Saturday 24 May 2014

Short notice run to Portland

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Been a big few weeks of late with lots happening in my time outside of fishing, a couple of mates asked me to head down to Portland for the weekend with them.

At that stage I had said no as I had heaps of stuff that needed doing back home. That was until my awesome wife Kim can and gave me orders to go fishing and catch some Tuna with the boys. As she would not take no for an answer and I did promise to love and obey her during our matrimonial vowels I thought I had better do as I was told and go fishing for the sake of domestic bliss.

It was now 8pm at night and I was told that I was picking up one of the boys at 1:45am - shit, I had nothing sorted, no gear out no idea of where half my game gear was and I still had heaps of stuff to do. Now those who have fished with me know I an be a bit anal about my gear and having it all sorted so I was well and truly out of sorts. Standing in the shed brushing the cobwebs and redbacks of my gear I did not think I was going to make it.

I shoved what I thought I needed into the car and made the dash to pick up Dan. Parked in the driveway I thought I would try ringing him to see what stage of readiness he was in, much as I expected he was still asleep. I rang again........ no answer. About a minute up the road the phone rings, it was a very sleepy Dan coming to as we spoke down the phone. He managed to pull himself together in record time and we headed off to Jabba's joint where we were meeting with him and Dion. We pulled into the drive the boat was hooked up and all we had to do was swap gear out of cars and hit the frog and toad.

After a few smoke breaks along the way we headed straight for the ramp to make a start of it. Loaded up we headed out past the rock and east towards the shoe with a keen eye on the water looking for birds. Now before I go any further I need to declare that I dont often get seasick but on this day I did not even make it out to the shelf before I was hanging over the side feeding the birds. It was clear from this point it was going to be a long few days.

We finaly made it to near the shelf when we were side tracked by some bird activity. A quick run around on the deck and we had a spread out. It only took a couple of minutes but in between spews I managed to get a fish in the boat. The bait dropped and the Tuna went quiet. We trolled around for a few more hours with much more spewing including a few who had joined in the chorus with me (could have been sympathy) It was decided that we would head back to the ramp as green as could be and focus our efforts into the next day.

After a big feed (needed to replace all that was lost at sea) it did not take us long to pass out in bed.

We started the next day much the same as the day before - I was still queezy from the day before ad sadly knew what was ahead for me, more leaning over the side. was only about 20 minutes intio the trip before it hit me again. Not one to be beaten I just kept spewing and fishing all day. We managed to get out to the spot Dan planned to fish the day prior and having it backed up by good mate Marty who had fished the same spot the day before. We ended up with a bag of blue fin and a few albies. No giants just school fish, with the way my body was feeling I dont know how I would have gone with a barrel.

Massive thanks to the boys for dragging my arse out of the house and getting me onto the fish, I really enjoyed the time out with them as much as I was sick most of the time on the water. Thanks boys.