This evening I was joined by Ben, Toni and their two lads Charlie and Ashton. This evenings trip was booked for Charlies birthday and was originally meant to be a full day trip but we had to re-arrange. It was blisteringly hot but the weather was due to break with thunder storms and heavy rain forecast. We left it until the last minute to call it but we headed out with the sun beating down and a warm breeze blowing. We anchored our first mark and got the first baits in unsure if weed would be a problem. At first it was fine and there was very little ‘clodge’ down in the water but after a while a huge line of blanket weed   engulfed us. We carried on fishing and there were plenty of schoolbass coming out to keep us occupied. Before too long though the weed got too much and we reluctantly moved to get away from it. It was a shame to have moved away from the fish too but we hoped to find something on our new mark. We got anchored and Charlie soon had his first bite here, it was a different bite altogether so we gave it some time then bought it in. it turned out to be a flounder and the first one ive had on the boat for 4-5 years! After showing the boys how different a flatfish is we got fishing again. charlies rod went again with a completely different bite again. this time I had a fair idea what it was. Charlie made a great job of bringing the fish to the boat all on his own and I was able to slide the net under his first sting ray! He really had bought his birthday luck with him today. with a couple of days to go he was still 7 years old and had managed a fish that many havnt caught in several years of trying. It was a small female around 7lbs or so. We had a couple of snaps and got her back. Ashton managed a couple more schoolie bass before the weather started to turn and we decided we had seen the best of the weather and fish so headed home. This wasn’t a moment too soon as I made it home just moments before the first downpour.