My brother from out west and me from Mackay wanted to build our lure fishing knowledge, (i.e. instead of continuing to waste our time, effort & money doing the same things and expecting different result;) so we jumped onto the net and trolled around looking for fishing guides that provided a real learning experience as opposed to just putting clients on to hot fishing spots. During our search it became obvious that what we were looking for were few and far between, apart from a couple down south, one close to Mackay & G&T Fishing School & Charters up there in Townsville. I contacted all the ones I could find and G & T (Graham Knight) came up trumps. The reason we went with Knighty was his knowledge & enthusiasm I picked up over the phone. I had learnt a heap from Knighty even before I had met him in person.
Anyway, on to the day; the deal is, bring what you want to eat and drink (saves the dietary/food allergy dramas that seem to be everywhere today) and if you want, your own rods & reels, but all lures, leaders etc. are supplied by Knighty (this removes any anxiety about throwing your expensive lures where they may not ever return from). We drove up to Townsville the day before and booked into a caravan / cabin park from where Graham picked us up at sparrows on the day and off we went to Hinchinbrook channels; the tutorial started from when we put our seat belts on until when we took them off upon our return late that day.
During our time on the water we covered things like understanding the influences of Moon Phase, Water temperature, Barometric Pressure, Wind Direction, Cloud & Sun, Tide direction & stage, pressure points on the Target species which all influence lure selection, presentation and retrieval speeds. By the end of the day we were both whacked and in brain overload but more than satisfied with what we had learned, put into practice and fine-tuned under Knighty’s close supervision.
Yes we did catch fish, we landed a dozen or more Barra (kept 2 for a feed), had more than 20 hits and just as many followers and lookers each; All proof that what Graham taught and demonstrated worked, because neither of us would have fished where, when or how we did that day if we had gone there on our own.
Over the past week or so as everything has jelled and I have spoken to my brother over the phone, it has become even more apparent than first thought just how much extra fishing knowledge we gained from that day; not to mention the follow up calls I’ve made to Knighty (which he actually encourages) about anything from the tutorial and in general that I want to know. NOW THAT’S WHAT I CALL AFTER SALES SERVICE!
Where to now, well we going to put the money we would each spend on our next dozen good quality lures into a cunning kit instead, and then when it reaches the target sum we are going to invest it on another day with a Knight.