Friday Fishing Report

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Sorry this report took so long. I have had one of those weekends and a nasty stomach bug has kept me down for a couple of days (it wasn't from the fish I caught and ate fortunately).

It was cold when dad and I headed out before the sun poked its head above the horizon. When I say cold I mean it was about 20 degrees (about 70 degrees Fahrenheit for the Americans reading this), but I am from the tropics after all and I was cold! We haven't had much luck lately and the weather report was not favorable so I hadn't prepared quite as well as I usually would. I usually make up about 5 or 6 spare leaders in case we get bitten off, snagged or reefed by a big fish and keep them in a snap lock bag.

First up we fished a shallow water wreck and the fish were on straight away. I hooked a big fish only to have it eaten on the way up by a monster barracuda that probably could have swallowed me whole. We used the half fish for cut baits and before they hit the bottom dad hooked and subsequently lost a massive fish we never sighted (1 leader lost). I quickly re rigged his line and before I turned around he was on again. This time he fought the fish for about 10 minutes and as it came close to the boat it surged towards the anchor and busted him off (2 leaders lost). I re rigged his line again (this time with 100 pound fluorocarbon leader) and after about 2 minutes he hooked and lost another monster within about 0.5 seconds of hooking it (3 leaders lost).

The bite slowed down after this and we moved to another wreck, but the wind proved a little too strong and we headed for a sheltered sloping rock/reefy area. However, while at the second reef dad had his hook bitten off by what was probably a shark (4 leaders lost). At the reef we started pulling up an assortment of small reef fish, which were released to fight another day. We made one last move into a slightly deeper part of the reef and started catching more small reef fish until I hooked (and landed) a beauty. By this time my old man managed to find a snag or two and lose another couple of leaders. My rod buckled over again soon after and I had my second good fish of the day over the side. With the wind really picking up we called it a day with a couple of fish in the box and some really great stories of "the one that got away."