charleville
24-11-2006, 04:22 PM
The father of my daughter’s best friend is a very fine fellow, a fine fisherman and an obstetrician who in recent years has drifted back and forth between having his own private practice and working in government hospitals.
The issue that usually discourages him from continuing in private practice permanently is the cost of professional indemnity insurance which, for obstetricians, costs something like $140 000 per year. :o Clearly, obstetricians pay a high penalty for getting any of their decisions or advice to their customers wrong. :(
Not everyone has to suffer so adversely for giving bad advice though. :(
Take financial advisors. Those guys always want either a flat fee for advice or alternatively they want to take a trailing commission from every dollar that you invest under their guidance irrespective of whether the investments are good or bad. :(
And they do that without risk! >:( If their advice goes bad, there is no negative impact on them! >:( They just keep taking the money. >:( >:(They never pay back any if their advice yields less than what the share market index will return or even if that is all that it yields. >:( Why would you pay someone for advice that only achieves the average return that everyone else achieves with their investments? :-/ Worse - why would anyone in their right mind pay for advice that delivers less than the average? :-/ - but people do it all the time – even in those years when the investments lose money hand over fist. :'(
And the truth is that as much as possible, the financial industry likes to hedge its bets sometimes with labyrinths of ambiguity and non-commitment written into their mumbo jumbo documents and commentary. >:(
I remember the TV show featuring Paul Clitheroe dispensing financial advice and handy hints.
One time they had an interactive audience session where people could ask him questions. One audience member asked him which he would recommend for people to invest in generally - direct shares or managed funds? Clitheroe’s answer back to the audience member was, “Which would you prefer?”
What sort of a boofhead answer was that? >:( >:( Fence sitting of the first order. >:( >:(
And take those advertisements by Managed Funds boasting about their so-and-so fund’s outstanding performance during the past year. They probably have fifty different funds investing in all sorts of different things – Aussie shares, overseas shares, infrastructure, real estate, money markets etc etc etc - so at least one or two of them is going to perform well. They overlook saying that the rest of their funds were duds that year. :-/
…but then they have the cheek to add in that disclaimer that past performance is no guarantee of future performance. What a cop-out that is! >:( It makes you wonder what the purpose of the advertisement was in the first place. >:( >:(
Well, today, I am going to invoke the financial institutions disclaimer that whatever I say here should not be taken as offering any indication of how your fishing will go this weekend. ;D ;D ;D
Not that I couldn’t give some advice based on my experiences around Mud Island over the past few months. :-/
Indeed, I could probably name at least five spots at Mud Island where, given the right conditions, which I could also describe, you would have a very high probability of catching fish. ;) I can do this because I have soaked up every word that the real experts like Webby have published, or spoken about at fishing expos, :) and I have spent hundreds of hours fishing Mud Island this year myself. 8-)
For instance, if you were to fish at the Grazier site on the eastern side of Mud Island on an early evening tide on a winter’s night mid week when there is no one else around making noise and scaring fish, and you did not take home a good feed of squire and perhaps even better, then you could only be there because that is where they are scattering your ashes at the time. ;D ;D ;D
…but back to the matter at hand…
I have never understood the Harry Atkinson Artificial Reef – possibly because I have never spent much time there. Also, there is never much in the way of fishing reports from there in these pages. :-/
Yet, the place is always crowded, even on many days mid week. :-? I know that people do catch fish there because every now and then you see a picture of a big snapper caught there or on the so-called spoil grounds to the north. 8-)
But I have never caught much there nor have I ever seen many people catching much there either. :-[
But given the numbers of boats there at any time I must have it all wrong. :-/
So this week, I decided to give it a fair shake to see what drops out of it. I have spent the past four mornings fishing at Harry Atkinson with the following results…
Day one (Tuesday) - school mackeral everywhere – I took home three good fish as reported in my last post :) :) :) but lost six or seven because of technique/bait-runner issues – used left-over day-old pillies in good condition. I was the only boat there for half the time. Another boat arrived mid morning. Fished with floater and weighted baits – both were hit by macks. Anchored. Millpond conditions. Fished through 9.40am high.
Day two (Wednesday) – not a scale seen :( – used fresh bait – same rigs as before – lots of surface activity nearby which was addressed by another boat with slugs but without success – half a dozen boats there at any time. Anchored. Millpond conditions. Fished through 10.17am high.
Day three (Thursday) – caught a dozen grinners but absolutely nothing else. :( Used left-over pillies and squid which had been well iced and were in good condition. Anchored for half the morning and then drifted from well north of Harry’s across the reef and across the Chain Bank into the channel a few times. Three or four boats at Harry’s. Mill pond conditions. Fished through 10.55am high.
Day four (Friday) – caught one cod which I think was a greasy rod cod and about a cm undersize. Caught lots of baby squire. Floater on baitrunner screamed away once but dropped. :(Same old bait as yesterday but not in prime condition by now. Anchored. Rough conditions (15 knots) until leaving when the bait ran out at about 9am when it was a millpond ride home (see below). [I actually had fished Green Island at daybreak for no bites in choppy conditions before going to Harry’s at around 6.30am.] I reckon that from what I saw on the sounder those who could stay through to the high tide would probably have done ok there today. :-/
So here I am, totally confused about how to infer how Harry’s will go from one day to the next. :(
Who has a clue about this place please? :-/I am willing to practice there 8-) until I get it right ;) because the number of boats there at any time tells me that it must be a beaut place at some times. :-/
…and don’t worry, you can apply the financial industry’s disclaimer. ;D ;D ;D
May you all have a great weekend on the water. Having been out on the water on each of the past five days so I will do something lethargic over the weekend like watching the cricket on TV. 8-)
The issue that usually discourages him from continuing in private practice permanently is the cost of professional indemnity insurance which, for obstetricians, costs something like $140 000 per year. :o Clearly, obstetricians pay a high penalty for getting any of their decisions or advice to their customers wrong. :(
Not everyone has to suffer so adversely for giving bad advice though. :(
Take financial advisors. Those guys always want either a flat fee for advice or alternatively they want to take a trailing commission from every dollar that you invest under their guidance irrespective of whether the investments are good or bad. :(
And they do that without risk! >:( If their advice goes bad, there is no negative impact on them! >:( They just keep taking the money. >:( >:(They never pay back any if their advice yields less than what the share market index will return or even if that is all that it yields. >:( Why would you pay someone for advice that only achieves the average return that everyone else achieves with their investments? :-/ Worse - why would anyone in their right mind pay for advice that delivers less than the average? :-/ - but people do it all the time – even in those years when the investments lose money hand over fist. :'(
And the truth is that as much as possible, the financial industry likes to hedge its bets sometimes with labyrinths of ambiguity and non-commitment written into their mumbo jumbo documents and commentary. >:(
I remember the TV show featuring Paul Clitheroe dispensing financial advice and handy hints.
One time they had an interactive audience session where people could ask him questions. One audience member asked him which he would recommend for people to invest in generally - direct shares or managed funds? Clitheroe’s answer back to the audience member was, “Which would you prefer?”
What sort of a boofhead answer was that? >:( >:( Fence sitting of the first order. >:( >:(
And take those advertisements by Managed Funds boasting about their so-and-so fund’s outstanding performance during the past year. They probably have fifty different funds investing in all sorts of different things – Aussie shares, overseas shares, infrastructure, real estate, money markets etc etc etc - so at least one or two of them is going to perform well. They overlook saying that the rest of their funds were duds that year. :-/
…but then they have the cheek to add in that disclaimer that past performance is no guarantee of future performance. What a cop-out that is! >:( It makes you wonder what the purpose of the advertisement was in the first place. >:( >:(
Well, today, I am going to invoke the financial institutions disclaimer that whatever I say here should not be taken as offering any indication of how your fishing will go this weekend. ;D ;D ;D
Not that I couldn’t give some advice based on my experiences around Mud Island over the past few months. :-/
Indeed, I could probably name at least five spots at Mud Island where, given the right conditions, which I could also describe, you would have a very high probability of catching fish. ;) I can do this because I have soaked up every word that the real experts like Webby have published, or spoken about at fishing expos, :) and I have spent hundreds of hours fishing Mud Island this year myself. 8-)
For instance, if you were to fish at the Grazier site on the eastern side of Mud Island on an early evening tide on a winter’s night mid week when there is no one else around making noise and scaring fish, and you did not take home a good feed of squire and perhaps even better, then you could only be there because that is where they are scattering your ashes at the time. ;D ;D ;D
…but back to the matter at hand…
I have never understood the Harry Atkinson Artificial Reef – possibly because I have never spent much time there. Also, there is never much in the way of fishing reports from there in these pages. :-/
Yet, the place is always crowded, even on many days mid week. :-? I know that people do catch fish there because every now and then you see a picture of a big snapper caught there or on the so-called spoil grounds to the north. 8-)
But I have never caught much there nor have I ever seen many people catching much there either. :-[
But given the numbers of boats there at any time I must have it all wrong. :-/
So this week, I decided to give it a fair shake to see what drops out of it. I have spent the past four mornings fishing at Harry Atkinson with the following results…
Day one (Tuesday) - school mackeral everywhere – I took home three good fish as reported in my last post :) :) :) but lost six or seven because of technique/bait-runner issues – used left-over day-old pillies in good condition. I was the only boat there for half the time. Another boat arrived mid morning. Fished with floater and weighted baits – both were hit by macks. Anchored. Millpond conditions. Fished through 9.40am high.
Day two (Wednesday) – not a scale seen :( – used fresh bait – same rigs as before – lots of surface activity nearby which was addressed by another boat with slugs but without success – half a dozen boats there at any time. Anchored. Millpond conditions. Fished through 10.17am high.
Day three (Thursday) – caught a dozen grinners but absolutely nothing else. :( Used left-over pillies and squid which had been well iced and were in good condition. Anchored for half the morning and then drifted from well north of Harry’s across the reef and across the Chain Bank into the channel a few times. Three or four boats at Harry’s. Mill pond conditions. Fished through 10.55am high.
Day four (Friday) – caught one cod which I think was a greasy rod cod and about a cm undersize. Caught lots of baby squire. Floater on baitrunner screamed away once but dropped. :(Same old bait as yesterday but not in prime condition by now. Anchored. Rough conditions (15 knots) until leaving when the bait ran out at about 9am when it was a millpond ride home (see below). [I actually had fished Green Island at daybreak for no bites in choppy conditions before going to Harry’s at around 6.30am.] I reckon that from what I saw on the sounder those who could stay through to the high tide would probably have done ok there today. :-/
So here I am, totally confused about how to infer how Harry’s will go from one day to the next. :(
Who has a clue about this place please? :-/I am willing to practice there 8-) until I get it right ;) because the number of boats there at any time tells me that it must be a beaut place at some times. :-/
…and don’t worry, you can apply the financial industry’s disclaimer. ;D ;D ;D
May you all have a great weekend on the water. Having been out on the water on each of the past five days so I will do something lethargic over the weekend like watching the cricket on TV. 8-)