Took a trip out to Hardies on Friday with my old man, haven't been fishing with him for a while and hadn't taken my boat out for almost 12 months (since one of my fishing mates bought a better one)

Considering that the boat hadn't been used for a while I did a full check of everything a few nights before, was very happy when it started first pull, and apart from being full of leaves was ready for action.

The plan was to hit the water for sunrise and fish through the day, well, that was the plan anyway. Got up @ 5:15am, jumped in the car and swung round the my Dad's place to pick him and the boat up. Hooked up the boat and loaded Dad's gear into the car and we were ready to go. Somehow it was already light as we were driving out the driveway which was slightly unexpected. But we were underway and hopes were high. Was nice to have no traffic going our way and we made good time. As we neared Corroborree park tavern Dad said he needed a stop (he's getting old) The day was getting lighter and we were gonna miss the sunrise *sigh*... Oh well, can't be helped. Pulled in, and thought I'd do a quick check to make sure everything was okay with the boat before we hit the dirt. I am VERY grateful that the old guy needed to use the facilities, as I discovered the Engine support arm had popped it's split pin, and fallen out of it's mounting hole. and was dragging on the ground. The round section that we into the mounting hole was now nice and shiny smooth on the underside and no longer round. The engine had also been nicking the road as we had driven along so the bottom of the engine leg was slightly flattened (not bad though) *PHEW*. I am very glad we stopped as i don't think the engine and the backend of the boat would have survived the dirt.

Luckily I was still able to get the engine support leg into it's mount and a few spare cable ties held it in place.

We made it to Hardies with the sun now above the horizon, I ran around like a madman, fitting the sounder and trolling motor and hooking up the battery... BUNGS IN? *check* launched the boat off the trailer. Got on the water and started off to my favourite sunrise spot, hoping that we wouldn't have missed the early morning action.

We arrived and things looked fairly quiet, but rigged up a surface frog and started working the edges. Had a few half hearted hits from saratoga, but nothing substantial. We moved along the bank and I flicked a SP out between some trees and *KNOCK* that's what I like... a nice Barra tap, but then nothing... Next Cast *KNOCK* and ZZZZZZzzzzz Yep! I was on and a nice looking fish jumped beautifully to break the mornings tranquility. Several more spectacular jumps and the fish was beside the boat. The moment of truth, could Dad remember how to use a net... *fingers crossed*... Success! a nice 75cm graced the deck.

Next cast, was winding away and my reel jammed! WHAT! my REVO jammed! Not wanting to force the issue i pulled the line in by hand and spent the next hr trying to pull the reel apart. I couldn't get to the worm drive cogs but figured they had broken teeth and were jamming when winding.

Luckily I had another reel and so I was able to use that. Then my dad says, My reel isn't winding line properly. I looked and sure enough the worm drive was damaged. I managed to repair it by adding some SP off cut inside the worm drive pin to push it harder into the tracks and that seemed to hold together so that was lucky. It went pretty quiet and we moved around a few different spots, Then I noticed the other reel that I was using also wasn't winding the line onto the spool properly. You guessed it, the Worm was gone on that one too AAAGGGHH!!! couldn't fix it, but at least it was winding. So fished the remainder of the day with line going onto the spool in one spot. Had several good hits through the day, but failed to hookup. We then pushed into a lily spot and spent some time having fun with Toga a few Barra and a small croc with some weedless frogs, had a few descent boofs, but failed to hook up.

By early arvo it was HOT... My boat doesn't have a shade and I was struggling, I could only imagine that Dad was worse off. So we decided to start making our way back to the ramp. Got about 2k's short of the ramp and the engine cut out... After 5 or so minutes of stuffing around, managed to get it started again, we had planned to make a couple more stops on the way back to the ramp to fish a few snags, but given that the engine had stopped and it was now running again, we decided to call it a day.

The drive home was uneventful. A good day on the water...

On Saturday I took my revo into the lads at Tackleworld 11 mile to see if I could get it fixed. The guys there informed me that they wouldn't be able to get it fixed for 2 weeks I mentioned to them that I thought I knew what the problem was and wondered if I could just get the parts. Malcolm kindly offered to pull the reel apart and see if I was right. After some stuffing around he managed to get the winder side off the reel and discovered that the entire thing was caked with salt... I clean my reel after every trip and couldn't believe it. Anyway, sure enough the two cogs required replacing. He gave me the two cogs and loaded the completely dismantled REVO into a bag... I got home and cleaned it all up, put in the new cogs and then realised that my spool was still sitting on the counter at Tackleworld. I rang em up and Malcolm mentioned that he had just found it. *sigh* Oh well, I had to head back in that way later in the day, so continued to put the reel back together. I was testing the worm drive when it jammed again. I noticed that there were tiny ball bearings in the tracks... It was then that I noticed that the bearing for the worm was completely gone (only the inside sleeve left). So I bundled all the bits back into the bag and went back to Tackleworld. Malcolm found the right bearing and then kindly offered to re-assembly my reel! WHAT A LEGEND! so now I have a beatifully clean, smooth running REVO back in my arsenal. Special Shout out to the boys at Tackleworld! Love your work!

Looking forward to the coming weekend with my mate Adam on his boat. Now that I have a working reel. It's probably also gonna be my last hoorah for a bit as the better half is about to have our second kid, so me thinks I will be a little busy! can't wait!

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Ah the joys of owning a boat eh.

Still sounds like a good day on the water. Nice write-up

Good report kernal Cheers