20151026 - First day of Long Service Leave

My son arrived 10 minutes early on Friday night
So great to give him a huge hug after not seeing him for a while

Last time I saw him he was a teenager, now he is grown man in both spirit and body
Mostly the Huge arms and chest from starting his building apprenticeship since I last saw him
But the biggest change was the beard he had grown - adding quite a very mature look. Though the smirky grin he had every time he was hooked up with a screaming reel as the fish took line reminded me of the boy from a few years ago.

Monday morning we were itching to wet a line. The itch saw us up early and on the water as the sun poked its head above the horizon

Straight out to Lee Point but the water out to it was quite choppy and a swell that made the ride a little slow.

We found fish near the reef of Lee Point again  = a mixture of queenfish and grey mackerel
Using a fly (silicone surf candy) and a small ball sinker on a spin outfit, Bradley caught a few queenfish.

While I caught a mixture of species SWOFFING - using small white clousers and silicone surf candies

But the action was hot and cold. So we heading back up the harbour, we changed direction half way into harbour towards Mandorah. Near a yellow beacon Brad spied some birds and on moving closer we found lots of birds with the occasional slash and splash. 

We pulled a few fish from the roaming packs, I lost at least five nice queenies, each in a different way - crazy fun.

We headed back to the city side of the harbour but the wind was in an unfavourable direction for a lot of the places I normally fish    

Added also that the tide had bottomed out - options were limited for my knowledge of the harbour anyway (wasn't too keen to chase barra up middle or west arm creeks in heat - sad to see that old man softness coming out again!)

We hung around some birds working Kaitlyn Bay catching a couple more queenies along the drop-off of the mud bank that was now Kaitlyn Bay. At the point just outside of Cullen Bay we were again targeting the queenies when a vast area of nervous water came towards us.

A quick cast and I came up tight after one short sharp strip of the fly line. It was a nice golden brilliant in its hues and about 40cm in length.

But the fish that swam beside it as it fought against the tight fly line - had to be its great grandmother. It had to be three times the depth of body and that again long. I might have cast too soon and picked up the point guard rather than the big giant centre (sorry for the basketball metaphors but I used to play a lot of basketball)

Not only that but they were just the forerunners for the rest of the school of fish that began to swim under the boat. majority of them were huge fish. Would have been a few thousand fish that I saw swimming, and that was only the ones that went under the boat while I fought my little golden trevally. They were travelling fast and by the time I got my goldie to the net we couldn't find them again.

A good start to several days fishing - so we were home by 1pm to clean the couple of fish we had kept.

Tuesday was a lay day due to the job list the wife disappointingly had gave me. 

Wednesday will see us up the creeks of west arm due to very low tide at midday not allowing us to get the boat out - however firstly some pelagics around Lee Point to get the arms warmed up.