Reply With Quotewell done charlie ,me an a mate got there about 6.30 ended up with 3 tuskies,1 nice cod 1 squire an a brembo cheers
I am exhausted and I don’t know why.
I recall how as a young fella, I would be out until 3 am on four nights per week, doing what young fellas do, and although starting work at 8 am was a drag after that, somehow I managed.
I recall driving back and forth to Melbourne every weekend for six months during the airline strike in the late 1980’s when I had to be working in Melbourne but did not want to spend all of my weekends away from my family. Week after week, I would do the each-way 19 hour drive, leaving work in Melbourne at 4 pm on a Friday and then leaving Brissy at 2 pm on the Sunday arvo to get back to Melbourne just in time to start work on the Monday. The Monday mornings were a bit of a strain until I could have a lunch-time kip but it is amazing what 15 minutes of shut-eye can do to revive you.
I recall doing all-nighters regularly when I was a university student, either trying to cram for an exam or complete an assignment or just driving a taxi for 12 hours at the end of a university day.
Even now, I rarely go to bed before 1 am and then I usually get up before the sun arises. Mind you, past a certain age, it is hard to get to sleep after midnight and hard to stay awake after mid-day.
So with a lifelong track record of needing only small bouts of sleep, why am I so bloody tired today?I nearly did not intend to write this report because I feel so exhausted beyond the stage of being able to string a coherent thought together.
I shouldn’t be this tired.
After all, I did get a full two hours kip last night before I motored quietly through the mystical, magical, hypnotically, gently pulsating lead-lights at Manly at 2.20 am this morning on my way to Mud Island to fish through the 4.44 am high tide.
Indeed, I should be very relaxed after that trip. Just imagine the serenity of gliding northwards from the Manly leads with a quiet little 4 stroke behind you, pushing you along in warm, 7 knot, SW breezes, star-filled clear skies and almost perfectly calm water, with a crescent moon reflecting off the water on your right and the lights of the Port of Brisbane illuminating the whole planet to your left. Awesome!
Just imagine taking deep breaths of the warm air free of car fumes, and feeling the childlike joy of seeing a shooting star ahead of you.
And the darkness and solitude of the surroundings.
Solitude because not a single vessel is to be seen. Not a one!All the way until you reach Mud Island where one lonely tinnie sits a few hundred metres away from “your” spot.
Imagine wondering why that is?But not tonight. Everything is subdued. Peaceful.
So relaxing. So why should I be so tired today?
Ah - never mind. I must be getting old.
The dark hours of the morning at Mud Island were truly stunning this morning. I pulled anchor at 7.30 am after some enjoyably steady fishing, albeit there were a lot of undersized squire and no big ones coming anywhere near me.
I did however bring home the proverbial “feed.” No record breakers that I could land but I did take home a mixed feed of some nice bream, one tarwhine, a tusky, a couple of tailor and a trevally. Like I said, a feed...
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
Unlike my last trip to Mud Island, on this occasion, I did keep a trevally to experience their eating qualities for my first time. The advice received after my last report was to bleed them and now I understand why. This bloke gushed out blood - more so than I would usually expect from Tailor - so they must have a very dark flesh if not bled.
As often happens at Mud Island, I did have some fun with an unstoppable for a while until it broke off my 20 lb line after some big runs when it was truly unstoppable. I suspect that it may have been a large shovelly because he hugged the bottom quite a lot before making massively heavy runs. I have caught five foot shovellies before but this bloke had a lot more power than them.
My bream are probably a bit bigger than I would expect at Mud at this time of year. Maybe they have been washed out of the river with all of the fresh water.
All fish, including the tuskie surprisingly, were taken on pilchards on three ganged, 4/0 Gamakatsu "Gangster" hooks.
Still not sure why I am so tired though.
.
well done charlie ,me an a mate got there about 6.30 ended up with 3 tuskies,1 nice cod 1 squire an a brembo cheers
charleville, it was a perfect day 2day and u got a good feed nothing wrong with that! Well done
A nice catch, and your usual excellent tome. Tell me, do you always enjoy the solitude and beauty alone, or do you sometimes share it with a fishing partner?
Mike
Theres a huge difference between being tired and lazy, your out there getting everything organized for your trip, launch the boat, catch fish, pack up and everything else, I'm thinking fishing is harder work than paddling into big surf !
Your deffinetly not lazy !! I've got an 18 yr old boy that can sleep for 24 hrs without visiting the toilet, then when he gets up he goes and lays on the lounge,
If I were you I wouldn't worry, it's normal to get tired, just a passing thing, btw great story ,
tomarrow I'm taking my wife offshore out of the seaway for the first time in this boat, I hope to get her on at least one big one, she might be there just to burly for me . . . . cheers
I hope that report got some where at the end ( I fell asleep)
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
But well done
Tim
HEAD DOWN BUM UP!
Originally Posted by Marlin_Mike
To be honest, Mike, I really far prefer to go fishing on my own unless it is with my own kids who are now adults, scattered far and wide and pretty well out of the fishing picture. However, in recent years I have felt some obligation to take some friends and rellies but I have to say that I don't usually enjoy the experience.
I have about six people who are always keen to go fishing but after a while it becomes not much fun taking guests fishing. It gets to the point where I am just running an unpaid charter boat business ...
1. Pretty well none of them have any fishing gear at all or gear that is up to the task so I usually have to surrender the simple light rod that I like using so that they have something to use and I use my heavier more complicated gear that I would not usually use such that my own fishing experience is lessened. Maybe, I should spend $80 to buy a cheap rod just for guests but why?
2. I usually supply everything - bait, fuel, hooks (at about $1.50 a throw for some of mine), etc. People just assume that I will. That usually also means that I will oversupply so that we will not run out. If it was just me fishing and I run out of bait, I just come home. It also means that I usually supply multiple bait choices to help ensure their success. 'Tis not hard to incur an extra $50 on a fishing trip to ensure that someone else has a good time. I have had people offer $5 to help defray expenses - just another insult really.
3. Some of them turn up in shoes and socks which means that I cannot even get them to hold the boat in the water at the ramp and also that I have to launch and retrieve the boat myself as I normally do but then find myself having to pull up at the jetty to get them on/off board. This is a real nuisance.
4. "Please" is not a word that I EVER hear when anyone asks if they might come fishing. Not once! Never! Nyet! Usually it is something like "How about you take me fishing. I am good at fishing" (which is always a lie) or "If you are nice to me, I will let you take me fishing." The arrogance that accompanies people's fishing requests is stunning at times.
5. Often, if we do catch fish, they do not have an esky to take it home. You would be surprised at the number of times that I have supplied eskies, buckets (the stout $11 variety) etc for people to take home some fish. Of course, I never get them back. Ever.
6. When I take someone fishing, it becomes an "event". Viz, I need to arrange times, set alarms etc. I had to do that in my working life. Don't want to do that again. Most times when I go fishing, I look out of the window at the weather after waking when my body wants to awaken and then I decide if I am going fishing. If I want to stay out a bit longer than usual, I just phone my wife and tell her that I am coming home later and then I radio the marine rescue people who I have logged on with and tell them the same thing. That can be at midday or midnight - 'tis easy to make that decision when I am on my own.
7. I tire of hearing fishing stories on board about the "big kingie" that they caught at Lord Howe Island on a charter boat or the big barramundi they caught at Groote Eylandt or things like, "Call this cold?! This is nothing. When I was doing a night huskie sled trip in Canada last Christmas, now - that was cold!) Am I supposed to be impressed by this stuff from people who usually struggle to recognise when they are even getting bites when on my boat. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
8. Some of them don't live for the moment and are always answering mobile phone calls. Hell! I had to tolerate that in my work life. Don't wanna listen to that garbage when I am out enjoying the serenity of the ocean.
9. Because I feel an obligation to give my guests a good time, I will then find myself going to the heavily fished areas that have a good chance of producing fish and not getting to explore other places that might yield no result on the day. It matters not to me whether I catch fish on every trip as I have plenty in my freezer but I lose that freedom when I have guests.
10. Often, I catch all or nearly all of the fish when I go fishing with a guest so then I give them all of the fish or crabs or at least most of them so that they do not arrive home disappointed. So, the benefit to me of taking them fishing is?????????
11. Half of the times that I take people fishing, they arrive late and so I am usually sitting in the boat at the jetty squandering good tide time waiting for them to arrive. They then mince down the jetty and look for help to get on the boat as though they should be waited on like royalty.
12. Half of the guests need help in baiting hooks and tying on tackle. It s just like taking a young kid fishing most times. Don't wanna spend my time out on my boat doing that. Been there; done that.
13. Obviously, being guests, they are not an asset in managing a boat. They are a liability - either getting in the way or, if they do help, doing things like winching the boat on to the trailer so half heartedly that I usually take over the winching and do the job properly before the boat sways around in the current damaging itself on the side of the trailer.
14. If the boat motor coughs a bit when starting or something similar, as all irregularly used motors do, there are usually comments like. "Does the engine need a bit of maintenance?" Just bloody offensive, at times.
15. Any more than one person on a small boat is a crowd. I usually find myself placing eskies etc so that my guests re comfortable whereas I am often quite cramped so that they have comfort.
17. Having a guest in a boat is no different to having guest visit at home. There is a natural tendency to make sure things are clean and tidy on board. So that involves an extra couple of hours of work before the event to tidy the deck and wash off the blood that might have been splattered around inside by the mackerel caught on the previous trip that is of no bother to me but not something that I would leave there when I have a guest. Who needs extra work of any sort?
18. Usually, when the guest has had enough fishing because they are useless at it, they will put down their rod and just sit there saying nothing, hoping that I will wind up and go home. So my whole day is structured to fit the needs of the guest.
19. As skipper of the boat, I am legally responsible for their safety. Managing a boat in rough weather is a handful. Who needs extra responsibilities for no gain?
20. There ain't nuthin' as enjoyable as being on a lonely sea by oneself. The serentity is awesome. Especially at night in winter. You know - the time when most guests are breaking that serenity by complaining about the cold all bloody night long.
Yup. That just about sums up my experiences. Taking guests fishing is a chore which involves extra work, extra costs. extra stress and extra responsibilities. It not a relaxation.
Do I qualify to get my certificate as a grumpy old man?
.
mate i am with you,have mates wanting to go for a fish offshore and now i just tell them b4 we leave u buy the bait i will cover the fuel costs,what u catch u keep, u catch nothin and i get a few fish u miss out,the last few trips out we didn't get many but i always got a few ,i also enjoy going by myself,not a care in the world like you said fish where u want to fish,but must admit takin the oldman and son out is also priceless,but mind you they both are really good fisherman,tis always a good read your reports and u seem to get a feed most trips as well,mud is another place i dont fish well,maybe have to give it a fair go,
cheers rosco
Once again Charlie, a very good and reflective report. It's a common thing I think, that having the solitude while fishing, makes one reflect on life's issues whether they be good or bad.
Now I've read and re-read your points 1 to 20 inclusive, but I'm afraid that the points you've raised don't qualify you for a GOM. You see, what you've done is to express your frustrations that guest fishers cause you, so much so that you simply don't take them anymore.
A genuine GOM is one that gets annoyed by little things such as:
Reading the drivel in the paper trotted out by brain dead space wasters that pass for journalists;
Seeing what the Premier is doing to this state of ours;
Housewives who use my driveway as a parking space;
Driving on the roads with housewives around 3.15pm after they've collected their little darlings from school;
Housewives who refuse to use the off-street parking facility so they don't have to walk about 60 metres or so to the school gate;
Having a running battle with the witch round the corner who doubles as a lolly pop lady;
Watching housewives standing around wasting time talking after they've dropped their little darlings off at school when they could be at home preparing the evening meal;
Drivers who suddenly appear on the road as I'm backing the car out;
People at the sporting club who go the wrong way when selecting their food at lunchtime, causing gridlock at the salad bar;
The same people at the sporting club who get in my way when I'm trying to get my dessert.
I'll stop now, as the list could go on ad finitum.
THAT'S what makes a GOM Charlie.
I'm afraid that you're too nice a person.
TOL
Click for full size - Uploaded with plasq's Skitch
.
Great read and a great feed mate.
I agree with so many of your points. I only take two other people in my boat plus the mrs. and thats it. Some people don't understand how good it is to zoom across the bay in pitch black without a sole around then spend a few hours having a fish.
I prefer to fish solo but fishing with a best mate on the water is good as well cause you end up having a decent chat.
To be honest, Mike, I really far prefer to go fishing on my own unless it is with my own kids who are now adults, scattered far and wide and pretty well out of the fishing picture. However, in recent years I have felt some obligation to take some friends and rellies but I have to say that I don't usually enjoy the experience.
I have about six people who are always keen to go fishing but after a while it becomes not much fun taking guests fishing. It gets to the point where I am just running an unpaid charter boat business ...
1. Pretty well none of them have any fishing gear at all or gear that is up to the task so I usually have to surrender the simple light rod that I like using so that they have something to use and I use my heavier more complicated gear that I would not usually use such that my own fishing experience is lessened. Maybe, I should spend $80 to buy a cheap rod just for guests but why?
2. I usually supply everything - bait, fuel, hooks (at about $1.50 a throw for some of mine), etc. People just assume that I will. That usually also means that I will oversupply so that we will not run out. If it was just me fishing and I run out of bait, I just come home. It also means that I usually supply multiple bait choices to help ensure their success. 'Tis not hard to incur an extra $50 on a fishing trip to ensure that someone else has a good time. I have had people offer $5 to help defray expenses - just another insult really.
3. Some of them turn up in shoes and socks which means that I cannot even get them to hold the boat in the water at the ramp and also that I have to launch and retrieve the boat myself as I normally do but then find myself having to pull up at the jetty to get them on/off board. This is a real nuisance.
4. "Please" is not a word that I EVER hear when anyone asks if they might come fishing. Not once! Never! Nyet! Usually it is something like "How about you take me fishing. I am good at fishing" (which is always a lie) or "If you are nice to me, I will let you take me fishing." The arrogance that accompanies people's fishing requests is stunning at times.
5. Often, if we do catch fish, they do not have an esky to take it home. You would be surprised at the number of times that I have supplied eskies, buckets (the stout $11 variety) etc for people to take home some fish. Of course, I never get them back. Ever.
6. When I take someone fishing, it becomes an "event". Viz, I need to arrange times, set alarms etc. I had to do that in my working life. Don't want to do that again. Most times when I go fishing, I look out of the window at the weather after waking when my body wants to awaken and then I decide if I am going fishing. If I want to stay out a bit longer than usual, I just phone my wife and tell her that I am coming home later and then I radio the marine rescue people who I have logged on with and tell them the same thing. That can be at midday or midnight - 'tis easy to make that decision when I am on my own.
7. I tire of hearing fishing stories on board about the "big kingie" that they caught at Lord Howe Island on a charter boat or the big barramundi they caught at Groote Eylandt or things like, "Call this cold?! This is nothing. When I was doing a night huskie sled trip in Canada last Christmas, now - that was cold!) Am I supposed to be impressed by this stuff from people who usually struggle to recognise when they are even getting bites when on my boat. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
8. Some of them don't live for the moment and are always answering mobile phone calls. Hell! I had to tolerate that in my work life. Don't wanna listen to that garbage when I am out enjoying the serenity of the ocean.
9. Because I feel an obligation to give my guests a good time, I will then find myself going to the heavily fished areas that have a good chance of producing fish and not getting to explore other places that might yield no result on the day. It matters not to me whether I catch fish on every trip as I have plenty in my freezer but I lose that freedom when I have guests.
10. Often, I catch all or nearly all of the fish when I go fishing with a guest so then I give them all of the fish or crabs or at least most of them so that they do not arrive home disappointed. So, the benefit to me of taking them fishing is?????????
11. Half of the times that I take people fishing, they arrive late and so I am usually sitting in the boat at the jetty squandering good tide time waiting for them to arrive. They then mince down the jetty and look for help to get on the boat as though they should be waited on like royalty.
12. Half of the guests need help in baiting hooks and tying on tackle. It s just like taking a young kid fishing most times. Don't wanna spend my time out on my boat doing that. Been there; done that.
13. Obviously, being guests, they are not an asset in managing a boat. They are a liability - either getting in the way or, if they do help, doing things like winching the boat on to the trailer so half heartedly that I usually take over the winching and do the job properly before the boat sways around in the current damaging itself on the side of the trailer.
14. If the boat motor coughs a bit when starting or something similar, as all irregularly used motors do, there are usually comments like. "Does the engine need a bit of maintenance?" Just bloody offensive, at times.
15. Any more than one person on a small boat is a crowd. I usually find myself placing eskies etc so that my guests re comfortable whereas I am often quite cramped so that they have comfort.
17. Having a guest in a boat is no different to having guest visit at home. There is a natural tendency to make sure things are clean and tidy on board. So that involves an extra couple of hours of work before the event to tidy the deck and wash off the blood that might have been splattered around inside by the mackerel caught on the previous trip that is of no bother to me but not something that I would leave there when I have a guest. Who needs extra work of any sort?
18. Usually, when the guest has had enough fishing because they are useless at it, they will put down their rod and just sit there saying nothing, hoping that I will wind up and go home. So my whole day is structured to fit the needs of the guest.
19. As skipper of the boat, I am legally responsible for their safety. Managing a boat in rough weather is a handful. Who needs extra responsibilities for no gain?
20. There ain't nuthin' as enjoyable as being on a lonely sea by oneself. The serentity is awesome. Especially at night in winter. You know - the time when most guests are breaking that serenity by complaining about the cold all bloody night long.
Yup. That just about sums up my experiences. Taking guests fishing is a chore which involves extra work, extra costs. extra stress and extra responsibilities. It not a relaxation.
Do I qualify to get my certificate as a grumpy old man?
.
Maybe you're so tired because you don't stop complaining!
Just kidding, some people just seem ungrateful, eh?
Cheers,
Kaidon
Conservation NOT preservation!
great read...lol
between you, charlie and tol.... ive had a great laugh...
and agree with a lot of it
cheers chris
Charlie, gotta agree. Sometimes solitude is just what you need to solve life's little problems. I grew up on a large property around Toowoomba, and as silly as it sounds, I used to really enjoy getting on the tractor and ploughing a bloody big paddock. Hour after hour of solitude to ponder the mysteries of the world with nobody to interrupt your thoughts. I can definitely see where you are coming from.
Cheers
Wal
I do not own a boat - but i have the same feeling taking people out with me to the rocks/surf. No ....... i go on my ownsome!! idle chatter about nothing is unimpressive on a fishing trip. I wanna hear the waves and feel the breeze, and concentrate on what the line is doing in the water.
If you want to socialise - go to the pub !!!
Fishing is not a matter of life or death .... it is WAY more serious than that
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