. Nice mixed bag ther and heaps of action to keep the kids happy. Hope you get your sounder sorted. Oh, and happy to hand over the grinner crown to little GT.

[Simo68]

time to give up the day job and become a FT skipper, that was quite a few weeks in dry-dock, patience of a jedi master

[tugger]

That's a great 1st trip for the new boat Kelvin the family sounds like they will get some good use out of it

[Cobiaaddict]

Well Done mate on the 1st trip, Bugger about the sounder tho,  I hate it when something works fine one day and it wont the next,  good mixed bag of seafood fit for a king. The tuskies are always welcome edition in the esky,   

Cheers

Josh <><

 

[Nog]

Great stuff, happy family happy fisho.  We caught all our squid on live fish  too on Saturday...new/old technique

[kmcrosby78]

Thanks fellas - yes the first of many fun family outings in the new boat. As much as I'm yearning to start catching big fish with, take it offshore, etc, the simple fun of taking the family and having plenty of room to move and freeboard for safety is also quite exciting. We cooked it all up tonight and the boys took great delight in tasting each species and giving us their verdict (for the record the favourite was the tuskie followed by the flathead ). Future Master Chef judges .......

@Drop Bear the boat rides great and I'm already pretty comfortable driving it. Will continue practicing manoeuvring around the boat ramp - has always been the bit I get nervous about as I haven't driven forward control boats much over the years and very sporadically when I have.

@Cobiaaddict yes frustrating not to have the sounder working, will look into that next weekend and if need be call the previous owner to see if he has any tips on what it might be. Was reading the bottom at 40km/hr when I did the water test with him so will hopefully be something simple (possibly just spraying with Lanolin). Was a bit rushed to look too much on Sunday.

[Drop Bear]

Yum that dinner looks mint!!!