No turning back - just look at that concentration!
Greetings all,
Yes, I know this post has little to do with fishing but I thought I would give you a rundown of my first ever parachute jump last weekend.
A present from my wife and kids (do they love me that much?) I must admit it’s taken some time for me to use the voucher. In fact, by the time I left the plane I had only four days left on its expiry date.
Now to be fair I wasn’t actually all that nervous over the past six months about jumping. I’ve taken to the air in a glider plane and a hang glider and the most scariest thing I’ve ever done to date was to climb a glacier in New Zealand whilst enormous chunks of ice were hurtling off it’s edges and crevasses appeared that seemed to go on for miles. No I haven’t bungee jumped (yet) but I did do a bunjee experience in New Zealand that allowed me to see everything that a jumper had to go through to prepare for the dive. OK, that can be my next adventure!
I wasn’t really worried about parachuting at all. I even quipped that I was opting for a “tandem spacesuit” rather than the parachute and I intended to do a fly-past the Sea Cliff Bridge before deploying the chute.
That all changed when I woke up on the day I was to jump. Now I don’t know whether or not it had anything to do with the massive hangover I was nursing but all of a sudden I woke up in a bit of a panic. I tossed. I turned. I thought about asking my son to jump for me. It got so bad that I couldn’t handle it anymore and I decided to get up and go for a long walk.
That seemed to do the trick and for the rest of the day I oscillated between a 5 and 6.5 out of 10 on the anxious scale.
Reporting in at the North Beach headquarters of Skydive the Beach I was reminded of the Monte Python scene in the Life of Brian where people were lining up for their crosses. After signing the waiver form I joined the other jumpers outside and spent the next 30 minutes suiting up and sharing nervous laughs and jokes. I remember someone mentioned that the plane above was dropping parachutists and I looked up at the sky and could hardly see the plane let alone the parachutists. Although I did take a peek I had to turn away as the sight of the falling lemmings was all too much. Eventually they landed about 100 yards from where we stood. I can say they did seem to be falling quite fast but the tandem instructors were able to pull them up very quickly for a soft landing.
Soon it was our turn to board the bus but not until after the jovial tandem instructors made an appearance with one quipping that his wife had left him and that his house burnt down the day before and he was through with everything. Thankfully for us he really was joking.
Ok, the equation is this. Albion Park airport is a 15 minute bus ride, the airplane trip is 20 minutes, you climb up to 14,000 feet and free fall for 60 seconds and then float down to earth for 4 minutes. Sweet!
The crew seemed to be all newbies to the parachuting world and only one of us had been parachuting beforehand. You wouldn’t believe it in a team of about 8 jumpers I actually sat in the bus next to one who came from my home town in Sydney – talk about a small world.
Arriving at the airport I had to ask my tandem instructor whether he was pumped and he smiled and assured me that he was ready to go. The operation itself ran like a well oiled machine – the airplane was ready for takeoff as soon as our bus turned up and we squeezed into it facing the back of the plane. The roller shutter door was pulled down and we were off.
The flight to the drop zone was picturesque – Wollongong and its waterways and surrounds are absolutely sensational and there’s probably no better jump site in the world.
With a five minute warning given and our belts tightened to that of our instructors I felt an eerie calm take over the plane. There was no one complaining that they didn’t want to jump. I think we all had resigned ourselves to the fact that it was going to happen no matter what. The roller shutter lifted and a rush of cold air came into the plane and the next thing I knew the first pair had left the plane. Boy – was that bizarre seeing someone leave the confines of a plane. I’ll never forget that.
My instructions were to go to the edge of the door and have my feet curled up under the plane. Well, I’ll tell you there was no time for that because as soon as we were at the door we were on our way out of the plane!
Hmmm… falling was not as I had expected it to be. I don’t know – there wasn’t the feeling like at an amusement ride with your stomach lifting or anything. It was cold, the air (and the ground for that matter) was rushing up at you but I couldn’t help but think with goggles on it looked rather like a movie and the sensation was like it was happening to someone else.
60 seconds of free fall is a long time and because I was at the bottom of the instructor I was wondering whether or not he was still with me and whether or not he was going to bother and pull open the shute – not that I was ever really concerned but it did feel like a long time.
The cord was pulled and again the sensation was not what I expected – there was no terrible wrenching of the body skyward – it was actually quite gentle. I found my ears had “popped” and I was a little hard of hearing but otherwise I was unscathed and quite lucid. We chatted all the way down and I must admit it was a sensational experience. The instructor got me to “stand” on his toes and although we were falling through the air it really felt like I was on solid ground so much so that I could stand up straight with all my weight on his feet. Weird! We practiced our landing technique mid air and we dropped like a pin straight at our target and landed perfectly.
Would I do it again? Probably… and when I did I certainly wouldn’t be as anxious the second time around. I think it’d be best if you share the experience with a friend rather than doing it by yourself. It certainly is one of those rights of passage things that one must cross off their list one day and I’m certainly glad to have done it. I think I’m even a little bit more appreciative of every moment I have above ground because of it.
Posted by Meggs | Uncategorised | Posted on June 8th, 2010
Greetings all,
Well the countdown is on for the 2010 Fishing & Reef Tour Specialists trip to chilly, but nonetheless, magnificent Merimbula. The crew has invested in thermals and will surely need them on one of our overnight mako shark and marlin missions. We also hope to tangle with some yellowfin and bluefin tuna and will be dropping baits to depths that will feel like 40,000 leagues under the sea when we try to turn the reel in search of some blue eye, gemfish and tassie trumpeter.
It’s been a while since our crew headed to the south coast but interestingly enough those of you that have followed the Fishing & Reef Tour Specialists story will know that we began our fishing trips together down at Tathra in 1990. It’s only fitting that 20 years later our team gets together again in that general direction.
It’ll be a while since we spent some time on the land as part of our trips as the last two in particular we spent a week on board a houseboat in Weipa and a 35 foot bareboat in the Whitsundays. This time we will be able to take in some World Cup Soccer matches and some of the Wimbledon tennis. Who knows we may even have a bet or 10 on the horses!
In case you weren’t aware I’ve been stockpiling some interesting Merimbula Fishing links on the www.skippermeggs.com website and if you’re interested in learning more about fishing in the area I encourage you to take a look.
Here is a link to the infamous Merimbula bar webcam. I remember on one of our first trips to Tathra there was a legendary photo of a cruiser being swamped by a huge wave at that very spot.
Anyway, have a sensational long weekend and I look forward to bringing you some interesting stories from our trip away.
A few of you have enquired whether or not Skipper Meggs and his team are heading up to Weipa for the Weipa Fishing Classic this upcoming long weekend. Well the truth is that we’d all be shot if we did because we’re heading off down the south coast of NSW shortly to fish for Makos, Blue Eye and Yellowfin!
The Weipa Fishing Classic is held solely to benefit the local community and local sporting groups and attracts a whole heap of fisherman from all around the country as well as a bunch of 4 wheel drive enthusiasts. The local fish will no doubt give the 1300 odd competitors a thorough workout over the long weekend and I wish we could be a part of the action.
To coincide with the competition I will hold the price of “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa” eBook at $19.95 and extend the date of the price rise to the 14th June which will allow people to purchase it prior to and during the event.
Anyway, good luck to everyone competing at the Classic and may the weather be kind to you all!
Firstly, sorry that the old YouTube collection of Survivor footage has been taken off by CBS. I know that a few of you have been disappointed but I hope you all got to watch the action on TV.
I managed to find a great interview with the winner of the show Sandra Diaz which I’m sure you will absolutely love. As a two times winner of the show she has some very interesting things to say about Russell.
She doesn’t mix words and certainly says what she thinks!
I’ve been overwhelmed by the huge response I’ve had to “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa” eBook and I am humbled by the many thank you emails I’ve had from people who have bought the eBook prior to making their way to Cape York.
When I listed the eBook for sale I did have a targeted number of copies that I wanted to sell prior to reviewing the price and to be perfectly honest that number was surpassed some time back. Regardless, for those of you that have already visited “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa” sales page you would know that I had intended to raise the price at the end of April.
I regret to inform everyone that I will be increasing the price from $19.95 to $27.97 as at 1st June, 2010. At this rate it still represents huge value. I always say it only takes one good fish (or mudcrab!) to justify the investment and when you fish in remote places it pays to be informed before you get there so that you can make the most of your fishing time. Besides I know if I was heading off to Weipa for a fishing trip the eBook is an absolute must have. So much so, that I only wish we had a copy before our lst adventure there!!!
Anyway, there is still a fortnight left to purchase a copy at the old price. Follow this link to buy your copy today; www.skippermeggs.com/book/.
It was yet another rock fishing tragedy last week at NSW’s Catherine Hill Bay with five people being swept to their deaths off Flat Rock. This is a narrow piece of rock area that juts out to sea for about 700 metres and is therefore exposed to elements from all sides.
I can’t say that I’ve visited this spot but apparently a life ring was deployed at the scene.
I’ve blogged before about the dangers of rockfishing and have even compared shark attacks statistics with deaths from the sport – see Real Fishos Fear Rocks not Sharks. Apparently the incident at Flat Rock was the ninth reported there in less than two years. My heart goes out to the families involved and regardless of your point of view about the suitability of the conditions and the choice the victims made that day to fish there it remains an absolute tragedy.
So the question to ask is how do we stop the next rock fishing incident? Check out this bloke who defends his actions because he has fished the spot since the age of 12…
As one unedited fisho on YouTube put it…
“risking ur life for a piddley little luderick…? MATE WE BAG OUT ON THEM UP TO 45CM IN THE RIVER…. Thats crazy. I can see another vietnamese fisherman from my area losing his life chasing a chopper tailor in rubber thongs? after watching such clips.”
Anyway, back to some positive news – so called Angel Rings (see www.angelrings.com.au) have been installed at popular rock fishing spots along the coast of NSW and these have been a great innovation and a wonderful initiative to try and make the sport safer.
Rock cleats have been popular amongst rock fisherman for some time. These give the fisherman better grip on moss and weed covered rock and also a bit more balance when struck by swell. I would never advocate fencing off the Australian coastline to protect people from themselves but the suggestion to introduce compulsory life jackets for rock fisherman in my mind is worthwhile considering.
Boaties have been wearing life jackets when navigating dangerous bar crossings for years and I don’t believe that it would be a huge impost to rock fisherman to do the same. Respect for the sea and ocean should be one of the first lessons any rock fisherman learns. I’m sure they could be worn in such a way as to offer little impediment to fishing activities.
I’m pretty sure that these people lost at Catherine Hill Bay may have stood a better chance if they were equipped with a personal flotation device. It may even save the so called experts who have fished spots since the age of 12!
When we were kids in school (some 40 years ago now) they taught us the fact that the dutchman William Dampier landed on the west coast of Australia in 1688 well before Captain Cook made his way to Australia. What they didn’t tell us was that there were other Dutch vessels making the long voyage to the Southlands even before Dampier.
For those of you that missed Channel 7’s Sunday Night show it makes the claim that the Dutch colonisation of Australia pre-dates the British albeit perhaps unintentional and by way of shipwreck. They are in the process now of carbon dating a wasp’s nest that was painted over by aborigines in a figure that looks like a Dutch officer (somewhere in northern Queensland) and they are also conducting DNA testing on some local aboriginess in the vicinity of Monkey Mia in WA to determine whether they are of Dutch decendancy.
I’ve decided to release the opening page of “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa” eBook (unedited and word for word) to share with you some (obviously) little known Australian history about the early Dutch explorers and their influence on the tiny fishing and bauxite mining town of Weipa.
You could probably win some money on this little piece of trivia down at your local watering hole…
Who was the first European to “encounter” the Australian mainland?
Answer: Willem Janszoon in 1606.
For some reason no one refers to this encounter as a “discovery” and I suspect this is due to our British heritage. Now if that doesn’t win you a round of drinks nothing will. As a contemporary Australian male I would’ve thought that even in the 1600’s the English ruled the high seas. But this was not the case.
At that time a new Dutch nation known as the United Provinces seemed to have the ocean trade sewn up with a huge fleet of sea going vessels. In the early 1600’s the British were lucky to have 10% of the number of ships that the Dutch owned. Not only was the United Provinces home to the largest fleet of ships but also the biggest business in the world – The Dutch East Indies Company (VOC). This firm was held in such high esteem it was even granted the power to wage wars and to put in place treaties with foreign leaders across the globe.
I’m pretty sure we wouldn’t extend the same privileges to BHP today.
VOC also had a monopoly on the super lucrative spice industry. Wow, a few centuries later and the Spice Girls are worth millions but it’s hard to turn a dollar pedaling nutmeg, pepper, cinnamon, ginger, clove and mace. Spices were all the rage in the 1600’s and much raping, pillaging and violence ensued to capture the supply of these valuable resources. It’s hard to fathom what all the fuss was about but to put things into some perspective nutmeg for example was thought to be a cure for the plague!
One of the boats owned by the VOC was called the Duyfken – in English this name translates to “Little Dove”. This 20m, 8 cannon, sailing ship was granted a monopoly on the spice trade from the Spice Islands by the Dutch government. In 1606 the Duyfken was charged with the responsibility to seek out “east and south lands” and it was this journey that led it to charting Australia’s Cape York Peninsula and also a subsequent landing on the shores of Weipa (well 40km to the north of the town at least).
The Duyfken’s captain Willem Janszoon and Jan Roosengijn were acclaimed as the first white people ever to set foot on land in Weipa and after this feat (pardon the pun!) for the very first time all inhabited continents were finally known to European geographers.
The Duyfken continued its colorful history after its departure from Weipa and, in the ensuing years, battled Spanish Galleys and captured a fortress on Indonesia’s Makian Island in 1608.
A month later the Dufyken was taken to another Indonesian island called Ternate to repair some damage to the ship’s hull. Disaster soon struck when a decision was taken to lie the ship on its side to make repairs – a move that led to the destruction of the ship.
Today Duyfken Point marks the northern point of Weipa’s Albatross Bay.
Well it seems such a long time since I posted a story about fishing so I thought I’d dust off one of my old chestnuts to share with you all.
This is going to shock a lot of you – so prepare yourself for this bombshell I’m about to drop.
Before I tell you this well kept secret about fish, I’ll tell you the story about a guy working a buzz saw in a wood-chip mill who inadvertently sliced off all of his fingers whilst guiding the timber through. He rushed off to the doctor who asked him why he didn’t bring his fingers with him so he could sew them back on. “I couldn’t pick them up” he replied.
So here it is… the big one…
Fish don’t have hands.
There, I’ve said it. That is one of the biggest lessons a fisherman can ever learn. Trust me on this one.
Anyone who has had children knows that when their babies are young they test everything with their mouth and believe it or not fish are the same. And just like young kids and babies, not everything they pick up in their mouth is eaten. In a sense it is just tasted, tested and discarded. Although fish don’t have hands and fingers to pick things up they are nonetheless curious creatures like you and me and will pick things up with their mouths.
So what has this got to do with beads, braid and baited hooks.
Whilst bobbing up and down some ten mile offshore one day with a fishing club that had an average age of membership of 75 years I noticed that the two old blokes who caught the most fish week in, week out had a couple of things in common.
Sure, each of them used fresh bait but so did a lot of other guys on the boat. Their gear was similar to everyone else except for the fact that they used beads just above their hooks. That’s right – beads. I remember reading old books about catching whiting from the beach and using a red rubber tube just above the hook to attract them. Fish don’t have hands and fingers so they see the tube or the beads and are tempted to find out what the hell is going on with them. And that’s when they are hooked!
By the way, one of the other reasons these two old blokes caught more than their fair share of fish was the fact that they lifted and dropped their baits up and down with their rods. They were the first to explain to me that people fishing on bow or starboard positions on a boat often caught more fish because of the natural pitching and rolling of the boat lifting their baits up and down.
Anyway, I hope you found that little discourse of interest and that next time you’re out on the water you try the same method.
This week, guest blogger Greg Booth shares a poignant story of shattered angling pride as he is out-fished and maybe even a little out-drank by his lady fishing companion Jess….
Beginners luck or am I really just that bad?
Jess with a healthy Gold Coast Pin Flathead
Decided to take out the boat today to introduce Jess to fishing. Up until today she had never held a rod in her hands (concentrate boys!!) so I thought we might head out to the Pin area and tickle up a trusty flathead. So it was at the more reasonable time of 930am that we hit the water and set a course bearing to flathead county!
Jess seemed to be an almost natural at this fishing caper as no sooner had we dropped anchor she announced ‘I think I will have a beer’! And the sun was nowhere near over the yard arm yet.
Anyway so I put on a trusty 3 inch grub in pumpkin seed colour, I mean seriously what flathead does not like them and with a 5 second lesson in how to cast and retrieve I left her to her own devices. It was only 1 cast later that Jess’s rod buckled over and she announced ‘What the’? She was on to her first fish, so giving guidance on how to play the fish like a pro whilst appearing to remain calm and in control for the spectator fleet, up came a little flathead of about 28cm.
We had the obligatory ‘look what I caught photo’s’ and these were promptly sms’ed too all and sundry when I politely reminded the pro angler that the fish was still flapping around on the deck and it was hers to deal with. Anyway, like the true deckie I can later confirm I was to become I unhooked the little devil, gave him a few words of encouragement and sent him back to the depths.
A few more casts around the area and again the pros rod buckles over and this one is taking line. Oh man I thought, why wasn’t I on that side of the boat? Another short struggle later I am ordered to get the net to land a good size keeper of 46cm.
Mmmmmm this was starting to look a little embarrassing!
So I pondered for a short while about my technique and was a reading too much into it? Should I just be dangling my rod tip in the water making ‘pretty patterns’ with it and every now and then winding in and casting out again as that is what seems to be working! No sooner had I revised my technique and the pros rod in doubled over in pain again and this time some serious line is disappearing as the rod is getting dragged from port to starboard, from stern to bow. At this point I thought ‘is it wrong of me to secretly hope the next catch would be a shovel nose or ray’?
But my dreams were soon dashed as a monster croc surfaces next to the boat, takes one look at, well not me and then darts back for the sea floor. The fish was fought with some serious lift and wind technique complete with bent knees to absorbs the runs and before much more ado a 58cm flathead was in the net.
You guessed it, more pics, more sms……
I was burning up inside by this point as I hadn’t even landed 1 fish yet, so it was a change of hook, change of plastic ‘Hey Jess, what are you using’ and back in with some serious casting action. Instantly I was rewarded for my game tactics and I proudly fought and worked an 18cm bream all the way to the boat like a real fisherman. ‘Did you see that, that’s how you fight a fish I proclaimed!
A mutual decision was then made by me, that we were not leaving this location till I boat a keeper. So onwards we fished, me with all the passion and enthusiasm I could muster and Jess, well like any girl who has now had a few beers.
Success!! I was on and it was man versus fish with the machine in the middle! Pictures were still fresh in my mind about the shark ravaged jack and others so I turned that egg beater like I was making, well scrambled eggs and up to the surface popped a healthy 47cm flathead. My turn to call for the net I thought, and Jess decided that before she obliged, she would cast her line out again just in case. Not wanting to lose my trophy (read only) lizard I left him swimming in the water till the net lady (whoops, sorry pro) arrived and in the meantime my fish had swam a few laps of the motor leg and was now scratching itself on the transducer bracket. If I was to lose my moment of glory there was going to be some serious smacks!
Net was fetched, fish was safely boated and smiles all round! Pictures taken, but no sms for me as I am currently sporting a 2000 model Nokia 8210 on my hip and pretty sure the grey scale screen could not capture the moment in all its glory. Well that, and it doesn’t even have a camera.
Stumps were called and it was time to find my friend’s houseboat for some relaxing beers and a spa before heading home. We had a great afternoon on the rums chatting around the spa on the top deck of what looked like an over-sized shoebox before heading home.
A great day out, good times, good company, and good fun!
