Kids bay trip - sandies and whiting

[matt fraser]

I managed to get out on the bay earlier in the week, to try and stock up on some seafood for christmas, and at the same time take some boys from the street out for some fishing.

By the time I loaded the boat with pots, rods ,tucker and gear for four boys (7-13) and myself, we were pretty loaded.

We launched at Wello, headed straight to the Rous, dropped pots and then started fishing. It was a bit of a debacle to start off with as a couple of the kids hadn't ever fished before and the other two were novices. So I was casting, baiting up, unhooking, sorting out tangles. There was a mixture of whiting and baby sweetlip coming aboard though, and the kids were having a ball.

We checked pots after an hour for nothing but undersized, a few starfish and hermit crabs, which were interesting for the kids. So I picked up four pots and moved right into the Rous to an old whiting mark. I was very surprised to find no one there. Every other time I've been there, there have been at least a dozen boats in the area. I was thinking the whiting mustn't be around. But we were soon into a few.

It was pretty slow though, with lots of baby snapper and sweetlip coming in. The kids had a break for morning tea, and I moved around a bit looking for a sandy patch, and finally got to fish myself. Then we got onto a really good patch of quality fish. The kids were improving in their casting and some were even unhooking fish and baiting up, so my job was getting easier. (I'd hate to be a decky on a charter boat) We had a couple of squid follow a fish in, so I quickly deployed the pre-rigged squid rod and got one straight away and almost got the second.

It was mayhem for a while, and a lot of fun. But it was getting close to lunch, so we left them biting and headed for the sandhills. Taking all pots with us (with Nil results in the Rous) Lunchtime and a bit of sandboarding and a swim burnt up an hour or two.

On the way home collected pots from wide of the sandhills for three just legals. Wind had picked up and it was a slower trip home. Dropped pots at Green on the way home and left them for an overnight soak.

We ended up with 44 keep whiting 22- 27cm, not too bad a feed, size was down on previous trips though. Plus the three crabs and a squid.

The boys were pretty tired, but I think they had a good day. Certainly different than sitting on the playstation most of the day. Their parents certainly appreciated me getting them out, and also the feed of whiting they got. I think the Dad's are very keen to come out next time.

Next morning, I took my boy out early to check pots, we got four crabs straight up, rebaited with fresh whiting frames and got another five in a couple of hours. A few bigger ones amongst them. So ended up with twelve sandies all up for christmas. Tried for snapper at Mud, but only got undersized and not that many of them.

We had a very nice feed of whitings and calamari last night.

As long as the weather holds out, I'm looking forward to getting back out to the Rous after christmas, and really getting in to the whiting and squid. There are plenty of them out there, just need some 5-10 knot weather.

Merry Christmas to All!

I hope you have a safe and happy one, and get the chance to bend a rod!

Cheers,

Matt