First John Dory by Oliver

On Sunday I went fishing with my family out at Rakino. We went out because the sea was nice and calm that day.

Once we had launched our boat we blasted out to Rakino. Surprisingly it was quite bumpy. I was thrown around a lot. I could hardly stay on my seat. Finally we reached Rakino, I spotted a school of blue Maomao in the crystal clear water.

Dad put down the long line and then we motored over to the haystack (I forgot its real name and I have no idea how to spell it anyway). Then we baited the rods and let down the line. I wondered if there were any fish on the long line. Suddenly I felt fish nibbling at my bait, I started to wind in slowly. The fish were still attacking the bait. All of a sudden I felt a sharp tug and started winding in faster. I could tell that it was a big fish because the tip of the rod was bending like mad. I finally got the fish up after a hard fight. It was a good sized Snapper (not as big as I wanted) it was 39 cm long. A few minutes later Dad was hooked up with a big 59 cm Kahawai. Then I was hooked up as well but, I had a Snapper not a Kahawai. After five trying minutes Dad and I finally got our fish onboard. Into the chilly bin they went. After that I wasn’t having much luck but, Dad was. Dad put down his line and he had attached a little Snapper on the end. Soon after Dad noticed the rod end bending and started winding the line in. He said he had got the bottom but I didn’t think so. I was right, soon we had a big John Dory in the net.( I have to admit that it was quite an ugly fish).

After that we didn’t have much luck so, we went to pick up the long line. On the long line was three snapper, two were a good size but the other one was 27 cm long just a keeper. Dad wanted to keep it so Dad put it in the chilly bin.

We trawled for a bit  and after a few minutes and we hooked up with a Kingfish but lost it. Then we hooked up on a Kingfish again. Dad started to wind it in it jumped two times and flicked the hook out of it’s mouth.

I still can’t  believe that Dad caught a John Dory. So far, that was the best fishing trip yet!