Hook, Line And Thinker

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday April 23, 2005

NICK GALVIN

The quiet meditative pleasures of fishing are a bigger lure for NICK GALVIN than the expectation of catching tonight's dinner.

Fishing involves "a stick and a string, with a worm at one end and a fool at the other". Ha bloody ha.

Samuel Johnson's well-worn quip is, I guess, mildly amusing for non-anglers - just don't expect to raise much of a laugh with it down at your local wharf or beach.

To most anglers, smart-alec comments knocking their sport are strictly for the uninitiated who just don't get it.

So what is it about sitting in a boat, on a beach or a wharf, dangling a baited hook in the water in the often forlorn hope of snaring a fish? What is it that keeps the nation's 3 million anglers coming back when, frankly, it would be a lot easier to pop down to the supermarket, pick up a few flathead fillets and avoid all that grief?

Dr Steve Sutton, a researcher at Townsville's CRC Reef Research Centre, has spent much of his working life pondering this question and has come up with some surprising answers.

Number one is that catching fish is not the highest priority for most experienced anglers. "There's a lot more to the fishing experience than just catching fish," says Sutton. "It's a leisure activity that people get different benefits from.

"Obviously, catching fish is part of the experience but even when people go fishing and don't catch any fish, they very often report they had a satisfying trip."

Sutton's observations are backed by a study in 2000 which questioned about 18,000 anglers nationwide.

Thirty-seven per cent of anglers said their primary reason for fishing was "to relax and unwind". Only 18 per cent said the main drawcard was "fishing for sport", while fishing for food was important to only 8 per cent.

"Fishing is like any other recreation activity such as, say, tennis," Sutton says. "The object of playing tennis is to get the ball past the other person but people play tennis and may not win, but they still have a good time because they get other benefits out of it."

Over the past nine years, Sally Trempus has gained a special insight into the fishing psyche from behind the counter of Rose Bay Bait and Tackle. She agrees with Sutton that many of her customers are just looking for the chance to kick back from their stressed lives, with catching fish only a secondary consideration.

"We get a lot of people coming in here who are CEOs or who have a lot of responsibility and, for them, being around the water is a great way to relax," she says. "A lot of people also don't think it's that crucial that they catch anything."

And from where Trempus is standing, business has never been better, with more people than ever feeling the urge to dissolve their daily cares with a little water - fish or no fish. Many of her customers also cherish the family aspect of fishing. It's something dads and mums can do with the kids that gets the youngsters out of the house and away from computer games and the television, she says.

However, for the modern dad who possibly never learnt to fish with his own parents, this can create a problem.

"We get a lot of dads who haven't fished before, coming to us," Trempus says. "They have an hour's lesson and that gives them the chance to understand how to tie a knot and how to put bait on so they don't look silly in front of the kids. A lot of blokes just don't want to admit that they don't know something."

Other embarrassed non-fishing dads end up taking the courses run by Todd Young through Sydney Community College.

Young has run the courses for adults for the past two years. Students are taught techniques including casting and knot-tying in the four-day (three hours per day) course, as well as learning what to do with anything they catch that is big enough to keep.

The courses are constantly oversubscribed, which doesn't surprise 32-year-old Young, who has been fishing all his life and is the Australian Indoor Casting Champion.

"I've been fishing since I was 18 months old," he says. "I was in a pram and Dad whacked a handline in my hand and I caught a large sand whiting. I've been hooked ever since. Punishment for me as a kid was being told I wasn't allowed to go fishing. That hurt more than being smacked on the bum."

Trying to explain what compels him to fish, he confesses he is not a "city person".

"I don't like traffic. I don't like buildings everywhere - I'd rather be out in the bush in a tranquil environment. While you're fishing you're not thinking, 'Geez, have I put petrol in the car? Have I left the iron on?'. You're actually thinking, 'What am I going to do to catch a fish?'."

And, as any angler will tell you, catching a fish is not as easy as it looks, with many a slip between hook and plate. For a creature with a relatively small brain, a fish will still do everything possible to avoid ending up in an angler's bucket.

Veteran Central Coast fisherman Ron Squires succinctly encapsulates the challenge of the sport.

"Fish are tricky buggers," he says, which for him explains why he has been pursuing them for about 60 years.

"Fishing's a mixture of pleasurable pastime and challenge. The real challenge is finding where the fish are and getting them on the line. But even if you don't catch them, you never get tired of standing on the beach with a line or sitting in the boat."

Fishing also gives Squires some "thinking" time. "You can cogitate on different things but generally you're trying to concentrate on catching a fish," he says. "It helps you take your mind off all the things you want to forget, I guess."

Or, as Sally Trempus puts it: "Us Aussies tend not to go to psychologists but we use other means of relaxing - like fishing."

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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