03 August - Fishing

The ocean is finally super calm with days of less than 5 knots of wind and next to no swell. This means that catching tuna, marlin, wahoo etc becomes pretty hard work. Bait fishing, jigging and casting opportunities pick up though which is what Scott prefers doing. It was a very long day on the water on Tuesday with only three fish boated. But catching them on jig makes the day worth it (nearly).

24 July - Manta Dive with some wine and cheese

Well Nic and the kids are well and truly back in Pohnpei. After what can only be described as an ordinary flight (leaving Cairns at Midnight and arriving after lunch in Pohnpei) it took a couple of days for them all to get back to normal. Come Saturday the weather was great and we took the boat out with our neighbours Dean and Heather. The plan was to have a snorkel/dive with some manta rays at low tide then find a nice sheltered spot and have some wine and cheese. So after the babysitter arrived and was settled in, off we went.

The water wasn't as clear as it has been of late due to massive amounts of rain causing the streams and rivers to purge into the ocean. The water was a beautiful 28 degrees so it was certainly a nice dive. Nic and Scott got to the bottom at about 18 metres and enjoyed seeing all the fish and a couple of huge manta rays.

Not a bad photo of a huge manta gliding on by.

Nic picked up some new jigs for Scott so of course one of them had to be tested while we were out there. It didn't take too long at all for some success with a little coral trout joining us in the boat.

Relaxing after a couple of wines on the way back home.

Dean and Heather enjoying the fact that they don't have any kids, yet.....

03 July - Fishing

I can't let a weekend pass without fishing while Nic, Jaxon and Indi are away. Beru (our Pohnpeian boat driver) and I headed over to Ant Atoll for the day. We trolled there but didn't even get a touch. I already decided that it was going to be a bait-free day, so trolling, casting and jigging lures was only way I could catch fish.
Once we got to Ant I tried some casting but nothing seemed to be interested. I changed over to a jig and after working the lure on the bottom for about 15 seconds, bang. A nice little coral trout snaffled it and came onboard.

We changed spots shortly after that I and I landed a beautiful Napoleon Wrasse.

We then headed off to our third spot and I caught this nice little brown-marbled grouper. Nothing huge but nice looking fish.

So it wasn't the best day fishing ever but it is always a good feeling to catch fish on lures.

01 July - More Chickens

While we were away on holiday our neighbour Heather told us that one of the chickens that lives on the compound had laid eggs in one of our hanging baskets. They probably do this to keep them safe from the cats, dogs, toads and land crabs.

At 0617 I was woken up by a bit of a ruckus out my balcony door. I had a look and there was the mother hen sitting on the railing beside the basket. A signal that I had to go and help her.

I carried the basket downstairs and she flew down to meet me.

The basket was tipped over and they all jumped out and ran to mum.

They are still running about. They come over to see me everytime I go downstairs and I'll give them a handful of rice. I even have the little chicks sitting in my hand now. Pretty cool.

30 June - Fishing

I honestly had no intention of going fishing this day. Honestly. I was laying on the bed at about a quarter to five after a full day at work and trying to recover from fishing the day before when the phone rings. Its Alois from the Pohnpei Surf Club. 'Hi Scott, what are you doing?' To which I reply 'Nothing'. 'Grab your casting pole, come to the club, we're going fishing' and hangs up. What could I do, I didn't even have a chance to reply.

15 minutes later we were casting and enjoying some beautiful flat water. After about 25 minutes I hooked and landed my fish Blackjack Trevally in Pohnpei. A small one but a good fish all the same.

I stopped fishing just long enough to savour a beautiful Pohnpeian sunset.

My lure having a little rest.

I caught one other nice trevally about ten minutes after the first one. A little bigger at 7kgs. When we got back to the surf club I rang up Jaxon's school teacher and offered her a fish. They accepted it greatfully so all in all another great afternoon/evening.

Fishing 29 June

As is the way while Nic, Jaxon and Indi are away the fishing time must be maximised.

The boat was already in the water so after work we went out for an afternoon/sunset fish. First fish onboard was a 5.5kg Albacore Tuna. Not a bad start at all.

Not long after we saw a large flock of birds working the surface and we went to try and catch ourselved a yellowfin tuna. It didn't take too long for one of the rods to burst into action with line screaming off. Pony eventually got the rod out of the rod holder and started what became an awesome battle.

There were no tears but I'm sure Pony was ready to give up more than once.

Unfortunately it wasn't the yellowfin that we were after. It ended up being a 100kg+ shark that must have been feeding on the tuna school. Either way it was a great fish and was released in the water to annoy us again another day.

By the time the shark was released the tuna had disappeared so we headed back to the reef and trolled hoping to get a wahoo. Didn't take too long and we were hooked up. Scott's turn to wind in a fish a shortly after we had our first Dogtooth Tuna in the boat. A nice fish at over 12kgs. A great afternoon on the water.

Fishing 26 June

As most of you know Nic, Jaxon and Indi are in Perth visiting family until the 19th of July. So unfortunately poor Scott is back in Pohnpei all by himself trying to find things to do. He got off the plane Friday afternoon after the 'hell flight' from Cairns. It leaves at midnight, arrives Guam about 0500 and then you change planes leaving Guam about 0800 and get into Pohnpei about 1300. Not a whole lot of opportunity to sleep. No doubting it will be pretty hard for Nic with the kids doing it on her own.

The weather for next day looked good so the boat was put in the water and Scott and Dean went in search of Marlin. 20 minutes after the lures were in a marlin hit one of the lures but didn't stay connected. About four hours later (see it's not as easy as it looks) one of the reels started screaming. A massive marlin just about took all the line off the reel and it didn't look like it was going to stop at any point. We decided to turn the boat and try and chase it but at about the same time the hooks came out. Spewen. Oh well, that's fishing. With about an hour to go we came across a huge school of skipjack tuna and caught eleven in the last hour, leaving the school to get home before dark.

We gave all but two (kept for bait) away to our Pohnpein friends. They love eating them and either can't afford them or don't own a boat to catch them themselves. After cleaning and refuelling the boat it was over to Dean and Heathers house for a feed of spagetti marinara and to watch the Aust v Ireland rugby test. Heather cooked up a cracka of a feed and Scott fell asleep on their couch during the rugby. A great day all in all.