Monduran Comp

[gone_phishin]

Went to the Lake Monduran Family Classic for the weekend and though I still didn't crack my first Monduran Barra, had a great time fishing with a new Club Member. All mine and the wifes plans for flicking and trolling the whole weekend came to zilch, but we still had one of the most satisfying fishing trips ever!

This 17 year old guy Mike joined our Club on Wednesday/Thursday last week and was keen as mustard to come up and try his hand at the Barra on the weekend, though his biggest fish to date was a not quite legal Yellowfin Bream whilst fishing with his Dad in the Burnett River a couple of years ago. His sister drove up from Bundy on Friday night to drop him off with a bunch of total strangers, armed with a rod and reel that hadn't seen daylight for 2 years and looked every bit of it.

Our young bloke Josh (Going Phishin) was asked to go out for the sessions with another member who has plenty of Barra experience, so we had the room for a new deckie on Gelley, so that was an easy seat for Mike.

Saturday saw him bring in 3 catfish of 2kg's plus in about 20 minutes and had him yelling in excitement that this was "the best fishing trip I've ever had!!!" This was priceless as far as we were concerned Three catties and I've got a Cheshire cat on the boat, but reality checked in as we trolled and catty bashed the rest of Saturday away without anything more happening once the Southerlies blew the spots off the local dogs

Mike was keen for an early start this morning so we set the alarm clocks and had him on the water by 5 am and heading to the back end of Bird for a 5:30 troll start. One of the other members had lent him a Crestfire with 30lb braid as his spinning reel cracked up under the pressure of his 3 catty's on Saturday, so I had to do a quick lesson on low profile baitcasters to a young bloke who had never even seen one before

Trolled at about 1.9 knts for 30 minutes with 3 rods out ( his was an unnamed 2 piece glass rod that spun in it's socket if you looked at it the wrong way!) when the 2IC yelled "He's on!" So off with the electric, turn around expecting to see the reel ticking off to one of the tree Gods, and see his line heading North at a great rate of knots and thought "hell of a tree moving at that speed!"

After a lot of cajoling and mixed instructions on fish fighting techniques and about 6 minutes later, up comes a beautiful 94 cm 13.3 kg Barra in that lovely silver colour we all dream about. I'm yelling for the net, the missus is yelling back she can't get it, Mike can't get it either cause he happens to have a rod in his hands, and all I can think of while I'm holding the leader is that bent hook looks like it's gonna' let go any moment

Finally the missus was able to let go of what she was holding and get the net for me to lead the fish into, and safely deposit the fish in the boat ready for the mad dash back to the weigh in station.

Got it back in good time and good health and with a bit of assistance from another fisho already there, was able to get her weighed , measured and biting down hard on my thumb within 5 seconds of plopping her back in the water, after a few photo's were taken of course! See attached piccy below.

End of the report???

Nah...not quite.

The thing the missus had to let go of to get the net for me was Mike....he has Spina Bifida, so therefore no use of his legs, and Elle was madly holding on to him by the chest and shoulders while he's sitting on the Troppy box, so he wouldn't fall flat on his face in the bottom of the boat!!

When the fish struck Mike was having a real battle not being able to turn in the rear seat of the Quinnie to follow the fish runs, so I picked him up and deposited him on the Esky that has a 4" thick seat on it for Josh, and his only words to Elle were "Please don't let me go!" His only concern was that he would end up on the deck before he landed the fish! After I had the leader in hand he was happy for the missus to let him go, and reckoned he could handle falling flat out now...didn't though...he was able to drop the rod and hang on with his hands then, not knowing how close the fish was to straightening the VMC treble!!

The whole session ended with a young bloke determined to get his first Barra into the boat, and willing to throw caution to the wind and place his trust in people he had known for about 24 hours. What a battler!

That little glass rod of his did so many turns during the fight it looked like one of those new Shimano Starlo Stix a number of times

The fish at 13.3 kg's was just on half his weight at about 30 kg's and I reckon the fish was harder to get in the boat than he was! He was pretty adept at swinging his legs around just using his arms. All I had to do was carry him to the boat and lift him up to the gunnel height, and he was as right as rain from there.

Did the missus and I care that we didn't get our long awaited Monduran Barra this weekend?? Not a bit of it! This to us was better than most movie scripts you could write, with an absolutely fantastic outcome. I couldn't have written a better ending to it!

Good fight.....ooohhhh yeah

Disabled fisherman....not a bit of it!!!!

Can't wait to set Mike up against some of them big pelagics out wide soon...but I may have to invest in a Game chair with a seat belt

Did Josh do any good?

Yep...he got his first Monduran Barra at 7.44 kg on 4 kg line, and we were so very proud of him and what he learnt from the other member, but I will leave his report to him, though I did sneak a photo below as they were back at the weigh in station about a minute after us with his fish!

Was I proud of Josh?

You bet....he got second in the Junior Casting Comp held last night, and his prize was a Surecatch rod and a yellow Alvey reel all spooled up with mono, and some SP's. The first thing he did when he came back up the hill after the presentation was to present the rod, reel, and SP's to Mike so he could have a better setup for bottom bashing. What other 15 year old kid but a fishing kid would think to do something unselfish like that? Damn near brought tears to my eyes

Anyway...sorry for the long report but I thought it might be worth it.

Cheers
Geoff

[youngfisho]

good stuff mate, hope the comp went well for you all

andrew

[Whitto]

G,Day Geoff, Great story mate, Mike is an exceptional young man, it's hard enough to catch a big barra with the use of your legs, didn't seem to worry Mike too much of course the smile on the face says it all, well done Geoff and Family Mike will remember this forever, I take my hat off too you and Mike, Cheers Whitto

[Peter4]

Exceptional report that embodies both the strength of the human spirit and the passion of fishing.

Great read Geoff. Well done Mike - you have the right outlook in life - and Josh you are a legend.

Pete

[Big_Ren]

What a wonderful report Geoff. Congratulations to Mike....I bet he is still smiling. And what a beautiful gesture from Josh. He can be very proud of himself.

Cheers and thank you for sharing
Paul

[rayken1938]

Great story. I am certain that Mike would have enjoyed himself,even without the nice barra ,just being out there with a wonderful couple .
I got a real buzz just reading it.
Cheers
Ray

[Steve B]

Geoff, Alle, Josh and mike

that was a great read!!! young mike still had a smile from ear to ear hours later at the presentation didnt he!!

As for young Josh, He is one of the the most selfless genuine young fella I have ever met. To give away the rod and reel he won (without being asked or told) was truly a marvelous act of kindness. Josh will also become one of the best young gun fishos going around from what I saw and heard. He also saved my life after a big night friday by making me the best cup of coffee I have ever had at 4.30am saturday!!!. thanks mate much appreciated.

The comp was an excellent weekend. there were hundereds of boats and people everywhere and everyone had a great time. I know I did.

cheers steve

[gone_phishin]

Thanks for the comments guys,

Yeah Steve...he left our place with his sister a few hours later... still grinning!!! That was the quickest download of photo's to the computer and then on to his Flash drive that I've ever done!

I know I'm his Dad and I'm obviously biased as hell but you are very right about Josh. A few of the boys were starting to talk to Josh about getting some sponsorship going so it will be interesting to see if his letter composition is as good as his fishing is becoming

Coffee hmm....life saving hmm...wonder why

[Smithy]

Good one Geoff.

See you and Kev in a couple of weeks for the Fraser Tournament. Scotty got two Sails out there yesterday in his boat and saw a heap plus tons of bait.

[gone_phishin]

Looking forward to it Smithy!! Josh has had to pull out because of work commitments but we still have 3 on board. Sounds like the fish are starting to arrive so will be great to get amongst them, and I know Kev has done heaps on the boat since you were here the other week. Thanks for all the help with that too mate...that Pakula cd is awesome...took me near 3 days to get through it but geez I learnt a lot!

See you in a few weeks

Geoff

[Little grey men]

Mate...that was something else... One of those rare threads that makes you smile from start to finish. Mike totally rocks and Josh is to be commended. A true gentleman.