Fishy Tales.

I am not a hunter; I do not like to see things die. My tendencies are all towards vegetarianism. My sons do not share my squeamishness. They learnt to fish early & crab as soon as they could carry a pot. They know our bay in ways I never will.

The first thing Dino did with his first pay of the trawlers was buy himself a flash tinny & a motor with a lot of grunt. He then went back to sea leaving boat & motor moored amongst our mangroves (& as both are much too heavy for the girls & I to deal with) the whole lot promptly sank at the first king tide. It was an expensive lesson. Outboards do not like salt water in their works.

I've always been quite pleased (apart from missing the child dreadfully, of course) that Dino trawled on the other side of the country. I have vivid memories of his early days of fishing. Once they actually learnt to swim, a post all on its own, they were allowed to walk down to the point & fish off the rocks on the promitory. There was a hole just off there & good anglers nearly always caught something. My boys realized early they were too short to have much hope of reaching it so took to wading out up to their chests, an activity that had the big boat drivers cross. They had to slow as they came around the markers &through the channel so as not to swamp my boys. As this was an activity that invariably took place well before the sun was up (why do fish get up so early?) I would hear the boys leave as they called out to say they were going fishing & happily submerged only to be shaken awake by a small dripping figure waving something, wet slimy & gasping its last under my nose. 'Look what, I've caught, mummy!' I have always been sooo pleased Dino was not able to arrive at my bedside with his first trawler catch!