As I mentioned in another post recently, my wife (deckie) and I had two occassions to get out between the foul sothern weather within the last few weeks.

THE QE II

The first occasion was actually driven by my wife's desire to grab a few picks of the Queen Elizabeth II paying a unique and last visit to Albany. We launched the boat around 06:30 am with a planned rendevouz with the QE II at 07:00am in King George Sound - just after she was scheduled to pull anchor and head, via the sound, to Pricess Royall Harbour for the 08:00 am dock tie up and expected (and obligatory) fan fare and retail invasion of Albany by the crew and passengers.

Under her own steam, she made quick headway through the main channel and only quick bursts of speed at a polite distance (due to the expected satelite 'protection' boats) allowed us to acheive an position and opportunity for a few quick pics. Daylight saving, combined with very overcast skies made light conditions less than ideal for photos. But here is one:

FISHING DAY I

Whilst we were out on the water, with the photo mission completed and (always) with gear on board, we decided to hit a certain spot 'nearby' which I'd previously waypointed and recorded as good structure. The intention was to have some fun pulling in a few skippy after berlying up. This was certainly the case for the first 30 minutes, but my wife's rod bending more aggressively signalled either a much bigger skippy to the small school stuff we were having fun with, or even something better. After ten minutes of struggle, in only 15 meters of water, Sandra soon had a nice pinky alongside. Carefully netted in, it weighed in at a very respectable 7 Kg:

FISHING DAY II

This was a Sunday morning, exactly one week after our previous trip. After studying the plethora of weather sights all week, finally this Sunday showed some promise. Three sights had wind and direction all different, but a 04:30 am rise and check of Albany airport wind showed the magic word - CALM! Mind you, this (as we had previously found out) was never a guaranteee, with the airport slightly inland and winds having a tendancy to attenuate under certain conditions.

But still; it was worth ago.

We poked the bow out from King George Sound, as an exploratory means of assessing the 'out wide' conditions, we were rewarded with almost glassy and small sea lump conditions. This time I had in mind a spot not far of the headland just east of albany - approx 35 nautical miles from the ramp (thanks to Google Earth) - so with 140 liters on board, there was plenty of fuel.

Forty five minutes later, we were dropping our rigs into very good structure, ranging in depth from 7-45 meters, depending on our position across an unassisted drift. A drift we repeated a number of times as 45 meters appeared to be the point where action on the bitey end of the line dropped off completely.

Sandra chose a standard patanosta rig with a 4/O and 7/0 loaded dropper combination. I elected to free bait two snelled 7/0s loaded with a fresh slab of seargent baker.

All of a sudden, the bait took off and, depsite the drag of the reel, peeled off 50 meters within seconds and circled the boat in only 15 meters of water. With the circle action, I called it for a shark, but 30 minutes later, and the strain of several more runs, I had a decent sized sambo alongside. I didn't want to gaff it, so a very full net and team effort had the sambo on board. Onto the sales, and the marker hit 22 (kilos):

After a very required rest, I dropped another slab of free baited SB (thank goodness for the absence of muttin birds!) and again the line took of, but this time with constant nose serge, as it sounded to the bottom. Queenie or Pinky, was my call. Some 10 minutes later a good sized pinky was alongside and the marker on the scales register 10 Kg:

A few more drops and drifts added another pinky, a red, one harley and a couple of BA's before the wind finally kicked in and it was time to head back in. All in all, a great day!