What do you think about when fishing?

Because I was so successful on Thursday night (hey one fish is successful) I decided to head out today for some day fishing at the same spot as last time, but this time it wasn’t successful, by way of catches, but was successful by way of a casting lesson, a half planned camping trip and a whole lot time to delve into my mind whilst waiting for a fish to bite.

I got to the spot and there’s two guys fishing, look like they’ve been there all day, so I give them a nod, set up on my side of the jetty and cast off. Its Dead quiet. It doesn’t take long for me to think, “ah shit, I should have brought a book or my headphone and listen to a podcast, I don’t want to be alone with my thoughts”, but it turned out alright, because my overactive imagination, got to planning a camping trip, I almost had a mental excel spreadsheet, and im not good at maths what so ever so any calculations in that spreadsheet were 100% wrong, but planning had begun. But I also got thinking, what do my readers (all one of you) think about when they go fishing, do you plan future tips? do you go into the dark recesses of your mind? what goes on up there?

before too long, I get to chatting to the other two people at the spot, and im offered a hit of their bong, I politely decline. but this interaction gets me thinking about the kind of people that do fishing… on one hand you have the people like me who fish as a hobby and want to get better, and on the other hand you have the stoners who can sit all day, with a bag of weed and chill. then you have the sport fishermen (more on that later, I didn’t even know that sport fishing was a thing).

Night fishing: Have I gone into the deep end too early? Now that I have caught a fish how do I get him off the hook?

Ok, its been a week, lets go to a different spot and see if I fare any better…

I typed into google maps the spot I wanted to go too; Bulimba Fishing Pontoon, No results found. What? surely the fishing sites haven’t lied to me. but upon looking at what was related in the area, I came across the Colmslie Boat Ramp, with one review saying “great for a fish”, so I said if its good enough for them then its good enough for me.

I get to the spot, and I see this view from the jetty next to the boat ramp.

Awesome view of the rich side of Brisbane, Qld

The first thing I thought to my self was that review should be changed to: “great for a fish, but even better for a view”. Five or ten minutes later, after taking that photo, I get a little nibble, then a full bite, and reel in my first fish in about 5 years. I caught this little one;

Threadfin Salmon, around 20 cm

Now I cannot identify fish for the life of me, and my first thought was is that a tiny fucking shark? so I took the photo and sent it thru to my uncle and grandfather, and get the answer of Threadfin salmon. Apparently their good eating, but unfortunately not legal length here in QLD for eating, so I had to throw him back. But how does one do that? every time I have caught a fish (all 4 times), I’ve been with my grandfather, and he helped me reel it in and take it off the hook, but I never paid attention to how the fish was suppose to come off the hook. It tried to pull the hook out but it was really in the fishes bottom lip, now I didn’t want to accidentally catch my self, so I may have just ripped the hook thru the fish’s lip and chucked him back.

I stuck around for a bit longer, but got no more bites or even nibbles, so ended up heading home, but id still call it a successful fishing trip.

So I have been bought a rod…. What now?

~~~Any links in this post will not and do not earn me anything, just wanting to show for clarity~~~~

So after months of asking, I I finally found the time for my Dad (somehow an expert but also extremely amateur fisherman) to take me out to show me what rod to get, now it was for my birthday, so naturally he was paying. I had done a little bit of research before hand, and had half picked out a rod before hand, now I totally wasn’t trying to find the cheapest rod at the shop ( I wanted to dip my toes in, so if it all goes to shit, not too much money was spent. Little did I know that I was gonna walk out of the place with around $150 worth of equipment, now the stuff I got was nothing fancy, just rod, and a 250 piece tackle kit, and a misc. fishing tools set (sorry cannot find the link).

I’ve now gotten home and, haven’t the foggiest as to what I’m meant to do

“How to you even set up a rod? what are these fancy fishing knots? what do you mean I can’t just tie a knot how I tie my shoes? DO you think I can get away with doing a basic knot?” – these are all questions I asked my mostly vegetarian partner, the answers I got back to each of those was, “I don’t know, give it a go and find out”, and give it a go I did.

Ive just gotten back from a trip to a local boat ramp, caught nothing and within probably 30 minutes of standing there have tangled my line into its self…. Oh well this is a learning moment. Ill give it a week and try again….