February Report

Greg Reynolds and the crew from Reefari Charters managed another successful trip with glass out conditions... unfortunately a freak accident cut his latest trip short...

Greg Explains... The weather had picked up a little from the day before which had provided us with some good catches (see pics below).

There was a good 15 knot breeze assisting us from the North that made things a little more difficult. Luckily I haven’t got any photos of the injury but please be careful with braid. In all my years of fishing I’ve never had an incident like this.

We got a good strike on a live bait under a balloon and while checking the drag I somehow managed to get my index finger caught in a loose wrap of braid. All this while the culprit, a large shark, took off towards the horizon with me in tow!

No doubt the shark won this round as I was pulled over the stern head first into the water. The braid immediately cut through to the bone and I could feel every metre of drag taken by the shark. Trust me…….he took quite a bit!

I yelled to the deckie Simon to cut the line but luckily it broke. Once out of the water I inspected one of the worst cuts I’ve ever seen and realised my index finger was completely ring barked.

Luckily, Simon is a paramedic and jumped in with the first aid duties. A little bit of shock set in and not feeling 100% it was time to head for home. I thought everything would be fine and spent the next two days and nights in hospital. Things weren’t looking that good as I was wheeled into surgery with the plan to cut off two joints of my index finger. It was a great surprise when I awoke to find the finger still attached and change through a range of colours a finger shouldn’t be. It’s been white, black and then the darkest purple. Because some circulation still existed it was decided to leave it and see if it would improve.

Anyway – the finger is continuing to improve and the whole ordeal has really changed my opinion of onboard safety. I’ll never treat braid the same again and hope you recognise the same after reading this. It all happens so fast so be careful.

I’ll be taking things easy for a while but will be back out there again soon.

Cheers

Captain Greg Reynolds
Reefari Charters

Before the incident with the finger we managed some good trips with nice glassy seas. We picked some very good quality reef fish including a whopper nannygai around 6 kilos, red emperor and coral trout.

Greg Thommas with a
nice 6 Kilo Nannygai

Peter Sukroo with a
large Tomato Cod

The guys with a good haul
of reds from left Paul Knupis, Greg Thommas, Kevin Thommas, and
Ian McPherson

Greg Thommas & Chris
Wall with nice Nannygai

Greg Thommas (Thommo) and Ian McPherson (Macca) with another nice Nannygai

Ian McPherson with a
nice Coral Trout

Ian McPherson with a
nice Red Emperor