Gone Fishing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Years ago I never understood the fascination that men have to master the sport of fishing, in fact I never understood why it was considered a sport. But spend a day fishing with me now and the addiction catches on.

Over the years J has taught me to fish, catch prawns, squid and bait and each and every time I go fishing these days I thank him for teaching me.

After having spent three years working down at Jervis Bay I thank him even more often now. The bay is surrounded by several national parks and as I have said so many times before...its waters are beautiful, usually turquoise blue but can quickly change with the weather. In fact, I have seen the bay change from brilliant blue to dark blue to drab grey in a matter of ten minutes when the clouds move in.

Likewise, the waters have an abundance of marine life, dolphins are about all year round and the whale population moves in from mid year to November to rest on their migration south. One can fish from just about anywhere in Jervis Bay.

I have cast my line in from many a location here. It is a practice that makes one relax instantly and forget the business of the day because you concentrate on that movement under you finger, the sign that indicates a fish is nudging your line, seeing if anything edible is going to move. I stand that and feel the tension leave my body and the enjoyment of free time take over. And just when you think about moving to a spot several meters up the beach ....it comes...the nudge....that feeling under your finger. Firstly there is a slight movement and I ever so gently move the line up and down so as the fish thinks it is another fish moving about. Then just as it swims in towards its goal I quickly lift the rod backwards and up. The fish is hooked and begins to fight. Now I tell you that when a fish is hooked it struggles to get free. Some fish make a run for it and leave your reel spinning madly, others swim around rocks and wharfs possibly hoping to tangle the line into freedom, those in the shallower waterways usually jump and create a comotion.

Some small fish fight like crazy till you imagine a whale must be on the end. One's imagination at what must be under the water can be amazing, often I think it is under the water along side of the fish. The fish tugs and tries to pull away frantically and all the while I stand imagining that it will be successful and escape lol. Then I begin to gently lift the rod backwards all the while winding it in. Then relaxing I learn forward and continue to wind in, relaxing backwards, forwards again, backwards winding in and so the exercise continues until the fish is close enough to be seen flopping about in the water. He makes one last ditch effort for freedom and then surrenders. I have found that smaller smoother strokes seems to work for me rather than large abrupt sweeps.

Thats fishing, thats the exercise for what is elusive yet attainable, reigniting the excitement of hope. So after years of fishing all over the country I have decided that HOPE coupled with skill is what men aspire to when challenged with fishing.

More often than not we throw our catch back into the water for another day, the larger ones we keep and J turns them into a delicious feast. I look forward to those evenings, fish in Thai red curry, BBQ fish with warm chilly and pasley sauce, steamed fish, rice and vegies. Not matter what, J makes a treat of our fishing efforts. Now thats a skill!