ABU News/Experiences

I would really appreciate contributions that might interest, amuse or otherwise inform and perhaps warn visitors to this site, of ABU goings' on.  These are often minor recollections that may be humorous or serious depending whether you were involved or part of a larger remote audience. Full acknowledgement will be made (if wished or permitted!)

 Our beloved and dedicated  ABU catalogues will cease being produced in 2006. The replacement will be a catalog of the entire range PURE FISHING products (4500+) items from all the sub-brand product names such as Fenwick, Stren etc. This will be produced in many languages in order to continue the global dominance of the parent conglomerate. Disappointingly, the depth of detail about not only about the ABU product range but also all the valued and  associated articles will be missing. What made ABU the strength that it was from the 1940's, such as education, rewards, conservation issues etc will be omitted I believe, largely due to the size of the family that ABU Garcia is now part of. We will just have to wait till the catalogues are produced in 2006 to gauge their effectiveness against competitors.

The first story, involved the loss in 1977 of my treasured ABU 6000C and the newly acquired double-handed baitcaster ABU Diplomat 662, not to mention the ABU Toby Salmo and a spool of line. How did I come to lose such a fine fishing rig? I cast with the right hand and changeover to the left hand to hold the rod whilst winding with the right. At the critical moment of changeover, an energetic Trevally struck hard and pulled the lot from my hands and off into the beautiful clear waters off Butterfly Bay headland on Great Keppel Island. To cut a long and painful story short, fishing mate Lindsay, who continued to cast and retrieve a heavy metal lure managed to snag the line and pull it to shore. First the rod and reel was retrieved with any damage from the 30 minute dunking, and then for good measure, I wound in the line and landed a nice Trevally of several kilograms. It was duly sacrificed on the bar-b-que plate back at he camp site and enjoyed for dinner by all.

Another story from Great Keppel Island was when I was wandering up a small shallow creek (Leekies Ck) looking for flathead on my Diplomat baitcaster, 6000C  and a small Toby lure. For some reason we stopped and chatted whilst surveying the pools that lay ahead. I was standing in just 10cm of water and unconsciously sensed something under my right foot. I was casually rubbing and turning my "bare" foot right left and back again, when two huge claws materialized from the sand one either side of my foot and ankle. I might add, I nearly needed a change of undies after this, but common sense came to the fore and I realized the mudcrab could not actually bite me from the fortunate position my foot was in relative to its shell. Like the unlucky trevally above it also ended up providing a delightful meal! (much better than the fathead we were looking for and did not find!)

My biggest catch was with a my 6500 CT Mag Elite and baitcaster, when fishing with mate Lins and Art in the Fitzroy River. Lins is an avid spinning reel man rather than a baitcaster enthusiast. So as usual on each outing, a casting competition is conducted to display the merits of the respective reel and personal technique. The scene was 75 m from our local 4 lane traffic bridge. The task cast as far under the very high bridge as posible. Some prestigious casts were made but in my efforts to secure supremecy I let fly with a little ripper of a cast only my technique obviously was a little off. The line screamed off the reel and the lure's trajectory was just a little high. It hit a truck travelling southbound and for a while I was playing a 20 tonne monster cruising along at 70km/hr. I guess my Toby is in Brisbane or Sydney now!

Other stories to relate at a later date, involve hooks and arms, falls on oyster rocks, a broken ABU Atlantic 484.