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It was a good weekend.
Got a phone call that wild hogs were tearing up the pasture at the 40 acres we own up north. Unfortunately, saturday was the first charter since the boat came out of the water last May to have a 5 metre extension added to the rear so it looked like saturday was stuffed as far as hog hunting was concerned.
Because this was the first trip since the alterations, I invited Bloodhound to come out and get a feed of fish, and when I was discussing details on Fri night, I told him I was going to take a rifle up with me in the hopes that we would get back early enough to go chase some bacon.
Got to the boat at 5am and spent 2 hrs doing system checks before the punters arrived. Headed down the harbour as the sun rose and crossed the bar. Boat handled perfectly and we found a spot in 45m that seemed likely. Dropped the anchor in a 20kn southeasterly and the fish started coming on board. Unfortunately the bottom was hard sand and we slowly dragged out to the 75+metre depth but continued to catch good fish. Moved back into shallow water and allowed the guys to finish catching their limits.
Got back to the ramp around 3pm and after scrubbing down the boat and gutting the fish, BH and I headed down to the farm as the sun dropped and grabbing the 7mm08 we headed across the paddocks to see if we could find some bacon on the hoof. Didnt see anything except huge areas of damaged pasture. Called it quits and arrived home about 9pm.
Sunday morning I woke up stiff and sore( after 15mths of no charters I think all my muscles wondered what hit them!) and I started in to process the fish which were on ice.
Halfway through processing I get a call from the guy that looks after the farm which went something like this..........
" Where the hell are you?"
" At home processing fish, what the hell do you want?" ( Him and I get on really well btw)
" I am standing at the gate to your place watching a bunch of hogs destroying the place you lazy bastard..............and where is my fish?"
" You've got a boat, go catch your own bloody fish"
Nek minit I hear him cussing his cattle dogs ( and his wife) using 'sailors language'. Seems like she let the dogs off the back of his ute and they disappeared across the farm in pursuit of bacon.
After a brief discussion where I told him that I may come up for a looksee later in the afternoon, we swapped some more insults and he hung up.
Rang Bh and told him I would pick him up about 3.30pm and I would take the quad and spotlights up so we could try for some hogs.
Got to the farm about 4.30pm ( It didnt get dark till about 6 btw) and loaded up the quad and headed to a good vantage point to sit and watch. We started glassing the property and about 15 minutes later BH whispered "HOGS" in a shouting sort of way.
I looked down into the bush and saw a couple of white shapes skirting a patch of bush that ran along the creek. We watched them for a minute and eventually saw that there was a large sow with 3 nice little porkers following in her tracks. Range was about 145m.
We decided to drop the sow and pick the smaller ones off as they milled around in panic. I took the first shot downhill and the sow dropped and rolled DRT. The 3 little ones stood still for about 3 seconds allowing BH to drop one and the other 2 moved off through the bush. I saw one through a gap in the trees at about 155m and sent a shot away, which I was sure was a hit but the little **** changed direction, ran around in a circle then disappeared after the other survivor.
We made our way down to the 2 dead ones then continued through the bush looking for the 3rd when I heard BH's 7mm08 speak and the thump of a good hit. Looking in the direction he had shot I saw a pig facing me so I raised the 7mm08 and let her say her piece dropping the 4th pig on the spot.
4 hogs down. After field dressing them we loaded them up on the quad and headed back to the jeep. They are now hanging in the chiller ready to process later this week.
Momma.......
And the 3 little pigs which didnt get to go to market.......
Rang the 'caretaker' on the way home and traded a few more insults with him. He was surprised that we managed to shoot 4 as one of his mates had been up there earlier in the week and shot a boar with his 30.06 which ran off. They chased him through the scrub for 45minutes but lost him.
So, a bin full of fish each and a chiller full of pork.
Yep, it was a great weekend.
( My apologies Paul, I didnt have my new knife with me so I didnt get to blood it....but I have a deer hunt planned in 2 weeks time and it will be in my pack for that.)
Because this was the first trip since the alterations, I invited Bloodhound to come out and get a feed of fish, and when I was discussing details on Fri night, I told him I was going to take a rifle up with me in the hopes that we would get back early enough to go chase some bacon.
Got to the boat at 5am and spent 2 hrs doing system checks before the punters arrived. Headed down the harbour as the sun rose and crossed the bar. Boat handled perfectly and we found a spot in 45m that seemed likely. Dropped the anchor in a 20kn southeasterly and the fish started coming on board. Unfortunately the bottom was hard sand and we slowly dragged out to the 75+metre depth but continued to catch good fish. Moved back into shallow water and allowed the guys to finish catching their limits.
Got back to the ramp around 3pm and after scrubbing down the boat and gutting the fish, BH and I headed down to the farm as the sun dropped and grabbing the 7mm08 we headed across the paddocks to see if we could find some bacon on the hoof. Didnt see anything except huge areas of damaged pasture. Called it quits and arrived home about 9pm.
Sunday morning I woke up stiff and sore( after 15mths of no charters I think all my muscles wondered what hit them!) and I started in to process the fish which were on ice.
Halfway through processing I get a call from the guy that looks after the farm which went something like this..........
" Where the hell are you?"
" At home processing fish, what the hell do you want?" ( Him and I get on really well btw)
" I am standing at the gate to your place watching a bunch of hogs destroying the place you lazy bastard..............and where is my fish?"
" You've got a boat, go catch your own bloody fish"
Nek minit I hear him cussing his cattle dogs ( and his wife) using 'sailors language'. Seems like she let the dogs off the back of his ute and they disappeared across the farm in pursuit of bacon.
After a brief discussion where I told him that I may come up for a looksee later in the afternoon, we swapped some more insults and he hung up.
Rang Bh and told him I would pick him up about 3.30pm and I would take the quad and spotlights up so we could try for some hogs.
Got to the farm about 4.30pm ( It didnt get dark till about 6 btw) and loaded up the quad and headed to a good vantage point to sit and watch. We started glassing the property and about 15 minutes later BH whispered "HOGS" in a shouting sort of way.
I looked down into the bush and saw a couple of white shapes skirting a patch of bush that ran along the creek. We watched them for a minute and eventually saw that there was a large sow with 3 nice little porkers following in her tracks. Range was about 145m.
We decided to drop the sow and pick the smaller ones off as they milled around in panic. I took the first shot downhill and the sow dropped and rolled DRT. The 3 little ones stood still for about 3 seconds allowing BH to drop one and the other 2 moved off through the bush. I saw one through a gap in the trees at about 155m and sent a shot away, which I was sure was a hit but the little **** changed direction, ran around in a circle then disappeared after the other survivor.
We made our way down to the 2 dead ones then continued through the bush looking for the 3rd when I heard BH's 7mm08 speak and the thump of a good hit. Looking in the direction he had shot I saw a pig facing me so I raised the 7mm08 and let her say her piece dropping the 4th pig on the spot.
4 hogs down. After field dressing them we loaded them up on the quad and headed back to the jeep. They are now hanging in the chiller ready to process later this week.
Momma.......
And the 3 little pigs which didnt get to go to market.......
Rang the 'caretaker' on the way home and traded a few more insults with him. He was surprised that we managed to shoot 4 as one of his mates had been up there earlier in the week and shot a boar with his 30.06 which ran off. They chased him through the scrub for 45minutes but lost him.
So, a bin full of fish each and a chiller full of pork.
Yep, it was a great weekend.
( My apologies Paul, I didnt have my new knife with me so I didnt get to blood it....but I have a deer hunt planned in 2 weeks time and it will be in my pack for that.)
Still enjoying the trip of a lifetime and making the best of what I have.....
Replies
The farmers have been calling me about the pigs in their crops. It's just so damn hot. Takes the fun out of it.
Its completely the opposite over here. Middle of one of the coldest winters for the past 20yrs where I am. Paddocks are so saturated you sink up to your ankles...........unless there is a frost, then you crunch through it before sinking up to your ankles.
Well done Alec. What kind of fish? They look like snappers
Yep. One of the best eating fish you can ever have. Baked, fried, steamed, smoked, battered, as sashimi or marinated in lemon juice.
Had panfried for breakfast sunday, sashimi for lunch today and breadcrumbed snapper for dinner tonight. Tomorrow it will be steamed snapper on a bed of rice with soy sauce for lunch...........dinner tomorrow night will be snapper baked in white wine and cream with brocoli. Might make fish tacos with whats left on thursday.
Then its back to venison,duck and wild pork until the next charter in 12 days time lol.
John 3: 1-21
OMG now I'm starving!!!
We can catch some nice snapper here, but it seems that you have better numbers and larger fish than us. Fisheads area they catch fish like that
I do have a question...you added better than 15 feet to your boat? How the hell do you do that and do you have before and after pictures? I gotta see that. It's like adding a boat to your boat...
Strike arc and begin...
Yep, snapper is the best. Well there's a couple as good but no better. I do love Wahoo and Cobia. All are nice white meat.
Now them thar hogs looks like sausage to me.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
Yeah he had a whole write up with pics a few months back. It looked like quite an undertaking.
Son that's somebody with nothing to do with his time but keep me in trouble with mom.
You take it back to the boatbuilder who built the bare hull, then you pull all the equipment including engines and surface drives out, watch the boat builder cut the transom off with a chainsaw and then hand him enough money to fund a medium sized war before he will build on the extra length..............
Before.................
After....................
Note I said build on the extra length. You cant build the addition separate and then stick it on, you have to cut back the stringers and structure and fair and fibreglass each one in to retain the hull strength and integrity.
Mark got rid of the surface drives, replaced them with tunnel drives and conventional propellors, moved the motors ( Twin 500hp Cats) back by 21/2 metres, put the diesel tanks between them ( it needed more weight at the back due to increased buoyancy) and increased the passenger capacity to 26 from 16 .
Top speed dropped from 38knots to 32 knots.................but it now cruises at 22knots with the motors turning over at just under 1800rpm. Normally a trip like saturdays in the old configuration would have consumed about 900L of diesel. Saturdays trip used just on 300L. Although we lost speed at the top end the boat rides and handles much better.
Increased efficiency plus increased capacity = increased profit. And increased workload for me cos I now have 26 drunken fishermen to look after lol.
Nice catch....and excellent hunt.