FISH AND CHIPS THE MOB WAY

The weather is always a factor for our fishing, too windy, too hot or just right....sounds a bit like Goldilocks.  Well the last few days, had all three, too windy in some spots, too hot out of the wind, but then it was just right in other spots.  The moon was full, which is often said to be a problem with fishing, but as far a fish go, 'when they're on they're on' and they don't seem to worry about the things that we humans do.  But the wind was cold! Hoodies and bunny rugs were needed in the mornings which looked outstanding, but were very chilly.

We really do live in one of the best places in the world.

Watty had reported the bait balls out there and let me tell you, they are still there, in fact in a lot of spots we managed to get over different ones, but the fish all seemed to be below them and not eating that much, (probably the moon??) whereas the barra on the flats were everywhere, and their tails seemed to stand out more than usual in bright yellow (the moon again?).

The big spaniards were holding under these

 A lot of the barra were holding in schools over rocky patches, and Lord Jim was saying that is because the rocks warm in the sun during the day and hold the heat which the barra are seeking.   The boys on Tails from a Tinny had similar information.  So while the water is cold, and we could not get a place that reached 24C, then the rocks and weed areas where the warmer water holds would seem to be the spot to fish.  The best of the barra was in the seventies but there were a lot that just didn't make the legal size.

Just a bit on the barra, Cliffy is back down at Sand Palms and one of his old mates Greg, brought his two grandchildren out to have a look and maybe get a fish (We swore them all in as mobsters). The kids, Claudia 11yrs and Luca 8yrs, both from Sydney, had their first go at fishing.  Both caught barra and salmon, which was a problem.  They didn't want to go back home! We are hoping to get the photo's sent through, but it was very hard to take the smiles off their faces.

Back to the baitballs....there were probably ten to fifteen huge macs dropped while we were out there, but Duggie got the best, 155cm.

The biggest of the Spaniards

An anemic white flashy clouser and no bloody trace!!!!was the fly of choice

Di and Hags got into salmon and a couple of barra around Turtle Island.  They were blue salmon and were outstanding cooked in tempura batter and served with chips.  The 'Show Ponies' on the Hewes were into some good barra as well but like some of us could not raise the big pelagics up from the bait balls. If the bait balls around now are any indication of what is to come, we are really into some great fish (on a good moon of course).

Lord Jim, the Cookup King, got plenty of barra, but we didn't taste one of them, all too small. Rodgie lost a great barra on one of the flats, I think all the flats are called 'Wayne's Flats' and the creeks are called 'Jim's creek'.  It can get confusing.

But we did manage to get plenty of fish for the cookup, at one stage we had twenty one there, that as counted but some of the staff down there added to it.  Sand Palms was packed out and Jim had his camp beside the crew from the Yellow Peril (Dean and Dave) the Rainbow warriors, with the Stig camped even closer to the road.

We had three woks going for nearly and hour, all with different mixes of fish and batter.  Tempura, just flour and some horrid green concoction that Rodgie made.  It all went though, even into the night with Jim holding up the 12v lamp for us to see.  I think if there hadn't been a fire ban we would have had natures TV(camp fire) going into the wee hours of the morning, as it was Dave and Rodgie were going to get into the spicy rum, but luckily Rodgie fell off the perch and went to bed.  Thanks Justine for being a wonderful waitress.....if Rodgie had been passing the fish around none would of made it to anyone.  He would of dropped the lot!

Some of the food....pre being cooked!