Another And Double Disastrous Day

Chen had earlier suggested a boat trip this week and I thought with much work done for my thesis now, I thought why not and picked a day that was not so windy and the sea condition being stable. So I made a sms to Jialiang and he gladly obliged. But when the day gets nearer, Chen had to pull out last minute because of his work schedule. Without our skipper, me and Jialiang went out anyway with Swifty. After prepping swifty such as getting petrol the night before and charging the car battery with a supercheap wall charger, I was feeling a little confident taking Swifty out.

This time round, the high tide wasn't in the morning. But Jialiang still opted to go for a morning session instead because he feels that the fishes won't bite during the day. So we left around 7 for tunks park. The tide was going out but the ramp still looks alright to launch. Off we go at a slow speed of 4 knots obeying the zone.

As we went out of middle harbour and onto middle head, the sea was getting a little choppy. Was contemplating to look for any salmon school around north head but couldn't spot any with our naked eye and so opted the usual Wedding Cakes to try our luck for kingfish as there were reports. This time round without Chen, I had to make berley. Whilst Jialiang was skippering swifty, I made the berley along the way. The stew was perfect and once we reached the cakes, I prep the berley pot. Soon after, Jialiang was catching breams after breams. He is really the master of striking fishes. I tried for yellowtails 1st for our baits.

The action was hot, and so is the catch highlights of the day. On my surecatch outfit, I rigged a slab of yellowtail and bottom bash it. Couple of baits as usual would be raped by unknown stealers. Once I had a take but lost the hookup while reeling in. Then, had a take and I decided to let the rod bent more before I gave a hard yank. This time round, the fish had no chance and the weight was massive! Up came from the shadows and Jialiang yelled out a freaking huge flattie! Soon after, his rod buckled and we had a double hookup! But unfortunately his was a Banjo ray and the weight was massive as well. It was mayhem at that time, because I ended up netting the fish myself and proceeded quickly to unfree the net and passed it to him. He released the ray while I kept the flattie. It was a good 74cm flathead.

Another big congrats to Jialiang as he also managed to get a baby Cobia whilst cubing. We were unsure what exactly that specie was because it also looks like a Remora. But it was confirmed to be cobia as remora has suction cup. This is indeed a rare catch in Sydney harbour.

The place was firing and till about mid-day, the bites slowed down. Jialiang had probably caught over his bag limit of breams plus many misses and both of us truly enjoyed that morning. We shifted to Sow and Pigs reef only to be harrassed by Sweeps. They were really quick to steal our baits even before my weight touches the bottom. We got sick of it and felt really tired so decided to pull the plug.



There were actually a few scary dramas when we wanted to start the motor to move off. The motor gave a few "tiak" sounds but didn't really wanted to start. After a little bit of adjusting the connectors, it gave a huge sigh of relief. Then the most disastrous thing happen. I must have been so tired that I must have left my rods on my car roof and left tunks park! When I drove out and about to hit miller road, there were some aussie guys shouting to us and I thought they were harrassing us. Actually I reckon they were warning us there was something on the roof. When we hit the Gore Hill freeway going towards the harbour bridge, I suddenly heard clanking sound behind when I sped up at 80km/h. Jialiang heard it too and told me to pull up along the freeway to check if I lost something in the boat. We went out and check and everything was there. Till then, i still haven't realised my rods were not in the car as well as in the boat. I thought I've always put it inside my car. When back at StMikes, I tried to search for it but wasn't there and I thought Jialiang accidentally took it. I called him the next day to help me check but it wasn't in his car. Then it started to sink in that the sound I heard must have been my rods and reels felling on the freeway!!! Shit.. I can't say anymore... The pain is hard to bear. I've lost my hands and legs in fishing. They were cheapo outfits but still, I'm very comfortable with them and still mourning the loss... *sob*

Sad Ronald