Day 66

DAY 66 – Monday

Up with the chooks, when the alarm went off at 5.45am.  The boys had breakfast and packed their stuff for a morning of fishing and headed out to the front of the park where they were being picked up from.

I got up and had a shower then headed off to check out the local shopping.  I managed to fill in the morning wandering around the shopping centre (in peace), then sitting up at the lookout watching the boats come and go from the harbour.

Meanwhile, the boys were off fishing....

We were waiting for our ride to arrive when another couple walked up to where we were standing, they too were off on the charter. We chatted for a while when a Toyota troopy pulled up and our Skipper introduced himself. Arriving at the Jetty we boarded the “Reel Deal” and off we went, 40 minutes later we arrived at our first spot where we baited up and cast in hope. It wasn’t long before I was on, winding in hope of landing a “Biggun” I was soon disappointed L to find that my catch was too small..... and back it went. Most on the boat were landing fish of various species but nothing was of legal size when all of a sudden my rod bent over and was going berserk.... a few minutes later up to the surface came this ugly Moray Eel, Yuck, Back it went quick smart. This continued on for some time when our skipper decided that it was time to up Anchor and try our luck somewhere else. We travelled for about half an hour before dropping Anchor again just off Hayman Island where we could just see the resort. Here we fished for about 40 minutes or so with no-one catching anything that was of any substance so once again our skipper weighed the Anchor and moved a short distance to another reef. By this time I was beginning to think that we were going to go home empty handed when all of a sudden the game reel out the back started screaming as line peeled off at a very fast rate. The man that we met whilst waiting for our ride was first up, as he grabbed the rod I wished that it was me fighting this monster as line continued to peel off the reel. He fought the fish for about 20 -30 minutes before we got to see this beautiful big Spanish Mackerel come along side the boat to be gaffed and dragged aboard before it was bled. High fives all around as we rejoiced in landing a major catch for the trip. Our own rods back in we continued to fish in hope of landing an edible species for ourselves dreaming of a nice Sweetlip or a Big Red Emperor when all of a sudden the game reel started screaming once again, this time the skipper called me over and I took hold, keeping the tip up as best I could this beast of a fish just kept taking line while I waited for it to begin to tire, when that time came I just pumped and wound as fast as I could trying to regain as much line as I could. It wasn’t long before It decided that it was going for another run, line peeled off once again much to my disgust as I had just spent a lot of energy winding all that back on.... when I hear that there was another one on and Mitch was now fighting one of his own. Here we were, the Gemmola boys going toe to toe with the biggest fish that either of us had ever experienced. Looking over my shoulder to see how Mitch was going the skipper said “He’s doing just fine, concentrate on yours  so you don’t lose it” so pump and wind I go again dragging line back that I had just lost. This went on for some time before I hear that Mitch has his in the boat and now it was all eyes on me. This fish has now had about five or six runs and each time I am gaining a little bit of line due to his runs not being as long and the break between runs gets longer. Needless to say I was starting to get a bit Puffed but I was not gunna let this one go. They say time flies when your having fun and this was very much the case as it was about a good 40 – 50 minutes of fighting this fish that now seems like seconds as I manage to bring the big silver beast of a marine creature alongside the boat to be gaffed by the deck hand and brought aboard. Shaking from adrenaline and excitement not to mention the hugest grin on my face I was giving out high fives to anyone and everyone, yet another dream come true.... That was 2 down and one to go for the Gemmola’s only Thomas left now, although I couldn’t imagine what Thomas was gunna do if he hooked one as both Mitch and I struggled with ours. Well we didn’t need to worry because soon Thomas was battling a fish of his own, luckily it wasn’t a Spanish Mack as he struggled with the rod but was able to land his own edible species of Sweetlip and when measured was found to be over legal length. Mission accomplished just in time as the skipper said that we were over schedule and we had to get going because he had another charter waiting for him to get back, Anchor up and off we go heading for port. Along the way we managed to see a Whale jumping out of the water in a playful mood but due to time constraints we couldn’t slow down to enjoy the spectacle that it was providing. Back at the Jetty we weighed our catch and took the obligatory photo’s with My Spanish Mack weighing in at 25kgs and Mitch’s 12kgs the other one was 15kgs, once this was done the Skipper and his Decky were busy cutting slabs of flesh off our fish for us to take home. Wow what a day, one to never forget J J J......

Darren spent the afternoon filleting and bagging the fish for the freezer.  Mitch swapped his time between swimming and helping Darren, and Thomas was happy spending time with his new friends.  Later in the afternoon, Riley asked if Thomas could go into town for a drive with them, so off he went.  When they came back they asked if Thomas would like to go to the skate park with them.  He quickly grabbed his scooter and helmet and was off again.

Kristy came over for a drink until Chris came back with the kids, and then it was time to go and cook tea.  We had the Sweetlip that Thomas caught and some of the Spanish Mackerel that Darren caught, with salad, and it was beautiful.  After Chris and Kristy had put their kids to bed, they came over for a drink and we swapped notes on what we had done so far.  (They were heading where we had been and vice versa).