We loaded up and hit the road. As we drove north it turned grey and about half an hour from seventeen seventy it started to rain. Of all the forecasts I looked at the weather wasn’t one of them. It doesn’t usually rain this time of year so that wasn’t on my radar. I looked and it said scattered showers Monday and Tuesday, clearing Wednesday. I had the clears for the boat and rain suits so we weren’t stopping for a bit of wet weather. Even being winter the rain is warm anyway.
We ran out six miles and stopped on a wreck. First drop within fifteen seconds both boys were hooked up. Pierce had a ~40 cm snapper, Nolan had a little larger snapper.
We fished a little more, caught a few smaller snapper and then kept punching east. Another 15 miles out we stopped on a reef and did a few drifts in 35 meters of water. Every drop we hooked up but didn’t land a fish. Most pulled us into bottom and broke us off, about six got sharked on the way to the boat. Unfortunately when the tax man took the fish he didn’t bite the fish in half, he took the whole rig every time. After losing around twenty fish and retying about twenty rigs I had enough, the sharks were to thick and it was time to head to the lagoon for a sleep. We drove another ten miles and entered the lagoon for the evening.
The very modest channel markers and a few boats anchored up behind.
None of this reef sticks out of the water except on dead low tide. Once inside there was protected water but a 360 degree view of open ocean. It was like anchoring in an infinity pool in the middle of the coral sea. Even in the dim overcast light I could see the anchor and every link of the chain in 10m of water. The clarity was unreal.
We had a feed, tied some new rigs and I cursed our little reels for not having enough drag to handle the larger fish. I really don’t reef fish and I didn’t think they could pull that hard. They’re small so it made sense. I’ve got 50lb braid but only got 30 lb mono topshot on them. With 20-22 lbs of drag the only way I can add more drag is thumb pressure on the spool and I tried that on one. It didn’t stop him as he raced back to bottom and cut me off. The way these fish fight is they take the bait 2-3m off bottom, then once you set the hook you can usually bring them up another 3-4m before they figure out what’s going on. So you pump and wind like mad trying to horse them to surface. If they get turned back around and are pointed down they’ll peel all the drag I’ve got and any decent one will brick you on bottom. If they stop mid water column and the grey suits are around the shark takes the lot.