After Friday's blank we decided to give the torpedo a run to see what was around a little further off shore. Two sets produced half a dozen really fat kahawai and about a dozen spiny backs, so a Sunday fish barbecue is shortly on the menu.

One poor soul set his torpedo in the water and it was under-weighted by a considerable amount. He launched at least 800 metres down the beach from us and about twenty minutes later he had crossed our line. Fortunately I have an excellent winch and it easily handled pulling both sets to the beach.

Once the end gear, meaning the hooks could be detached, we worked as a team to free his line with no tangles or need to cut a line. The guy could speak very little English but we were able to convey to him why his deployment had gone so horribly wrong. With some help explained mostly by showing him the right gear and with rather ingenious, highly inventive sign language, he was able to retrieve his torpedo and set it again only next time correctly.

The regular long-line anglers along Marine Parade are a truly helpful and friendly lot. This guy had done it right by leaving a large space between himself and the next angler, he just had no idea of the weight required to hold it in place once set, and how to use the tacking plate. I hope his next set worked out okay, there were certainly plenty of fish around, amazing how things can change in such a short space of time, Friday it was a lost cause.

Wellyfisher, I hope you caught up with a few fish, kahawai were thrashing into schools of bait fish, in some cases no more than fifty metres from shore.