ProspectorPete said:
Hey PB, we spent most of the week last year drifting and casting, we'd head over to whichever side the wind was coming from then drift across the lake picking up Bream on lures and plastics, it amazed me how shallow most parts of this estuary are, we saw the water chop up very quickly once when the wind changed on one occasion as well.
Thankfully I don't take alcohol on the boat, prefer to wait until we get back in then make up for lost time but yeah, it's amazing how quick things can go wrong, especially with the judgment clouded with a few cans under the belt.
PP,
I'm with you on that now. There has been a no booze policy on our boat fer a couple of decades now. Yep, save the beer for around the bbq bragging (or BS'ing) about what got caught & what got lost at the end of the day.
But 3 or 4 decades ago was a very different time.
I look back now to when I was a young kid, how strict my father was on things like our fortnightly shooting trips.
His CONSTANT whispered commands as dawn broke to me,
"No lingerering, keep up, you got to keep the line straight"
"No firing left or right across the line or I'll give ya a foot in the arse so hard ya nose will bleed"
"Sh#t, if I see you cross another fence like that again I'll rip ya arm off & belt ya over the head with the wet end. Its safety on, weapon passed through the fence, muzzle forward, then through you go mate. Not that stunt you just pulled there....Jesus, Joseph & Mary. How many times do I have to tell you son?"
He & my uncles were all pedantic regarding no booze & extreme safety when hunting.
But ?!?!?!.....yet ?!?!?!
The very next weekend we'd all be out fishing, no life jackets, they'd be cracking Foster's cans at 6am.
& we would all fish (they would all drink) until we called it a day.
They had absolutely no regard for maritime safety, either for themselves or I.
Its strange to look back on now. But maybe a mixture of some regulation & a changing of what is & now isn't acceptable in the community has improved things to what they are today?
4 decades ago was very much a case of double standards (at least in my household).
The same father who was incredibly strict with me when out shooting, was incredibly slack at home regarding weapon security.
My Wife was shocked to see an old photo of my bedroom as a child. "You slept with 8 shotguns on the wall above your bed?"
Of course not I said, they were all just rifles.
.......I never had the heart to tell her the shotties in those days were stacked upright in the LHS of my cupboard......& the ammo for all was just a hands reach above back then.
In some ways this post doesn't exactly paint my father as the perfect Dad...he wasn't.....just as in many ways I ain't either.
But those days were a different time, a different way of thinking too. Most of my friends have similar stories of their own double standards at home regarding safety & their own parents.
So it was what it was.
My Dad is an awesome grandfather though. Its funny (yet reassuring ) how safety conscious he is with the grandkids when he takes them out for a fishing trip. Or when he throws them aboard the yacht for a day on the bay.
Grandkids have given him a second chance.....as I'm sure they have many.
Upon reflection of many of my own lifes choices, they just maybe my saviour one day too.
Cheers.
