ROP - Report Of Proceedings... (A Navy tradition where the Capt of a ship sends an ROP to the Admiralty on a monthly basis of their trials, tribulations and slaughter). 

What began and unfolded as a famous “B’stards I have met” – meeting, metamorphosed into a great fishing trip with wonderful people. After much organising, hundreds of emails of; banter, queries, supplies, seriousness and more fun. We were told we would have a plush Genesis 36 by Capt Fantastic – Moggy.

We teamed hugged and bonded, shared a drink and then loaded the gear as the weather abated. Meanwhile Capt F had prep’d and served Crayfish Bisque in cream and Eye Fillet Steak as more tops off bottles mysteriously went missing. The music got louder and our voices worsened as our party progressed.

A few close in drifts around Channel, no takers…saw Wavedancer doing their thing there, nothing for us so off to GBI, stopped at The Pigeons and had a play…a few throwbacks… and then set sail and cruised through the Broken Isles, saw Sanity and team in a bay, stopped in to say hi and had a few drifts not far away and moved on towards Fitzroy, more drifts and casts… and came into Fitzroy and tied up on a floating pontoon off Karps. On under water lights, out with a wee bit of berley and time to get some livey Macs for day 2. Meanwhile Capt F was prep’ing an entree of Grilled Octopus salad, konba, bamboo shoots and pickled chillies, followed by twice cooked Pork Belly on Hoi Sin sauce, pickled carrots and spring onions and his famous crisp roast spuds with steamed Brocolli and cheese sauce. Rum Desert, wow another night of decadent spoils from a gourmet kitchen and Master Chef

Day 2... A salubrious breakfast of premo black pudding, fancy sausages,  quality bacon and eggs 'ala morgan to die for...whilst I replenished more liveys and added a few kahawai to the tank and prep'd the ship...this is what we awoke to... talk about a sanctuary and gorgeous paradise.

 

DIY! - Amanda - The keenest fisher lady I have ever met...chopping up Blue Macs for surface chumming before breakfast.

Lovely big Johnny for PJay and Capt F caught two at once

DIY! close to the Needles. And guess who left her cabin scuttle open and found her cabin full of water.

A great tip I learnt from the Sensei Softbaiter; he has two identical rods and reels, however the difference being one is left handed the other right... So as Shihan's wrists and hands tire from casting, softee jiggy movements and winding, he hangs up that rod and grabs the other and so works and exercises the other side of the body, arms, wrists, hands and so on...

This to me is the interesting bit, we are now at the Needles...DIY! and PJay are flicking softees hard out, some tails are bitten off but many are mauled around the body, some clearly are Leather Jackets and Parrot fish some can be seen as Squid hawk beak type bites another tip Pjay showed me with fish matching bite patterns... and then PJay got a classic good snap take him to ground and we watched and learned big time as the Master spoke us through what he does when a fish goes to ground...and how he found its lie and we manouvered boat and position and after only about 5 mins a beaut 8lb'er came out of hiding. I learnt heaps from this experience just hearing Pete talk the walk and fight. (more on this in another thread)

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We continued like this to flick softees and drift along in close...meanwhile I dragged Piper as swim baits... we continued on to Miners Reef... Great sign, a Golden Snapper and ooh yuk a rotten B'stard Red Cod, baby Scorpion Fish and that was it. Before heading back to Fitzroy for a very pleasant night with Moggy's Famous slow roasted Lamb Shanks more roasty p'taters, 'brocli and cheese sauce, followed by Rum and Raisin Tiramisu and more wine and bad song.

I forgot to add, no pics, but Pete caught a whoppa Blue Koheru on a softbait, at least 40cm, it was quickly bridled rigged and sent out under a balloon a good 150m away on my Dad's 'ole Penn Senator rod and reel. It remained out in a beaut current line for the time we fished near Arid Is, and just as we were packing up, it took off and ran and ran and ran a good 100m, the rod was up high in holders, after a mad scramble up high and a "Clear The Decks Below" I landed and got out to the last duckboard, I let it go and go and go maybe 100m and then flicked yee ole Senator into gear and held on...another long run and I managed to turn it and start winding it in, as it got closer it dived for the bottom, just taking my time and slowly bringing it up confirmed a beaut King easily between 50 and 60lb, it saw the boat and did what every Kingy does and took off again, slowly bought it up, and I was wanting to tire it out completely but our tenacious Capt F grabbed the trace and ripped the hook out of it and that was that. ...Don't touch the double...leave the trace its a wind on, step back...arrgh!!!! and our intrepid capt holding a big hook got sent into the galley

And Capt F landed this Snapper 74cm and 13lb.

HEY AL GREAT REPORT ..DIDNT REALISE YOU WERE OUT THERE AS WELL WOULD HAVE BEEN GOOD TO CATCH UP AND PUT A FACE TO THE NAME

Thanks for the write up Al, great report and great crew, all with a different skill set which was very handy.
Pete's master is in stability control which he demonstrated to us beautifully, man should take a Phd for that, and thanks PJ for the wise advise and skill of extracting those fish from the shallows and showing us how a master does it its not often that we get a first hand view of this being done, your strength in ripping off that gen handle also made us realise your bikie connections

Al, bugger me mate, thank god for the electrical experience, I always said the Navy makes the sivvies look dumb... but you proved it on more than one occasion. And a big thank you I am sure from all those that had the benefit of your time and soberness to run them home on the Saturday night as taxi driver, I know many probably would have been a bit more damp that they expected had you not picked up that responsibility, cheers.

And a big sorry about dropping that award winning Kingy, doesn’t always I guess pay to take a leaf out of others books (Epic in this case who is a master of dragging them on board where they are ready or not – note to self best go back and do some more “training” with him) and try dragging on board especially when there is a overhang they can get caught on! Lesson learnt believe me, good fish anyway mate.

All in all I was just happy to have 3 New Guinea pigs to try my cooking out on, glad it seemed to work, that Baby Octy has now changed as a result of that change of recipe with you guys – so thanks for being the taste testers.

Next year Aghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

(god willing ….)

Moral of the story – unless you have spent some time fishing with people you never really understand what good buggers really are.