Luck

Picture it, Sicily 1915. I was at a lovely beachside resort with mates of mine from work. Enjoying their company drinking on the cabins deck overlooking the beach, we got friendly with the neighbors that were sharing the other half of our cabin. And how can you not get friendly with the neighbors when the walls are paper thin and steam train Bobby pulled into town and laid there shunting back and forth with full engines running all night. That line sounds pretty sordid, but I am referring to his snoring. We laughed and got on with our drinking. Watching the sun set after consuming a very large dead cow meal was quite the ticket we wanted in this new year. So after a few drinks we got friendly. This couple was great. They were very much in love and there without their kids. But none the less, lets get on with this story.

The couple had the most unbelievable luck. I am talking about the worst luck I have ever recalled. Surviving the Katherine floods with a run of errors, forgetting to take the GPS on holidays with you to this resort as they loaded up their boat, not to mention that after they did a mercy dash back to Darwin to get their GPS, they forgot their brand new $200 worth of tackle. They were also the people who discovered the wreck that was later identified as the missing wreck from Cyclone Tracy. This lovely wreck was the giver of some great sized fish, now for you southerners, I am talking about some real sized fish, not those fish that you take home and cook up fish fingers with and what we use as live bait up here. And fish that you don’t have to work for. Line in, fall to the bottom then big fish on the end. Now that’s Territory fishing. This wreck is now a no go zone as some people went down with it during the cyclone so is now a marine graveyard.

This couple had us in hysterics as we laughed with them at all of their misfortunes. As previously stated, we were at a resort for fishing. The weather was crap. White caps in the channel only meant that the open water would be worse and we recently had a dump of rain so most things wouldn’t be on the bite, including what they were after which was mud crabs. But they persevered. We watched from our deck as they took off for a days crabbing. Pots in, spot of fishing, nothing. No worries, go and check the pots – nothing. Except a fish. And a pretty fish at that. They took a moment to admire this fish, what a pretty fish one says to the other. Chomp. What was this happening before their eyes, chomp, chomp. The bloody fish was eating through the crab pot. In great fear of have irreversible damage to the crab pot that my pose as an escape route to any great buck, they quickly dispersed with the pretty fish and went to check the other pots. Well with 10 pots down over a change in tide you would think they would have something. But no – nothing. Not to be undeterred, they left the pots in for the night and retreated back to the resort whilst they had good daylight to find their way back home.

Traveling back home, they were some what deflated as they got nothing. Full steam ahead to get home and keep the boat above those white caps. When on the trip home it happened. They caught a fish! Now there are conventional ways of catching a fish. You know, with a hook and line and if you are lucky enough bait on the hook that hasn’t flown off with your ever so great casts. Or perhaps you have graduated or got pissed off with that process and now use lurers. But this wasn’t how they caught their fish. They had their rods secured in the rod holders and the landing net as well (crucial piece of equipment to assist with bringing the big one home). Well that is exactly how they caught their fish. Both hiding from the wind on the trip home the landing net was poking out of one of the rod holders on the side of the boat. As the landing net is a net it didn’t move much or would put up much of a resistance in the wind. That is except when it is full, which was now the case. The unluckiest fish in the ocean jumped at the wrong time, right into the net as they were driving home empty handed.

This is Kim Dundee reporting from the Territory