charleville
27-02-2006, 09:24 AM
I remember being very disappointed by a teacher’s remark when I was a kid on the day when I first tried out for the schools cricket teams. On discovering that I had the dual qualities of being both a pathetic bowler and a pathetic batsman, the teacher very haughtily and cruelly said, “Well why would you want to be on a cricket team?!” My simple unassuming but embarrassed answer was, “Well sir, I like cricket.”
So I ended up in the lowest grade cricket team in the school – you know the one with all the rejects and usually so many of them that you only got to play about one week in four. However, to this day, one of my greatest sporting memories is the day that I top scored for the team with six runs. What a legend! ;D ;D ;D ;D I have always loved cricket.
I have very similar prowess in my fishing skills as I did at playing cricket :-[ but the undeniable truth remains that I just love fishing. I go out fishing at every opportunity that I can and I eagerly soak up all of the wisdom from countess fishing magazines, fishing expos at boat shows, and by hanging onto every word written in these pages by real experts like Webby, who knows more about the topic that most others ever will and whose generosity in giving really helpful advice, maps, GPS marks etc to blokes who he has never met places him as one of nature’s truest and most genuine gentlemen. :) :) :)
So when Webby gave me some advice a couple of weeks ago that Mud Island can fish well on a rising evening tide, I just had to give it a go at the first opportunity that the weather allowed. Yippee!! A window of opportunity opened up amongst a fortnight of big winds last night and I was in like Flynn! :) :) :)
Alas, I was about a half hour later in launching than I had intended so instead of being anchored in place before the sun set, I found myself arriving at Mud a little after 7pm on a very dark night. :( Being unsure of how to navigate my way around Mud on a very dark night, I decided to go where at least I knew I could safely find my way, a spot close to the shoreline on the eastern side.
That was not the greatest idea as the wind was from the east and although it was only about 12 knots or so, I was still bounced around in my tinnie a fair bit. I like night fishing but it is easy to become a bit disoriented in a small boat as the boat bounces around in the dark. The anchor light gets in the eyes at the wrong time, and you trip and drop stuff and hit other rods when casting and so it goes.
But there are compensations – the night air last night coming off the sea was so warm, the stars so bright, the wind took away all of the mozzies – and before I knew it, it was 11pm and time to come home. And the trip home to Manly at 11.30pm with the whole city ablaze with lights, on a warm night with a lighter wind than earlier and with gentle seas was worth the whole excursion. :) :) :)
So did I catch any fish? Well, I am pretty sure that there are now no catfish around Mud Island that have not seen the inside of my boat ;D ;D and there were a few barely legal bream that I let go to grow a bit bigger but as the picture shows, I did get at least get the proverbial feed as can be seen below. The cod was caught on an unweighted pillie on ganged hooks.
My cricket teacher may have considered it not worth the effort – but then again, I always did consider him to be a boofhead. ;D ;D ;D
So I ended up in the lowest grade cricket team in the school – you know the one with all the rejects and usually so many of them that you only got to play about one week in four. However, to this day, one of my greatest sporting memories is the day that I top scored for the team with six runs. What a legend! ;D ;D ;D ;D I have always loved cricket.
I have very similar prowess in my fishing skills as I did at playing cricket :-[ but the undeniable truth remains that I just love fishing. I go out fishing at every opportunity that I can and I eagerly soak up all of the wisdom from countess fishing magazines, fishing expos at boat shows, and by hanging onto every word written in these pages by real experts like Webby, who knows more about the topic that most others ever will and whose generosity in giving really helpful advice, maps, GPS marks etc to blokes who he has never met places him as one of nature’s truest and most genuine gentlemen. :) :) :)
So when Webby gave me some advice a couple of weeks ago that Mud Island can fish well on a rising evening tide, I just had to give it a go at the first opportunity that the weather allowed. Yippee!! A window of opportunity opened up amongst a fortnight of big winds last night and I was in like Flynn! :) :) :)
Alas, I was about a half hour later in launching than I had intended so instead of being anchored in place before the sun set, I found myself arriving at Mud a little after 7pm on a very dark night. :( Being unsure of how to navigate my way around Mud on a very dark night, I decided to go where at least I knew I could safely find my way, a spot close to the shoreline on the eastern side.
That was not the greatest idea as the wind was from the east and although it was only about 12 knots or so, I was still bounced around in my tinnie a fair bit. I like night fishing but it is easy to become a bit disoriented in a small boat as the boat bounces around in the dark. The anchor light gets in the eyes at the wrong time, and you trip and drop stuff and hit other rods when casting and so it goes.
But there are compensations – the night air last night coming off the sea was so warm, the stars so bright, the wind took away all of the mozzies – and before I knew it, it was 11pm and time to come home. And the trip home to Manly at 11.30pm with the whole city ablaze with lights, on a warm night with a lighter wind than earlier and with gentle seas was worth the whole excursion. :) :) :)
So did I catch any fish? Well, I am pretty sure that there are now no catfish around Mud Island that have not seen the inside of my boat ;D ;D and there were a few barely legal bream that I let go to grow a bit bigger but as the picture shows, I did get at least get the proverbial feed as can be seen below. The cod was caught on an unweighted pillie on ganged hooks.
My cricket teacher may have considered it not worth the effort – but then again, I always did consider him to be a boofhead. ;D ;D ;D