A number of you will know that Rick was due to join me in Western Australia as soon as his new boat motored out of the factory. Well, this process took three months longer than the expected two month build; but he got here eventually and snuck over the border before Christmas. Should you be looking to have a catamaran-style fishing boat built in Geelong then please get in touch and I’ll tell you who not to choose as your boat builder. Enough of that, now let’s get on the water. This requires a suitable boat ramp and calm weather, which we found at Bremer Bay over the festive season. There were a few challenges getting the new boat in the water with wholly inexperienced crew (dear family, I do not count my early years assisting with the sailing of Parmat as amounting to any sort of respectable deckhand experience). Yet more challenging is recognising the catch when you’re in unfamiliar waters: all waters for me and non-NSW waters for Rick. The first fish photo is a blue morwong (queen snapper), which is highly prized eating if you know what it is: we didn’t at the time of catch, so we admired, it, bid it farewell and released it back to its environs. As consolation, I decided it was a she and would go on to produce numerous offspring. The fish in the second photo was similarly released and we’re still unsure what it was. Possibly some sort of wrasse but not a fish that has made it into the fishing guide identification booklets. If anyone knows what it is, let us know! There was plenty of other fishing action: a possible sea sweep for me that jumped back out of the boat and lots of small, pesky, colourful bait-gobbling wrasse. All in all, a fun-filled fishy day out.