queensland Whilst Bri wasn't at work .......

[kmcrosby78]

Prelude to the following report: other Subject lines that were considered were: Pom loses again, again ........

Had the pleasure of fishing with Bri out of his Tournament boat (very nice!!) on Thursday. Met at the Grand ramp at 4am (had decided the night before not to go to Palmy given the reports of cooler water temps and dirty green water) and proceeded to the Seaway bar. Nosed our way out with barely any light and it became apparent we were the only ones out by that stage (hmmm, what does everyone else know that we don't .....?). Was a very large, dark cloud formation to the south/south-east of us and at one stage saw lightning way out to sea, so kept an eye on it.

Livies proved challenging, especially for me with the left handed reel Bri handed me ......... Eventually I got a string of 3 yakka's and then another 2. At this point Bri starts pondering why he isn't catching any using the exact same rig. I first mention it might just be 'talent' and then add up my score ............. so we reminisce on the Ashes .............. :evil: Even after added slivers of pillies Bri is empty handed so we decide 5 is enough and head to the 24's/Diamond Reef area (I think that is right?), anchor up, disperse livies under floats, start the berley trail and floatlining pillies.

To keep this shorter than my usual ramblings, I ended up with 2 trag jew (about 48 and 52cm so a nice little feed but nothing to write home about) and lost a tuna (I think longtail but not certain as only saw him once) near the boat - was prob about 5kg. I realised that this was due to my error - immediately after catching the second trag I had noticed something 'white-ish' near the back of the boat, so Bri took care of the trag whilst I hurriedly put another pillie out in the hopes it was an inquisitive cobia. In hindsight I had noticed slight fray marks on the leader because the trag took it deep down it's throat so should have cut it and re-tied. Oh well, maybe I should tell myself it was just a mac tuna!!!!

It was also due to my error because it turns out I hadn't read my Tyrnos manual and didn't understand/know the concept of the drag on lever drag reels (yes, feel free to laugh, I have a thick skin and admit I'm still a rookie at all this ....... :silly: ). Bri checked my drag at strike after I lost the tuna and said it felt a bit heavy so inquired whether I use scales to set it? I said no but also that I didn't understand how that would help because when I got a fish on whilst floatlining I would just be pushing the lever to about where I thought was the right drag. So yes, I now know that the 'strike setting' is not fixed and can be adjusted and now understand how to use my new reel (well, and also my TLD that I've had for 5 years!!!!! Thanks Bri!!

All the while Bri continued to work hard on catching a cold but was unsuccessful at that also (although he was talking with a funny accent ...) and pondering why he kept snagging on the bottom and I wasn't (my theory was his 30lb braid was getting down easier than my 50lb .....). We eventually decided at about 9:30ish that it was time to try something else and when Bri reeled in his homemade PVC pipe berley pot it was GONE!! Apparently he had it sitting about 3 metres under the boat and something had managed to take it clean (the nylon rope was just frayed a bit) without us even noticing.

Did a quick drift around the seaway pipeline area with a live yakka for no luck and called it a day. So no mack action and no snapper/squire (although we did realise at one point that the water was probably too warm for them) but a few fillets for the freezer and a good day had. I always learn handy little things from the skipper's I fish with and Bri was no exception. I didn't learn how to catch fish ..... but I learnt how to prepare and store rigs in readiness to catch fish. All jokes aside Bri it was a very enjoyable morning mate, hope to do it again sometime.

[Bri The Pom]

I think thats enough of the cricket abuse now, because we have won a game and are obviously a

better team. :whistle: