Haughton Softies

Fished yesterday morning in the Haughton with Andrew Gleeson. It was supposed to be a quick run and back home by 11am. But a little fuel problem extended our day longer! Now when I say it was a 'little' fuel problem, I mean the problem was that I had too little fuel! 

We left early and started with some Thready Busters on the rockbar just down from the ramp. The hope was to find a Fingermark on the turn of the tide. First cast from me nailed a rat barra from right under the boat. It was released in the water without photographing it! We had a couple more hits and Andrew dropped a good one after a short run. Not sure what it was.

When the tide turned we headed to the mouth in search of cleaner water. We worked a deep bank with DOA prawns and gulp shrimp in search of a Jack. Andrew nailed a ripper of a Yellowfin Bream, followed by nice Pikey. He also landed a nice Moses Perch,  probably the biggest I have seen in a creek system. My DOA was falshed a couple of time by Barra, and I released one small one. Again, no photo and was released in the water as per DPI's instructions!

From here we moved to the mouth. Going back to the Thready Busters, we worked around the deeper water off the edge of the sand bars. Jake and I had come across schools of Grunter here a few weeks ago. But after over an hour of casting and not one touch we moved on again.

Last bank we fished was at the mouth of Burrumbush. There are some good snags here that I have caught a few Jack from in the past, including a couple over 40cm. Andrew got another nice Bream, and some Archer fish showed interest in my prawn imitation. Then a decent Barra smashed the lure half way back to the boat and launched into the air. It was easily in the hight 70's. A couple of jumps later and it threw the lure right back at me. Funny how it doesn't bother you when you know its going back. But its got me keen for opening now!

We finished fishing at 9.30am with ample time to make it home by our deadline. I opened the 80hp Suzuki up and headed toward the ramp. But we only got about 1km and she stopped dead! Out of fuel! To explain, the fuel tank has had a small leak since I picked it up. The leak is high in the tank and is only a problem when full. No worries, all fixed under warranty. But I needed to run the tank down low enough to be able to lift it out easily. I was always estimating how much was remaining, and I clearly over estimated! On a positive note, the Century 120ah AGM batteries got a good test out. The 80lb iPilot ran at full power for about 2 hours, and at the finish was still showing 3/4 level. And thats after being used all morning fishing too. Also a big thanks to the guys who gave us a tow for the last leg back to the ramp. Probably saved us another hour. Now to get that tank fixed.....