Sunday, June 27, 2010

Fishing with the Powalski's

A little late on this post, but here it is non the less.
It was promising to be a cracker of a day. Hardly any clouds and and no wind.
We got the boat loaded and met up with Loren and Dollye at the jetty. They are good friends of ours and own a real estate company called Harbour Property Services, check them out if you want to stay or buy in Fiji.
I gave the safety talk and off we go.
Both Loren and Dollye have fished quite a lot back in Seattle, but Salmon fishing is not the same as popper fishing for tropical pelagics. Loren has done a bit of fishing here with a few different people, but Dollye has not, enter the learning curve.
Unfortunately the learning curve is steep and long. I can teach you how to cast, I can teach you how to pop, but catching fish is something that takes a long time to work out.
Dollye took to it like a pro, casting and popping right away. Loren did not need any assistance.
After 20 or 30 minutes with no bites Loren wants me to cast a bit and tells me to catch a fish. So not being one to shrug of a challenge I cast out a few times and hook a little Trevally.
From Fishing with the Pawloski's
Once the fish is in the boat I tell Loren that I am done for awhile as I want him and Dollye to catch fish.
Now it is Loren's turn to catch a fish. After a couple of missed bites he finally hooks one and gets to feel the pull of the Trevally.
From Fishing with the Pawloski's
Not a big fish but on the light tackle they sure are fun.
Meanwhile Dollye is still casting and popping and starting to work out the formula. She gets a couple of good bites but is not able to set the hooks. Like I said, a long, steep curve.
Back to Loren who is quite fired up at this point and hooks a nice Bluefin Trevally. He has learned to put the hurt on these fish otherwise the fish dictates the fight and you lose.
He has the fish boat side in no time and Rosie leaders it in. Cheers and high fives all around.
From Fishing with the Pawloski's
Unfortunately the wind has whipped up and is now blowing 25knots with a very lumpy sea. This of course makes casting and standing very difficult.
We call it a day and make our way home.
We all had a great time and plan to do it again.

Tight lines

Tuesday, June 8, 2010

Updates from the past few weeks

Sorry it has been so long since a post. No real excuse, just lazy and not a lot to report.
The weather has been, well not great to say the least.
Rosie and I took Yuki out for a Sunday fish. With him was Ken and Captain. Captain is an F15 fighter pilot with the Japanese air force.
The weather was atrocious and the fish were in hiding, but we persevered.
A side note, our usual camera is in the shop so we are shooting all the pictures with an Iphone or a GoPro camera. Not the best quality.

Anyways here is a couple of shots of our trip.

Captain making a go of a crappy situation.
Ken showing true form.
From June 6 2010 Rosie, Billy and Callan

Yuki with a small GT.
From June 6 2010 Rosie, Billy and Callan
Not one of our better days but that's fishing, right?

So the next time out it was just Rosie and me. After a short run in some horrid waves and rain squalls with wind gusts up to 30knots, the throttle cable played up and sent us home without a fish.

So this Sunday we decided to try again. The weather was looking lovely and our excitement was high.
Boat loaded, Billy on board with Spam and egg sandwiches, off we go into the wild blue yonder.
Our first stop was a small bay that has produced some nice Coral Trout and Mangrove Jacks. Light tackle was the call for the morning. By that I mean 30lb gear.

The small bay with mangroves and nice little drop offs.
From June 6 2010 Rosie, Billy and Callan
Unfortunately the wind kicked up and it started to white cap, that's 7-10 knots. A little hard to use the light gear.
We moved out of the bay to another area that is known to produce some nice fish. I am still using the 30lb but Rosie has switched to the 50lb. Now you must be wondering what happened to Billy, he has this deal with the fish, He wont eat them and they wont eat him. Therefore he does not fish. Good for me as I can teach him to drive the boat and I get to do a little fishing.

I finally catch a nice Red Bass on the light gear, what fun.
From June 6 2010 Rosie, Billy and Callan

Soon after my bass Rosie hooks up to a nice GT and has it boat side in no time.
From June 6 2010 Rosie, Billy and Callan
After that it goes quiet and the wind has picked up some more. Time for lunch and a bit of fun.
Billy does one for his wife Katie who is out of the country but loves fishing and knows he doesn't.
After lunch we decide to go and have a swim at a sand bar. To our surprise the sand bar was gone, flattened out during the hurricanes this last season. Lucky for us the waters around it are still like a swimming pool.
After our swim we are gonna try a bit of trolling in a proven location. So out go the lures and off we go. Within 20 minutes the ride is too rough and the lures will not stay in the water. We all agree to pull them in and head for home. Easier said then done. It's gotten really rough and the swell has picked up. After almost two hours we finally get back to the dock.
We still had a great day on the water and it sure beats the crap out of being at work.

On a side note I mentioned the GoPro cameras. I have purchased two of them and have started to see what they can do.
From June 6 2010 Rosie, Billy and Callan
Here is a little video and there will be lots more to see.


Tight lines