My family over here in Queensland Australia and I have a tradition on Boxing Day (the day after Xmas day)of heading out towards the local dam and having a fish and a BBQ and a few beers.
Last year was dismal for us as Queensland was covered by a slow moving rain depression that caused state wide flooding and the only fishing we would be doing would be on our front door step, that’s if we weren’t so concerned about bringing all our possessions and ourselves to higher ground. Well, that’s not true for the actual place I live as the flood didn’t hit us until Jan 11th 2011, but it was wet to the extreme just the same.
Anyway, this year we will be making up for all that, hoping to catch my fair share of Silver Perch and Yellow Belly, all good eating. My fishing licence runs out just before Xmas and sometimes it escapes my memory to pay to keep it up-to-date. But this year I was so keen to get fishing I renewed it days earlier. That’s how eager I was.
Wish we had a tradition of hunting Catfish over here as they do over there in America. We don’t have the huge freshwater Catfish like they do in your (US) lakes and dams. Our fresh water Catfish are also called Jewfish or Eel-tailed catfish and have a longer slender tail and nowhere near as big.
Its the Catfish that we find in the coastal salt water estuaries over here that mostly resemble the US Catfish, whiskers and all. Huge things that are deemed a pest, thus anglers cut their tales off and discard the fish altogether. Mate, I keep them and eat them whenever I catch them, beautiful meaty fillets. Not sure why they are a pest? My mate Mick (RIP) spent an hour hauling one in on his tinny a few years back that measured over a metre long (3ft).
Anyway, weathers beautiful today, getting late as it is.
Boxing day in Canada means a bunch of idiots camped out in front of my apartment as sprawled out spillovers from the future shop, waiting to save money on a big screen TV they don’t need. Definitely not my favorite of days, even though its origins are supposedly quite charitable.
Cheers mate: 3 Silver Perch and a yellow belly! A carton left in the cooler tonight. Wish you well with Dad, maybe next year or summer holidays. Best of luck!
Curious about this part, here in the US, Oregon to be specific, my annual fishing license expires at the end of the year. When 2011 is done so is my license.
I can buy my 2012 license next week and it will be good for 12 months, until the end of 2012. If for some reason I don’t buy one until next November it is only good for 2 months or until 2012 is over.
How does yours run out before Christmas? Is it an annual license based upon the date your bought it and it runs a full year? Just curious.
That’s right Dallas. The day you apply is the day the year after it expires. Happy fishing mate.
Where are you at in the states? What the best fishing spot for you? I like my estuaries the best but as I live inland the dam and river fishing is more practical for me.
In Queensland we only need a liscence for the dams and inland rivers, the money goes towards restocking the fish. Estuary fishing and out on the ocean you don’t need one but the waters are well policed.
I haven’t fished in many years, since I was a teenager. My dad didn’t fish, but as kids my grandparents took us.
Thinking about it brings happy memories. Grandpa insisted we learn all about it, baiting our own hooks, and cleaning what we caught. We didn’t just get to sit there, and then eat them later.
Grandpa died 28 years ago. Grandma is still with us, but at 107 is a leetle past her fishing days.
Revitalize the tradition, its the best fun ever and a good excuse to get out of the house, into the frsh air, get dirty and if nothing else, to have a good old lazy day doing Sweet F All with a good excuse.