29.04.12 Out for a feed

Saturdays forecast was for a fine morning and a short southerly change at lunch and the forecasters got it spot on. Sunday the forecast was for light Northwesters calming at lunch and freshening in the evening, also spot on. We headed out from the Tata ramp to Aerial reef for a quick snapper fish, I went to my favorite spot and dropped the pick and put out the berlie bag, the current and wind were in opposite directions, which was a problem for us but not for the barracuda which took their normal tax rate of everything. I managed 1 snapper after a couple of hours so it was time to move. We traveled a long the reef and about the mid way point saw some likely sign but went on to penguins reef the northern end about 5 km's away. That to had the same wind v's current problem, so again up with the pick and back to the mid way spot. In went the pick and first bait Murray had a nice snapper around 2-3kg, second bait a nice 4-5kg fish, we managed another one each and then the barracuda took over again as well as rat Kingfish (undersize). By 1pm we had enough and headed home with enough fish to feed our families.

22.04.12 Snapper time

With the weather still good I took out a friend (Little Ed) who was over here from Australia on holiday, we headed out to the spots I was going to take the girls on Saturday, heaps of sign but no fish, so we headed back to where the girls caught theirs. In went the berlie and soon the snapper and again the barracuda were on the bite. We managed to bin 9 or 10 nice 2-5 kg snapper in between replacing hooks and leaders, The action was good with Little Ed enjoying himself, with the day coming to an end as well as the bait I made one last big bait for my line and cast it out, with in minutes I had a big hit and by the feel of it it was a big snapper, after 5 care full minutes of playing it in, Little Ed managed to net the snapper and she was a beauty. We pulled the pick and headed back over a glassy sea, I rang a friend who is a weigh master and we weighed the snapper in at 11.155kg to take the lead on the clubs board. What a weekend after 3 months of crappy weather this was one out of the book, hopefully more to come.

21.04.12 Bronwyn Kay Ladies day.

Since my last blog the weather really sucked, with heavy rain again just before Easter, this time the roads south and east were closed and the rail is unlikely to be reopened. The road north closed now for 3 weeks was opened for daylight hours for Easter and we made our escape to Bowentown for the break. The weather was summer again - sunny, hot and calm. I left Gazebo back home and had use of my Brother in laws runabout. The swell outside the harbour bar was huge, 3-4 metres so Cliff and I entered the Bowentowns Fishing Clubs Sunday competition, The day was nice and we got to catch some snapper, nothing big but we managed to weigh 4 in.

The rest of April in Gisborne the rain eased off and the sun came out, but still no fishing - big swells, crappy weekends etc.

                                                                      The Jelly Fish

21.04.12 The Bronwyn Kay Ladies Competition. The weather map had a nice weekend for us, so Deb, Trish and Leanne were told to be ready for a 5.30am start. So we were ready at 6 am (you know lippy, hair, toilet, coffee, toilet, tissues, towels, toilet etc). We were in the water just after 6.30 and puttering out the harbour and the girls all decided they wanted to wear life jackets, So I had to go into the cabin to get them and unbeknown to me I unplugged the fish finder from the transducer. It was a few Km's out to sea when I noticed the fish finder had no bottom and couldn't find the reason, so I changed plans and went to my old favourite snapper spot. I blindly chucked the pick over when the GPS said we were there and put out the berlie bag. It didn't take long to get the first snapper in and for the barracuda to find us. Over the next 5 hours we caught some nice sized snapper and Trevally and lost a lot of gear to the snakes (barracuda). the best snapper weighed 6.280kg and gave Deb first place and she managed 2nd place in the trevally section with a 2.455kg fish. The sea ended up glassy as and we had a really good trip home, while washing the boat I found the unplugged lead and I had the fish finder back in business. The girls Came second in the fancy dress section in their Jelly fish outfits.