THE STRAW SHRIMP

This is great...

Post by Fir Epiey.

THE LUCKY COUNTRY

We really have it good in Australia...even the old days were great...sadly there seems to be a lot more 'political correctness' and 'excuses' now which confuses me, but the foundations are still there!.

Having said that.Graeme Williams gave us some old magazines  to have a look at, they date from 1948 to 1961, which for some of us old bastards was a great time.  We were taught the 'Kings' english, and everything we had was precious, so we fixed things instead of just replacing them.   My Dad came off the land after the second world war and got a 'Government' job as 'fettler' on the railway.  We lived in railway tents alongside the railway line and learnt to eat rabbit in every different way and a stray sheep now and then would supplement the food.  Fish was always on the menu....

If you were 'Rich' you could buy a great caravan..I think this is an off roader?

 Fishing started on the Monaro (Cooma) when we lived near the stock yards, between the main rail line and the stock line.   Graeme Williams lived down the road, Rod Harrison was up the road a bit at Captains Flat.

The song with "........ and from all the lands of earth we come...." could have been written for Cooma in those days.  The Snowy Mountains scheme had opened in 1948 and most the workers from immigrants from all over the world.  Many of them brought their fishing heritage and traditions with them.

The basic wage was just eight pounds ten shillings  ($17) a week so if you wanted one of these it was around a weeks wage.

We used to fish for trout with the old 'Ned Kelly' rods, that is a long flexible branch with a fixed line attached.  A bit like 'Tenkara' I suppose.   We would use pure 'soap' and put a block into a drum with holes in it to catch shrimp, then attach them, or worms to the hook to catch the fish. Failing that Dad would make up a 'grasshopper' out of wool, and for some reason I seem to remember he used to put 'fat' on it so it would float.  Got some great fish that way.  Sadly they tell me those old rivers like the Numeralla at Chakola no longer fish.

A big fish from the past....don't hear of these much anymore?

It even got very modern and they brought out the men only 'Man' magazine....but I do think the meaning of some words have changed a lot since then?

Gayest?

..and there were powerful outboard motors for your ply wood boat..

Fancy fishing reels...September 1948...

and new overhead reels....

....when I was six I got my first reel....a Record 1500....1953 model....I think Dad got if off the back of a truck???  ..... my ABU 5000c (No. 372) in its leather case which I brought in my teens, cost me over two months pay...I still have them both,  and they work!!!

I even got a .22 single shot rifle for my 8th birthday....what a time to be a kid!!!

ORRSOME 105CM FROM THE BANK

From the Orrs, Tony and Rebecca

Been a while, apologies for lack of communication, been traveling back and forth to Qld.

Did manage to get down to the Ross River with the 9-wt during a rainy day and scored 3 barra: a 75 and a 95 cm at Black Weir in the morning,.....

95cm from Black Weir

..... then after a big midday downpour I managed a 105 cm specimen in the afternoon. Fishing from the bank amongst tight riverbank structure and overhanging paperbarks, I had to keep that afternoon fish within about 15 metres or lose him to the sunken trees.

105 cm from the bank and amoungst the paperbarks!!

 Absolutely brutal white-knuckle fly-fishing, almost straightened the 4/0 Gamakatsu!

All were taken on that flash-tail rattle-rouser that I like to tie, its a very useful dirty-water fly for barra.

Anyway, back in town for a while now so will try to keep in touch more regularly.

Cheers all

Tony (& Rebecca)

Native Fish: Finniss River biotope, Northern Territory, Australia