Another day of hurry up and wait.
I decided to replace the propeller on the dingy. The stainless-steel
prop I have on now is pitched for top end speed and I thought it would get the
dingy up on the plain quicker than the original aluminium prop, but the dingy
seems to be sluggish with more than two adults and is hard to get up on the
plane.
I put the old aluminium prop back on and while doing so, a fish jumped and splashed chasing bait fish close to the boat. I have noticed
this several times now and this time I reached for my trusty bait caster and
chucked out a popper.
Right away I got smashed and the reel screamed as the line
peeled off. I could feel the tail thumping and assumed it to be a large GT or
queenie. The fish didn’t jump, so it must have been a huge GT.
It went for many long runs and circled the boat several
times before I started to make progress and gain some line. Eventually after
stretching my arms for over twenty minutes I managed to get him close to the
boat and near the surface.
I was shocked when I saw it was a huge cobia. These are
great eating and notorious strong fighters and here I am with one on 5kg line on my
bait caster. I was getting ready to take him when he went for one last
blistering run, but this time directly under the boat.
There was nothing I could do but maybe let out some line and
hope he comes back around when suddenly he cut me off on the keel.
I was devastated to loose such a prize fish after such a long
battle, not to mention my new popper. Anyway, now its just another fish that
got away storey and no one will probably believe me anyway.
I spent the afternoon reprogramming some favourite pages on my
graphic display in the saloon.
I also made some wiring changes to my AIS, hoping to fix the weird
fault I have been experiencing since installing it back in Perth.
Later I talked to Don on our regular radio sked and for
dinner I was invited by Dave to join him and his crew to have dinner over on
Fonster.
Before I left, I put my beacon on so I knew which boat to
steer for in the dark.
Track Sirocco’s
progress
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