INDIANANGLER

I am just back from a trip to Portland in victoria's south west on the ocean,
glad to have all my fingers intact,and nursing aching back muscles .
It started with a decision to go after the Kingfish over the easter break,
Portland being 4 hours drive away [towing the boat] from my place,
my wife Doreen and a couple of friends jim And his wife Karen accompanied
me and after checking into the motel, we could not wait to launch the boat, and were soon motoring out of the vast harbour and into the the ocean,
There was a southeasterly blowing and it looked a bit choppy and i was hoping that the girls would not notice, as we only came for three days, while jim and K aren could only stay till sunday morning as they had to return for Jim's 73 yearold mother's lunch,[ And Jim was not prepared to argue with his Greek mother who is tough as a Tiger shark!]
anyway, soon we reached the spot and while i was riding with the current there was no protests from the girls but the moment I dropped the anchor
and we were facing the waves the girls started to protest, and as i feared
I was soon back in the harbour which is protected on all sides but has deep water to 50 feet, so we decided to fish in it instead, after sounding around for a suitable spot we picked up fish on the sounder over a bit of
reef on the bottom, I soon had a fair bit of burley out and soon the chomped up pilchards[like sardines] drew the fish to our spot, we than
started pulling fish in to about 1 kg each [small snapper] and threw back about 7 or8 fish while keeping about 6 fish for the pan,
we stayed out till well after dark and the girls by now had had their
fun catching these tiddlers on light gear as snapper put up one hell of a scrap! and we were soon back at the ramp, picked up some chinese takeaway and headed back to the motel,after a couple of pegs of scotch
and dinner we all slept well.
Jim and myself secretly decided to hit the water at first light and leave the wives to sleep in, I heard a knock on my door at about 5.30 am,
I was showered and dressed by this time , and we silently started my car
and drove the short distance to the ramp, it was first light as we cruised out of the harbourand soon we were anchored up in an old spot at a place called north shore, where i had caught a lot of fish the previous easter.
It was cold at that part of the morning and i was glad to have my thick jacket and beenie on, and though there was only a light wind blowing
the water was blue with a bit of mist coming off the water, I soon had Jim
working the burley bucket as it was on his side and we put out two rods
each baited with large strips of squid on 4/0 daichi hooks with running sinkers, and 30 pound line with baitcasters on the rods,
Our first fish hit the deck in 20 minutes, only small at under two kg[snapper] when were the kingies going to turn up! i rubbed my hands together in anticipation, and started to wind in my line as i looked down at my bait rising up out of the depths, fluttering as it came up, when it was an inch out of the water i got the start of my life as a four foot long
Baracouta shot out after it with gaping mouth and teeth that can only
resemble razor sharp fangs, snapping at thin air as it missed my bait
and fell back in the water, I let out 'holy shittt! did you see that! Jim!'
we soon were hooked upto some monster couta in quick succession, but were bitten off just as quickly as we tried to wrestle them up to the surface, i than decided to try some lures and realising we did not have any steel traces on board hooked them up to 50 pound leader material,
only to be bitten off losing 4 lures in quick sucession.
I than put out a 8" rubber garfish already rigged with circle hooks on a thick leader, meant for trolling for kingies!
Realising that letting the line touch the water spelt disaster, I started skipping the lure on the surface beside the boat by waving the rod back and forth, the reaction of the baracouta was to be seen to be believed,
Jim did the same on a shiney blue steel lure i gave him, they went crazy
attacking from all sides actually jumping out of the water , smashing into the boat and hooking up every few seconds, screaming off while we hung on to the rods , trying to hold them as they fought us like demons! and all this happening on the surface within 4 to 5 feet of the boat, We were screaming with laughter every time we boated a fish and every time one managed to twist free, Jim was afraid of them and got me to grab them
behind the head as we avoided their sharp teeth to remove the treble hooks with the steel pointy nose pliers,[Jimmy Buddy! sorry but i did promise you i would not mention this fact!]. well! its understandable as
you try to control a fish of 4 foot length smashing around on the floor of the boat, trying its best to impale its hugh teeth into you!
we ended up with about 20 fish and to top it all i had put out a game rod
with a large 1/2 kg squid head on a 4 inch hook attached to 50 kg line and a stainless steel ready rigged leader.
it took about 20 minutes to go off and as the penn overhead jumped into life and the ratchet sounded we both looked at each other, "go for it "
i yelled to jim, "no! it's your rod ! you go mate!" jim yelled back,
so i grabbed the rod and yanked it out of the rod holder and struck it hard, on the shimano beastmaster which bent under a heavy load, and i knew i was in trouble!
Jim tried to put the gimble belt on me while i tried to hang on to the rod
as the butt end dug into my groin area as the line started to run under a heavy drag setting! 20 minutes later i was stuffed but had managed to pump back most of the line, i than convinced jim to take over and after
a good fight we saw color and soon realised we had hooked into a massive shovel nosed ray of some sort about 5 foot wide, and as we got it boatside we managed to unhook it and it swam free.
By than we were stuffed , hungry as hell and happy to pull up anchor and head back.
I can say that my greatest regret that day was not taking a video or photos as i did have the camera with me , but in the heat of the action,
though i thought of it at the time, i was having too much of a good time!
And much against my better judgment i passed up on some fantastic
action footage.
Ps i'll send some photos to bops of this place and what's left of my gar fish lure, and he can post it for me.
meanwhile check it out on www.wildblue.com.au it is truely an anglers paradise and its only 4 hours from my house!
cheers!
Peter from down under!

Posting for Peter,


Portland!



Fish show up on the Finder.



Barracuda bite marks.



The cockpit



Ready for action.



View of Portland



Portland Harbour



My boat in the harbour

Nice nail polish Peter, did not know you wore that stuff

Great pictures mate, keep em comming.

Good one Bobby! ha! ha!
cheers.
Peter.

Hi Peter,

Nice pics. After all those days, only these? Or you are sending more to Bops.

Cheers,
Apoo

Hi Apoo.
Sorry i did spend too much time with the rod , and forgot about the camera,
But i'll see if i can dig up some more!
Cheers.
Peter.

Hi Peter

You better do that or you invite us to Australia to see it ourself

Cheers,
Apoo

Hi Apoo!
Anytime buddy! you just get here! I'll take care of the rest!
Cheers !
Peter.

Hey Peter .. Nice Boat .. mate how much woudl soemthing like that cost down under ... and whats the second hand boat market like ?... If you like we can take this to PM or I can call you ... would appreciate a line on this one Pete..

Hi Fredfish.
Good to hear from you again, the cost of a new boat like mine would be in the ballpark of about anything from 40 to 55 grand, depending on the motor
brand and horsepower,[ mine is a 115 hp yamaha,on a 18 foot half cabin cruiser] and electronics , trailer type, etc.
the good news is that there is a big secondhand market here, and you can pick up great bargains from between 10 to 35 grand.
I'll give you a call but my number here is 00613431160529[mobile] or
0061353674330[home].
talk to you soon.
Cheers.
Peter.

Hey Peter

really appreciated your call yday ... tight lines mate and thanx for all the information and help

Some more pics from Peter,



Dinner time for big bites!



Fresh is Best!



Jim at my place.



Looking towards the harbour



Room with a view.

Very nice pics.

Cheers,
Apoo

Hi Peter,

Those are lovely pictures... thanks for sharing.

regards,

Santosh

Very nice Peter..

Thanks a lot for the pics Pete...!!!
When you say 40 -55 grands for the boat, is that the AUD or INR?
(sorry for the stupid question)

| Cheers
| Sreekanth Soman
|
|
|
¿ < º)))))><

Hiya Sreekanth.
Iwould love to say rupees...... but i'd love to see the dealer's face if you tried to pay in INR !
Now that would make a funny photo for this gallery!
Cheers!$$$$.
Peter.

Hi Santosh.
Welcome to IA, and don't feel shy to post some pics yourself!
and thanks for the feedback!
Cheers!
Peter.

Hi Bobby!
Glad to see you enjoyed that one!
Cheers.
Peter.

Thanks Bops for the favour!
I'm going out tomorrow early morning as it is a holiday being Anzacs day,
I will be taking the camera so hopefully there will be a good story to tell
as i heard thru the grapevine that there is a late run of big snapper [to 10 kg]happening in geelong, about 45 minutes from my place!
Cheers!
Peter.

Great post Peter, keep on doin it
Axx

Hi El'
I am enjoying the fun as much as you guys!
Its great to communicate with you'll from across the seas!
suddenly this world is not as vast as it used to be!
Cheers !
Peter.

Hi peter,

Thanx for the welcome..

I hvnt posted any pics for a long time as I m not catching anything worth posting here. . of late I am catching fish that are released back as soon as they are brought in (small) apart from that, lot of scrap and tree branches..

Planing a trip to Ganpatipule (350 Km from mumbai) this weekend & hopefully lord Ganesha will smile .. will try hard so that I can post some pics soon..

Cheers... Santosh

Planing a trip to Ganpatipule (350 Km from mumbai) this weekend & hopefully lord Ganesha will smile .. will try hard so that I can post some pics soon..

Cheers... Santosh[/quote]

Hi Santosh,

First you go to the beach at Ganpatipule and take a bath before you enter the temple. Pray as much as you can to get the blessings. After that go straight to the MTDC snacks counter to have some snacks. Then by the evening go towards the hilly areas and watch the sunset. Go back to Chiplun and have tari mari and then you cast your hook and line in the water and then you watch the fun.

Joking mate, I went there on 31st of Dec, 2000. Stayed at my friend's place at chiplun and came back to pune on 2nd of Jan.

Went all the way from Pune to Ganpatipule and back on my Hamara Bajaj Super.

Anyway all the best

Cheers,
Apoo

Hi Apoo,

My friend, will do all that u said (except Tari Mari ).. if that's going to get me some good fish
Hv been to Ganpatipule many times .. i love the place..
What road u took form Pune ? via wai/mbleshwar ??
BTW it is Tadi Madi & not Tari Mari ... Tari Mari in Gujarati is yours & mine.. what did you hv with your friend ..??? I hope it was Tadi Madi

Hi Santosh,

Actually we were planning to go to Goa on two wheelers for the new year. Unfortunately my scooter was gulping petrol @ 20km a litre. So we had to cancel the trip and change our destination from Goa to Chiplun, Guhagarh and Ganpatipule. I forgot the way as I went there on 1993 and not 2000 as written previously. We went via Satara, Koyna Dam to reach chiplun in the morning. The trip was very nice . the clutch cable snaped just at the top of the ghat at Koyna Dam. There is a temple on top of the ghat where we all prayed for a accident free journey.

We took different routes for going and coming. Forgot the names.

It was good that we didnt turn up at Goa as the beach at my friends place was totally empty. Not a single person was there. Felt like we were on a private beach. Those places were cleaner than Goa.

Cheers,
Apoo

Hi guys!
what is tadi madi? sounds like something tasty!
is it hot!
puzzled!
Peter.

Not anymore apoo, Ganpatipule is now commercialised, lot of tourist go there.. but you can go further down the road beyond Malgun village and still find some nice empty & cleaner beaches.... in early 90's the place was like heaven

Dont know much, but it is a local drink which is collected from cuts made in the flowering stalk of Desert Palm (tad Tree).. the pure form is called Nira is considered to have medical properties including Anti-diabetic.. the fermented form is called Tadi-Madi.

Hey Santosh

Im leaving Friday early morning to Durg ... when are u leaving for G'Pule .. Maybe we can meet and drive together .. i leave 0500 on friday morn from Bandra so thats around 0515 at chembur --

Is that the same as Toddy or in Malayalam 'Kallu'

| Cheers
| Sreekanth Soman
|
|
|
¿ < º)))))><

Tadi is obtained from the Tad tree (palm), while Madi is obtained from the Mad tree(Coconut).

Goes well with fried fish


tight lines

Makarand

Hi fred, sent u a PM....

Santosh

Freddy, We guys are hitting the road around the same time Friday. Tight lines !
Owen

Accha! so it is a form of toddy from the palm tree!
Had a good piss-up on it once on the beach at gopalpur on sea in orissa,
great stuff! as i had just happened to see the toddy guy on his way from
the toddy trees carrying his two earthen pots which were hanging from a
bamboo staff strung across his shoulders, as he walked along the beach,
it was a great experience, hoping to repeat it, i waited on the beach the next day but he did not show!
do you think he decided to have a go himself !
seeing that i had really enjoyed it so much the day before!
cheeeeeers!
Peter.