Tackle Box/Kingston Lures Best Fishing Story Competition

[ambigua]

Cheers Joffa,

Sorry been away fishing

pm sent

[Bartnmax]

Hiya Joffa.
Thought I might as well throw this one into the ring.
Last week ends effort recently posted into the fishing reports section.

A Piscatorial 'Week end with Bernie'.

Well, what a week end.

Mate John & I decided to head down to Portland to chase a few tuna.
Other mate Abed came along also (1st trip on the tuna).
Weather was looking reasonable for Sat with 4-5 metre swells coupled to winds to 17 knots predicted.
This is about average for the Southern Ocean this time of the year &, whilst a tad rough, most are able to handle it ok as long as they are properly set up & sensible.
Our boat is a 6.7 Stessl yellowfin with 140hp Evinrude. A damned good, solid vessel that has been very well set up (150ltr underfloor fuel tank with another 150ltr aux tank, + a lot of other 'custom'goodies).

Ok, so the three of us left Portland Harbour just after 8am (had to do a little tweeking of the boat before setting out). Took about 2 hrs to get out to the area we wanted to work.
We were in about 500-600 metres of water approx 55kms offshore.
Trolled with a 5 lure pattern (2 corners, 2 outriggers, + shotgun) for about 1.5hrs before first strike.
15 minutes later a nice 25kg bluefin was bought to gaff.
Caught by John on his Penn inter 30 with Wilson 15kg texalium rod.
Lure was a hot pink Pakula uzi with 4/0 decoy hook fitted.
About 10 minutes later Abed was hooked into another good fish ('bout the same size I'd estimate) but unfortunately dropped it after 5 minutes. Same lure.
We were just resetting the rods when both john & I heard a strange 'whirring' sound.
Thought it might have been one of the other rods left with the ratchet clicker off but no - none moving.
What was it? Then the penny dropped.
It was the sound of braid tearing off my Tica Scrambler spin outfit which I'd set up in the rocket launcher as 'shotgun'. I quickly grabbed it & had a ball stouching with a fiesty 5kg stipey.
No bluefin, but ah well - good snapper/gummy bait for back home.

Ok, everything now settled down again (fish bled, gutted, & packed with ice) & we're back trolling.
Got about another hr to work as the weatheris now starting to build so nearly time to head in.
Reckon we should have just enough time to get another fish or two in.
Then we get a request for a 'radio check' from another boat.
Despite a fair number of boats being in the general area no-one seems to want to answer this guy.
John answers his call & is met with a request for assistance as his motor has broken down.
Wadda ya do? We gotta give the poor buggar a hand, so we take his co-ordinates & find he's about 4.5kms away.
We head that way & pass 3 boats that were closer but were obviously not going to interupt their fishing for something as trivial as a distressed boat adrift 55kms offshore in 20 knot winds & 5+ metre swells.
It appears his fuel system is stuffed, so we float a bouy with rope attached past him & get him tied on, Then the big trip in starts. Given the seas we can only travel at no more than 15kph.
Being 55kms offshore it takes us 5 hrs to get back to portland Harbour.
Finally we hit the boat ramp at just past 7pm.
Check out his boat & find there's no fuel getting through the line despite plenty in the tank.
Didn't go too far with it as the owner has by now decided to head back to where he's just had his motor serviced with the intention of driving the boat at a great rate of knots up the fundamental orafice of the service manager.
Poor buggar has travelled 55kms offshore, caught nary a fish, motor broke down, & to top it off he was sick as a dog all the way in (5hrs) with his mate sitting back drinking warm beer.
Not a good day for these guys at all.

In the mean time it's now about 8.30pm by the time we get the fish filleted/stowed away, boat/gear cleaned/stowed, & us cleaned & thinking about food. Lucky to get a real good meal at the local Pizza joint (excellent steaks with vegies, etc). A couple of coldies top it all off after a very trying day.
We're all stuffed.
We we're going to head back out on Sunday morn for a few hrs but after the Sat affair we were all 3 pretty tired & aching, so we have a good sleep in & head for home.

Ah well, coulda always been worse I 'spose.

Bill.

[chicka]

Hi Joffa
I must of missed this one last year as I was away working in Port macquarie!Would really like to see you run another one in the future.I have a story on Swains Reef Iv'e compiled from a daily diary I kept and would be keen to enter it.
Cheers

[reelaxation]

Hey Joffa, I just trolling this thread and I realized I won 2nd place for this competition- I didnt even bother to check and now I know I have sent you a PM if I can still claim my prize.
WOW!
I'm stunned I actually won something and YES, I used to be jewiehaven but I was having a relapse in Jewie moments so I change my username to "reelaxation".

Thanks anyway even if I cannot claim the prize (understandably it was 6 months ago and I totally forgot about the comp till just now)

Cheers
Anthony