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Jayne, Peter and I went fishing this morning and we all caught something!

We woke with the sparrows at 5.30am, chomped down some brekky, made a thermos of coffee, hitched the boat up and drove to the boat ramp. I’d planned for us to zoom off towards Limeburners Bay and the whiting at about 6.30 - they get up early, those fishies.

We’d packed the boat on Saturday so everything was speedy at the ramp - give her a quick start before putting in, then just unclip her, back the trailer down the ramp, undo the winch and roll her off the trailer.

It was dead calm when we left the harbour so I opened up the throttle and we whizzed north at 35mph to the bay we wanted to fish and were baited up and in the water in no time. Sadly the bay wasn’t playing our game, and we went biteless for half an hour before the wind started to get up a bit. This made us decide to move back towards the boat ramp where it was a bit more sheltered. Good move!

Before too long I had a big bite (which surprised all of us, as Jayne usually catches all the fish and has all the bites) and started carefully reeling it in. When it was about a metre from the surface it looked like a huge flathead, which was exciting, but we soon realised it was weird-looking ray. Still, it was big enough and we figured it was probably OK to eat so we kept it. In the bottom of the boat. We forgot a bucket.

Here it is in the net.

Almost as soon as it was in the boat Jayne’s rod went and she pulled in a flathead.

Then it was on for half an hour or so as we caught another three of the rays (which apparently are Banjo Sharks) and four more flathead, including a real beauty for Jayne.

Another Banjo

Jayne’s big flathead

Not long after our 9th fish it started raining, so we decided to head home.

Peter filleted the fish up back at home (the Banjos were a real bugger, he tells me) and we had them for tea with chips. The flatties were great (always are) but those Banjos are full of bones and fairly bland, so we’ll chuck ‘em back next time!

P.S. After wakeboarding with 5 people the other week and fishing today with 3 in the boat I’m seriously considering ditching the name “Muchacha” and going with the one that was second on our shortlist: Tight Squeeze.