Quick after work session

Boat has been dry for a few weeks after doing some routine and some not so routine work to the boat so when some nice weather came along I hitched the boat up before work with the anticipation of a short day at the office.

Hastings Channel

I finished work at around 1400 and was at the boat ramp in Hastings by about 1445 and floating by 1500, with the changes to the available light we now have with daylight savings I knew I had plenty of time, normally I make the trip straight to the south of the port but today I decided to go east and fish some water I had not fished for a while. The wind was variable at about 10 knots and I was fishing in a cove type of area, this made it hard to get a good consistent drift working as the tide movement was all over the place as was the wind.

I stuck with it for about 20 minutes before my first squid came into the boat. I had decided that today I was going to fish only with my new Australian colors, the first one cam on the Kuma Killer, it was the first one I had tied on. I kept the drift going for a while landing a few along the way.

Gan Craft Egi-Jya Kuma Killer

Things went a bit quiet so I decided to make the move back up to the trusty Tyabb Bank, things were very similar to where I was fishing before. I landed a couple more before moving a little further north to the Quail Bank I did manage a 5 way hook up while I was here by swapping rods and casting behind the jigs that had squid on them but when you do this you also risk a big clean up at the end of the day, my boat was covered in ink by the end of it.

Not sure why but the water seems to be some what murky considering the weather we were experiencing but the big tides were not helping. I fished for about an hour longer before calling it a day, I managed a good bag of squid, I took some photo's of some of the better ones. I would normally snap a heap more pics off but when you are fishing on your own and drifting you dont want to spend too much time drifting around without paying attention. I was going to head out again today but the dreaded man flu has taken a hold so I will stick to sitting in front of the computer updating my blog LOL

Stella, Certate Hyper Custom ad Luvius Custom

too many squid means too much mess

Ramen - Learning how

As many people would know I am no stranger to the enjoyment of food, not so much for sustenance but also for the pleasure of simply eating.

During my recent visit to Japan I discovered a food called Ramen, the easiest way to explain Ramen is it is pretty much a noodle broth served with meat and 3 veg on the top. The Ramen I tried in Tanabe City in Japan was amazing, having never seen Ramen on any menu's in Australia I thought that it would be one of those things I would only find in Japan so I would rarely have the opportunity to eat it, however, on my return to Australia I consulted with my good friend and ever resourceful Mr Google, Google was able to find me several Ramen restaurants reasonably close to where I live. Now all I had to do was share this taste with my friends. I visited this Ramen restaurant a few times and although I enjoyed the meal it was not the same as what I had experienced in Japan.

As I was visiting this place weekly a great guy and chef from Ichi Ni, Melbourne's best Izakaya restaurants Wataru Su, noticed my visits and made an amazing offer of coming to my house and teaching me or should I say my wonderful wife Kim how to make our own Ramen. I was very gracious of the offer and accepted, now I have eaten Wataru's food before so I know this was going to be a cracking experience.

Wataru spent age's preparing the stock, this apparently is the most time consuming and difficult part of the dish, from what I have heard from some the stock can take days to prepare, he did most of this part at home using his wifes secret recipe (hahahaha not so secret now) so Upon his arrival all we had to do was finish the broth from the stock, roast the pre marinated pork, cook the noodles and enjoy the feast. I stayed out of the way while Wataru slaved in the kitchen with Kim watching on taking down notes.

My interest in the process was re kindled when I saw some Gyoza appear. Gyoza is a Japanese style grilled dumpling and is my favorite of all the Japanese foods I have eaten. Wataru was nearing the end of the cooking and my mouth was watering. He started by removing the Pork from the oven and slicing it into sections, then the noodles were placed into bowls. He then took the Ramen broth and poured it into the bowls over the noodles before adding bean shoots and shallots. This looked amazing and smelled just as nice. Now all I needed was to add the pork and the beer and we were winning.

I smashed the meal like it was my last and destroyed the plate of Gyoza, the meal was simply amazing and in my own house, we finished it off by watching some clips of Geki Yoshida on youtube via the smart TV in the lounge and talking about fishing, does it get any better than this, I think not.

Massive thanks to Wataru for his time and patience, it was an incredible evening of dining and talking about fishing and to my wife for taking down notes and learning how to also cook Ramen.

The Pork

Ramen and Noodles

Then the veg added

Then the Pork and the beer

Then the Gyoza and the finished meal