ANGRY FISH WITH BIG TEETH AT MINERVA, POPPER HEAVEN
Friday 18th April
I should probably just start a section every post entitled ‘Stupid
Shit George Say’s and Does That Piss Me Off’!
That same evening I last posted about, he went on to tell me that it was
probably a good thing I let that Red Bass go, being so large it must have been
too old and wouldn’t have tasted any good?!!
Hmmm, ok mate, I suppose with that theory, a 15kg Red Emperor or a 7kg
Baldie wouldn’t taste any good either!
This guy buys fish
from the supermarket in Paris and would never have even tasted much quality
fish, let alone know the difference between them. Which is fair enough, most people are in the same boat and
wouldn’t really know the difference as they aren’t lucky enough to be able to
eat the range of seafood we do back at home. But most people wouldn’t sit down, argue and
try to impart their infinite wisdom, consisting of a good amount of fuck all,
to somebody like me.
He just cracks me up, don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t claim
to know everything about fish and fishing, but I do have an extremely vast
knowledge as it is the one thing I have spent the most time doing, studying and
trying to master. I am always reading, practising, progressing, if he could
shut the f#@* up, he may actually learn something.
One last thing, the moon has been absolutely amazing out here, so last night
I come inside and say ‘Hey, you guy’s should check out the awesome orange full
moon’. So of course immediately George
starts his usual bullshit ‘Ah, well, I don’t think it’s quite a full moon’,
pokes his head outside for a second, ‘no, it’s definitely not a complete full
moon’!!
F*@# me, this guy is a cock, it was the brightest roundest moon
you are ever likely to see and he still has to disagree! I could tell him the sky was blue and he’d
want to argue the point, ‘Ah, well, no it’s….
Never man enough to come outright and argue the point with me, and
say ‘you’re wrong’. He prefers to just
dismisses my point of view and makes his conflicting statement in a matter of
fact way, with a pompous air of someone who has just enlightened everybody to
the facts, like there could be no other answer and that the topic is now closed. I don’t even waste my time with a retort,
some people are beyond help.
Everybody who knows me will tell you I am not a violent person in
the slightest and rarely get angry about too much, I prefer to just go with the
flow and lets the cards fall where they may.
Karma is a bitch. But George is bringing it out in me, I wouldn’t even
punch him, I’d slap him! That’s what he
deserves, a good old ‘wake up to yourself’ slap!
In other non-George related news…!!! Yesterday was another epic day of fishing,
out in the RIB for an hour or so, a few awesome fish landed, big strikes,
dropped fish, amazing battles in the shallow reef. The stuff I dream about, Lucas and Stenty
would have loved it, I think we may have to try to make it out here one day,
with a proper boat and crew geared up for serious fishing. I am only just barely scraping the surface of
the amazing fishing here at Minerva Reef, squeezing in an hour of casting here
and there.
Over the short period I got to fish, I landed about 12 fish, with
many follows, hits and dropped fish, there is nothing better than throwing
poppers around in country like this.
Even George and JP are starting to enjoy the whole visual style of it as
they watch my lure, waiting for a big explosion of frothy water as a fish
engulfs it.
Another huge Red Bass was
landed, almost as big as my last one, but this time on my smaller outfit and in
only a meter of nasty, reefy water, another of those fish I will never forget.
(depending on how many I actually catch on this whole voyage!) Once again it
was only me in the boat, nobody to witness and appreciate the unbelievable
fishing here, I could never get tired of doing this.
So we are now moving around the inside of the lagoon at Minerva
North and then we will be sailing on to Tonga this afternoon, with light winds
it is expected to take 3 days. I am
going to miss this place and hope I get to return someday, with Lucas, Stenty
and any other of my fish-crazy mates, to do it properly, this has just been a
taste. A damn good one though!
Afternoon update - we are now out of the lagoon and slowly making
our way under sail to Tonga. Another
epic afternoon of casting poppers over shallow reef and landing some awesome
fish, the battles are intense.
As we
made our way through the passage to exit the lagoon, I geared up ready with the big outfit, Saltiga Dogfight and PE8 Demon Blood, but made the mistake of
using my lighter gear to throw a popper at a ledge on the way out, even knowing
there should be some serious fish on it.
Massive hit, my popper angrily inhaled in a powerful explosion of water
and, almost as quickly as it had struck, I was busted off! Hmmm, kiss another lure goodbye! I was actually going to take a photo of this
lure to emphasise how much punishment this thing had taken in only 3 days! It was nearly destroyed by angry fish with
big teeth!
Oh, and we have 3 good sized crayfish for dinner!
