Jim was up to stay for business, and we foolishly decided to head off for an early morning jaunt before we started work.

It all started well, with a 4:30 am start getting us on the river just after dawn. I loaned Jim a rod, but he didnt have waders, so he used some boots he had for work on building sites.

We tried Brumbies Creek at fieshermans lane, near Cressy. We parked at the parking lot, and worked our way upstream. Brumbies was running high, but not totally unfishable.

After 45 minutes to an hour I finally got a fish -- a good 12" brown. But we were running out of wadeable river, and it was cold, so I offered Jim a breakfast at McDonalds. We headed back to the car and, of course, the car wouldnt start. I called RACT, only to be told my membership had expired -- it ran out last year and the renewal went to the old address. I couldnt renew my membership, as I had lost my wallet 3 days before, and didnt have replacement credit cards. And then my mobile phone battery went flat.

Oh crap!

Fortunately, Jim had both a functioning credit card and a functioning mobile phone. After use of his equipment we then had to wait for the RACT guy to show up.

15 minutes later a battered pickup appeared. Was this RACT? Low and behold it was -- but he was also the local school bus driver, and he kept pointing out that he had to rush, as he had a school bus run!

In the end we had water in the engine from driving through puddles to get to the river. The guy sprayed wd40 and we were right to go. But not without a lot of anxiety and money first! But was is a fishing trip without a disaster :)