12 May 2009

I just cannot believe how poor conditions have been here lately. Even the real die-hards are doing home maintenance! The line fishermen, both commercial and recreational, are getting poor results too. Everything seemed to be on track at the start of this season but it sure looks like the wheels have come off. Apparently out wide of the continental shelf, there is warm blue water which is giving up the odd Blue or Striped Marlin. I will be arranging my teaser gear and looking at heading out to try my luck at landing one of these behemoths.



John Featherstone and Tim MacDonald have recently returned from an adventurous trip to Exmouth. They went out on a commercial boat to an area that receives little if any fishing pressure. The fish they landed were very respectable. John tells me he took a Spanish of 34kg out of a school that had other fish which made his seem tiny by comparison. The Australian record for Spanish apparently comes from this area and I look forward to hearing more about the possibility of a trip out to this area. In the meantime I will be day-dreaming about the possibility of going to Bassas da India with my brother-in-law. Bassas, as it is lovingly called, is an extinct volcano in the Mozambique Channel. It is only visible at low-tide. It is in an extremely remote area and can only be reached by boat. Several sailing charters are offering this as a destination from Mozambique, with the promise of legendary Dog-tooth Tuna and Giant Trevally. I will have to be patient and see how events progress.