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Thursday afternoon we decided to give Apollo Bay a shot for a Big Blue Barrel. After working Friday, prepping the boat and gear Friday night, we left my place in the Yarra Valley for Apollo Bay at 1:30am Sat.
The boat was in the water by 4:30 and we start our run down the side Cape Otway on a windless, clear beautiful morning.
The 56km run to Big Reef was perfect at 4500 revs. What a place, I have to fish this reef in the summer months, it has got to hold just about all southern varieties of fish. Cruising along in 80m of water, at first it comes up to 60m and you think this is a Big Reef. Towards the southern end it came up to 36m in places that we found, a structure fishermen's dream.
We worked most of the day on the northern end of the reef with about thirty other boats, pulling hard bodies and skirts until we found bait balls of pilly on the surface getting smashed by birds and seals, we would switch to stripping cubes. But no fish. Getting that sinking failure feeling in my stomach I said to Vinnie lets bottom bash for a while down the south end away from all these other blokes. So that was at 2pm, got about 2 or 3 k's down the reef, found a great bommie holding fish on the sounder in 35m of water, and started catching just the normal reef fish. About 3pm I looked further south to see a couple of hundred birds working a ball, shot down to it, it was a ball of red rockets with every thing hitting it including lots of 44 gallon drums jumping out of the water. Couldn't believe my eyes. Stripped pilchard cubes into the ball and not a hit. In the box of burley there was a couple of scabby red rockets from the bottom of the freezer, put one whole rocket on, slipped it down into the ball and it was on.
It then unleashed four hours of pain, misery, elation and adrenalin. The fish took us for a wild ride around Cray pot ropes, I had 2 ropes looped over me and the rod to step through while this thing was pulling line off my little pen international t30 15kg outfit. I couldn't believe all my knots held which consisted of the uni knot holding the 8/0 cubing hook to 6 metres 150 pound leader tied with a allbright to a 1.2m binimi twist double on 880 m of 30 pound braid.
Finally got the fish to the boat after having the double was on the reel half a dozen times only to watch it pull 100m in a blink of an eye. Somehow with the help of a tail rope we got it on board, bleed it, iced it and realized it was 7:00pm completely dark, no moon and we are 63km from port in the southern ocean in a 5.5m boat. Panic
But my Savage Mako didn't miss a beat and took us home at 3500 revs.
Back to the ramp, on the trailer back to the Yarra Valley What A Day
My first Blue Finn
Longest distance out of port.
Biggest fish I ever caught. 117kg without its blood
Cheers David
