Hello everyone yesterday Ben came down from Melbourne to go out with me for a fish 
as there are a few big barrel Bluefin Tuna in excess of 100kg being landed off  the
Cape Patterson area in my fishing grounds ,
and it  was going to be a nice day to go out for a spin in the boat

We decided that we would trawl for tuna in the early hours of the morning until around nine and then we would hit up my markers to try and bottom bash for a  few flathead .

So that was the plan of attack ,
as we prepared the rods and most of the gear before  going to bed
Just really the bait rods and the thermos of coffee to load in the boat in the morning and 
I said to Ben that i have half a jerry can of fuel in the shed that i will throw in tomorrow ,
as i do like to carry extra fuel ,
when out trawling for the day .

So six am 
A rude awakening ,
to get organised and its absolutely freezing cold and there a massive thick fog blanketing the ground

The car was frozen solid so a bucket of water did the trick busting the thick ice layer on the windscreen and we were away .

Ben checked the Newhaven  boat ramp on his phone and happily reported that it was really quiet.

We discussed the possibility of not actually launching Tiger Ben if the fog was as bad as another time we went last year
when we couldn’t even see any of the Phillip Island bridge it was that foggy

Thats sort of why i had a radar once because it sees everything in real time and real distances and you can easily and confidently navigate in thick fog heavy rain and absolutely any conditions .
I accidentally buggered mine up spraying the electrics with crc for a squeaky drive belt

But you live and learn apparently

So by the time we got to the ramp it then was chock a block full of cars and trailers
I had to park up the top

On launch it was the first launch for Tiger Ben on this new skid trailer
It didn’t go so well
She was sort of stuck fast on the skids at the back and i had to use-full reverse horsepower to suck and pull it off the trailer then it eventually came off like a bullet but it came  off sideways and heading straight back  at the pier
I managed to to stop it just before smashing the back of the boat

I thought then in my head that the retrieve was going to be an absolute nightmare

But on with the music 

 And of course not u my boats stereo ,
because its decided it only works when it wants to

As i left port visibility was down to i recon fifty meters and  the silhouette of the bridge was  clearly  identifiable to me ,
so we were good to go

So basically without a GPS unit we could not have gone out as absolutely no channel markers we’re visible anywhere and absolutely no land was visible either

So lucky for mr that i never wipe  off my previous trails till my gps indicates that its reached full capacity
So i could just follow the old black  trail line with complete confidence
The markers of course are still in the same spots in those conditions and you are better off giving the markers the wide birth because not all Gps units have the same level of accuracy ,
and you may accidentally hit one with you vessel at whatever speed you are doing

So there obviously was not a breath of wind anywhere except for the freezing wind in my face as we headed out at  a reasonable  and i thought a safe pace

Next thing Ben for the first time ever ,
reached into the cab and he grabbed  out a pdf type one life jacket and he put it on
Then he asked me to slow down
I thought what ,
i have got chicken little with me today

I couldn’t work it  out at all as i had around 100metres visibility ,
out of courtesy i buttoned off a fair bit to make him happy 

Ten minutes later Ben lifted up his glasses and said to me oops dad with my glasses i could only see about twenty meters
I laughed
And thought that explains why he thought i was going too fast

So our plan was to trawl and fish the Coal Point and the Wonthaggi wind turbines area ,
as thats the grounds for the smaller Tuma in the summer months

And realistically there was the whole car park full of boats out there chasing the elusive barrel
The strange part once at our location ,
we were the only boat all morning

I sort of realised that they were all out fishing the Cody Bank  area as thats where i believe that they have been catching them
Its another 10 Km towards Tassie

Ben an i spoke about it but i said that i forgot to put in the jerry can of fuel so theres no way im going out there ,
That proved to be a great decision later that day

So we trawled and we Trawled and we Trawled

For a few seaweed fish 

 and quite  possibly two missed strikes .

It was way past nine oclock when we packed up the lures
And headed to my first flattie  marks for some bottom bouncing

It was still extremely foggy
And eerily  It stayed like that for most of the day
So we couldn’t see land most of the time
It cleared for about an hour before starting to roll in again later that afternoon

At one stage i went to the dash and looked out the front and not too far away i thought there is a big black  rock
But the rock moved and i called Ben as it was a Whale 

I tried to use my new smart glasses to film but i couldn’t even turn them on so i gave up that idea completely and i used my phone

The Whale soon disappeared into the abis  and we  then jumped fishing holes

The dolphins came out in force to see us
Ben got some great footage of them on his phone

We caught a flattie
But the problem wasn’t that they weren’t there but there was absolutely no drift ,
we were  just sitting  absolutely still all day
I said to Ben that i had a small electric motor at home for this very problem but it has a broken prop
But it gets you moving to around 1km an hour which has done the job for me in the past

Then something incredible happened and a whale 

 popped up about 100 Metres from the boat and it stayed with us for  just ages

I tried to film it of course but you just take film for fifteen minutes and nothing happens

Every time i stopped filming it would breach
i would swear and Ben would smile
It was just magnificent to be there and  be so close to natures wonder and watch something the size of school bus  just frolicking in the water like a kid

I said to Ben here comes my old boss as John Dickies Bay Connections vessel came into view
I said if i had his phone number id call him over to us  ,
eventually he joined us and the boat load of people got an eyeful of what they exactly had paid and prayed for

Eventually the Whale left us and so did John  and they headed off for Pyramid  Rocks

We changed spots
And we caught a few more flatties
I caught three skunk sharks in a row so a bit muscle building at that sort of depth
I was running a two hook paranoster rig and I accidentally somehow caught three fish at once on it
A flattie on the top and bottom hook 
and a skunk shark with the bottom flattie halfway down his throat
He wasnt hooked at all but he just  desperately wanted my fish and he just hung on

It was then i had a big hit on one rod and this thing was big deep and just cruising along when it took my bait
My small reel was screaming its head off as i tried to put the brakes on it
It was never going to turn on twenty pounds of new fireline  braid and soon  enough it just broke off.

I sort of thought its another big Mako shark but minus the acrobatics this time around
So I re rigged my rod and sent my bait to the bottom and said to Ben bugger i have no braid left , he said how can you tell dad
I said i can see the bottom of the spool with about a meter left at this depth so it’s buggered

We fished for a bit longer and we both decided to call it a day with a brand new lesson learned
Because there was no drift no wind  at all and no movement we made the mistake of using light sinkers and we copped some really bad braid tangles until we put heavy sinkers on

And that fixed that

So eventually we headed back in and as we entered the Woolami part of the journey near the Cleelands  boat moorings  and there was a boat travelling so slowly at the green starboard marker  and he was slowly closing my gateay around him

I was swearing a bit about it and I then changed course and buttoned off as i hit the marker and bloody hell another Whale 

 popped up just ten metres in font of us
We stopped to look but when it went down it disappeared into oblivion

So in one way the day for me was like health check on our Bass Straight marine environment

To now actually have  a Tuna season regularly is such a bonus 
as they were basically fished out to near extinction back in the day at Eden 
But they have absolutely now bounced back in big numbers with the basic end to the commercial fishery due to a mostly unregulated system back in the day and overfishing

Their return is such a bonus
Its the Cuta  that were cut off years ago and fished out by the Russians ,
that have never recovered

At the moment there are some major concerns for the King George whiting fishery ,
Im sure that our fisheries or whats  actually now left of them are doing everything they can to work out sustainable solutions to protect whats left  and  to bolster the number of finlings that are in the system

So back at the ramp after i backed the car and trailer in ready to load Ben asked me what was wrong?
I said after our launch i don’t think that its going to load back up very nicely

Unfortunately i was right
Everything that could go wrong on retrieval went wrong
I had about five goes in one minute all were absolutely terrible and Ben had to eventually get wet and attach the winch strap with the boat half on
Then i had to also get wet boots and all to winch her back on

Then on the way home
at the servo ,
because every trip i do i refuel her to the top straight away mostly to stop the problem of condensation and moisture in the fuel tank and to not ever go out empty and me and Ben always play the guessing game of how many litres of fuel that we used that day

We both guessed around 45 litres of juice
We were both so wrong and i thought thank God we didn’t go to Cody Bank as we would have had to be towed home for sure

So an inspection of the boat hull just before its a mess
It has to come off the trailer at some stage to be repaired
Its still water tight but its pretty ugly

I think  that I might do a bit of research  this time and ask the Dominator boys what trailer works best as i had to buy a trailer quickly last time and i just thought skids may have been better
They definitely aren’t

So thats the report from yesterday
The video and photos may be a little unclear but it was in the  thick fog
But you had to be there
To really appreciate everything

Cheers xxx
Curlyg by