DON'T HIT THE PANIC BUTTON

Petey O was out in 'Barbless' the other weekend when he saw what appeared to be a reasonable barra tail displayed in the dirty water.   The fish was laying on the flats, just out from the trees, so Pete used the trusty Minn Kota to get in position to get this fish which by the part of its tail that was exposed, looked like a possible keeper.

Now as often happens in these situations, the fish hit the hooks, but when it launched itself out of the water it was a bloody monster. A bloody metery! and what do you do when you have one of them hooked, you hit the buttons on the remote for the MK.  Pete hit the panic button to try and turn the boat out from the trees to fight the fish , but forgot to take his finger off the button.

The result, the MK rotates around and around until it can go no further and is locked into a position that is driving you into the trees.   So Pete tried to hit the other button to unwind the locked motor but hit the one with the 'rabbit' on it.   The rabbit of course put the motor into top speed straight into the trees and with his rod, boat and anything loose being picked up by branches, Pete tried to fight this fish which at this stage had apparently stopped to enjoy watching Pete filling his boat with mangrove leaves and branches, while he left lures, flies and rods stuck on the branches of the trees.

The fish finally had enough and went into the trees, probably to give poor Pete a hand, but it snapped the line around one of the branches then swam off into the sunset.

A lot of us have done exactly the same thing, so remember, your electric can be a good friend, but a bad enemy if you hit that bloody panic button.