With the weather window looking perfect for Saturday, we decided it was the time to have a crack at these swordfish.
We headed down Friday arvo and got everything prepared.
I was lucky enough to be taking the boss's boat, a 7m extreme, as the fuel capacity in my own wouldn't allow for a 250km+ round trip.
We perhaps got a little excited and ended up launching at 3am, and made our way out, with the offshore water glowing with krill or algae? Not sure what does it, cool to see though.
It was about a 2 hour run out to the canyon, and we had the first drop in 500m before first light.
Our first 3 drops all resulted in 10kg+ ling. I've never seen or caught long before, they are mighty ugly and slimy fish, but I'm told they taste great so I'm interested to find out.
With ling stealing out baits, we decided to make the run a further 35km south to the next canyon, where we got our first hookup on the electric reel. I've got no idea what we hooked, but after a 20 minute tussle it won its freedom, and we are left none the wiser.
Towards the end of the day, on our second last drop, i was bringing the bait back in to re-drop when about 200m from the surface it got smashed! 3 or 4 big bill whacks then it loaded up and started screeming off. Unfortunately the hooks pulled after only a few minutes, to our dismay.
Undettered, we hastily re rigged a new bait and sent it straight back down, where it was duly whacked again, this time knocking our well stitched squid right off the hooks.
That was our last brick, and with the time reading 6pm, we thought it best to start the 110km run back in after getting our first real chance of a sword.
As we passed the first set of rigs with 60km to go, the wind came up with a stiff 20knot northerly. This is where 7m of boat comes in handy, being able to punch our way back home at a reasonable 18-20knots in the dark in that ****, made for an interesting run in!
Back at the ramp at 9pm, we were well and truely buggered. Back in Traralgon, cleaned the boat and was in bed by 1am, which is why it's 11.30am now and I'm only just getting up haha.
An awesome day on the water with 18 hours fishing, can't wait to give it another crack!
