When a plan comes together – John Boon 2013

For the last handful of offshore trips I have had the pleasure of just showing up at the ramp with my gear and food and jumping on someone else’s boat. These trips are great, but it had gotten to the stage where I was starting to miss being in control.

By this I mean driving and positioning the boat and also fiddling with the electronics. It had been a long time since I had taken our 4.8 metre centre console out wide and I thought it was about time to get it dirty again.

Now these trips aren’t for the fainthearted, as doing a lot of kilometres in an open boat and being open to the elements can take its toll, so I have a selected few who I know can live up to this expectation. I went through the list and started trying to find a deckie. I had contacted everyone that I could think of, but being during the week, it was making the job just that little more difficult. I had lost all hope when I ran into good mate Brenden Warren at the school drop off. “What are you doing here? You’re supposed to be at work?” I said. “Nah, took some time off,” he replied. I hadn’t called Brenden, as he was rostered on, so it was only a fluke that I now had the deckie position filled.

The plan was simple: we would head up to a well known local spot called “The Pinnacles” which is about a 40 kilometre journey north from Rosslyn Bay, try for some grunter, then jig some live bait and head out to another local spot called “The Dog Leg”which was about another 35km north east and try for some reefies. I was also keen to give the new Squirtz fly’s from PE Tackle a test as well.

We arrived at our first destination in quick time with the hype and bullshit keeping us entertained on the trip up. As soon as the baits hit the bottom we had interest. I was up first with an undersized grunter, which was a great sign, and then Brenden put our first keeper in the boat, which was a good sized grunter. I repositioned the boat and started the next drift. After a few seconds line started peeling of my Tekota. Bloody shark I was thinking, until the fight changed and I was starting to register some big thumping headshakes. I started to think maybe it was a cod, as we had caught some nice cod in this area. Oh how wrong I was!There, in the shimmering light beside the boat, lay an almighty pink body.

I didn’t even bother looking for the gaff and I just reached over and grabbed my prize by the gills and lifted it aboard. It was a cracking large mouth nannygai and the biggest one I had ever caught. It was taken on the Squirtz fly gang and what a way to test a new product.

We put him on the lie detector and he was just short of double figures, but at 9.5kg and 87cm it was a new PB and high fives all round. After a quick photo we got back to the job at hand and spent the next hour adding to our tally of grunter. The Squirtz fly’s took their fair share of grunter as well, and with the lumo affect and super sharp precision hooks, I was more than impressed with them. With the first box ticked it was now time to move to phase two of the master plan which was to jig some livies.

The sounder was loaded and I can remember thinking that it wouldn’t take long at all. We jigged our hearts out and all we could manage were about eight pike and two of these “mongrel-looking things“. They looked like a cross between a trevally and queenfish, but they had some go about them and were shiny, so into the tank they went. It’s normally live yakka’s I chase, and it would be a first using the pike, but beggars can’t be choosers when pickings are slim.

The ocean was glassed out, as expected from the weather forecast. I will only take my centre console out if I am almost 100 percent certain it will be a nice flat day. Some people may think that I am crazy for taking a boat of this size out as far as I do, but it is also well set up to tackle the offshore waters, as it has 120 litre underfloor fuel, two separate GPS/sounders just in case one dies, compass, VHF, EPIRB, fire extinguisher, bimini etc. So it’s not just a matter of taking a small boat out way too far; it’s about putting the right controls in place and being able to handle your boat and different situations, should they arise. I also log on with the Coast Guard and leave a detailed plan with my wife – safety first.

We began phase three of our plan, which was to find some reefies. Now this is where things didn’t go to plan, as we had all sorts of dead bait including slimeys, yakka’s, pillies, fresh squid heads and cut baits, but nothing wanted our offerings. We were stunned, as we couldn’t even lose a bait. The sounder showed good bottom, but we were turning donuts. We went from mark to mark for about two to three hours for nothing. I was now scratching my head and thinking that we should have stayed at the wreck we were getting the grunter from  when I realised I had completely forgotten about the live pike in the bait tank. Couldn’t do any worse…

I rigged one up and dropped him to the bottom. I just clicked the reel into gear and BANG, I was on. I swung a feisty trout over the side and I now had Brenden’s attention. “If you do that again, I’m putting one on as well,” he exclaimed.

No sooner had my second livie hit the bottom when it was nailed by a nice red throat. I hadn’t even got the fish up yet and Brenden already had one on and was dropping it down. I was busy re-baiting when I heard braid spewing off Brenden’s reel. I turned around to see him loaded up on a good fish. Colour showed, and we couldn’t believe it, as it was a nice red emperor. Only a matter of minutes ago we were thinking about pulling the pin and heading home and now it looked like we were going to have a win on all parts of the plan. We just about turned every one of those live pike into a decent fish until we only had “the mongrel things”left. I put one down and he swam around for ages with no interest at all, but we were satisfied with our efforts and a call was made to start heading back in. 

I told Brendan I had one more stop in mind, which was a wreck in about 40 metres of water on the way back to Rosslyn Bay. I hadn’t fished it before, as I hadn’t been in the right area, so it would be a first for both of us.

I idled over the wreck and it looked the goods with a good bait school and larger fish present. I set up for a drift then turned to Brenden and said, “Do you want this last ‘mongrel thing’?”

“Yeah, may as well mate,” he said.

I finally caught it, gave it to Brenden and he sent it to the bottom. I put on a slab of flesh and now it was the waiting game. The drift was picture perfect and I warned Brenden to get ready as we were right on top of it. I registered some picking going on, but not much more as we drifted well away from the wreck.

“These bloody ‘mongrel things’ must be the pox of the ocean,” said Brenden and right on cue his rod was almost jerked out of his hands. I was scratching my head again because we were a long way from the wreck. We were now throwing some ideas around at what it might be. The way it was fighting had us thinking maybe a red. We were joking that it would be a great way to top off the day and up through the water came a glimmer of hope. Some cheering and high fives went around after we swung Brenden’s red emperor over the side. We both had grins from ear to ear and had a bit of a giggle at the fact it was taken on the ‘mongrel thing’. It was an outstanding end to an outstanding day, but best of all, I love it when a plan comes together.