Neils Barrier trophy weekend

Easter Barrier Fish

Great Barrier Island  n. rugged and beautiful landscape, sparsely populated, rocky coastline with white sandy beaches, home to the big red, lair of snappers gigantism, domain of the monster moocher - but beware - also lurks the slimy yellow demon - and the winged, rod bending, line peeling phantom fish.

Having been to the barrier twice before on a club fish, and fished fairly local, with a lot of walking involved in these local spots, we decided to deck the 4x4 Ute out with a frame for the trusty old 12 footer to get to those secluded bays and small islands.

So loaded up with the dinghy, food and beers........oh yeah and fishing gear and bait we eventually backed down onto the car ferry to the barrier - 90km and 4 and a half hour away.

Friday the alarm went early, we got up and headed towards super secret spot alpha 1X. Launching the dinghy with Ocky, Derek, Eloise, Ron and myself went without a hitch and we watched Mark and the Trev's race of to their favorite fishing spot as we plodded along the coast - as you do with 5 in the boat and not much freeboard!

We land based on a tiny island with plenty of reef and weed around and all enjoyed some really primo fishing. Some of us enjoyed some primo eeling as well.

Back at the beach for weigh in an hour early we cleaned our point’s fish and gut & gilled our pan sized snaps’. We all must have been quite chuffed with that day’s effort, looking at all our fish neatly laid out on the rocks. Although obviously that was before Mark & the Trev's showed up with fish sack of big reds and plenty of them, that took 2 men to carry, and so many fish jammed in, when being emptied, left our fish looking a bit on the lean side.

Saturday the 5 of us launched out of **(Shhhhhh)**, with the weather looking a bit iffy, no wind or swell though so all good. We fished a close inshore island and because I was on burly duty I stuck the burly sack right in front where I was fishing. Mackerel appeared instantly in the burly trail. Seeing me floundering around with a hand line Ocky came over and nabbed a mackerel for me. The mackey went straight onto a live bait rig and straight out under a balloon.

We were landing quite a few sizeable Kahawai but she was a bit slow in the snapper department. As the tide dropped I could see the reef where I was losing my gear, a short distance away was my balloon. I looked away then ZZZZZzzzzzzzZZZZZzzzzz my livey setup going off. Looked up seen the balloon drift off, picked up the rod and it was still going ZZZZZZzzzzzz, few more seconds.....then Derrick yelled strike, I tightened up my drag and laid in. 'Yeah baby' I thought, 'Kingfish' but, after a reasonable fight I got color - red color, dad was ready with the gaff, but my snaps wasn’t and gave a couple more runs before being landed. Weighing in at 8+ kg I was more than delighted to see him. You ripper!!

Sunday we fished local to base and set a Cray pot(Well, it is the Barrier), caught bugger all in the morning, passed Mark & the Trev's with Mark sporting a 5 kg fish and them saying - nah the fishing’s rats shit round here. In the Arvo we got into some schoolies, and then headed back to base for an excellent feed at the restaurant, and a couple of cold ones.

Monday, as with the other days, had a not too flash weather report so Ocky, Derrick and Eloise opted to come home on the early ferry before the weather closed in. Ocky especially wanted to avoid a rough trip home. So we checked the Cray pot - empty (Dam, no crayfish to weigh in) so dad and I launched out of **(Shhh)** bay, loaded up with extra bait for burley from Derek and Ocky, and ended up fishing another tiny island. We lost plenty of fish that day, on the shallow reef areas we were fishing. So we moved a bit, burleyed the hell out off the place and I landed a healthy 6.96kg moocher - Choice one! – Gave’ me a blistering fight too. Dad took a couple of photos then we gapped it to base, then the ferry home - in calm conditions. But enough about my Easter weekend how was yours?