hawkesbury birthday bash

[tide'n'knots]

gday raiders i turned 50 yesterday and my best fishing mate joe organised a fishing trip with me. The plan was to fish early morning for bream at a spot that fires on daylight until around 8am then move to flint and steel and try for a jew for a couple of hours and the work our way up river to other spots to coincide with tide turns etc. I had a bad feeling when the sun started to rise and was very large and bright red - "red sky by morning,sailors take warning, red sky by night, sailors delight", sure enough by around 9am the wind started and just got worse as the day progressed. we managed 6 good bream and dropped a couple of others to hooks pulling or being reefed around the very rough bottom we were fishing,and could have easily had 9 or 10 had we landed every fish. As the day progressed i was losing interest with the wind being so bad but joe kept insisting that we fish the turn of tide around 2.30 - 3.00pm and as I was in his boat I felt obligated to go along with what he wanted even though the whole time I was thinking , why does he want to fish in cyclonic conditions? i know he is a keen fisherman and so am I but this is ridiculous!! Little did I know that my wonderful girlfriend had organised a surprise party for me and joe was part of the elaborate set up! I managed somehow to catch a nice flathead around 55cm during a lull in the wind ( it blew 45 knots instead of 55knots for about 5 mins!!!)then late in the afternoon rosetta (GF) rings joe and invites him and his wife over for dinner ( knowing full well that I had only had a couple hours sleep the night before and if she had asked me I would have said - make it some other time I am tired and would rather have an early night!) So after arriving back at joes place he quickly has a shower and gets dressed and they then follow me home. I got the shock of my life when I walked in the door to about 20 friends and family yelling "SURPRISE". My best mate Craig who I have been mates with since kindergarden came down from forster with his wife and daughter and my sister came over from adelaide also. Rosetta had hired a jukebox/karaoke machine so after 4 or 5 beers and a couple of bourbons the party moved from the back yard inside to some games of pool and some rousing renditions of 'khe sahn' eagle rock and my way , I even did islands in the stream with craigs wife leanne!! My daughter made me a great cake with a fish on the front and I got two new rods and a bridge climb as presents as well as some "T" shirts and an awesome personalised card from Marcel (twin 1)and his lovely wife Megan even though they were unfortunately unable to attend.

what a huge day! pity about the wind or I am sure we would have caught more fish but a great day and even better night. It finally wound up around 3am and to say i was stuffed was an understatment!

pete

Edited April 3, 2011 by tide'n'knots

[Brooker435]

Happy Birthday Pete,

Sounds like a great day full of surprises and great company well deserved!!!!!

and a few fish for your troubles!!!!

all the best Pete!!!

Regards,

Nathan

[marcel haber]

Nice looking cake Pete,

Just love it when a plan comes together - some nice looking bream and flatties.

Glad you had a great birthday surprise - hope you can catch up on some shut eye lol.

Twin 1

[jenno64]

Very nice fish there sir!

[cut_loose]

Nice flattie and bream mate, that's a good feed

[arpie]

:1happybday: Many Happies, Pete - I was hoping to attend, but it was the day Keith flew out to USA & I was 'Nanna sitting' my 93 year old Mum as well!! So glad the party went off with a BANG and that you have some new fishy things to play with!

Well done on getting a feed in such cyclonic conditions! Look forward to catching up again this weekend at teh Entrance - I've almost convinced Cam & Christine to come along!! Hope they do.

Cheerio

Roberta

[Hodgey]

Sounds like you had a terrific time Pete. The birthday cake was a pearler!

Cheers

Hodgey

[PRED-ATOR]

Happy Birthday mate! nice cake! by far the best looking fish of the day

[sadamson]

Congrats Pete you dont look that old, look forward to having a beer with you on the weekend Cheers Stephen

[zen801]

Hi Pete,

Happy birthday old fella. I cant talk as i am 49. Mate the big 50 is a milestone and i was happy to see that you got the chance to ehjoy it with your loved ones. Life is good - enjoy.

Mate its "new moon" and raining and the jewies are biting.

Mike

[Keflapod]

Pete,

The big five-o.

They shoulda taken you to hawaii (and had a hawaii-five-o)

Sorry - poor movie joke there.

Mate it must be a good feeling to have family and friends that go to so much trouble for you to have a special day like that.

Friends that are prepared to risk your life in cyclonic conditions to keep you from finding out what fiendish plot they are brewing.

Well OK - they risked their own life as well.

Gotta question their sanity...

But mate, what a top day.

You fished.

You caught some.

You lost some.

You feared for your life

You had the pants scared off you at the "Surprise!"

You stayed up late waaaaay past your bedtime and gave up your beauty sleep.

You even karaoke'd at 3:00am, much to the delight of your neighbours.

Mate I can't wait to reach 50 - only 4 years to go.

It would be nice to have MY girlfriend organise things for me.

Especially since I don't have one.

My wife won't let me........

Happy Birthday mate.

Tony

PS - Love the lipstick on the barra.

Edited April 5, 2011 by Keflapod