Towards the beginning of September I left my job and decided that I needed to follow my passion as well as steer my career back onto track. After some time, I found a new place to work and am very excited about it. Anyway, it’s been a tough couple of months and my loving girlfriend decided that taking me away would be a good idea – I love her so for this!
Now, for those of you who know me, I come across as someone who wouldn’t really like the ourdoors and would rather be like Ari Gold and stay in a fancy, clean and neat place, but that’s not the case. I love the outdoors, peace and quiet, oh and I honestly love fishing! Fiona took this all into account, and here’s a picture of the place we’re hoping to book:
Boskloof Swemgat – Clanwilliam
How peaceful does that look? I can’t wait to sit on the bank of the river, with a blanket, picnic basket and my fishing rod ~ bliss! I really hope that I can find my fishing rod and tackle – It’s probably been several years since I fished, so I’m trying to decide what the best strategy is for a river like this. Any ideas?
We were told that they do have an opening, so I think we’ve booked, but it’s not my call :)
It’s great to have these little ventures to look forward to. That place looks awesome and I do have a bunch of buddies who fish, however I myself have never understood how people can trap and kill little animals for recreation.
I too have a little holiday planned:
http://www.southafrica.to/accommodation/Wilderness/The-Tops.php5
Nice Chris, I don’t suppose I do know you that well, not that I wouldn’t like to! I am thrilled to hear that you’re a fan of fishing though as I’ve always been a fond angler myself. As a matter of fact my parents are finally going to take my sister and I to a game reserve next month, Addo Elephant park, can’t wait. Sadly we can’t stay overnight on the reserve because its all booked up for the next 4 months, but instead we’ve managed to book a place on the mouth of the Sunday River where I’ll be able to fish to my hearts content!
Have you got some rods? We should go fishing together sometime, sea fishing from a boat is the bomb!
@South Africa – Getting away is so important these days in our overly fast paced digital age. Ah yes, well I must admit, it’s cruel to the fish :( However, I always set them free, does that make me a bad person? I’ll take a look at your link as well :)
@Alex – Nice to meet you :) Game Reserves are incredible! I’ve been to the Kruger National Park, it was truly stunning. Booked up for 4 months, wow, that’s incredible, sorry to hear that though. I have a rod from many years back, it’ll be sufficient for a river, I’m just far more in touch with dam fishing, not too sure if I’ll use spinners or live bait for a river – I guess it doesn’t really matter, but my guess would be live bait, also the strength of the current will determine that too. What do you think?
Are you from Cape Town? Sea fishing is something I was never able to get into, I think more because I didn’t have access to a boat and the likes..
Chris, good to see that you’re as open-minded as ever, and admit that it’s cruel to the fish, and setting them free is probably better than killing them. The process of catching a fish causes stress to the little creatures, and it’s up to each of us to decide whether the pleasure we get from an activity is more important to us than the pain it causes the victims of the activity. Some say the mark of a man is how he treats those less powerful than himself, and I was very impressed with what you did last night in helping that young man on hospital bend.
That looks like a lovely place to take a break Chris. Enjoy your fishing (you don’t always need a rod, sometimes a cooler bag will do just fine on its own). ;-)
@South Africa – Agreed. I was a tropical aquarium fanatic for 4 or 5 years, where I had over 10 tanks filled with tropical fish. During this venture I read an incredible amount and learnt more than I thought I would ever know about fish. Based on my knowledge, I agree, the fish does feel stress, but it’s memory is generally not strong enough to remember the event long after its release. I’m not excusing the act of fishing, but merely putting a different perspective around it :)
@Louisa – A cooler bag, sounds like an interesting story, one which I definitely need to hear! ;)
Chris, thanks for bringing into the discussion the topic of fish memory. My understanding is that even though their brains are quite small, that fish learn from their experiences, and are able to participate in complex social games involving status, manipulation and cooperation (as a fish owner, I’m sure you for instance noticed that they learnt when feeding time is).
Like us, fish are vertebrates, and if we could go back far enough in time, we’d come across our common ancestors!
Absolutely! There ability to retain certain things is possible, however, I’m not calling myself an expert and it has been a number of years since I was involved, so I do stand for correction :)
Your last paragraph relies heavily on your religious beliefs though, hehe, now I see a new topic starting ;)
No religious leaps of faith are required – the last paragraph is strongly supported by scientific evidence.
Hehe, depends on your views ;)