Page 4 - Publication2

The mysterious case of the missing fish bag.

Once again this story takes us back to Toukley and the many hours we spent fishing the waters of Budgewoi Lake. On this
particular fishing trip we had rolled out Great Grand Dad’s boat. A wooden structure that weighed a tonne which we had to
get out of great grand dads shed and roll down to the water. A feat in itself that was hard for young boys who had to pick up
the rollers as they spat out from the stern and then run them to the bow all the while the barely controlled juggernaut is ca-
reening at 100 miles per hour towards the water.

Grand dad’s boat was old. It had an inboard engine that worked
periodically and more often than not we had to resort to the
oars. It could however hold all of us and our gear. The seats were
hard and splintery and the boat smelt of old fish and the sea-
weed. I secretly still miss that smell. There was always a quantity
of water in the boat which concerned me greatly as I was sure it
increased as we moved further from shore.

We would launch the boat and head out to where grandpa knew
the fish would be biting. Dad would set up our gear and depend-
ing on our age and experience would bait and cast for us well.
The usual state of play would be that the first three places would
be void of fish so we would move on to other sites until we got
some bites. Then Dad would spend the rest of the trip untangling
our fishing lines after we brought our first fish in. Needless to say
these were some of the best times I spent with grandpa and dad
(and even my brother).

This story however relates to one particular trip where one of
grandpa’s spots paid off. The fish were biting and we had pulled
in some lovely bream and flatheads. (starting to sound like a fish-
erman’s story of the one that got away?)

The fish bag at this point in time was an old hessian spud bag hung over the side from one of the oar locks. The bag must
have been a hundred years old and smelt like it as well. It was frayed and had numerous holes in it but apparently it was still
in a usable condition.
As I said the fish were actually biting and we had caught quite a few. All carefully placed in the bag over the side to keep
them fresh. Towards the end of the trip when we had thought we had caught enough to last a few days we decided to catch
a couple more and then head home as triumphant fishermen and clean the catch. As the next fish was caught, a lovely big
bream, and about to be placed in the bag it was noticed with horror that the bag was missing.