Epic October Fishing trip for David Watts and crew - October 2010
David got in touch with me a good year ago to book this trip, and choosing one of the best months certainly paid off as you will see in this report. It was Davids chance for one last trip with the boys before he got married....a great choice of stag duo, and him, Eden, John and Waz, turned up with little expectations as they just wanted something better than the 65cm kingfish they got back home.
Day One and David nails the first king of the trip
These fish are angry.....jigs are coming back smashed up at right angles
Waz with another nice fish, the fellas were already blown away buy these sized fish, little did they know what was in store for them
John with his first of the trip on a jig, a solid fish
The boys celebrate a double of PB's
Waz got hammered on a livebait next up. There was some huffing and puffing and by the time he got the fish to the boat his legs were wobbling and we had to sit him up against the livebait tank to hold on to the fish with his legs doing spasms....Waz was stoked!
Dave nails another on a jig
Double of smaller sized fish
Eden nabs a solid fish on a livie
Waz with another stonker as a double!
Day two and whatdya know, Dave puts one on the board first again
Waz nails another good fish on the jig
Eden getting railed on a big fish on a livebait while John is hooked up on the other side on a jig
Another double of quality fish
Both fish round the 20kg mark, in awesome condition
Was with a mid 20k fish on a livebait
Dave with another one from a double, early twenty kg's
We were working the corner of one of the pins where we could see a lot of big fish marking, Eden hooked into one on the livebait and was getting smoked, really worked over, his fish went around 20K, Dave was on as well on a jig
He nailed his, meanwhile the third fish on was a monster....that was still comin up
The boys pose while John works away on his fish, still has 80m of line out after 10minutes
The JM 350 was well and truly bent, at times John had the reel at sunset with his thumb on the spool and it was burning, a huge king came to the boat, it was to heavy for me to lift in myself, Eden leant over and grabbed the tail and we hauled it in, easily one of the biggest, longest fish we've had on board, measuring 1.38m to the fork and close to 1.55 to the tip, had it been in typical Adlies condition it might have topped 40Kg's but being a bit lean we called it for more like 33Kg's, easily over 30K anyway so the boys had topped the magic mark
I think I can lift it
Aaaah, it hurts....
Awesome fish bro, time to release it
Day three and guess whos in first again, on a livie
Dave gets the first one for Day Three yet again
King and trevally both on jigs
We moved on to the Par Five to search down the big boys, we got a double of smaller fish on the jigs, and I took the boat out of gear and drifted off the reef I said to the boys "you watch the livie get hammered by something big" the line started to angle up and then WHAM, Dave cracked into a solid fish that had the Stella howling, we filled the cockpit up backing down on it to keep it altogether
Eden was in next and this one was a thumper!
Easily 26Kg, maybe a fraction more
All the boys cracked into 20kg fish on the livie rig, man the JM400 takes some caning!
Didn't take long before all our livies were gone, so we blasted up to the Mercs for the afternoon, the fish were smaller but there were soooooo many of the, triples and quad hook ups the norm,
Waz getting bent
All the boys hooked up, had JP decking for me for the day
Waz snuck a softbait down into the carnage and the T Curve loaded up solid, almost looked like a pup puka coming up but then the headshakes started, YeeHaa rig and New Penny 7" Gulp softbait - churness!! 9KG of Mercs snapper
Another double!!
JP got into the action as well on the Azari jigs on the silly string
At the end of Day Three I said to the fellas "Right you guys have all got some solid 20kg++ fish, what say we finish up by breaking 100 in a day on jigs at the Mercs?" There was certainly the fish there to do it,
so the boys agreed and 8.30am the next morning we dropped the first jig and the mayhem began
Pink rocket and another FAT fish
Skipper had a score card going and Waz got off to an early lead
Nothing better than the HIT on the jig
Most fish were released in the water on the side of the boat, handled only on the jaw
Eden and John both started to sneak ahead of the others, they had the magic jig on, the Blue Broken Arrow....
By the first hour we had released 25 fish, and you can see by the JM400 they were all pulling hard....
The boys with a quad on...by now the boys were experts at doing the Mercs tango, lines going round each other and most were holding together tho some monumental cluster**** occured as well with the jig lost tally going to 12 from bustoffs round each other, skip was kept busy doing PR knots....
This was the average size, 1m fish with plenty of condition
Eden railed on the Jigstar and Daiwa Z40, blue broken arrow, the man was caning them....
Dave on the JM200 and JMPE5
I think I can lift it
Waz's arms are tied here, doing all he can to keep the rod off the boat and getting taken to the cleaners
Dave with another Mercs fattie, the bait on the sounder is unreal and these fish are feasting up large
More madness at the boat
That jig again!!
Couple of fat fish being released boatside
The boys were tasked with each getting 25, making 100 in total, Eden was the first to hit 25 just after 1pm!!! Machine! I Eden hadn't been fishing at all in five years before this trip, he kept muttering things like "I just can't f**** believe this man, I've just caught 25 awesome fish in a day, this is madness....holy f*****"
Waz trying to catch up
John on his 25th!!
" Lucky Blue " well and truly hammered, and John well and truly shagged!
We slipped on a KV blue slider which had the same tinge of blue green and then went mental for Dave
More afternoon chaos
Sydney downrigger shop jig a late addition for Waz got his numbers up
Eden fittingly got the honours to get number 100 - and hit the 30 mark for himself
Skipper got handed the rod after the guys had cracked 102, and first drop got peeled by number 103, first kingi for a while for me, I got railed and wondered how these guys had done 30 each!
The boys enjoying an ale on the trip home and marvelling at the scorecard, 30 each for Eden and John, 21 each for Waz and Dave, 1 for the skipper - 103 kingfish in total, and epic finish to an epic adventure!
The scorecard
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