Up early, packed the boat and the esky and managed to get away on time, down to Nightcliff Ramp around 7.15am and the water looked great, had a chat to the Tinnie boys on air and descriped the flat looking water looking towards Fenton.
Managed to get KAOS off the trailer fairly easy, was just enough water to back her off, Graham parked the car, then I realised I still had the keys, damn new electronic thingys, done it a coupla times now so I had to throw them to olfart so he could walk back up and lock the car!!
Headed out around past the jetty and said hello to yakfish as he was paddling along, then opened her up and cruised out to Gunn Point around 40kph, beautiful weather on the way across, saw a coupla other boats heading that way as well, but they either went out towards Smith Reef or into the channel between Gunn Point and the Soth West Vernon. We came into the western end of the Blue hole and had a bit of a flick, had a coupla hits, then Graham hooked something good, unfortunately he couldn't stop it, luckily he ended up getting all his line back, the leader had been cut on the coral, probably a good sized Trevally of some sort. We then cruised along the edges looking for swirls and fish feeding, it was beautifully calm, saw turtles and sharks, heaps of small fish, the water was pretty clear! The main reef was about a foot out of the water and as the tide slowly came in on the neaps there were ripples and fish of all descriptions mulling around. it was great cruising along, with the edge of the reef under us, one side of the boat you could see the coral and small reefies in about 6ft of water, the other side was a nice blue looking straight down the edge into 40ft! Saw a nice school of Sweetlip mulling around in the shallows, hoovering the bottom and got right up close to them. Got a reasonable pic by holding the polaroids over the camera lense to cut out a bit of the glare, need to invest in a good camera with a polaroid lens. We just cruised around for a bit having a gander, saw some great fish cruising, including a couple of good sized Bluebone picking bits off the reef, dammit I had forgotten to put the leccy in the boat, even after charging the battery well, would have made stealth mode a little better
Decided then to go and drop the pots in a few of the well visited creeks along the edge of the inner Blue Hole, have had a few good feeds of crabs from there before. All sorts of fish in the creeks as well, Barra, Jacks, have even had jewfish in there, havn't landed one of them yet though, they usually win the tussle 
We spent about another hour just cruising around looking for something exciting, waiting for the water to come up a bit so I could try some other spots. Once again, plenty of life, there were quite a few big Milkfish cruising around in there as well, have seen them there quite a bit, might have to hunt them one day and see if we can get a couple for fun! There were another couple of boats in the hole, one anchored, and one came up to go into the smaller end hole, but wasn't enough water over the reef, I doubt you would have been able to go in there for long anyway with the tides, unless you wanted to stay there for 10 hours 
Went and pulled the pots and managed one nice buck on the first lap, put em back with a bit of fresh bait and went exploring again. I motored in towards a spot where I have caught some good barra and jacks before, and as we came up into the shallows we saw a couple of nice Blue Salmon swim past, fired a cast out in front and the leader inhaled the SP, gave a good tussle and in the icebox for dinner, mmm nice when they are fresh.
damn, had a paper and the mat, forgot salmon were included this round, oh wellWe could hear some fish feeding in the little cut through creeks, saw some good Barra and a couple of good sized Jacks cruising, but unfortunately didn't get any, one of the bigger jacks checked out my SP pretty closely, but couldn't be tempted to inhale it, there were some good sized sharks cruising around there as well, and the amount of mullet was amazing as always, unfortunately we missed the bite and the fish didn't cooperate there.
I took off and we cruised across the reef towards the sand bars, had some fun with some Queenies and trevally on high tide, the water was up just to the right height to not quite cover the Sand Bars completely and there were all sorts of fish cruising the flats and swilmming past, even jumped out and went for a walk, it was nice, had a bit of interest but no savage action as I have had there before. We went across the reef to one of the higher sand bars, I saw a nice green shape cruising and fired a cast out near it, one crank of the handle and the lure was slammed, a bit of line was peeled out and had a bit of fun pulling a nice queenie back in, nothing better then being able to see them before you catch them I reckon, he gave me a good tussle, got a coupla pics and let him go on his merry way. Beautiful in the nice shallow water. a bit more fun was had catching a few of these, Graham hooked a good one again that peeled some line, gave it a bit of stick, but unfortunately, even after contemplating it the night before, he hadn't changed the standard thin treble in the Baitfish and the hook bent and the fish swam happily off, wondering WTF had just happened
Off we went back across the reef before it dropped too low, into the inner Blue Hole to collect the pots, managed a bit better result this time, pulled up one of the pots and it had 3 nice sized bucks in it, mmmm chilli crab. We had a bit more of a fish after that, but the water was starting to drop, pulled all the pots and headed off, had a bit more of a flick around a few spots and got another couple of small Queenies and trevs, but nothing really exciting.
Headed for Nightcliff about 3pm and were there just after 3.30 to pull the boat out, there was another boat heading back into Buffalo, I reckon they might have had fun retrieving their boat in there if they made it back up to the ramp.
Had to winch the boat on at nightcliff as there wasn't much water, couple of other boats after us as well and it was getting lower.
The old ramp there needs to be cleaned out a bit, maybe one day it will happen!
All in all a great day, a good feed, good company and just cruising and watching the fish life was great!
