G’day,

You know those perfect trips – where you go out for a quick session, catch mountains of table size fish as you watch the sun set over the horizon…

Well, this wasn’t one of them. Not by a long shot.

But before I get into that, I had a very important task to take care of…

I’d lost count of the number of times I’d circled my local BCF, mouth a gap, drooling – all the while my gift card burning a hole in my pocket. Of course I had to make sure I’d examined and pondered each toy, gadget and serious piece of equipment in the store (at least once, sometimes twice) before I unleashed the power of the might gift card.

So with power of the card expended and with new toys in tow, it was off to the ramp with my trusty first mate – Gizmo (having proven herself on previous trial runs).

The wind was coming in from a slight South Easterly direction, not a problem for launching – but can make things a little tricky when putting 5.7 metres of boat back on the trailer by myself. Never mind – a problem for later.

The Patrol is parked with parking ticket on display, the sun is getting low and we’re slowly putting through the 4 knot zone when I get hit by the – Did I remember to lock the car?

Of course I did – right. I do it automatically each time I get out of the car, right?! Well, after 5 mins of thinking about yahoos raiding my beloved Patrol, carving up the seats and driving home with a very uncomfortable, dislodged seat spring I gave in and returned to the car.

It was locked – nice little 30 minute detour.

So the the grand plan for this little excursion was to chuck out some (frozen) baits and flick my new overhead baitcaster combo around.

Of course…

No frozen bait – it’s still in the freezer, at least I have some soft plastics in the tackle box (not the SP’s I got for Christmas as planned, they’re still by my bed).

You can see where this is going – and it only gets better.

So I drop an SP about half way down the water column to see if it hanging there, with no interference from me, will catch something whilst I try and figure out how to use my new reel.

What could go wrong…

I managed to get a few very pitiful casts in before I discovered the free spinning tensioner adjustment, only I turned it too far the wrong way.

This equals a massive birds nest…

Good job I bought a pair of braid scissors at BCF, because I was going to need them. It’s pretty much the only way to deal with a birds nest, unless you have a spare couple of hours

Eventually, a little bit of frustration later, I’d manage to cut out the birds nest and get another cast under my belt when the phone rings, it’s Gen – there is someone with a torch walking around the back yard.

Lines in, anchor stowed and a very quick trip home.

Hopefully I’ve managed to get everything that could go wrong do in the one trip very early in the year.

Hillboy

PS. Gen was OK and I did’t catch any fish – and I got in trouble.