A bad day’s fishing!

“Oh no, it can’t be that time yet”, I moaned as the alarm on the radio blasted into my peaceful dream and jerked me into an up right position. Have you ever noticed how, no matter what time you set a radio, it always wakes you with the most hideous, loud song ever heard? I leaned over and turned it right down and thought I might catch a few more winks before I got up, but I knew I really shouldn’t, as we were going fishing!

Alex got up and put the kettle on and went for his morning constitutional. I pulled the covers back up but then thought better of it and grudgingly dragged myself out and into my dressing gown. I know it sounds like I hate fishing, but it’s not true, I actually love it, it’s just the getting started.

We had breakfast and then I began to organise what we had to take. I made sandwiches, filled the thermos, got a cool drink, put ice in the esky, grabbed a towel, sunscreen, first aid kit, sunglasses and my old sneakers. Oh yes, and I can’t forget my Kwell’s tablet (I always take one in case)! See what I mean, its all the organising I hate.

“Hey Roz, can you get the bait?”, Alex yelled at the back door.

“No, that’s your department, I have to feed the chooks yet,” I growled back, getting a bit hot under the collar. What had he been doing all this time? Calm down old girl, I told myself, everything will be OK when we are out there bobbing around on the water and catching some fish.

All did go well ’til we pulled up at our first drop. The gentle breeze we left with had suddenly gusted up and before long instead of just bobbing around we were lurching from side to side and finding it hard to keep our balance. To make matters worse I coudn’t keep my hat on, and, I wasn’t getting any bites! Alex was but not me.

“There’s nothing here, let’s shift,” I whinged. I have to confess that if I am not getting a nibble now and then I get extremely bored. I find it relaxing dangling a line on a nice calm day. But this was not calm and certainly not relaxing.

“OK, pull up the anchor and we’ll try somewhere else,” Alex said, reluctant to leave just yet.

We moved to another spot and the wind decided to gust much stronger, buffeting us all over the place, we were really struggling to keep our balance now.

We managed to bait up once again and I cast my line without falling over. Then Alex attempted to cast his line and started cursing and shaking his hand.

“What’s up?” I asked, concerned.

“I’ve got a hook in my finger,” he moaned.

“How on earth did you manage that?!” I asked, immediately wishing I could take it back.

“How the hell do you think I did it?” he snapped back at me obviously in pain. “Get me the pliers, I’ll have to cut it off and drag it through”. I handed him the pliers but could not do anything to help him except be ready with a couple of bandaids. And I couldn’t  help thinking what else could go wrong. I really wanted to ask Alex if we could go home now but I daren’t as he had been looking forward to this for some time.

Just then I got a huge tug on my line, I quickly yanked on it and yes, I hooked him.

“I’ve got one,” I shouted as i wound the line in and tried to keep my balance.

“Good, get him in, at least we’ll go home with something”, Alex said resignedly. Just as I had him almost into the boat, a wave hit us on the side, I overbalanced and the fish was gone. Damn!

“No, no, no, that’s the last straw, I’ve had enough,” I cried. Then as I plonked down in disgust Alex got one and reeled it in successfully. We stayed for another half an hour without as much as a nibble.

“Lets go,” Alex said and without hesitation I pulled my line in, went forward and pulled in the anchor and we were on our way. It was a rough ride and I reckon I must be bruised all over.

So what’s for tea? A fillet each. Na, he can have the fish, I’ll have a quiche. In all honesty I have to say that this has been the worse day’s fishing we have ever had.

Oh, unless of course you want to count the time we lost our best crab net, the anchor, and ran out of fuel and had to paddle all the way back to the launching ramp! But that’s another story.   

Have you ever had a terrible fishing trip? What happened? Tell us below.