Less than 1 minute ago
G'day to all our lures and bait's board visitor's..<br><br>A brief note to let you know that I have just returned from a fishing tournament in the Western Pacific.<br><br>How did we do? Our team came 4th out of 23 competing teams. <br><br>Not bad and would have been a lot better had I not lost a 35 kg sailfish on 10 kg line after 2 hours and 5 minutes in an unusually rough sea with with a 7 foot swell, 20 knot westerly, and more backing up on this fish than you can imagine. <br><br>As I understand it, he would have also qualified as a local record and potential international record on this line class. <br><br>Had I been able to land him then we would have placed 2nd given that an hour before this fish we had had hooked up on a small blue marlin that was subsequently tagged and released. <br><br>Hey that's fishing for ya! Why did I loose the Sailfish? Only one simple answer and that is personal fatigue, extremely rough sea conditions at the time, and a lapse in concentration. <br><br>Given that this was a totally stand up competition, I got tired and for a brief moment took my eye off the ball (fish). The rest is now history. <br><br>Even so, I consider 5th a very respectable result considering the number of teams, level of experienced teams participating, and the conditions which were unusually rough outwide for this time of the year. <br><br>It was also our first time in these waters so I am not going to be too hard on myself. Three days of self flagilation over the loss of the Sailfish has probably been enough I think. <br><br>I should also add that our team took out the Champion "Mahi Mahi" category for the tournament as well and that our Okuma reels performed flawlessly over the 4 days of competition. <br><br>All round, a pretty good result. <br><br>A full report link and pics as soon as they are available (or as soon as I unpack, get the pics developed and make the time to write up the article). <br><br>I am going to try and do that over the next two days and before I am officially due to return to the board here. <br><br>Stay tuned for more. <br><br>Burnin Thumbs!<br><br>Steve B <br>Moderator Lures/Baits Forum<br><A HREF="http://www.demonjigs.com" target="_new">http://www.demonjigs.com</A>