queensland Reef and Game fishing 21.03

[benno573]

The much awaited report... and the return of the much maligned "ellicat curse"

Day started out well. apart from me giving Maxi some bung directions on how to get to where the boat was moored (sorry again mate). maxi, dusky and i arrived at the boat, savage (mike) was soon to follow. after some quick mechanical checks and a fuel stop we were away. cruised out of the seaway and headed down to try and get some livies. about 5 minutes out of the seaway a nasty noise was heard from one of the engines, a nasty "terminal" "she's buggered" kind of noise. not good at all.

decision was made by the skip to continue the day on one engine. after a few fruitless minutes of throwing slugs at a buoy somewhere, we headed out past the 24's and north with the spread out the back. cruising along, by this time maxi and dusky were well into the carton they bought for breakfast , i was berrated for bringing banana's for morning tea (some old salt's tail, never heard it before...:S )coz apparently it's bad luck. engine #2 coughs and dies. didn't sound bad but it still died. a quick check found the fuel filters were clogged, a quick repair, on our way again. well for a bit anyway. the float on the carby was blocked with a bit of crap from the filter, a more lengthy repair, back on our way.

walking back into the cabin to get a banana to chew on and the reel in the overhead rod holder startsd making a noise. waited a few seconds, nup, sorry guys, this one is mine!! shortly thereafter, i caught my first ever bonito!!! things were looking up.

found a reef in about 50m of water, dropped the pick and started burlying like hell. dusky, after a vigorous "breakfast", decides to go for a kip. in the meantime, maxi re-rigs dusky's rod as a floater and sends it out. we saw something huge swim past the boat and then maxi's floater went off. about 3 minutes later and 150m of 50lb braid poorer off (spooled to the max!), a lot of swear words were uttered. not long after, my bottom bashing rig gets a serious bend, lots of big headshakes... potentially my snapper of a lifetime :woohoo: . was playing it reasonably calm on this one and my 30lb braid just snapped about 10 from the end of the rod. to say i was pissed off (the braid was brand new) was to say the least. :angry:

the decision was made to move to the 24's for the night. on the way back, maxi checked the carby to check all was sweet. in a word, no. fuel was gushing out and into the bilge. right then and there, maxi and i both said bugger this, call the coastguard, we're going home. we drifted around for about an hour for the VMR boys (and one rather attractive young lady ) to come out, hitched us up and we were on our way home. relatively incident free from there.

so the washup was one bonito, 2 big bust ups and not a lot else mike kindly offered to refund us some of the $ of fuel we added to the tanks which is very much appreciated :cheer: . i was home and asleep by 10pm, maxi and dusky, owing to an "all day breakfast" had to share the v-berth in the boat for the night. not the world's best day on the water but still beat working!

[Mack_attack]

Bad luck guys, i bet you won't be making the banana mistake again

Any ideas what the spool job fish was?

[benno573]

a lot of wild guesses going on but the fact it went straight down to me indicate shark or kingy, maybe a cobe. anyone can feel free to dispute that, any more wild guesses are welcome. all i can say is bluddy BIG!!!

and the fact that i like my vitamin b6 and potassium in a yellow fruit form had no bearing whatsoever on the outcome!!! :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

[Woodlaz]

Bad luck guys but u still had some fun overall.

I think i now know 2 people i wont be fishing with until this curse is broken HAHAHA. Anyway, best of luck in the next trip and if the curse is broken, id love to attend. Beer for breakfast is the norm when fishing WHATS A BANANA? :silly:

Cheers

Woody

[ellicat]

:blink: :S :S :S

You took a banana onboard ?!?!?! Well that's just asking for trouble.

:laugh: :laugh:

Sounds like there were some "fish-of-a-lifetime" opportunities missed. Better safe than sorry on the water though.

A real shame the mechanicals failed again. Hope it can all be rectified:)

[Decky]

Definatly the bannanas

[Leighton]

Hope the repairs are not to costly.

The Charter Boat " Frenzy Fishing " the skiper Garry asks everybody before you leave for a days fishing if there are any bananas onboard.

I get up my wife if she even bring Poppers, lollies with Banana in them.