It was a fine sunny Sunday morning, not a cloud in the sky. Joe deposited some bread in the toaster and started watching the early morning weather report. "Fine sunny days for Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday becoming overcast through Friday and a good chance of thunder storms on the weekend", said the weatherman.
Joes toast popped up, he could see they were a bit over done; as he walked in to the kitchen he mumbled the word "damn". When he was scraping the black burnt bits if his toast into the sink, he heard scratching on the door, he walked over quickly even though he knew who it was. Joe opened the door and a big fury dog ran in, Joe walked back into the kitchen, opened the pantry and got out a tin of dog food, as Joe opened the tin he walked out to sparky's kennel, Sparky followed with great anticipation.
"Trolling for blue fish" lithograph
Fishing vessel trolling for tuna in the Atlantic.
Fishing vessel trolling for tuna in the Pacific.As Joe put the contents of the tin into Sparky's dog bowl, Joe realised what a wonderful day it was. He was so glad that he took the week off from work to go on a fishing trip with his two best mates into Cape la Veque.
Joe went back inside to finish his breakfast, and then he looked at a clock on the wall and realised that he had about half an hour before Tim and Bob arrived so he ate his break fast as fast as he could then had a shower and got ready. They were taking Joes car because he was the only one with a four-wheel drive, and Joe had packed the night before to save time but Tim and Bob would bring their fishing stuff to put in Joes car as well.
As Joe just finished getting ready, he heard knocking on the door; it was Tim and Bob, Joe told them to put their stuff in the car. Then Joe came out they were all talking very excitedly Tim and Bob walked over to the car which Joe had just backed out of the garage. Joe went to lock up the house then he came back and said, "Have you got everything", "yep" was the reply that had been said by Tim and Bob. So they head off out of Derby. Tim went to sleep and bob and Joe were talking about the sort of fish they were going to catch on the vessel they had booked charters on. There was a marlin sports fishing tournament on at the time and Joe was hoping to win the competition because he spent all of his savings on the charter vessel hire.
Tim woke up and asked, "are we there yet", "no", replied Joe; they had just reached the turn off to Cape la Veque. It was a gravel road all the way to Cape la Veque that was two hundred and ten kilometres away. It had been raining all the week before so the pindan road was very muddy and impassable two any two wheel drive vehicle.
By the time the trio had reached Cape la Veque the car had gone from an off-white colour to a pindan red. When they had reached their destination they checked in at the lodge into their pre-booked room. Then they went to the pub and had some thing to drink; unanimously they all thought they would go for a swim at the beach that wasn't even two hundred metres away so they went to swim in the crystal clear waters till the sun went down. Then they went and had dinner, which was good for Joe because he was very hungry because he only had 2 pieces of toast to eat all day. After dinner they were all very tired and they went to sleep.
The next morning Joe was the first one up then Tim then Bob, after they had all showered, shampooed and shaved they went to a complimentary breakfast which came with the room it was around 8:20 when they had finished breakfast and there charter vessel which they had hired out was ready to be taken out at 9 o'clock. So they had around half an hour to get all their fishing gear ready and to most importantly sign in for the marlin-fishing tournament that started that day.
As they were taking all their fishing gear down to the shore they were all commenting on how flat and clear the water was. There were at least another thirty boats already out on the water because this tournament was one of the most popular tournaments not only in western Australia but probably in the whole of Australia but most people don't compete in the tournament for the money, well sure they'd like to win the prize money of fifty five thousand dollars for the largest marling caught and tagged throughout the tournament. But quite surprisingly most people come to the tournament to just take in the surroundings and to have a good time catching these huge fish.
Tim and Bob started loading all the gear they had brought down to the shore into the small aluminium dingy, which would carry the gear and the guys out to the larger charter vessel. While Joe was filling in the tournament registration form up in the little green tent situated at the base of the sand dune. Then they went out in the dingy to the charter vessel to start the tournament.
The charter vessel that they had hired was roughly around thirty feet long. It was a fly bridge cruiser that was designed to catch huge pelagic fish. They all climbed aboard and put all their gear in the charter vessel, then they moored the dingy where the charter vessel was and head out to the Roaley Shoals which was a couple of small sandy islands with reef all around them.
Joe decided that they should troll out there and see if they can pick up a marlin or two, so they set up the out riggers for trolling and away they went. Tim was the first to get a fish it wasn't a marlin but it was a decent size fish so since it wasn't tagged or recorded, about one hour and a half hours later they hit a school of Spanish mackerel and Tim and Bob both got hook ups.
After that they decided to just cruise out to Roaley Shoals they reached roaley shoals later that night at about seven o'clock it was too dark to troll so they anchored and slept aboard the boat.
The next morning after they had eaten they started trolling again they didn't get anything for the first three hours then Bob caught a small marlin which they tagged and recorded. They didn't get anything for the rest of the day and Tim was trying to persuade Joe to switch spots for trolling but Joe insisted that they stay, so Joe being the captain of the ship they stayed.
The morning of the last day they were out trolling they ate and started trolling again after an hour Tim and Bob were trying to reason Joe into changing trolling spots but Joe was determined on staying at the place they were at and sure enough about half an hour later Joe managed to land a colossal sized black marlin which he tagged got a picture of and recorded and when they went back in to shore they found out that Joe's marlin was the biggest marlin caught in the tournament.
So Tim and Bob thought that Joe deserved all the prize money because he needed it the most and they would feel guilty if they got some of the prize money even though they were telling Joe to troll somewhere else.
At present Joe is a very wealthy man after investing his prize money wisely in the right shares and till this day Joe has competed in every sports fishing tournament each year.
English: Drawing of a troll vessel
English: Joensuu Pielisjoki trolling Finnish champ...
English: Bass boat, aluminum, on High Rock Lake