Well it was my 50th on Tuesday and with the weather gods blessing Greg (my next door neighbour) and I set out for a day's fishing out from Mindarie. The sun was bearly rising as we headed out of the marina and out to the back of staggies where we planned to troll for spaniards for a while.

Well nobody told the spaniards that it was my birthday so after several false strikes due to weed, we gave it away and headed west.

The weather was still looking good and a light south easterly meant the drifts were going to be right along the ledges I fish, so we started to feel a little lucky.

With Greg onboard we reminisced about a few large fish he had caught from my boat many years ago and so in his honour we headed for that very spot, which incidently was where my daughter caught her 11kg PB Dhuie only a few weeks ago.

First drift and we had a double hook up. My fish was making a good account of itself whilst Gregs was proving a little easier to handle. Despite this mine was first to the boat and at 9kgs it was a great birthday present for sure.

Gregs on the other hand was a respectable 55cm and pre-regulation changes would have been in the esky without hesitation. But with the current rules it was a case of (do we head home now at 6-00am or do we enjoy the day on the water?

Given that I have started tagging for Westag it was an easy decision and we decided to put a tag in the fish and keep fishing.

We landed a few sargeant bakers, which were immediately converted to strip baits. These worked a treat and we ended up landing, tagging and releasing 5 more dhuies and a blackarse. The way two of them were released however is the subject of a "Dumb and Dumber 2" the sequel screenplay.

Firstly when I was releasing a nice 59cm dhuie, as I gave the heave ho to release the fish at depth, the clip swivel gave way and I released the release weight as well... (Doh!).

I quickly fashioned a home made release weight using a crushed barb hook, a length of 100lb mono a big sinker and a crimped on swivel. Rough but it would do the job.

The last Dhuie of the day was the 58cm one pictured below.

(I know it looks less than that in the pic but that's on an angle and when straight I can assure you it was 58cm). Anyway given that the fish was in excellent condition, having been slowly retrieved from 40m and given a deco stop at about 5m from the surface, I decided to use the boga grips to hold the lively fish while we released it. As Greg grabbed the rod and I hooked the fish with the release weight and manouvered it over the gunnels, the fish gave an almighty jump and somehow wrenched the bogas out of my hands.(I blame the arthritis at 50yrs of age). So over the side goes the fish conected to the release weight and my bogas. Since the reel was already in freespool, down it went. And as I cried out Greg automatically thumbed the spool to stop the fish, but as we all know thats how the release weight is released, so now we have a super strong 58cm, dhuie with tag number 76960 in it's side and my bogas in its mouth slowly swimming under the boat.

I raced over to the other side of the boat and grabbed the net but couldn't quite reach her as she slowly but surely swam deeper and deeper.

So if anyone catches a Dhuie with that tag in her side, tell her "I want my bogas back!!!"

The tag sheet now has some interesting comments for that particular tag....

(On a serious note, it doesn't look good for that fish, as I doubt it will be able to release itself from the bogas and they aren't going to rust out all that fast. So a sobering side of the equation is to always remember to tie the little wrist strap over your wrist when handling fish to be released..... I know I certainly won't be making the same mistake again.)

That being said, nothing could deter from the fact that we had a great day on the water and it was a magnificent way to celebrate 50 years on the planet. We ended the day with a few drinks at the Reeltime bar with family and friends.  Oh and Spurs won away in the Champions League.... what a 50th to remember!