Whales add to fishing fun

The long-range weather forecast has not looked promising for me recently, which is just a bit stressful when you have multiple tours lined up, with some clients coming from abroad and no flexibility in their schedule.

But for once Mother Nature smiled on me.

I sit here now marvelling at the weather, but also grateful to take a rest.

The flat weather at the time of writing could last a few more days yet.

Most mornings are still and foggy – a bit worrisome if you have whales everywhere – but generally this means a flat day is about to get served up.

 

Fishing is hit-and-miss and I will be happy when spring comes with its bounty of surface feeders to keep the days more action-packed.

The whales here have been ridiculous.

I can’t recall seeing so many whales in so close to Urangan.

They are overly inquisitive and interactive too, stopping us from fishing many times – a blessing and a concern.

Especially when a youngster leaps only a boat length or two from your bow.

 

They are marvellous creatures of great stature and power yet possess such awareness and calm.

Considering the fog, I decided to sit back in close on some tours as I deemed the risk too high.

On one morning it was a wise move as the fishing in close was better than expected.

We didn’t smash the fish, but we caught a few nice grunter and trevally, with a couple of solid queenfish to finish the morning off.

The fog cleared and off we went to try a spot that had been holding the large schools and big ones, but not always firing.

 

We grinded for one hit; interesting, isn’t it?

I reversed the sequence the next day and it was terrible!

There was no love whatsoever, apart from some overfriendly whales, so I left the huge schools to target small groups of fish that were actually biting.

Yes, I left possibly thousands of fish to target a handful, but I felt more confident knowing they would bite.

And they did, like clockwork.

There were many factors that could have caused these conditions, and it’s difficult to consider all the variables to be definitive.

 

It was just a relief to put a few quality fish in the boat.

Anyhow, another day another crew, and it was back to hunting the big schools which were biting quite well.

I even found visual evidence of schooling fish feeding and caught them after using my electronics to pinpoint their location.

There had been no sign of this activity the previous two days, so it was cream on the top for us.

Snapper, grunter, big goldens, mack tuna and a few reefies for the table made the day a standout.

Judging by recent shark activity, I will be hunting for tuna more and more over the next few weeks.

 

As the weather warms, the grey suits get more active and any schools in a fixed position will be shark beacons.

It’s time for me to get more actively mobile to locate schools of tuna and, hopefully, other goodies among them.

A few school mackerel would be handy for the school holidays in September.

These fish are great at entertaining the kiddies, and not bad for the table as well.

As usual, the Sluk will be the chosen lure for these fish, as well as for tuna.

Here’s wishing for another steady spring with just a few northerlies!