Hat-Trick Kings

The time comes again for what seemed like almost a routine. To prove a pattern can repeat itself, skipper Chen called for another session to confirm this phenomenon. The wind forecast wasn't all that ideal, going roughly around the 15/20 knots of cold westerly. Sunday was supposed to be better but Chen had something on and so a day earlier we shall go. We grabbed some juice and berley the night before and with the compulsory squid jigging duties, we aren't that keen anymore to stock up on fresh pilchards. To get fresh baits, we had to leave HQ while every other normal human beings are busy playing chess with granpa zhou. Did everything as per normal but somehow or rather, drama always have to occur! Whilst launching at Tunks Park on a low tide, I went a little to the extreme end of the concrete pave. Reversing too much and suddenly heard a *THOMP*! Fark... the right trailer wheel fell into a deep V-shape pothole! I tried to rev civic to get out but to no avail. In pitch black condition, we were in shock. Experienced skipper Chen quickly suggested pushing the boat out even without water to support the hull! Luckily it was not hard considering there were 2 of us. A quick inspection on the trailer bearings and axle showed no major damage. We hand lifted the trailer out of the bloody pothole and drove it out for better inspection. Luckily there was no damage probably due to Brooker being light. What a DRAMA! Chen was saying this trip better be worthwhile for all these shits that happened!

Brooker drove beautifully to squid spot and it was kinda low tide. We tried drifting but proved rather fruitless though the current wasn't as bad as last week. Chen was 1st up with a good size arrow on his Yamashita. We got fed-up with the drift and decided to anchor. Rigged up the blackhole with the yozuri double paternoster and soon, I got a cuttle. The paternoster proved to be the winner that day scoring 3 cuttles and I dropped one squid on my single Yama. It was a bit late by the time we decided to call off and so a quick rush was in order to try and discover the phenomenon.

We quickly prep our gears and didn't even bother to berley 1st. First down was my Jarvis Walker bottom bashing combo. As usual, put on the squid head and I went on to prep my blackhole. Not long later, the 4000 shimano went zzz for a short while but no hookup. It woke us up from a sleepy cold saturday morning for sure. Ok, the kings are still around in the harbour. Brought up the squid head for a check and it was still there. Then, as I slowly dropped the bait down and begin closing the bail arm, JW rod buckled over and I felt a heavy pull. The shimano did its zzzz-ing thing and we knew it was definitely a king. This bugger ran from the starboard side where my rod was resting to the bow side. I knew I was straight into trouble as the 20lb mono was going under the hull. Quickly positioned the rod into the water and applied more drag. As I was about to swing the rod over the stern, the zzzz stopped and JW swung back to idle. ARGHHHHH!!!! KNNBCCB!!! Kingfish 7, Ronald 3. Brought up to check and hook still there! The bait was gone though. It threw hook and I straightaway diagnose it to be wrong size hook problem. Brought out a 3/0 and rig up the cuttle head. Same thing happened to cuttle head not long later when it just goes zzzzzzz.... and then nothing! Bad luck I supposed! Oh well, we concurred that cuttlefish seemed to work on kings too!

Soon, we missed the bottom bashing window of opportunity and was more convinced that those window periods we experienced seemed to prove more and more true. Blackhole was rigged up with a squid strip unweighted and I kept myself busy with cubing on the ET. At one point, the blackhole was catching 3 good size trevallies and the strip was still re-usable. Maybe I was lazy to cut a new strip or simply just cheapskate. Well, this strip later proved to be magical! It was already in a raped shape, and I still continued to cast it out after catching a few fish with it already. Then, as we're already getting used to trevallies doing the zzzzz thing on the daiwa samurai reel, the next run was different. The blackhole bent more and the zzzz was going on afterburners. Ok, we called for a king and I picked up the rod. Drag was tightened and luckily it auto-swim the line out to the open area. But, with this crappy reel and limited line, I soon got into the panic mode of whether the fish will cut me off or spool me. Again, I saw the backing, but I didn't say anything this time as I was speechless, and only concerned about when it'll stop and let me wind the handle like a mad-dog. She co-operated at a few stages, and we could even take those moments to diagnose when the bloody hell it had became tired. True, the 4th to 5th runs were short bursts and we soon could see colour. King it was and from the water, it looked a bit bigger than last week. Chen easily netted it and we scored a nervously 61cm measured on the lie detector. TAPAO ah!!!

This king caught on the unweighted just proved that the phenomenon is so true at the late hour of our session. Just when we thought all was over with one king and more trevs for this particular session, another magical thing happened. That squid strip was still around when the king was netted, and so continued to use it AGAIN! Haha.. it was already in a very very bad shape but what the heck, got means got, don't have means don't have, right?! Just before 10 minutes we were supposed to pack up and go for maccas brekkie, blackhole got whacked again and I picked it up and thought it was a trev because of the weak run. But somehow it didn't headshake and I thought what the heck it was. It was quite easily brought up and to our surprise, it was my 2nd Watsons Leaping Bonito! There was a king following it and I quickly told Chen to switch-bait it! I kept the watson in the water as teaser while Chen quickly dropped his cuttle strip. The king was soon gone but a school of watsons started swimming around. We were so excited like a bunch of school kids playing. I told Chen to use pillie instead and helped him cut up the pillie while another hand holding the rod with a swimming watson, crazy shit! He almost got a take once but failed the hookup. The watsons were soon gone and we brought this poor bugger up and started to pack up and leave.

Unfortunately, got back late due to extra time playing the watsons. We had burgers instead of muffins but at least we're still doing our usual routine. Scored hat-trick and now only hoping that solving this mystery will help us continue the trend. Hooyah!

Ronald