Canoes, Sharks, Upmann Monarch

[El Presidente]

As I am away with the Sydney Boys for the weekend I took Friday off with the family. I took My eldest Son Ben canoe fishing for shark in the morning before taking all the family to see "Ant Bully" and then off to an indian restaurant for dinner. Father of the year ;-)

I will post photo's of our special fishing canoe next week once my digital camera returns from repair. Great little unit.

Anyway,we launched the canoe at 6am 10 mintues from where I live on the Brisbane river. The stretch of water is notorious for bull sharks up to a metre long with the occasional larger specimen.

The 3 gang hook and wire trace rig was baited with a pilchard bait and flicked over the side. Ben was fishing for Bream and catfish but I had an alterior motive for chasing shark

1. I put the rod in a rod holder.

2. I light a cigar and mix a drink.

3. Shark strikes are rare ...maybe every 2 hours...so refer point 2.

Now with bait in the water I checked out the canoe travel humidor and found a very sexy looking H. Upmann Monarch which was chocolate in colour. Normally a Churchill at 6:30am is a little much but it was a beautiful setting on a beautiful day. An Eagle was in a tall eucalypt tree on the far river bank viewing eagerly the ducklings in the near shallows, the Egrets were nesting in the trees on both banks, water dragons (lizards) were jumping off logs to cross the river, turles were emerging to sun themselves on the logs. Magic.

Maybe it was because It was the first cigar of the day before I had a chance to eat breakfast but I was immediately taken aback by the richness of the cigar. Sweet milk coffee in a cigar format....just what I needed. Medium body...not an iota of spice or harshness, simply volumes of blue smoke enveloping flavours that can only be described as dunking shortbread in milk coffee on a Sunday morning. I was in love with this cigar. We had something very special going on

as I reached the halfway mark....Chicago's "If you leave now" kept going through my head.

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ The Shimano Calcutta reel starts screaming. "Your on dad" yells Ben and I lift the rod out of the rod holder and strike. (5 minutes) ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ.......one shark still taking line but no doubt would tire out as the drag as set high......missing my cigar (10 minutes) ZZZZZZZZZZ....every time I get the shark to within 15 metres of the canoe....it takes off again....where is my cigar? (15 minutes) I have colour!......OH OH....metre long Bull. I really don't want to bring it to the canoe but Ben will be disappointed. I passed the rod to Ben knowing he wouldn't be able to make much ground on the shark but at least both of them would tire out. He had a ball

5 minutes later I asked for the rod back, pulled out the gaff, put on my fishing glove and through slight of hand.....ramped up the drag on the reel as Ben handed me the rod......I raised the tip of the rod tying to raise the sharks head and he ran as I had hoped.....SNAP!.....with the extra drag, the line snapped

"Damn Ben.......we almost had him....next time mate." While disappointed he was full of enthusiasm and when his back was turned I cast back out into the midle of the river, put the rod in the rod holder and sat back down to re-light the Monarch. "I missed you"

Monarch and I were not interupted again. There was little chance as I had no bait on my rig ;-)

Great days.

See you boys in Sydney tonight!!!! We will post plenty of pics come Monday :-P

[gersonmorelli]

Pulitzer-worthy story Prez!

[Wiley]

I can not believe you have freaking sharks in your fracking rivers! Is there any body of water in Australia which doesn't contain critters with big, nasty teeth and/or are poisonous?

[habanablue]

» I can not believe you have freaking sharks in your fracking rivers! Is

» there any body of water in Australia which doesn't contain critters with

» big, nasty teeth and/or are poisonous?

the only body of water where you should feel safe is in your own bath. Bull sharks and the like love breeding in the calm protected parts of rivers. In Sydney's parramatta river that merges into sydney harbour, bull sharks are known to knock the occasional kayaker or rower into the drink.

[Tampa1257]

Rob,

Great story, I look forward to seeing the photos

[TR]

You are up for father of the year!!!:-)

[DrAlejandro]

great story rob, keep em comin'! ;-) :-D

[JMH]

» I can not believe you have freaking sharks in your fracking rivers! Is

» there any body of water in Australia which doesn't contain critters with

» big, nasty teeth and/or are poisonous?

One year when school broke up for the summer, a mate and I stupidly swam from the rowing sheds on the school side of the river to a mates house on the opposite bank (there was no reason to, the rest of our mates were going across in a boat, we just thought it'd be fun). Visibility in the water was practically nil. Hearing the stories about how the rowers boats would occasionally get attacked by sharks... well, it's not something that I'd ever do again.