[Danielle F.]

Fishing For Food​

Remember when fishing was more than just reeling in dinner? Before the red tape and commercial quotas, a good catch was something to celebrate—and to share. Families, neighbours, even strangers at the boat ramp—everyone got a feed. It wasn’t just about fish, it was about connection. Time on the water, yarns on the jetty, and that feeling of bringing something home. Got a favourite fishing memory? We’d love to hear it—share it with us!

Image Credit: Donna Neil/Memory Lane-Growing Up In Australia, Facebook

 

[Mikev]

It was a cheap way to get some free Tucker

 

[Vet543]

Many years ago, We had a beautifu baby girl in Nth Qld.
Money was hard to accumulate so on Saturday I joined a concreting team and was paid in cash. Sunday I gave the pay less a few dollars to a fishing boat owner and went fishing with the local fishing club
We caught lots of fish and I only kept the Coral Trout and the Red Emperor. The club got the rest except a couple of Fish that I took home for us.
Then Monday , after work I went straight home to get the fish out of the freezer and off to the fish shop,
We had a code, and I would order 5 cents worth of chips, IF he gave them to me. I would go off and come back about an hour later when all was clear and sell the Coral Trout and Red Emperor to him through the back door. Dodging the Fish Board.
It was a big help in wage supplement and the new babe got well cared for ... Today, she has her own family and a great job.

 

[Gil]

Back in about 1963 or 64, we were living in Frankston on the Mornington Peninsula. My father hired a boat from the hire place in Kananook Creek. It was one of those single-cylinder motorboats that travelled fairly slowly. We travelled for about an hour out into Port Phillip Bay, stopped, put down the anchor and readied our fishing handlines. It came time to bait up when Dad realised that the bait was still back in the car. We had only hired the boat for 4 hours (allowing an hour travelling each way and 2 hours fishing), so going back for the bait was out of the question. Dad was a smoker who rolled his own, so he dampened a couple of cigarette papers, squashed them onto the hook, and gently let it out over the side. It had just reached the bottom, and "whammo", there was a bite and a hook-up. Dad pulled in a nice-sized flathead. He said, "OK, this is now our bait". We ended up having one of the greatest days fishing on the bay, WITHOUT taking bait with us. The only downside was that the first flathead Dad caught was the largest for the day, and we cut it up for bait.

 

[Still Ebby]

My bubby was fishing with us all in Coff Harbour as a seagull flew pass who must have thought it was food and grabbed his line hook and all. He grabbed hold of it and tried to get it out but t was stuck in the back of it's throat We ended taking it to the vets

 

[Judy ABowser]

Our holidays were always at Sussex Inlet on The NSW south coast. Dad took us out fishing every day with Mum & us 4 kids. Mum use to have to make sandwiches because we were not allowed to come in for lunch . We only caught enough fish for the family & had fish every night for dinner & once a week we were allowed to have snags & vegies, Dad was a pretty hard task master but we all enjoyed the time spent there did not want to come home. Mum & Dad did eventually build a house there & we could get down to Sussex more often & our Dad did soften as we all got older. My sister & I often talk about it we are the only ones left now. I would not have swapped those years years for anything else we did have so much fun fishing & swimming. Still love fishing today but do not get to go anymore.