Reef Island - The return

After cleaning up at Reef Island late last week Dad and I decided that another trip was in order. As Dad had his knee replaced less than a month ago it is still boat fishing for us, however this didn't seem to stop him hitting Coronet Bay and pumping about 60 bass yabbies yesterday afternoon at low tide before I arrived!
I got to the house about 8pm last night, set up a couple of rods, got some other assorted gear ready and hit the hay. We awoke at 5am and had breakfast, packed the boat and were off. Corinella ramp was definitely not what you would expect when we arrived. Although it's the New Year's Day holiday there were about 5 trailers in the carpark (And this was at 6am, by no means early for that part of the world). We launched without incident and headed to our spot near Reef Island (See previous post).
First baits in the water were bass yabbies on a twin hook paternoster and they got smashed almost immediately. This happened for quite a while and after about half an hour I had 11 whiting... Dad had managed 2. Even managed a couple of double hook-ups. Dad then started to fire by pulling in a couple of gars and then some great whiting. Already thinking big catches we started letting most of the smaller ones (Under 32cm) go. One of my rods got tangled so I was rerigging when Dad pulled in a good whiting. It was followed by what we thought initially was just weed but it turned out to be a big calamari. Forgetting my #6 long shank hook I tied a number 3 yamashita (Green with a white belly and red feathers - Not sure what it's called?) on and dropped it down to the squid, who was now just cruising under my side of the boat. It hit the jig immediately and after a short battle I had a 1.5kg calamari (An absolute monster compared to my usual Mornington squid) in the boat. We then got back into the whiting and the odd gar, brought on by the burley we were deploying.
One move for the day saw us catch our bag limit of 32-42cm whiting, 7 gars and the calamari. I also caught 2 nice size leatherjackets which were released. By far the best bait were the bass yabbies, and they also seemed to account for the bigger whiting and many more bites. Pipi was pretty good, but with the price difference (Free Vs $20 per kilo!) I'm definitely using nippers from now on!
Back at the ramp it was pretty busy with many more people having launched, although oddly not one of the 6-8 boats we saw come in had any fish. I think people have decided that as it may be their only chance to fish for the year they want a big one so are sitting in the channels hoping for the best, but that definitely isn't where the majority of the fish are at the moment!
Again I forgot my camera, but Dad remembered his. After some big whiting and the calamari I asked him to take a few shots and he went to turn it on..... And had left the battery in the charger at home. More pics next time!