Tall Tales

[fragmeister]

Hi Fishraiders,

After reading a post about unusual fishing techniques it reminded me of a story concerning one of my brothers. I wonder if any other readers have any unlikely stories to contribute.

My brother George was not a good fisherman. He was enthusiastic and used to attend all of the fishing trips my father used to take us on as children and eventually young adults but he was the epitome of impatience. It's not that didn't catch fish but certainly when he wasn't catching fish the very worst in him would come out. He would curse and swear and blame every other factor for his lack of success except himself.

I remember once fishing the ferry wharf at Bundeena in Port hacking. George was convinced that the best approach on this particular day was to fish with metal lures for salmon and tailor. He pulled out a very large chrome metal lure shaped very much like coffin appropriately entitled the "Iron Undertaker".

He attached this lure to the snap swivel on his already rigged Beach Rod and proceeded to cast out as far as humanly possible. George's cast must have been over 100 m and after not more than 20 m of retrieve at a cracking pace soon found him snagged on some unyielding object.

COBBLERS! he yelled at the top of his voice (our parents were pommies) and after tugging at the line he used that all-too-familiar method of breaking your line off and he walked backwards with the rod parallel to the ground and the drag done up to maximum and bust his line off.

George was a little unapproachable for the next hour or two convinced that he had been robbed the opportunity of a good haul of salmon and Tailor by the untimely loss of his somewhat sinister sounding lure. The night ended with a few bream in the bag none of which were caught by my impatient and irritable brother.

Some months later we went back to that wharf and once again George, with renewed confidence, was armed with a replacement Iron Undertaker Lure which he proceeded to cast out as far as humanly possible towards the other side of Port hacking. Again, after only 20 meters of retrieve he again latched on to an immovable object. COBBLERS! be screamed, as the rest of us in the Fishing party rolled our eyes in collective disbelief that George would even try the same strategy twice in a row and not have any inkling that the result would be the same.

However, as George desperately tried to break his line it suddenly came free and based on Georges exclamation of Hoo-Effin-Ray! we figured the lure had come free also. Sitting on the other side of the wharf the rest of us were listening to the series of events rather than watching and was surprised to hear George suddenly burst out laughing saying "What are the chances of that?

We all turned around to see George holding up not just one Iron undertake lure but also the iron undertaker lure that he had lost two months before caught through the swivel?

Can you believe his luck!

Cheer Jim

Edited May 12, 2014 by fragmeister

[thefisherman6784]

Wow

The luck of some people

I swear, if u went scuba diving in Walsh bay and go to the bottom, u would find 1000's of squid jigs

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Linc]

He sounds like he has a very consistent cast on him anyway!

I was fighting a big ray outside botany bay a few months back, the fight went on for 15 mins or so when I got bored of the continuous cycle of slow but unstoppable run, then stick to the ground... So I tightened up the drag and pulled as hard as I could till it felt like I'd broken the line. However, I could still feel the weight of the sinker when I wound up the line. it turned out that I'd actually hooked the top hook of what must have been a set of ganghooks sticking out of the ray's mouth and the bottom rusty hook broke before my line did. So I figured I did the ray a favour by removing some unwanted jewelry and got to keep my rig, stretched out though it may have been.

[Crossfire63]

I used to teach diving at Camp Cove.......I've got the best collection of designer sunglasses you've ever seen......

[Crossfire63]

Theres a Tall Tale behind this picture.

Theres no water within 60 miles of this picture.

If you want the full story PM me and I'll send you the link

[Twinfisher 4.9]

Hi fragmeister,

I would simply congratulate your brother George on his excellent and consistent casting ability, not easy to do that trick - and simply leave it at that!

Steve

[Yowie]

Scuba dived off Yowie Bay wharf 30 or more years ago, found some squid jigs (the old types, not the new ones of today) a landing net and a socket set in a case. Cleaned up the socket set, and still use it today, never had to buy a set.

My mate and I scuba dived at Shelley Beach (near Cronulla) many years ago and found a lot of sinkers on the bottom, so we returned with 2 litre milk containers a few times and loaded up the containers. Melted the lead into new sinkers for ourselves, and also made and sold 70 x 1 pound snapper leads to the local tackle shop.

(Not a tall tale though - some of my tall tales I would not put into print)

Edited May 13, 2014 by yowie

[Paikea]

Scuba dived off Yowie Bay wharf 30 or more years ago, found some squid jigs (the old types, not the new ones of today) a landing net and a socket set in a case. Cleaned up the socket set, and still use it today, never had to buy a set.

My mate and I scuba dived at Shelley Beach (near Cronulla) many years ago and found a lot of sinkers on the bottom, so we returned with 2 litre milk containers a few times and loaded up the containers. Melted the lead into new sinkers for ourselves, and also made and sold 70 x 1 pound snapper leads to the local tackle shop.

(Not a tall tale though - some of my tall tales I would not put into print)

Hey Yowie, as a young boy I did some diving (snorkelling) along the front of Cronulla in the fifties. Virtually every hole or crevice had sinkers of all shapes and sizes in them. We collected a heap of them and sold them for pocket money.

Ah, memories!

Cheers

Paikea