A nice mixed bag typical of the local waters off Adelaide

A brace of Southern Sea Garfish. Southern Calamari. Tommy Ruff. Southern Blue Spot Flathead. Under them all is a collection of perfect eating sized pinkies, Pink Snapper.

This is what a day on the water is all about, a good collection with a bit of variety. Time to ring up the mates and fire up the BBQ.

But every now and then, you get to see something like this. Is that a pretty sight or what. A tad over 76cm long and vibrant with colour. I'd spent all afternoon dropping prime baits like live mackerel and gar down but only scored a few moderate keepers. About to go home, I had two old pilchards left and took a chance on my light line outfit. The bait didn't even reach bottom, this fish must have met it half way.

A good keeper, this size and smaller are my favoured target for eating fish. I'd like to think I was strong enough to let the bigger breeders go.

And that's my favourite hat as well. It's kept me safe all around Australia twice, bush bashing across the Serengeti, on the highlands of Mt Kenya, looking for bathawks in Zimbabwe, even eating oysters on the Garden Route in South Africa. It's spent weeks bird watching in the cloud forests of Peru and long boating the mountain headwaters of the Amazon. In Canada up to the Artic Circle and back down to the west coast of the US. It's even looked quite out of place on the Costa Brava and Amsterdam. I haven't washed it once and my wife tells me you can smell everywhere it's been from a couple of meters away. What a great hat.

I'm starting to feel spoiled when I bring in bags of pinkies like this. But it does feel good to spread them around the relatives and friends.