Doing the right thing by example...
John Allen writes:
Salmon have been pretty prolific around the piers and jetties of the northern Bellarine Peninsula recently, taking virtually any lure thrown to them. Last week my sixteen-year-old son, a couple of his mates and I fished Portarlington pier for the fun of catching a few.
      Probably one fish in ten was legal size, but we threw them all back to grow a bit for another day. Several others on the pier that day kept everything they caught, even sardine size. This horrified my boys, who very vocally let out the cry 'undersize' every time one of these small fish went into the buckets. This did not deter the intrepid Mediterranean anglers who fished on oblivious.
      My son caught quite a nice salmon about 50 cm and was preparing to throw it back when one of our 'friends' virtually told him to put it into his bucket if he was going to throw it back - no please, thanks or anything. Now the planking of some piers is a bit rough and just as my son was going to put his fish in the
other fellows 20-litre bucket almost full of undersize fish, he tripped and kicked the bucket - over the side of the pier went all the undersize fish, quite a few swam away.
      Amazingly he still kept hold of his legal size fish, which he gave to our 'friend' with the comment, "Sorry, but they were undersize anyway - now you have at least one legal size fish". He obtained a round of applause from everyone else on the pier, and considered he had done his bit by having an 'accidental trip'.
(28 May 2001)


If you have any comments or questions, use our contributor's form and be in the running for some great monthly prizes.


BACK TO THE SHAME FILE...