Eyes wide shut - now opened.
On Friday night I enjoyed a most pleasant evening that really opened my eyes to what is involved in fishing deep water for big fish.

I attend the presentation of what is involved in chasing big deep dwelling fish at the Deep Drop Fishing Presentation, held at the Cockburn Power Boat Club.
This presentation was sponsored by Oceanside Tackle and a lot of people with vast experience in all the aspects of this activity where in attendance.
The presentations where headed up by Ryan from Oceanside tackle and he needs no introduction to all of those who have an interest in this developing sport fishing activity.
Various presenters gave freely their vast and hard gained knowledge on what sort of sounding equipment you will need to pursue these fish together, with an explanation of "what is my sounder telling me". Thus I'm sure enhancing the knowledge of all who attended the night, from novices (like me)and to the experienced fishos.

This was followed by an explanation of what sort of ground these dwellers of the deep like to inhabit, and that was a real eye opener, the most salient point being you are not looking for jagged pinnacle type of bottom. With the use of sounder screen shots it was explained very well the type of bottom you need to be on and what various sounder screen shots depicted. This sort of stuff only comes from those people who have put in the hard yards and time needed to gain it, it was further explained that if you start catching "green eye sharks" you are not where you need to be.

Other various knowledgeable presenters also divulged hard earned knowledge about the type of gear you will need to employ to be successful at catching these large fish. To me it was very clear, you can spend a lot of dollars on good gear but, if it's not the right type of gear for this type of fishing then you have wasted your hard earned cash on gear that is high value, but is not what you need to be successful in the pursuit of deep dwelling big fish.

The most salient points (to me) being the amount of line your reel needs to hold and the very short rods used, when it was explained just why this type of gear was used you thought well that's just common sense isn't it, except you never thought of it did you dahhh.

At the mid presentation break all presenters made themselves available for questioning and this was when you could collar them and ask questions that you where to embarrassed to ask aloud for fear of showing just how much you didn't know (well for me any way).

Everyone that I asked for information came forth with a vast amount of information willingly and in language that was clear and concise ie: "that's crap and doesn't work", no nonsense.

To the people who gave their knowledge about fish finders, what they are telling you, the importance of getting them set up right, books of reference (and I must say the publication by John Adams is priceless)together with the best of the deep fishos on how to go about it, and the gear to use.

All this knowledge has been gained by these people over a long period of practical experience and was given so freely you could not put a price on it.

To CPBC your facility was great and a most comfortable venue for such an evening, to all the presenters my sincere thank you and to Oceanside Tackle a big thank you for putting this night together.

To Ryan you have done a great service to those of use who wish to pursue monster fish from the deep.