Paul Dawson shared in the red emperor fun. Nice sticker!
Serious reds off 1770
T
Rob Schomberg scored his personal best 13.5kg red emperor off Seventeen Seventy.
TURKEY BEACH 2 Bedroom Villa Holiday Rental • Outdoor BBQ and pergola For • Fish cleaning facilities enquiries • Large yard with room and for the boat bookings • Undercover carport phone • Close to boat ramp 0458 742 153 • Linen available www.turkeybeachfishingvilla.com
Page 50 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, March 2023
HIS year’s annual pilgrimage to Seventeen Seventy saw fishing windows at the start and end of the week, with the middle section being mostly for socialising. The original plan had most boats and crews heading home on the Saturday, but the weather was too good to pass up for some. Accommodation would normally be the first problem, though with no immediate bookings for the houses, extending for a couple of days wasn’t an issue. Unfortunately, not all members of the original crews could stay. One being Rob Schomberg’s deckhand Terry, who was booked on a flight back to Western Australia on the Sunday morning. Terry insisted Rob stay because he was able to catch a ride back to Brisbane with Lucky, who had to get back too. With road transport sorted, Rob stole Pauly off John’s boat, to even up the numbers on the water. The final thing to sort out was getting permis-
Power Boat Anglers by MICK CLUTTERBUCK
sion to stay from headquarters back in Brisbane. After a bit of discussion, it was decided that sometimes it’s better to ask for forgiveness than permission, so this was adopted as the official stance. Fishing wise, the plan was – thanks to the great conditions – to head a little further south than usual, and all boats reached the area in good time. Freyja had John, Helaine and guest Dave onboard – they located some nice ground and were quickly into some good trout off a pinnacle. Pauly and Schomby deployed jigs and scored a few small cod species, then Rob changed to a prawn plastic that was nailed instantly by a very nice trout, followed by a mixed bag of reef fish. Things went quiet, so they headed further out to some ground they hadn’t fished for over 10 years.
Sounding the area found good shows and dropping into them produced for a few hussar but nothing of note. Freyja was still in the area where they had started, so Rob and Paul decided to head over for a look to see if they could locate a decent rock or some more good shows. After sounding for a couple of kilometres, a good show on a very small bump appeared on the screen and, after a bit more investigation, the electric was dropped and baits were sent down. It wasn’t long before Paul’s rod buckled and, after a good fight, a yellow spangled emperor about 7kg came into view – not what they were hoping for but a nice fish all the same. Rob’s turn was next with a good belt on the Schombie Zombie rod, and a nice red emperor of 6kg hit the deck, just as Paul’s rod went off again. * continued P51
www.bnbfishing.com. au
