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You fish out of a what?

Tuesday, 23 October 2007

Townsville tackle stores in disbelief

I've popped into a couple of tackle shops in Townsville so far and I have to admit they haven't done a terribly good job of 'selling' fishing in the area, nor have they been too helpful in offering advice as to where I might find some of the species I'm currently chasing. Somehow I think that has a bit to do with the fact that I've mentioned that I'm fishing from a kayak. The concept seems to be perfectly alien to them and I've noticed this in quite a few tackle stores along the coast. Sometimes you can just tell that they think you're just chasing little bream or flatties and often have little or no time for you because of it. In the process of being so elitist, more than a few salesmen have lost a sale.

In one of the stores I visited yesterday the salesman's response to my admission of fishing from a kayak was 'Jeez mate, you're keen!' I'm not sure if he was referring to the fact that it requires a bit of physical exertion to fish from a kayak, or otherwise the presence of crocs and sharks in the area. I spoke to another guy in another store today and his response was similar, though he made it pretty clear that kayak fishing wasn't the sort of thing he'd be game to do around these parts. After he finished trying to scare me to death about the salty crocs he then started informing me of the sheer volume of tiger sharks in the area. I've been hearing that sort of thing a lot lately, but it still hasn't started to bother me. Maybe I'll feel differently if I were to be attacked by a shark, but it hasn't happened yet and nor do I think it's likely to happen. As for the crocs, well, I do have a fair respect for them so I tend to stay out of their territory anyway. I might be game but I'm not a complete fool.