"If not for the courage of her fearless crew, The Minnow would be lost (The Minnow would be lost)"

"Battle not with monsters lest ye become a monster; and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you."
Got that Tim? No more catching monsters. As for the abyss, well at 5.30 am I sat watching a large low tide combined with a torried NE pounding sharp waves into the Takapuna ramp. Bloody abyss.

Had been a good start to the weekend, with me, Dre, Jeff and Tristan going to the SA Vs. Samoa match. What I can tell you from the TV replay is that none of the atmosphere or tension in the ground comes across the airwaves. It was a stunning second half. Bus transport was superbly organised, the crowd was big and jovial and I thought the match was great.

So hauling ass out of bed knowing that a 25-30Kt NE was howling in was a bit of a call. Sitting at Taka ramp I figured this was going to be a real mission. Called Dre and we made the call to drive to Torpedo Bay inside the harbour and launch there. Tim turned up and off we went. Good call too, even though the ramp was only ankle deep we launched easily and made the turn left... out of the harbour towards Rangi. To the theme song from Gilligan's Isle we set sail and bashed over the the lee of Rangi. It was relatively smooth and we anchored in 7m, deployed burley and got baits in the water. The bite wasn't hot by any means, but when Tim snagged this beast things started looking up...



Nice Big hands and long arms Tim!!!!



 At about 4kg that was a nice fish for the area. Really nice, and soon he followed up with another sweet fish.

We fished on and caught some good sized fish in the 40-50cm range, and I lost something that screamed me into the rocks.... stink.

Andre was happy..

Oh shit yeah, I'm so happy...

Tim was happy...

This is my happy face



I was happy too! happiness is Rangi Channel in a storm and with only two other boats in sight. Now the happy photos above really dont depict the wind all that well so you'll have to take my word for it. As the tide built (huge tides at he moment) the bite died, so we returned to the harbour to try another couple of spots. Soon Andre's rod tip bounced and...

A Carrot!!!!!! Now I for one have never seen a gurnard where we were fishing... so when he turned up another larger specimen we were stoked.

If I hold my breath I may grow wings



We got back to Torpedo Bay ramp at 9.45, grabbed a coffee and went on our way. Thanks lads, a good mission.