Gone fishin'

When was the last time you went fishing?

I must admit that I hadn’t been fishing for many, many years before we went to Rottnest a few weeks back. I’m trying to cast my mind back far enough to remember when I would have last dangled a line. It could be 20 years or so.

While on Rotto we decided to throw a line in and see what happened. I wasn’t too enthusiastic but I thought it’d be a great experience for the kids. (They have been fishing a couple of times before but I wasn’t there at the time.)

The first day we tried I caught about ten blowies and a couple of herring. Not a great result but I must admit that I warmed to the idea of pulling the line out of the water with something other than a hook on the end. Maybe I haven’t been fishing for so long because my last attempts yielded very little.

The next time we tried, from a different jetty, I didn’t get a single blowie but I did hook several herring and a small silver bream. That was far more satisfying. Emily and James did quite well too. Pauline videoed a lot of our second fishing expedition so I may have to post some snippets some time.

I don’t know what you’re like with fish but I really don’t enjoy cleaning them or having to spend more time removing bones than eating them. I’ve now decided that I quite enjoy fishing as long as someone else is prepared to clean them, cook them and eat them. When I want a decent feed of fish I’ll head to the local fish and chip shop.

What’s your experience with fishing? I’ll never be a dedicated fisherman who takes every opportunity to grab the tackle and head towards water but I know that there are many people who are extremely serious about the whole deal. Do you manage to catch a few when you go fishing? Do you mind the cleaning and all that goes along with it?

Posted by Rodney Olsen

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About the author

Rodney Olsen

Rodney is a husband, father, cyclist, blogger and podcaster from Perth Western Australia.

He has worked in radio at Perth's media ministry Sonshine for over 25 years and has previously worked at ministries such as Compassion Australia and Bible Society.

The views he expresses here are his own.

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4 Comments

  • ‘…cast my mind back…’ ha – very good!

    I’m with you on the whole cleaning and picking bones out thing. Much prefer it already done for me.

  • My dad is a fisherman and when we were kids he’d drag my brother and I along with him about 4-5x a week to go fishing. Sometimes I’d give it a try, most of the time I read a zillion Trixie Belden books and tried to be quiet so that I wouldn’t ‘scare the fish’. I’m not very quiet, so this was difficult for me. I also cannot hold still, so the boat was always rocking. The best part was zooming across the lake at the end of the night at lightening speeds, he’d always go over waves and make the boat come crashing down.

  • I used to go fishing all the time when I was a kid growing up in NZ. My dad would do all the cleaning, but when I was old enough he taught me how to do it (very messy & smelly). Since I have been in Perth I have only been fishing once, with no luck.

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