Serious reds off 1770

This 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 permission 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.

Rob Schomberg scored his personal best 13.5kg red emperor off Seventeen Seventy.

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.

It was a weird fight, initially being called for a cod and coming up way back in the current, but as it got closer, Paul’s smile grew when he saw it was another nice red for the Esky.

Paul Dawson shared in the red emperor fun. Nice sticker!

Rob was again back in the water, and it wasn’t long before he had the rod almost ripped out of his hands.

The current added to the fight of another big red, eventually having the twin of Paul’s fish make it into the net.

They attempted to call Freyja, with the intent of having them move over, however with their radio turned down, they missed out on the fun.

Paul was next on the rod and with a dogged fight, they called it for yet another red.

As he managed to get the upper hand, the red turned out to be a big amberjack being stalked by a massive grey shark, with the end result being only a fish head on the deck.

The anglers were staring at the carnage when Rob’s rod started screaming again.

Rob Schomberg’s Seventeen Seventy coral trout.

With the vision of the shark in his mind, he put the Makaria reel into low gear, drag to sunset and went for it.

Like a mad man, he barely slowed as he slotted the rod into the holder and cranked as if there was no tomorrow.

Paul got a glimpse of colour and yelled to stop winding after seeing that the big red wasn’t being pursued by a shark, and not wanting it to get launched into space.

Maybe 15kg of AJ might have been enough to fill the taxman up or possibly Rob’s fish was travelling so fast, the shark didn’t see it.

Paul lip gaffed the fish and Rob now had a new personal best red emperor of 13.5kg – finally beating his old mark of 10kg.

They hooked a few more but all were taken fairly quickly by the taxman, so reluctantly they decided to move away and hopefully preserve them for another day.

Rob Schomberg had a red emperor bonanza off Seventeen Seventy.

Jogging around some local spots saw a few more hussar and tuskfish land in the Esky before eventually finding Freyja and asking about the radio silence.

The crew weren’t the happiest of campers having struggled most of the day and obviously missing out on a hot bite, though they did score some quality coronation trout for their efforts.

With the sky darkening on the horizon, it was time to call it a day and head back.

It had been a good decision to stay, though for Terry, the best he could do was look and drool at photos of the reds.

Schomby, the good friend that he is, has promised to take him there next year, however this might be easier said than done now that word is out.

We’ll see how that pans out.

Note that the meetings occur on the first Wednesday of every month at ‘The Club Manly’ (bowls club), 26 Faine St Manly from 6.30pm for a 7pm start.

The next meetings for the year will be Wednesday March 1, followed by Wednesday April 5.

Until next month, safe boating.