Skydiving! Now, there's a subject for you. But what has it to do with fishing?

The five of us were fly fishing on the Mitta Mitta River, over past Falls Creek from Tawonga on a warm summer's day. Actually, only four were fishing, I was busy instructing and guiding, mostly instructing. We were at this particular stretch of river because it contains a long shallow run that is ideal for teaching new chums the finer points of fly fishing. The stretch also contains lots of big, fat trout.

To oversee things better, I was standing on this very high bank that slopes sharply down to the river, a long way down. Huge boulders litter the slope. Put there years ago to help control soil erosion. From this position I had an excellent view of everything.

The slope is made of hard packed clay with bits of grass growing here and there and I soon discovered that standing so close to the edge was stupid, when the clay broke away under my feet. An involuntary attempt at balancing with arms swinging wildly and jerking upper body tottering too and from and, whoops! Over I went, head first!

Oh my God! I can't arrest this slow motion fall. Seeing those huge rocks below I'm thinking, "This is it, I'm dead!" To anyone watching, it must have looked like a Johnny Weismuller black and white version of a Tarzan dive, but there was no water below. Just those big rocks, and this was in living colour, all red and hurting.

I was holding a fishing rod in my hand, I don't know why, but I vividly remember my brain telling me to throw it away. Strangley, my hand wouldn't respond to that command, to let go of the rod, I just froze. Funny how we react in fright situations, isn't it?

Anyway there I was, going over this huge cliff head first, stiff with fear and a fishing rod in my hand.

To be continued next week...