After a few days fishing in pristine conditions with nothing to show for it, I figured a late-night mission might turn things around.
So I went all in.
Installed floodlights.
Set up a bilge pump in the tinnie.
Confidence was high.
Forecast was showing about 15 knots onshore — not ideal, but we pushed out anyway to a new spot and dropped anchor in pretty average conditions.
A couple of hours went by… nothing.
So we made the call to move back to our old spot before dark.
That’s when things started to turn.
It got dark quick. Wind picked up.
And those floodlights? Not nearly as good as I thought they’d be.
Lesson number one.
The sounder lit up briefly and AJ pulled in a small pinky. Looked like a school had moved through — small fish or shy bigger ones — but within 10 minutes, they were gone.
Then finally… my rod took off.
Heavy fish. Good fight.
At first I was thinking snapper, but it didn’t feel quite right.
Up comes a 71cm dhuie — absolute stoked! 💥
But by then, the conditions had turned properly nasty.
We pulled anchor and headed home… basically blind.
Could only see a few metres in front of us. Wind howling, getting drenched — felt like something off Deadliest Catch.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for a high-powered handheld torch and the GPS on a waterproof iPad, we would’ve been in serious trouble.
That 2-mile trip back felt more like 5.
Finally made it back into the harbour — safe, but it was a wake-up call.
No fish is worth that kind of risk.
Crazy to think what a small 3.7m tinnie can handle when it has to… but that doesn’t mean you should push it.
Fish went 7kg too — not a bad reward. Wings and ribs cooked up unreal.
But yeah… lesson learnt.
Won’t be night fishing in anything over 5–10 knots again 😆
From Luke - Saltfix Crew