Leaderboard

You have all been there before I am sure. The perfect weekend away planned .......and then God has a cackle Background. For my 60th, my two sons arranged a 2 day fishing trip 4 1/2 hours drive away in country Queensland at Lake Monduran which is a legendary big Barramundi fishing locale. This is what a big Barramundi looks like at Lake Monduran. No....this isn't us. Lake Monduran is a trek to the middle of nowhere and a 34 square mile water monolith filled with woody hiding spots for this brilliant sportsfish. We thought it would be a good idea to tow the boat up. Myself and the two sons (Ben and Tom) have equal shares in the boat and looked forward to taking the boat out in this mythical big fish lake. Still, I know my stuff and decided to hire one of two professional guides on this massive expanse of water. We were to do two sessions with "Jake" ....one on the Friday evening and one on Saturday morning /half day. Ben had it worked out. 4 1/2 hour road trip, leave 8am, lunch at a country pup in the town of Gin Gin (population a couple of 100) 20 minutes out from lake Monduran, check in at 2pm to the three bedroom lake house and meet Jake at 4PM for the evening fish. As a dad, I took it upon myself to take up copious beers, rum, whiskey, tomahawk steaks, sausages, eggs, bread rolls and 4 loose leaves of salad (for dressing). What could go wrong? 90 minutes from our destination, both tyres on our boat trailer blew on the highway. Yep...the other one was much the same. Ben was driving and he safely pulled over off the highway but we were in a pickle. One spare, two tyres down, nearest town (Maryborough) 30 minutes away and not much chance of finding the exact wheels for our trailer at nearing 12:30Pm on a Friday. We put a plan in action. Decouple the boat/trailer on the side of the road and the lads scoot off to Maryborough to do their best. I stayed with the boat. One wheel/was eventually found in Maryborough. Another eventually found in the town of Childers a further 30 minutes away. I had a litre of water and a cigar while I waited. It was around 33 degrees Celsius, humid and on a freeway. We eventually got it sorted 3 1/2 hours later and were back on our way. I had a nice little case of heat stroke and a splitting headache. We rolled into Monduran at near 6PM. I had travelled to Hong Kong quicker the week prior. Jake was waiting for us on the boat ramp and I told the boys to go and fish without me. I needed a beer, a rum a cigar and some down time. They dashed out.....to the wrong boat ramp... but eventually caught up with the ever patient Jake. Jake runs a professional bass boat imported from the USA. More screens that the space shuttle with a livescope set up on the front. I haven't witnessed a livescope in action before but essentially for the non fisherman out there, you find the fish, you cast to the fish and you see everything in glorious real life as you bounce the lure off the fishes head. The fish were timid. Ben landed a nice one and Tom dropped a 1.2 metre Barramundi next to the boat. he didn't quite tie his knot correctly. Devastated to say the least but all was looking promising for the morning session with Jake. The lads arrived back to the house at midnight and fishing was scheduled again for 4:30am. This was Ben's night time catch. One day he will look at his first child like this. We hit the water early. it was going to be a Barramundi slaughter. 8 hours on the water. Travelled maybe 40 km. Livescope was working brilliantly. We were bouncing lures off the head of giant fish. It was hot as Hades but we were pumped. Fish Tally: 0 Jake our guide was devastated but told us that if they were not biting in the am they would be biting late afternoon early evening as the "Barra" needed to feed. He instructed us to take our boat out at 4Pm and fish through to 9pm. The "bite window' was 6Pm to 9PM. he sent through some fishing marks on the other side of the lake where we would no doubt be in Barramundi heaven. We jumped in the boat at and travelled across this mammoth tree filled lake at 4:30Pm and gunned it for 45 minutes before flicking our lures in great anticipation of the "bite window". Nada. Zilch. It was getting dark and so we made a plan to head back in this unfamiliar water moonscape to a place closer to the home. Made sense as there was no moon and becoming darker and darker as the minutes flew by. Our boat light went out. Let me cut this short. it took us near 4 hours to head back at 5 knots as we could only see a few metres ahead us at a time. I couldn't take a photo as it was too dark. It started to rain. Back at the house on midnight, we were mentally and physically knackered. We decided on a relatively early departure and hit the local Gin Gin bakery for a few of their famous meat pies. Ben talked up this bakery over the weekend no end. I don't eat meat pies as a rule but after this weekend from hell I was going to indulge. A good feed and then 4 1/2 hours drive home. Unfortunately we hit traffic coming into Brisbane so 5 1/2 hours. No problem, the pies would make up for it. The bakery was closed. .....it was a great "bonding" weekend

Just received this gorgeous box.

ROE JUL 2017 HDC when I got these from Prez for 285 bucks a box [emoji17] Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Siglo VI SOM NOV 16 BSE MAY 23 Courtesy of @raggie

Fundadores OUR FEB 08 Topes EL ROM SEP 16

H.Upmann Robustos Añejados Fantastic smoke. Chocolate maxed out. @ San Diego Right by the airport @ C Level Lounge (9.2/10 - Killer lobster sandwich & bisque + cocktail) SAN > LAX (by a million)

Home alone, MLB/NCAA games, perfect weather in South Florida, time to get the Compay Segundo cranked up and get into the good stuff. 2008 CoLa.

EML Sep 2014 Por Larrañaga Montecarlos...

2022 CORO

San Cristobal de La Habana - La Fuerza @ Tijuana, MX Haven't smoked many of these... they're delicious. Will be grabbing a box.

RASS in spring sunshine 👌

Montecristo No.1 - ESL Ago 2017

Bushido - I know I’ve always said Esplendidos are my favorite but damn these are good. Complex, savory, earthy, and going great with Alice Cooper welcoming me to his nightmare. I’d love to get my hands on another box.

Accepted a promotion today, so dug for something special. Thanks again SSanta, you know who you are...

Hoyo from 2022.

MOFOH Trinity: or The Cigar That Saved my Marriage.

Magicos EBP Jun 24

Enjoyed this Reyes on a lovely afternoon in Shanghai.

PLMC day

Partagas P2 TUA AGO 2021. Chainsaw whooped my arse today.

Rounded out the bday weekend with a PSP2. UBL. Oct 23. Dry boxed three days. Haven’t hit my stride with the P2 yet. Struggled in the first third with draw, smoke production, and discnerable flavor. Second third improved a bit flavor-wise. Great aromatics coming off the foot that didn’t translate into smoking, though. Got some leather and slight spice here and there, but nothing to write home about. Concluding third was very good. Draw improved with the right balance of spice and leather and sourdough creeping in. If the 3/3 was moved toward the beginning, I would've enjoyed this stick more. Potential is there and will revisit at two-year mark in October 2025.

Saturday nights cigars Ramon Allones Phoenicio 40 Edicion Regional Líbano Stewed Fruit, Molasses, Mocha 98' Rafael Gonzalez Lonsdales Cocoa, Baking Spice, Mint Blah Ok Good Tasty Heavenly

Yesterday N2 and Siglo IV today - finally almost 80°F outside.

Single from 2020 I think. Happy weekend!

Thank you FOH! First purchase in about 8 months! Loved the JL No. 2 so much so I decided to give these a go!

Sig IV (2018) from our gracious host.

El Rey Del Mundo - Serie B nº2 - 2019 Brasil This was the best taco I've ever had in my life. The cigar was solid, but that was a 98 point taco. Write-up to follow...

Last night in Dubrovnik. What a great trip!

Some recent smokes: Punch Robustos (ER Suiza 2005) This, along with Punch Superfinos, were the earliest regional editions. The name of the country started to appear only after these two releases. I smoked many of this. Very light, still flavorful. The superfinos are much better. Partagas SdC 3 (2007) Why they always stop producing the best ones???!!! The ones that smoke bad when young simply shouldn’t be sold young. It’s a shame that cigars that require patience are more likely to be discontinued!

Monday nights cigars 17' Ramon Allones Specialty Selected Stewed Fruit, Raisin, Baking Spice 1/2 10' Romeo y Julieta Cazadores Cherry, Coconut, Cocoa 1/2 Blah Ok Good Tasty Heavenly

C&C time. Esmeralda (2018) from our gracious host.

I’ve been on a Double Coronas binge lately. They don’t disappoint. Monte No.2 from 2020 coming along nicely. Enjoy your weekend!

Unicos (2017) from our gracious host.

Great to be outside again!

Bolívar Belicoso Fino (PTG ABR20).

Punch London Club

Leaf by Oscar Corojo Lancero (thanks @jay8354!)

Only one of these I’ve ever tried and I thought it was pretty miserable - chucked it shortly after the photo and lit myself a QD50 Good weather is too rare here to waste with bad experiences

2022 Especiales 2 from our host.

SLR Regios MEP NOV 2020 with Woodford double oaked. Not as good as the last one I had, but was still good.

Opus X Fuente Fuente.

Mail call BRM and UBL respectively.

MOFOH Trinity ROTT. Wow!

Monte 4 (ROP June 2021)

Punch Double Coronas - LOM Jun 2012