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Hi guys

Heres April 2008 wrap

1st April fish 3 different systems. The Bass were slow to respond to anything. The strike, hook up and fish landed went like this 7-2-1. The one fish landed was a small fish just under the 20cm mark. Lost a good fish in the reeds at my feet which would have been in the mid 40's. The strikes were all BIG depth charges but they only struck once. The normal strike, miss, pause, jig the rod tip, strike and hook up weren't working.

4th April With night air temp dropping really need to rug up now. Late start as was sitting around the fire at the brother in laws having a couple beers and watching the NRL. Got to the water at 10.30pm Things were slow and cold. States were 1-1-1 only one fish around the 35cm mark.

10th April Back to the rock to try and find the south coast Bluefin that are meant to be around. The water turned to green with no surface action. Spun up one Rat Kingfish and a stud Sambo. There were heaps of small white bait things but nothing to eat them.

14th /15th April With all the reports that the north coast LBG seen is going off it was time for a trip. Time restraints only allow one full days fishing and a morning session (10am pack up). I don't know how to put it into words but to say ITS GOING OFF.

Having not fished this rock ledge for at least 11years I took the wrong walking track. Well to cut it short I got lost. At 4am it's very dark and it all looks the same. One hour into the 15min walk I sat down to wait for the sun. Just as I sat down a torch light flickers through the bush. A quick yell for assistance and I was back on track.

Bait was hard to come by but when they came the pool was full of stud slimies. The first bait was bridled and sent out to the blue yonder. The bait lasted all of 5min in the water before it was eaten. This was to be the norm for the next two days. The first hook up sore 200m of 15kg heading for the horizon. Bump, bump and it was gone. Sharked. This also was the norm for the next two days. All good fish ended up sharked with the only fish landed were the ones that you could get in quick. 4 Bluefin 3 Cobes lost to sharks. The biggest Cobe I've hooked took a live snapper that was just over legal length. This fish ran along the ledge try to rub me out on every thing it could find. Than ran 300m straight out. With the braid backing starting to show its colour a White pointer with half its body out of the water engulfed the cobe. This is one spot you do not want to fall in. Well over the two day 5 Mac Ts, unknown numbers of Bonito and Tailor were landed.

19th/26th This years trip to South West Rock in now classed as the forgettable trip. With six out of the seven day a wash out due to torrential rain and huge swells. We had 120mm of rain in one night but to top of this trip we were robbed while we were sleeping. They used a knife to cut the fly screens in stead of the zippers. Every second tent got done on a very wild and stormy night. We lost a portable DVD player, camera, phone and some other gear. This is one very low act to rob campers.

Well the fishing was tough due to the rain and swell. No boats got out for the week and the normal rock ledges were out of the question. A new and safe ledge was found but was very hard to fish. We were about 8-10m above the seas with a rock ledge in front of us. You would have to wait until a wave came and wind as fast as you could to get the lure over the ledge.

The lure of choice was a Mother In Law popper in red and white. Each day I would hook between 4-6 Tailor on these poppers but would only land one or two because of the conditions. The Tailor were BIG, average around the 2kg mark with some on the 4kg. One fish, the biggest Tailor I've hooked (than again these were all the biggest Tailor I've ever caught) took a heap of line against a heavy drag setting. Was fishing 10kg braid and a 60lb leader and this fish still took line. After a short battle the fish was wash up on the rock ledge below us. A huge set wave came and washed the Tailor back towards the ocean. The middle treble found the cunje bed on the way back out. With a huge Tailor on the rear hook and the other set in the cunje there was no other opposition then to pop the line. This Tailor would have pushed the 5kg mark it was huge and fat.

Other than these Tailor's each morning there was no other fishing due to the conditions.
Sorry no pic's due to camera stolen.

Nutter