What’s Your Fishing Resume?

[bowl]

Born in epping vic and moved to tyabb....

Sometime in the eighties me and old started fishing stoney point and mornington piers.
On holidays at phillip island one year an, me n dad hired a tinny and we went out and smashed some salmon, dad was hooked and not long after he bought a brand new seafarer v sea.

Dunno when but we joined hasting fishing club.
Had few good years in club.
Sometimes in 90s i stopped fishing and never really got back into it till late 2000s.

Started a little casual lb fishing in late 2000s.

Gran passed away and left us a little money, so bought a brooker boat.
Onto me third boat now and most likely sale my boat n buy another boat next year.

Dont take my fishing to serisouly, but like freedom of being on the bay , so i try fishing weekly as a strees relief.

If i wasnt fishing , i would be surfing weekly.

[rb85]

Great topic and good to see so many migrants here active in fishing and this forum sport breaks down barriers apparently fishing does too.
As for me lifelong angler as long as I can remember family holidays flathead and bream, fly fishing for trout on camping trips with dad and mates didn't get into boat fishing until I was 16 when dad bought a boat which I now own.

Now I enjoy all forms of fishing I can and don't want to limit myself to one style. Still have a lot to do and my fishing options are expanding as I get older and can afford to invest more money and time into it.

[Truedogz]

Born in Sunshine, grew up in the eastern suburbs and spent a lot of time in NE Victoria.

My step grandad was a VPC delegate and lobbied for regulations to protect native fish. Dad and my uncle were keen anglers, chasing natives, trout and reddies, and dad was an honorary fishing inspector. My earliest fishing memory is of a big cod dad caught out of the Goulburn. Dad was killed when I was 8 but my uncle took me fishing and told me the stories of the past.

Grew up catching mainly trout and reddies with some natives, catching trains on long gone railway lines and riding my bike. Did a lot of fishing at Yarra Glen, Thornton and Trawool. Was taken to the Seven Creeks near Strathbogie and caught trout cod and Macquarie perch before it was closed to fishing - that was a life changing experience. I got frustrated that I could not enjoy the type of fishing that dad had as the natives had disappeared from most places. Caught natives on flies and saw the last of them in some waters, eg, wild trout cod in the Buffalo and Mitta Rivers. I did a lot of trout fishing too, surface fishing at night (I do that for cod now!) as well as fly fishing for them. Like some of the others here I fished the Yarra a lot catching roach, reddies and eels before the carp arrived in the 1970s. Back then redfin were everywhere and plenty of big ones too.

Studied science/medicine, trained as a biochemist, got involved in aquaculture, helped with some of the earliest breeding and stocking of natives in Victoria. Along with Rod Harison and Gordon Winter founded Native Fish Australia. I spent some time in Queensland hatcheries developing techniques for breeding several species of native fish and oversaw the first successful stockings of bass to create impoundment fisheries. Did a bit with barra, Mary river cod, saratoga as well.

In the late 1990s I moved permanently (so I thought) to the Cairns region and chased the tropical natives. Jungle perch I loved catching on surface lures but caught lots of barra and sooties too.

I chose to return to Victoria 5 years ago wanting to get back to my roots and grow old in front of the fire. We have some good fishing here and I think the best camping in the nation. There has been some great fisheries for some natives created, the cod fishing is the best in my lifetime. Despite all that the sad thing is I won't get to see the return of some of the fisheries my dad experienced even though it could be done.

I've enjoyed some great cod fishing the past couple of seasons and in the future want to spend more time chasing trout, bass and blackies. And above all sit in front of a campfire.

Best Wishes

Truedogz

[purple5ive]

Lots of history there mate. That was a very interesting insight into your life. Thanks for sharing.
And the same goes for the others. Cheers

[StarrangerAU]

In for a penny, in for a pound....may as well throw my hat in...

This fellow here is Queensland born n bred, hailing from the Sunshine Coast where as a boy Summer weekends n holidays were spent either along the sandy banks of the Maroochy River, amongst mangroves in the upper reaches where the cane fields burn at night, or in the fresh with the platypus's, eels and Bass. Easter holidays were adventure treks along Double Island, Rainbow Beach, and Fraser gathering pippis and chasing the Tailor. My those were excellant times to see and be out in the elements with nature, an age were we didn't know about troubles or worries.

And so of course things change we grow up, we leave things behind. I emigrated to Victoria some 28 years ago, or thereabouts, started chasing the corporate dollar, and completely forgot those young experiences out on the water. While I wasn't paying attention, a black mutt of a dog took residence with me... for many a year the thing was with me, it damn near did his dark job. So there comes a tipping point, as it does, and with some help I found a way out by picking up the rod n reel again and sent the black bastard away to the hills.

Since then, and whenever I can, I spend my weekends hunting down those Zen moments out on the water, usually at sun-up when the day is most peaceful. Water slapping against the shoreline, fresh air gently stirring, a line in the water patiently waiting for a strike. I get my moments of serinty mixed in with excitement of catching my prey, and its done wonders for my well being. I doubt very much I'll ever be putting rods n reels away ever again.

Not much of a resume per'se, but thanks for reading anyhow.... and for anyone else thats having a hard trot of it lately, you're welcome to message me and we can go out a wet a line somewhere. It doesn't have to matter where.

[Paulanderson]

I somehow lost my first post so fingers crossed.

When I was starting Grade 4 we moved from Melbourne to a very small dot on the map called Dixie - just South of Terang. The Mount Emu Creek was just down the road and I noticed that there was always a school of Redfin under the bridge. I convinced my father, who never had any interest in fishing, to buy me some hooks and line. Armed with a willow branch rod and a tin of worms I set of - and caught nothing! The following weekend I was at the bridge at first light and quickly caught about a dozen good sized Redfin. I was also hooked! I gave a few Redfin to the farmer that supplied us milk and he gave me an ancient split cane rod with a wooden center pin reel with some sort of thread line. Over the next three years I caught a lot of Redfin, a few Blackfish, several Brown Trout and more eels than I ever wanted.

We moved several times while I was growing up so fished in quite a few places and after school to about 30 fished many parts of Victoria - mainly for trout but managed the occasional native. When I first fished Hughes Creek at Avenel I caught a large (about 1 kg) Macca and had no idea what it was. It tasted OK though.

I then moved to Canberra for work and during the next 25 years ago game fished at Bermagui with a succession of boats up to 24 ft and also hit the Snowy Mountains on many occasions. In those days at Bermagui the Yellowfin fishing was first class but there seemed to be far fewer Marlin around then. Even the charter boats thought it a great day if they hooked a couple. My early days at Eucumbene were amazing as the lake was still filling and the fish were shaped liked footballs with 10 pounders not uncommon and plenty of 5 lb plus fish - usually patrolling the banks after frogs and scrub worms. Good days indeed! I also spent some time in Darwin and the end of wet season Barra were a great attraction. My then wife's family had a beach shack at a place called Black Point in SA and every Christmas for some 15 years it was 2 weeks of whiting, crabs and scallops.

During this time I was the recreational fishing representative on an Australian Fisheries Management Committee (ECTUNAMAC) and several sub-committees for about 4 years. While this at times was very frustrating due to competing interests, broken agreements and promises, and generally often been a dissenting voice, it was well worth the time and effort though. I share Truedogz frustration with his time in similar positions. It also gave me a good understanding of the commercial fishing sector - where many commercial fishermen were just as interested as us in sustainable fisheries for the future but, equally, there were "cowboys" with a boom and bust mentality and no interest past the next dollar.

Since 2003 I have mainly lived and worked in 11 countries in Africa. I have fished some remote, amazing and at times dangerous places but would not have swapped these experiences for anything. While in Northern Australia (and most parts of Africa) we are well used to the occasional croc having an angry hippo decide to charge your boat is no fun at all. We all have our own views of a favorite fish to catch but one species that is very hard to beat is the Tigerfish - a fast, powerful and aggressive species with a very impressive set of teeth. I am currently working in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania and while the local fishing is very poor due to over-fishing inland are a few rivers with a lot of Tigerfish up to 10 kg and very soon I will be unable to resist the urge to head that way.

All the best to members of the forum.

Paul

[April Fool]

I grew up in northern Vic and started fishing (bait) with my dad. I found native fish hard to come by back then in the late 70's and 80's. I spent a lot of time also biking it around the local channels chasing redfin and the occasional trout with lures. The good old days...the only lures I generally used were hogbacks and ondex lures for the reddies and size 1 celtas for trout. Then when I got my license I started travelling a bit more...too Waranga Basin chasing redfin. I found out during the mid to late 80's that there was a more sporting target than reddies in Waranga. These f***ers! (pic taken in 2006)

Not many people knew...back in the day prior to social media. Things changed and I may have went for a few years without fishing at all. Then due to a work colleague living at Waranga Basin...I got back into it. And did very well on the trout at times (his kids called me 'fish man'!). I also started to chase natives. The trout fishing dropped off a bit at Waranga. This also coincided with me starting to gain weight and lose my ability to get around ok. It also coincided with me joining my first forum...Angling Victoria. I saw an add for it in a magazine. And as it is, joining a forum jinxed me cos I have not caught a fkn decent fish since!
cheers
Team Bender
Still wonders WTF happened!!!!

[Sebb]

Few good stories here :thumbsup:

[re-tyred]

I was born on Jersey Island in the English channel. My father was a bit of a hunter and gatherer. He fished and dived ,spear fished etc mainly to put fresh seafood on the plate. We emigrated to Australia late 1960 arriving by boat in Feb 1961. I had my 7th birthday on the passage. On the 6 week trip I never once got seasick despite watching many others spewing and missing meals. I still recall sitting at dinner clutching my plate of spag bol so that it didn't fly off the table , and wondering why most of the others weren't hungry. In Australia we settled on a farm near the Gippsland lakes and my father immediately started his hunting and gathering. Fresh rabbits and kangaroo from the farm and fresh fish from the lake. A bondwood boat about 6mtrs with an evinrude was purchased 2nd hand and soon we were spending weekends and school holidays on the lake, swimming water skiing and fishing. By the time I was 11 or 12 I had a boat and gun and rabbit traps plus ferrets . I became a very good hunter and gatherer. One method of getting a few bream was to paddle out into a few meters of water jump over the side with goggles and look for a large log on the bottom. Then I would grab the hand spear and with the aid of a large weight ,usually used as an anchor, I would let go the boat and plummet to the bottom hanging onto the weight. Once down I would swim to the log and if a good size bream was under it, I would spear it. This was all done alone. We had not ever considered lifejackets. I left school and did a cpl of years in the PMG as a technical trainee. Public service life wasn't for me so I left and joined my brother commercial fishing out of Lakes Entrance. I did this for 14 years. With a growing family I decided to quit fishing and take up a job with furuno selling and servicing marine electronics. Mostly this was to commercial operators. At 57 years old and having advanced to east coast technical manager in Brisbane, I decided to quit and move back to Lakes Entrance. I bought a tinny and took up fishing again. At the same time I was offered a part time job doing hydrographic surveying at Gippsland ports. Now at 66yo I think I have become a pretty good fisher for snapper flathead and others fish around the area. Over the years I have gathered a huge data base of the area including the lakes and offshore. The last 9 years I have become very involved in marine rescue and marine safety management / education.
At the moment I am in Queensland dodging the cold weather. I am also a bit of a fitness tragic, swimming and running for fun. Just finished Hervey bay park run this morning. 5km 27 minutes.

[fishnut]

Sounds like an awesome fishing history -retyred