Posts by Damian Christie
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Ha, yeah I probably gave that impression because it sounded more dramatic, you know, reels screaming, gannets plummeting, fish flapping, all go... so my fault there, I'd forgotten about the PETA wing :)
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Forgive me if I'm mistaken, Damien, but "a quick death" - quoting Raymond Francis - is not something you or your mates gave the fish you caught.
We spike all the fish as soon as they're on board, then chuck 'em in the chilly bin. There was one fish that couldn't immediately be dispatched as such, and that was because another needed help getting his catch on board. There was certainly no pile of fish slapping around in pain (if that's indeed what they feel) - if nothing else it would make three people fishing on a small boat even trickier.
At 45m the biggest issue is ensuring various bits of them don't inflate with the change in pressure, making it very hard to get them back down again if they're big breeders, too small, or you just don't need them.
In that regard, I think catch and release (or catching after you've got quota, just for the fun of it) is pointless, possibly cruel (or at least not caring and considerate) and at worst damaging/fatal to otherwise healthy creatures. I'm with @Islander on this one, I find it quite moral as long as we're getting a feed.
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Unless I also stop buying fish from the supermarket, which ain't gonna happen, there's no way I'm not coming home with a feed :)
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Brilliant - that's the niece's Christmas present sorted (well, part of it at least, I am the child-less well-to-do uncle...).
Beautiful looking illustrations, I'm very envious. My children's book (about a bossy rodent named Chairman Mouse) remains entirely unrealised.
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That’s what fishing is to me, far more than the ‘product’, which would usually be cheaper at a shop, once you count lost labor and all the boat/bait/tackle costs.
Yeah, I’ve definitely put more into it than I’ve got out of it over the years. Monday’s trip would’ve cost about $60-$70 each (so about $200) in basic costs – petrol, lost jigs, ice – not including depreciation of boat/gear etc. We would’ve probably got about $700 worth of snapper at retail. But the number of times I’ve spent just as much and ended up with nothing, or a single fish, well....
@Andrea – I’d be happy to target other species if they chomped on my hook. Always happy with a couple of kahawai to smoke but oddly haven’t seen any of those for a while (they used to be like the rats of the sea). I know there are ways to target other species, i.e. big game fishing, but it’s a lot harder to do.
I have a certain amount of faith in the quota system, but either way I’m not guilty about heading out every few weeks and chancing my luck. When it’s on, it’s on, and even when it’s not, it’s still a very pleasant way to waste the day.
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@Andrea - that was between three of us, so nine each. Which granted, is still a lot of fish for one household, so I dropped one over to the neighbour, and a couple to friends. Not everyone has the time and wherewithal to go out fishing, but I think everyone deserves the occasional fresh snapper. And as I say, we threw back anything vaguely small (but still legal) and anything very big (good breeders). And that was the first time I'd had a good day's fishing in ages, so it's not like that's a weekly occurence. Appreciate the thought though.
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I think they suggest walkers stick to the back of the starting pack, but having turned up late (massive queue at the ferry, as I mentioned), we had no choice but to run through EVERYONE.
I think a simple "walkers keep left" rule would help, it's pretty intuitive to anyone who drives that slowies stick left.
A "decent hill" ? Pfffft, a mere pimple compared to what we run up in Dunedin...
Yeah, fair call. We'd been told by friends that the bridge was a killer, and it probably says as much about how conservatively we'd taken it until that point that it barely challenged us at all. But it clearly hurt a few people. My sis and I had found our own Mt Doom though, a 700m long climb on Boundary Rd, just round the corner from my place, and made a point of including that in our last few runs. Definitely helped.
Coatesville Classic half is in March. Who's with me?
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Thanks Jackie - honestly, if it wasn't for her turning up at my place at 7am in the middle of winter and making me get out of bed and run, I probably wouldn't have crossed the line, so it wasn't a hard decision to stick with her.
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:)
2.15'19"
With about 5km to go I was going to ditch my sister and push it a bit more because we'd been coasting along a bit, but she was starting to looked a bit pained, and since we'd trained all this time together (and I wasn't about to break any records anyway) I stuck with her until the final stretch to make sure she didn't start walking.
Knowing what I now know, next year I'm going to train for 2.00.
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Now all i'm thinking of is large pools of whale glue floating around the oceans, I'm not swimming this summer.
I once convinced a friend of mine that was what whitebait was... whale jiz.
Mind you, I also convinced her that blind guide dogs were actually blind, hence the phrase "the blind leading the blind."
Lovely girl though. Very pretty.