Well...my annual report on our annual trip north to Coral Bay. 2024......hard work, just shows why its called fishing and not catching......but love it to pieces...an overview below. Once again....not enough fish pics..When will i learn.

April 2024- excitment is building, taking a cpl of newbies and a seasoned campaigner  on their first trek to Coral Bay on the Boys trip. To say the excitment was high is an understatement. The boys have listened to my stories of all these red emperor etc ..uh oh...hind-site is a wonderful thing.

Day before departure- issues already ???  I am washing my ute before packing and out of nowhere- my canopy window explodes like a 12 guage..u are joking !!!! broken glass everywhere..departure in 14 hrs, what to do..go to Westerberg Panel Beaters in Albany [ yes this is a plug as they where awesome !!] explain my prediciment- he says swing it in right now and we will sort it out with smash wrap etc...a bit of $$ plus some cold beers..these guys where amazing and have my business for life now !!! Driving home i get a call form one decky in Margaret river..his new ranger has gone into shut down mode at  midday..oh shit..towed to Ford- not fixable for 2 weeks. Some phonecalls and he has an old  work ute sorted..fingers and toes crossed it gets 18 hrs up the road and back...things are shaky and we havent left!!!!  Pack and pray was the order for the arvo..

Day#1- Leave Albany 5am, make a cpl of decky pick ups, the bullshit level is extreme, the boys didn't realize had the voice of an angel-  but 9 hrs later we roll into Nth Gero safe and sound..the Decky form Margs rolls in an hr after us-the team is together..plans a plenty that night..rest up.

Day #2 Leave Gero early..non eventful . We plan and put to the committee [ i was president of course !!]  the numerical point sytem I had concocted  and laminatedto score points for any legal fish that came aboard of course the better the fish, the higher the points..EG- Reds where 25 points, SPangos -5 points.....basically the points where tallied untill the last day, the winner gets a free feed and drinks on the last night..Throw some things where minus points where awarded-this proved to be a big talking point over the trip... into CB mid arvo. MIld weather-beautiful...early 30's for our stay..not as hot as normal.  1st thing- cold drinkies form the Engel..before tackling the unload. Done by mid arvo, downing cold bevvies and then the standard pub dinner 1st night..beautiful. Chatted with some locals we know- moon and tide not good for our stay..they ask why did we book these dates???...oh dear, i start to wonder a little..

Day#3- Good enough to go fishing, but weather looks real good mid/long term. We have 2 weeks to get our 10 kg of fillets..-lets chillax...boys went for a dive, got a few Occy's, then we got into a few squid along with some cold bevvies- life is good and we have slipped into the Bay lifestyle quickly..

Day #4 and 5- Fishing we go...wow...fishing was hard work..man did we have to do some Km's and effort to get our limit. As normal, i am fussy and keep the quality, send a lot back..but not much coming over the gunnells so we did well to get our limit these days-but hard work. Fish cleaning station was all chatter about the same-hard work...time to put my thinking hat on.

Day#6- the boys convince me to go to South Indonesia and go for Rubies as this was on the 3 boys  bucket list as they had not caught one- skipper wants to see them happy- fuel up to the brim, off we go to 380m..oh dear, 1st 2 drops in my never fail spot sees a nett result of fluff all...Skipper hat goes on and start thinking outside the square.  Off to some ground that rarely produces more then 1 or 2.... BANG- we are on them, they are hungry and we need to count..stop fishing......a cpl of good ones, but mostly great size. Photos all round, skipper has done his job and the boys are on fire..this makes me happy. The steam in is always good when there is a big esky of fish and some cold drinks-everybody wins 

Day#7- rum day..lets just say we had plenty of fish and we decide to have a cpl days off fishing-so we go hard..maybe a little too hard...Drinks a plenty from lunch till stumps, a cpl other crew we know come round with the same intention Lots of stories, heaps of bullshit-as u would expect. Who knew I am the Yatzee champion of Coral Bay..  plus Poker gets messy....great night

Day#8- did u read day#7...headaches and a very slow day around the house...a cpl of dips to clear the heads and whoops...we have some coldies again by mid arvo-albiet fairly slow ones.

Day#9- off to Exmouth to show the newbies around. Hoping to go to our secret Occy spot to get a bucket full...but tide was too high. A quick look around all the tourist things, a standard Tackleworld stop to buy more rods we dont really need, off to the Potty for a lunch and a punt-life is good once again. Highligh was sitting up at the lighthouse and some proper military jets went past..we could see the pilots smile they where that close- the sound and visual...awesome !!!!

Day #10/11/12- weather is schmick..off we go trying all my normal tricks..fishing is really hard. Day #10 i did 150kms on the water..the first 6 hrs we had 1 x Rankin Cod...my worst effort ever..then found some new ground and off we go - filled the bag up in 25 mins..how fishing works ?? Day 11/12 where similar, hard work to catch a few but we gett here...just quietly putting on here that the extra bonus 100 points to the longest Red Emp for the trip...well the skipper here pulls the biggest one for the trip in the last hr-putting him from 2nd to first and taking out the 1st Annual Trophy for most points- of course calls where made about rigging it and only going to that  spot last etc. etc...just saying-it could be the best fishermen just got there in the end !!!!

Day 13/14- I pull rank with experience...no more fishing and spending $300 on fuel/day plus $200 on gear to sharks [ plus i was leading the points tally!!] .....lets put it into booze !!!! everyone agrees...:) Snorkling, general relaxing and doing a fuel touristy things for the newbies..what a way to finish the trip -super chilled.

Day 15- well...we decide to do the 17 hrs straight home to Albany..Big effort, but we get there safely with no dramas. Gee that pillow was sooo good this evening..had a dream run even through Perth at 5pm..lucky days..

Overview- i've been going to CB  a long time and have caught plenty of fish every time -but this year was the hardest ever...Red Emp where great size, but so few and far between...but it just showed me with using my experince and my never give up attitude- we rustled up plenty of fillets of top quality fish and most important made memories for life. Sharks where present, but i think they looked worse purely because we where not pulling fish in non-stop...but manageable-they still favor red emp though, thats for sure!!!!  The more years i go to CB, the more the memories become of the things other than fish..As a skipper who gets more enjoyment out of seeing a newbie get his 1st Ruby than catching another one myself....i get great satisfaction in these moments. 

The bay is back baby...i reckon it has rebounded from Covid times and back to normal- although no 'real'pub to go too was interesting...i am already sooooo loooking forward to next year, bring on April.

FYI- if u want a laugh, go to Youtube and watch/subscribe  our videos - Fullbag Fishing....just some peanuts having fun and not taking fishing too seriously...life is too short.

Till 2025....

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