Father In-laws Memories

[Davemmm]

My Father in-law passed away today and whilst he hasn’t been a fisho since he was younger I thought I might pass on a couple of great stories he had.

The first was from when he was a kid. Part of his extended family were long time Narooma dwellers. I think there is actually a statue of one of them down there and a street with his surname. His parents took him down there from time to time for holidays and invariably there would be fishing involved.

As you would imagine there wasn’t a lot of high tech equipment or even too many outboards around in the 1930’s. What they would do is throw ten blokes in a big timber boat and row out to Montague Island (about five miles). They would then spend the day fishing for snapper using handlines and prawns. He claimed that at times they would have to stop fishing as the boat was too full of fish to be able to row home. I know in these days of catch and release we frown pretty hard on this activity but it must have been good days.

The other great story he used to tell was when he was in New Guinea in the war. Not a lot of time for fishing when the war was on but afterwards he was stationed on an Airforce base doing repatriation work. They worked closely with the locals who would take him out in their outrigger canoes/gaffrigs to fish for spot tail bass (I think). On a couple of occasions they managed to pinch a hand grenade or two (this is not recommended at home). Apparently they would row past a deep hole where a river entered the bay, turn around and lift the sail and then with a bit of speed up sail over the hole, drop the hand grenade and well you can guess the rest. He had one old small photo that showed him and another bloke standing around a pile of the biggest fish you have ever seen stacked together. The locals would give them first pick and then keep the rest for themelves.

I know neither of these stories are politically correct but they were over fifty years ago and I guess times were different. Just thought I might share his memories with you.

Dave

[mrmoshe]

Nice memories Dave.

Sorry to hear of your loss.

Cheers,

Pete.

[Jewhunter]

Nice memories for you Dave. Thanks for sharing them.

Fishing was different back then but so were alot of things.

Our condolences go out to all that knew & loved him.

Cheers,

Grant.

[cat-as-trophy]

Sorry to hear of you loss Dave,

My condolences to you and the family. You have some great memories to cherish forever.

Mrs Flightmanager

[arpie]

I bet that hole got bigger with every grenade thrown!! It was common practise back then - you can only take so much canned meat & army rations!!

Condolences on your loss.

Roberta

[fishguts]

R.I.P.!to the special old digger! all thoughts dave!

..cheers!..stevo!..