After being boatless for two weeks after selling our old Stabi 580, I was like a little kid on Christmas Eve picking up the new Stabi 659Super Cab on Friday! Those of you who went along to the boat show will know it as it was the Gate Prize, and the guy who won it put it up on trademe.
With the storm we've got at the moment approaching really needed to get it on the water for a solid day to run it through its paces. The Butcher and the Gardener put their hands up to join in.
We were on the water 6.15am and off to catch some livies, the Butcher hauled in the first catch for the new boat on a squid jig - Calamari for dinner!
With the livy tank full of jackas we headed out to the Aldies, with two missions - one to break the Gardeners virginity on kingfish, and two to get the Butcher his first snapper on a softbait as he'd been trying for a few weeks for nought.
The kingis took a few drops but we were in with the Gardener getting us on the board with a solid fish
He then hooked into another and after a bit of huffing and puffing a respecatable 18kg fish came to the boat, not bad for his first two kingis
Time for the Butcher to get one and he make quick work of this puppy
We released a half dozen after that up to 15kg, and decided it was time to break the Butchers softbait virginity. After trying the Sugarloafs for nothing, we came right in close to the coast in 12m of water near Sailors.
The Butcher nailed a nice 3 pound snap, but was fairly gutted when the Gardener's little reel howled on a nice fish, his first ever on a softbait,, after 5 mins this nice 12pound snapper came to the boat.
As you can see from the pointed finger the Butcher was a little dark.
Anyway the first trip produced a fair few firsts! Can't rave enough about what a wicked boat the 659SC is, even after only one trip, glad we stuck with Stabi for sure. Itching to get back out there, but a few chores to do this week to get the boat in survey
all the best
carl