Posted by Meggs | Weipa fishing book | Posted on April 20th, 2010
Greetings all,
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.
See: Channel 7’s Sunday Night program
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You can also take a look at Ross Coulthart’s blog that discusses the show.
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 can click here to find out more about “The Ultimate Guide to Fishing Weipa” eBook.
I hope you enjoy it.
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.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs
Greetings all,
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.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs
Greetings all,
I’m sorry to advise that because of a copyright claim by CBS, the previously YouTube available episodes of Survivor are no longer available.
I’m not sure whether there will be any reprieve on this state of affairs but if there is I will keep you updated.
Thanks for your understanding.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs
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Greetings all,
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!
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Well better luck with the flatties next time Greg but it sounded like you and Jess had an alright day just the same.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs
