So, as I said, I'm teaching Joshua to fish. Firstly, I took him with me to get his saltwater licence, then we went to Cape Nature to get his freshwater license, but Cape Nature was closed between Christmas and New Year. I made a whole lot of copies, from various books, of all the different fishing knots and gave them to him, along with a roll of 20 lb nylon and a couple of Mustad long-shank 2/0 hooks, just so he could practise his knots. Now Joshua has been in the Scouts, and (hopefully) knows his way around knots, but, as I told him, fishing knots are different. I was gratified when, two days later, I popped in there to find the ou hard at work, diligently practising his knots! He seemed keen - I told Carol, 'Wait 'til the bug bites'. Of course, the bug only bites when you hook your first fish. Of course, Caitlin was SO jealous; here was an activity that she was excluded from, and, for once, Joshua was getting all the attention.
So today, at midday, I took Joshua with me to Kalk Bay Harbour; he has to learn to cast before we go to the 'Krantz, and Kalk Bay is the ideal place for that. We got there at about 12 noon, the southeaster was blowing just hard enough to make it slightly unpleasant, and every now and then the spray would drench us. And Joshua started the painful exercise of learning to cast with a fully-fledged revolving spool reel, geared at a ratio of 6.2:1. I put on a spoon, without a hook, and even without a hook that spoon had a beautiful action; wouldn't it be a joke if a BIG yellowtail took that hookless lure? Scenes we don't want to see. He has experienced the pain of getting overwinds, sitting with 'knitting' (unravelling the crows nest of tangled line). and trying to train his inexperienced little fingers to do what is second-nature to me.
After I had given him a couple of basic pointers, I left him to his own devices and had a good two-hour session spinning on the outside of the breakwater, the wind was up, the water was a beautiful aquamarine colour and had a lot of sand in suspension because of the wind. I didn't see any fish, then the spray got up a bit more and I said ok, let's call it a day.
On the way back, on Boyes Drive, we stopped at the shark-spotting station to see what we could see. The shark spotter told me he had seen a Great White at 11 o'clock this morning, inbound towards Sunrise Circle. Up on the mountain the wind was much worse, and from there, we could see, the water was mixed like pea soup. Still, I know one does get yellowtail in that kind of water too.
I don't know what it is about Kalk Bay, it's just a very basic fishing harbour (it started out life as a whaling station), but it has this incredible atmosphere and it attracts locals and tourists alike; Joshua was MOST impressed with the parade of pretty girls, I said to him that's still nothing, he should come on a day when the weather's good (not so much wind and spray). He's gonna spend the rest of the day trying to put his little teenage eyes back in their sockets!!!
Lots of Love
Pikkewyn
Konichi wa!
ReplyDeleteMy first time was in the summer of 1989. Maybe it was the same trip referred to by our Pikkewyn, I’m not sure. I carried an oversize, black packpack borrowed from Anton. The very first pair of hiking boots was the best ever. The Hitec Puritex hiking boot , R400 at the time. It carried me through exciting hiking trails for many years. It was back on the Outeniqua trail some ten years later where it finally started falling apart. I ‘hung my boots up’ in the backyard at 3 Frans Maroney. No boot ever matched up to that first pair.
Those were the days when we used to carry empty grocery bags for dirt left on the trail by hikers gone before us. Long days in the hot sun, little or no shade, and heavy packs on rickety legs.
The Northland print on my old windbreaker is gone now. Every time I wear it I’m reminded of those fresh , cool breezy evenings on the slopes of the Outeniqua, the Amatola,... Back then one of the first things on a hiker’s checklist was an emergency blanket. I still carry that very same one of 1989 with me everytime I go up the mountain. I carry it in the daypack on those quickie walks that we got so fond of lately. Perhaps it only has sentimental significance at this stage.
Guys, the footprint design on our green CANSA T-shirts was inspired way back in the days of Footwise hiking club. The guys introduced me to the sport of hiking on the Outeniqua.
I was mad about Japanese culture back then, and still is. Roger learned his first phrase from my little pocket guide.’ Bempi shite imasu’
Boots
Bindbreaker
Emergency blanket.
Sayonara!
Lee boy