Dear fellow N E members. I have been absent from from activity on the forum for a while and thought you might be interested in an event from earlier this year which I now realise I didn't post.

The week-end before Easter the MGFA (Muscat Game Fishing Association) of which I am the Conservation Committee Representative held a two day competition. Before I go any further let me say ,fishing and competition are "chalk and cheese" to me.

However, on the basis "if you are in you are in" the plan came together. My Plan was to show the benefit of offshore fly fishing and maybe generate some interest. I sourced a large capacity fly reel (Tibor "The Pacific" ) A 13 wt 7 ft rod (Custom Built suitably entitled "The Yellowfin" ( Casts like a broomstick but handy when you hook a decent fish)) Tied up some BIG flies for the job also (see below). Yes they are all a bit different, Never been able to tie two the same...

Day one was a blank, but lots of beer and cheer in the evening, Day two with a sore head I hooked a 25 1/4 lb LongTail Tuna. Whilst not a monster I have to say having 600 meters of 35lb Gelspun backing on the Tibor Pacific was reassuring.

Good scrap for 20 or so minutes. Took well over 150 yards off the reel. Superb.

The temperature was evil. Tuna were boiling every where which is pretty rare here but they were extremely boat shy so it took hell of a lot of boat work , positioning, drifting and trying to ambush them. Also the rod is a brute to cast. Luckily as you can see the sea was dead calm so I managed a few 30 yrd casts (no mean feat on the broomstick) one of which paid off.

Managed to grab 1st Prize in the IGFA Fly Category and picked-up a few converts along the way.

Here's the flies. Pretty big and work well for Dorado too (watch for scale)

Best regards

Ade