Summary: Fished 35m for Shark and Cuttle. Fished 45m for 1 x shark, 2 x Dhu and 1 x Black arse. 87m for 1 x Dhu and got nothing at Woodies fad. 

A couple of weeks ago, I was chatting to a bloke at the ramp about boats, and we then got onto fish and my hisorical inability to reliably find fish. Anyhow, he was decent enough to share me a couple of spots to put us in the right area.

Now i know how to put bait on a hook can use a jig like anyone else, and have historically been right beside mates who have caught fish and me, with the exact same set up, have caught nothing. Hence one of our spots being called the Fuck All spot, because he will catch snapper there and I will catch fuck all...

My issues seem to be patience related, and my preference to fish with my family (who are only interested in catching fish) doesnt help there

Anyhow, i got a message mid week about a sunday trip in a mates boat. The conditions didnt look great but I agreed and it turned into a trip in my boat with the idea's man and another mate where we did 73nm including around an hour at the Woodies FAD.

We launched just before 7 and ventured to the channel leads to try to get some live bait with us only managing to get a tiny silver bream which went back, a buttery and trumpeter. After messing about with that for 30 minutes, we ventured to a spot in 30m behind the 5, south of Rotto where we did a couple of drifts. The breeze was only ~12 knots but having been blowing 15-20 knots the day and night before, was sloppy as hell! My guts had begun their turn but I had hoped a couple of quells would settle. 

I was using a 110gm vexxed thingo with a piece of Occy on it and my rod loaded up on what felt like a big plastig bag. A couple of tugs later had me knowing what I had was alive and after a few moments a monster cuttlefish appeared on the surface. Concerned about an ink out, we carefully netted it and assuming it had inked lifted it into the boat to dispatch it using the tenticles for bait for the remainder of the day. Once in the catch bag, its unloaded its ink sack. I could have supplied BIC with ink for 12 months with the black sludge that came from this cuttlefish....but damn its tenticled were good bait!

My rod bent over again with a decent run we put down to a sambo but turned out to be what we origionally through was a gummy but now believe was a whiskery shark. It was quickly dispatched , gutted and de-finned into the catch bag. 

After a couple more drifts and being accompanied by someone who saw us with a rod bent, we moved further out where whilst in transit, I had to hand the helm to one of my mates while i ejected my morning berocca both through my mouth and nose...it smelt acidic but after chewing on some ginger (didnt realise I needed to just swallow not chew - so aweful), I was back on track.

We got to near the next spot and saw some fluff on the sounder and did a quick drift where again, my rod went off. I handed it to one of my mates who hadnt caught anything yet and after a tussle, a black tipped shark popped up which we released.

While re-baiting both mates hooked up and shortly after, two dhuies popped up to much celebration followed shortly after by the biggest black arse I have seen. 

I managed another hook up and decent run which chucked the hooks.

Another few drifts had a large sweep come up before we headed out to the 80's to try another spot.

Now we loaded up on the sinkers and did a couple of drifts before the final demersal (another dhu) came to the surface. Damn its a long winch up with just sinkers letalone a fish.

We were only 15nm from the Woodies Fad so we opted to chug out to there where we found a couple of fish though couldnt interest anything with bait, lures or a live trumpeter and buttery. 

Due to the south easterly slop, we did the first 15 or so miles at 12-14 knots before managing to make it up to 20 knots then sending it in for the last 5 or so miles at 25 knots before the seabreeze finally made it in a couple of hours late slowing us down a tad.

Overall, 100l of fuel, 73nm, 3 x Dhuies which were size on the old scale, big and fat black arse, a shark and a blob of cuttlefish

Humerously, i am yet to catch a size dhufish but was very very pleased that we got a couple onboard.

An enjoyable element is that we didnt actually catch fish on the points we were given rather found some good looking fluff not far from the point we had. I had always struggled to know what to look for. Yeah I have heaps of lumps marked on my sounder which have never really produced (3 x black arse). We went over the waypoints i was given to see what the bottom was like and found similar looking around nearby which was where we ended up catching fish.

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