Rescorla

A very sad day indeed for our household on Saturday as our lovely wee Scorls passed away from lung cancer. She appeared on Emily's doorstep as a newborn kitten on a rainy night just over 14 years ago. She was the most gentle creature you could ever have met (which wasn't that great if you had a rat in the kitchen!) and was an affectionate companion for as long as I've known Emily. It's going to be very different without her chattering about the place. She is sorely missed.

   

Fishing

 Feeling good out on the ocean

Well, true to form, the fishing charter once again failed to deliver the big fish that I was hoping for. It didn't help that only three out of the eight of us on board weren't berleying the water a little more than was required. It got so bad that the skipper had to abandon the open ocean and head inshore to calmer waters.

Box of fish

We did catch lots of fish though and, despite missing out on the real monsters, we managed to fill a box with Flathead and a few Bonito. This meant that I didn't return home empty-handed and we were able to prepare a few Flathead fillets and get an excellent feed.

Preparing some fillets

A quality feed

Since then I've had to stick to catching baby fish from shore. That is until I decided to hit the fresh water at Wentworth Falls Lake up in the Blue Mountains.

Baby Snapper at Balmoral

I didn't have any appropriate bait but a little research revealed that soft plastic squidgies are the way to go up there and I actually had a few in the tackle box which had been sitting unused since Emily got them for free with some magazine about 15 years ago! Problem was that I'd never caught a fish on an artificial lure before despite trying a few times. I didn't have a clue what I was doing and, to tell the truth, thought that people catching fish with lures on TV was probably special effects. Anyway, I selected one that I thought looked a bit like a baby trout and after a few casts a fish remarkably attacked it. I didn't hook up and that seemed to be that. That was until literally my very last cast of the day with the sun going down and Emily threatening to run for the warmth of the car.

  

Greedy Perch

As I reeled the lure in for the last time it was gobbled up by what Australians call a Redfin which is actually the European Perch (a bit of a pest species down here). And so exactly 40 years after catching my first fish - a European Perch - in the Union Canal at home, I caught my first fish on an artificial lure - a European Perch - in a small lake in Australia.

Perch on an artificial lure!