Lean times

Author: JayPenfold

Category: Technique & strategies

Created on Sunday, 15 January 2012 19:18

Written by Jay "no fishing" Penfold

Working in hospitality this time of year is incredibly hectic and taxing. School holiday time is a walking nightmare, between juggling shifts, childcare, a night shifting nurse for a wife and the general Byron Bay tourism mayhem. The ability to actually find the time and energy to get on the water has to most extents eluded me completely. The river system has seen a massive increase in holiday season powerboat traffic (none of it respecting the speed limit). It's been a weird Summer, so very dry, so very cold and then so very hot. I have made 3 trips so far this year, (all but one fishless even counting one very small bream) which has me yearning for so much more time on the water. It has however, given me a chance to re-evaluate my reasons for being out there in the first place.

Primarily, I'm a hunter, I fish to take protein for the table. It's communing with and understanding nature, the way it works and taking a bit of it home for dinner to see how it tastes. I find hunting to be a primal and important part of who I am. Call it a cave man thing if you like. The stalking, the luring, the fight, the kill, the clean, the cook and of course, appreciating the fresh fish carefully arranged on the plate.

Secondarily its stress relief, a form of 'meditation' if you like. Being at one with the river in search of dinner, trying to work out the jigsaw puzzle that is fish movement. The chattering monkeys of the mind become silent. There is only man, kayak and river. The wildlife on my system is diverse, so much exciting bird life: Royal Spoonbills sifting invertebrates from the muddy intertidal zone, brightly plumaged Azure Kingfishers flitting from branch to branch as they devour bait fish from the shallows' surface, all manner of raptor species hammering mullet lazing in the upper reaches of the water column. Pythons attempting to eat Kookaburras in overhead trees, hefty brown snakes crossing the river, water dragons suddenly appearing on a log yakside after a hunting mission of their own or jumping 20 feet out of a tree. Occasionally a bull shark will leap into the air chasing mullet across the flats. At night, the rare and endangered long footed myotis bats skip insects and fish off the surface. This place is a magical menagerie, my own private zoo.

Thirdly, its fitness. Most of you will know that I don't drive and have to cart my yak through the streets of a small country town, about 3km return journey. That's a workout in itself with a fully loaded craft, more so with a feed aboard. If it weren't for kayak fishing I think I'd be in terrible physical shape, I simply don't enjoy swimming or running or god forbid, frequenting a gymnasium. Fresh fish of course being a fantastic addition for a healthy diet.

Putting all of these pieces together has allowed the incredible frustration of not catching anything, even getting a single bite over some ridiculous amount of hours spent "hunting", to subside and appreciate exactly why it is that I do what I do. After all, it's called fishing, not catching, right?

So what is it exactly that I miss being removed from my sport by factors I can't control? I'd have to put it in the same order I've outlined above. I miss the hunt first, the serenity second and I'm becoming unfit. (We'd call that back testing on the stock market!)

N.B. as I pen these last few words it's now pissing down with rain, I'm hoping that flushes both the river and the caravan parks and gives me a shot at getting back to my primary concern: hunting. I'm really keen for a feed of fresh fish at the moment!

So how does everyone else deal with their "yakfishing seperation" anxiety?"