Every other man and his boat were there—the boat ramp… queued for 45 minutes just to wet the bum of the boat. Clearly, we all had the same idea; an early morning fish in Tasman Bay.
With just me and my eight-year-old son Josh tucked up in our little boat, a far off adventure was not in the making so we nestled in near the fairway beacon, in 17m. Josh just lives, eats, sleeps, and breathes fishing, and one day would like to have a bigger boat so he could travel further afield.
At around 10.30am, Josh got some good bites on his rod, followed by a solid hook up and we went into action. Josh battled the big brute while I readied the gaff. And it was a big brute… a big brute of a snapper estimated at around 19lb. But, it was to be the classic ‘one that got away’ story, because the hook dropped off the line and Josh was gutted.
Josh was not to be defeated and quickly employed another Black Magic Snapper Snack Skirted Flasher Rig on his Okuma Revenger Pro Rod, and the bait was promptly chomped by an even bigger fish. Josh fought it bravely but after a prize fighter round with the first fish, had to tag-team me into the contest. Another eight minutes of grappling and victory was ours; Josh had his PB snapper—a whopping 22lber!
Josh’s grin stretched further from ear to ear and couldn’t wait to get home to share his news—and his fish. It was a stunning day but time to draw it to a close early; we were both a little tired and, besides, we don’t like to be greedy.
