WHY I LOVE FISHING

Nine-year-old Lincoln Mensforth may well be this magazine’s youngest ever contributor. It gave his grandfather (Shane) immense pleasure to edit it — chuckling most of the way through!

In this article I will be talking to you about fishing and why I enjoy it so much. I hope that at the end you will all have a good understanding after listening to me, and that some of you will ask you friends and family to join you for a day out on the water.

The two most popular forms of fishing are boat-based and shore-based. Boat fishing of ten provides us with better catches, but shore-based fishing can be very good at times too. There are several advantages and disadvantages to both.

ADVANTAGES TO BOAT FISHING ARE:

• You get to go out further to find more fishing grounds.

• You get to see a lot of marine life and bird life when travelling out on a boat, like dolphins, seals, gannets, pacific gulls, sea eagles and sometimes whales or sharks.

• It can be nice and peaceful in good weather.

DISADVANTAGES TO BOAT FISHING ARE:

• If it gets windy, it can get rough and that can make some people feel sick.

• If it’s very hot and you’re in a little boat, you can get burnt if you don’t have lots of clothing to cover you.

• Boats use a lot of petrol, which makes them expensive to use.

ADVANTAGES TO SHORE-BASED FISHING ARE:

• You get to stay on the land, which means you don’t have to worry about the wind as much.

It's easy to get excited - even over a tommy!

• It can be very peaceful in nice weather.

• It feels like a good achievement when you catch a fish from the shore.

• You can go fishing with quite a lot of people.

DISADVANTAGES TO SHORE-BASED FISHING ARE:

• It can be dangerous if you fish from the rocks.

• If the wind is coming in at your face, it can make casting your line very difficult.

• It can be hard to find a spot without too many people sometimes, especially through the

• If the tide is out too far, the water might be too shallow for fishing. Fishing is one of the most popular hobbies in the world. It is also considered to be one of the most dangerous hobbies, particularly here in Australia. A lot of fishing injuries occur when people go fishing from the rocks and don’t pay attention to their surroundings.

SOME GENERAL SAFETY TIPS FOR FISHING ARE:

• If you go out on a boat or fish from the rocks, always wear a life jacket. Make sure it is the right one and make sure that it fits properly.

• Make sure there is enough petrol for the whole trip.

Kids and calamari were made for each other school holidays.

• Always check the weather before you go and let family know where you are going and when you will be back.

• Never turn your back on the ocean and the waves.

• Take lots of fresh drinking water.

My favorite fishing is from the boat with my Dad and my Pa. We have spent a lot of time travelling over to Yorke Peninsula over the years, which is where my Pa lives, and the fishing over there is good. I love catching squid, but they can be very messy and can cover you with ink if you’re not careful when reeling them in.

Squid are very easy to catch and one of the best for us kids to start out fishing for. They are very slimy though, but they have big colourful eyes and weird long tentacles that can stick to your skin if you touch them.

Squid only live for about one year, so they aren’t on this planet for very long, but they do grow very fast and they’re often very inquisitive around the boat.

We use a rod and reel with thin fishing line attached to the reel and we tie a squid jig lure to the end of our line, which is what we cast out into the water to try and tempt the squid to bite. The squid jig has very sharp hooks on the end of it, so when the squid grabs the lure, you gently lift the rod and keep winding until the squid is next to the boat or jetty. This is where it can become fun sometimes. Squid have ink sacks inside of them and when they see a predator, they often squirt their ink out to try and confuse the predator that is trying to eat them. When you pull a squid out of the water, this becomes a natural defence reaction for them and sometimes the ink can land all over your face and clothes. I have had squid ink squirted on to me a couple of times and it isn’t the best look!

Pretty happy with this one, Dad!

My Dad and Pa enjoy eating squid, so when we get home from fishing for the day, they clean the squid and prepare them for us to eat. I like it sometimes, but only when my dad cleans them, because he does a much better job of it than Pa. My Pa can’t see very well without glasses, and he always loses them.

My other favourite type of fishing is on the big beaches for Australian salmon. I have been very lucky to go to some really cool spots as a kid. Some of my most memorable places are the Port Lincoln National Park, Coffin Bay National Park, Elliston, Talia, Innes National Park and some of the beaches down at Robe when I was a bit younger. These beaches are all very good for fishing, especially if you like catching salmon.

From time to time Mum has to lend a hand

Salmon are great fun to catch. They jump a lot and they are very tough. Sometimes the salmon can take five minutes to reel in. This is when you know you have a big one.

My favourite way to catch salmon is casting a lure out to a school of fish. I can’t cast very far yet, but I am getting better each time I go. My Dad always tries to find a school of fish that is in close for me, to make things easier for me and my mum. Being able to drive along the beach or the coast is the only way to do this and we stop of ten to check. Gunyah, inside the Coffin Bay National Park, as well as the Lincoln National Park, are the best places to do this. When we stop for Dad to check the beach, we get a chance to play around in the sand dunes, which is fun too.

When Dad tells us that he has found some fish for us, we unpack the car and put our sunscreen on before heading down on to the beach. It is important to be safe here because the waves can be big and they can take you out to sea if you’re not very careful.

Dad helps me a lot when we fish on the beaches. He holds on to me when I’m fighting a fish so that I don’t fall over and he helps me cast sometimes too. He also tells me when to walk back if waves are coming in, so that I don’t get washed out to sea. As kids, we must be very careful around the water, but even more so on these big beaches. Listening to Mum and Dad is very important here.

When we catch salmon we normally let them go back into the water. I don’t like eating them very much, but they can be nice if Pa cooks them in a Thai curry.

I hope that I’ve given you some helpful information on fishing today, especially if you choose to go squid fishing or salmon fishing.