I wanted to start fly fishing again...

Not ideal Fly Fishing weather!

I always say that Johnno has upset the fishing Gods!  

 Every time he gets his fly rod out it gets windy, like seriously, straight away!!!  He has mentioned a few times that perhaps it is me, haha, I just laugh, pick up my overhead and go catch a fish!!  Too easy!

This week I told Johnno I want to start fly fishing again.  It's been a few years since I even picked up a fly rod, but I feel ready again.  I'm now over the horrid experience that made me hate fly fishing (stupid guide shouting at me), and I have more time to do what i want, nothing else on my mind (not like when I was go go go, thinking about Positive Steps).

So, I asked Johnno during the week if there is a rod and reel I can use to practice again, remember it's been years, so I'm not even sure what we have any more.  Sure enough Johnno still has my 10wt set up ready for when I was ready again....but he has broken my 8wt, which by the way would be easier to learn on, anyway that's not part of the story ;)

So we talk the rest of the week about going down the bay to practice my fly fishing technique, happy happy blah blah blah, talking all week, not fishing just talking about it, because we both work now.

Weekend comes, can you even guess what happened??

YES it's so windy there is NO way I'm going to be able to cast anything!!  I'm out there with my big ass Popper, because even Johnno couldn't cast into that wind!  There was no way I could learn on the fly without getting fucked off again.  No fish, couldn't see a fish, couldn't catch a fish blind casting.

Can you cast over that?

When the wind picked up enough that it was blowing the cold sea spray over me, I was lured back out of the water by the thought of a beer.

  We sat on the tinny (taken 'just in case') drinking beer.
YES of course this is when we seen the large schools of mullet swimming past and YES the big ass Trevor following them!!

1st ever: Escaping Squid-off competition!

Rebecca from Germany holding the Squid she caught, first one on the score board!

Its a rare occasion for the girls I work with at Escape Resort, to all have the same day off, even more so for it to be during the weekend, when we can get all our partners together as well.

The ink hadn't even dried on the roster before we had started planning our first ever 'Squid-ex' competition.   Being the first of it's kind, we had to have a formal meeting on Friday night to discuss rules and regulations.  Many beers later an 8:30am start was agreed on.  $10 per person entry fee, winner being the person who catches the most squid, takes the cash.

Squiding, actually fishing for squid, is new to us.  We have caught a few before, but never actually fished for them.  A trip to the tackle shop proved the first hurdle, I didn't realise Squid Jigs came in so many different sizes and colours.  I opted for the cheapest, thinking we will worry about the rest once we know what we are doing.  I was double guessing myself as soon as I got to the boat ramp and witnessed the LARGE selection of jigs our fellow competitors had.  It became apparent straight away how new we were at this Squiding game!

Perfect day leaving the marina.  Photo taken moments before for Squid were hooked.

The water was so beautifully flat and clear as we left the marina.  After a quick blat around to blow out the cobwebs, (aka show off our super cool boat to the back-packer I'd brought along) we were straight into the very serious competition mood.

Trolling as slow as you possibly can was the recommended technique, not what you would call an 'extreme' sport.  We stayed in close to shore, looking for weedy area's.  That was all we had to go on.  Rebecca from Germany was standing on the front deck with Johnno spotting turtles and looking for any possible fish, when Johnno was the first to say the lines didn't look right.  Oh ok, so I try to shake off the weed while they continue looking for fish.  'It's not coming off' I say, we will need to wind them in.  Rebecca and I  both winding in our lines, when she mentioned, 'But aren't they Squid'?  OMG, We had squid on, and I was trying to shake them off!! hahaha Lesson learnt!!

 After that it was all serious but fun fishing.  We text the other 3 boats we had found the Squid, they came over and we all continued trolling or drifting while flicking for the next few hours.  Nothing like a little competition to keep it interesting.  Rebecca and I might have been first on the score board, but every time someone else got a squid on board the competitiveness in us all was spiked.

With the wind picking up a 12 noon finish was called.  With only 10 minutes of fishing left, the score board had Johnno in the lead by 1 squid in front of me.  I squealed with delight when I hooked another Squid to draw me with him for the win, and then I squealed some more when I realised how big it was.  But then a shouted loudly 'OH NO, NO NO NO' when Johnno hooked another squid also, before i'd even landed mine.

We had been so careful when landing the squid all day, to avoid being Inked, but the last two large ones were just too exciting.  With a lot of very loud laughing we pulled the squid on board in the last minutes of competition, and they were not happy about it, both pumping out copious amounts of Black ink all over us and the boat!

Squid Ink everywhere!

At the end of the day Johnno was the winner our first ever, but hopefully regular, Escaping Girls Squid-off comp.  Closely followed by myself I would just like to add!

We then learnt that being winner means more than just taking home the cash...we had the larger amount of Squid to clean also!!

Messy job of Squid cleaning.

Johnno receiving his cash prize from Alison the competition founder.

I AM SET FOR LIFE!

This morning:Recovery walk on the beach!

Updated 2016 Goals:

I was set to write this blog at the end of the month, half way mark.  But then I realised two important things about my 2016 To Do list: 1) it's almost half way, so I better started DOING!  2) Visualisation and positive affirmations are all in the wording.  At the bottom of my list I had 'Going to the beach at least once a week after work'.  Going to the beach once a week is a given, we go almost every second day!  It was the 'after work' part that needed changing...I don't want to work ALL year!

First tick off my 2016 To Do list!!

- I have to admit I thought I was going to catch a Sail fish as soon as we moved here.  The first couple of times we were out we had them right up to the boat, so that just increased my expectations.  Six months later, with a lot less Sails around, I'm still confident.  We have been spending a lot of time 'down the gulf' while it was windy. Now the weather is changing again.  I'm sure I will get my Sail before the end of the year!

Trolling for Sail Fish in Black Thing

- Running...it's hard when you drink a lot of beer! haha.  I've set myself some new mini-goals to get out there more regularly, consistency is key!!

This mornings run: getting close,  Just Keep Going!

- Loosing my Go Pro hasn't helped, I'm going to be digging into my Kayak savings to replace that :(

Wahoo!  First tick off the 2016 To Do list!!!   Me swimming with a Whale Shark = amazing!!

I swam with a Whale Shark!!

- Johnno having the start of the year off work meant I did not have to do much cooking or cleaning at all, it was wonderful!  He cooked plenty of new and interesting recipes, so the year long goal has started well.  After having month off cooking, I am excited to start trying out new things as well.

My first ever Poached Chicken was amazing!

- I have a design sorted for my cover up tattoo...I'm just too scared cause I still remember how friggin painful it was!!

- Plenty of blog writing still going on :)

- Has taken us a little longer than expected to get back on our feet from moving (after our 8 month holiday).  So all renovations are on hold for a little while, but i'm sure these basic ones listed will be started before the year is out!

Ok, So it's a Goldie, not a GT, but it was a bloody Giant!!! 

I AM SET FOR LIFE!!