Little Thing to the rescue!

Licking our wounds from the previous day when Black Thing broke down, we dusted off our pride and hit the water again, in Little Thing this time.

It was a perfect day to be on the water in a little tiny!

As our luck would have it, the weekend our big boat Black Thing broke down (see previous blog for details) we had the best weather of the year!

Thankfully we are a two boat family, and the calm waters were perfect for taking out our tinny, Little Thing ;)

We headed south of Exmouth, down the gulf.  Always on the look out for the elusive Permit for Johnno on Fly, but happy with what ever we find.

We found big Queenfish straight away, too soon actually, we motored right over them.  It's moments like that you wonder, what if they are the only fish we see all day, and we blow it?  But clearly the fishing gods had laughed at us enough this weekend already, and handed us more Queenies straight away.  

We had a few casts at solo Queens, Johnno on fly and myself on Popper, but they weren't to interested.  We realised quickly that the schools were much easier the excite, they are a lot more 'competitive', fighting for what is offered in front of them.  I love that moment when you see two or more fish turn and chase down the popper, you know it's 'almost' a sure thing.   They will race to get to the food before the other, so inhale it quickly without looking too closely at it, unlike the solo fish whom all seemed too weary of what we were offering, and had the time to consider before taking it.

Less than half an hour on the water and that is what happened.  Johnno (my personal guide) spotted the fish coming, I cast in their direction, started winding, they rushed for the popper, it was a given!  

Karen's ON!

In such a beautiful open flat area I was able to give the Queenfish time to wear itself out.  Jumping 3 times, to my cheers of delight every time, I never get sick of seeing that!!  Then circling the boat a few times before we gently guided it on board for a quick photo, then let it swim off slowly and safely.

Another beautiful Exmouth Queenfish for Karen on Popper.

The Permit stayed elusive, we couldn't find them this day.  However the by catch of Squid was plenty of fun for me.  As we cruised the flats I had a lot of interest from squid with my popper, I'm sure they should design a Popper Squid Jig!   Normally I do not give them much attention, but when we found a large school of them, I couldn't go passed any more.  I swopped to a squid jig, while Johnno kept them interested by teasing them with his fly.

First cast they all rushed the jig, and i was on without even doing anything!  We netted the first squid, leaving it in the water to 'ink' while we chased down the rest of the school.  It was all too easy, and how I'm sure squiding should be?  I'd cast, squid would rush the jig, we would get it into the net then race ahead to the school, cast again...

As you can see in the movie clip, I haven't done a lot of Squid catching, any tips on how to get them to 'ink' before boating them would be much appreciated please!!

Yes I got covered in black squid ink, much to my surprise most of it came out after soaking in Nappy San.

Within half an hour we had 9 squid in the eski.

First half a dozen squid caught in a matter of minutes.

Totally thrilled with my day, and the wind picking up, we headed home for the long ordeal of cleaning my squid.  Thankfully earlier in the year I had been squiding with my work mates and leant how to clean the messy little buggars!  Christmas dinner with the family who are coming to visit just got even better!

Big job of cleaning 9 Squid!