Like many fishers who land a big dusky flathead, Joan Meredith said the battle started like a bit of a deadweight.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“I thought I only had a big lump of weed on the end,” said 88 year-old Joan, after her nostalgic trip to Fishermans Paradise from home at Ulladulla.
“Then I realised I had something and my brother ran to the car for the net.”
“It wasn’t until right at the end that it kicked,” said Joan, who then hauled out her 2.2 kilogram, 60 centimetre catch.
For Joan and her late husband John, the vicinity of the the concrete bank near the ramp at Fishermans Paradise was always a favourite location and this time she was casting in there in the company of brother Harvey “out of desperation looking for a spot out of the wind”.
Joan has been fishing since she started as a four year-old “with a hook on the end of a piece of cotton”.
She loves her lifetime pastime to the point where “Harvey and I would fish in a puddle if it rained. He comes down to visit me from Sydney about once a month, sometimes more”.
It was no contest deciding what to do with the fish.
“We ate it.”
That was right after taking it around the the fishing tackle and bait shop on Wason Street to weigh and measure it.