The Spaniard

We ate the last of our meat last night when we had lasagne and are still a few days away from a resupply in Cairns. Hence, on the way from Lizard Island yesterday we were trolling to catch a feed or two. I was very disappointed that the day finished with four strikes, two resulting in hook ups; both hook ups resulted in lost fish, lure and trace; and the last one took all my line as well.

I woke up early this morning and made myself a new single strand steel wire trace and rigged my rod with the 40lb line. We put a lure out the back once we cleared South Cape Bedford and at around 10:30am we had a strike and hook up. I put the boat into wind then went for the rod. Heather took the helm, started the engine and heaved to. Haydee pulled the main sheet on and then got the fishing gloves, knife and board out. Cameron got the camera and took down the life lines and helm seat to give access to the sugar scoop. The immediate action for a hook up is now a family drill!

Anyway, after about 8 minutes we landed a good spanish mackerel; 105cm long and 6.5kg. I killed and bled it but didn't want to fillet it on the back deck in a rolling sea, so I cut its head and tail off, put it in a garbage bag and into the fridge. Once moored at Hope Islands I filleted it and ended up with enough for five good feeds. The first one went down well tonight.

Give us a kiss, love.

Strangely enough, the lure we got it on is now our most successful lure for the trip; landing the tuna a few weeks ago and this spanish mackerel. It is also the cheapest lure I have; some no name brand out of the specials box at Tackleworld Cairns for $8.95. I bet I don't keep that in mind when I replace the two lures I lost yesterday ...