BLOKES LEFT ASHORE AS CHICKS REEL ‘EM IN
MUM TAKES FISHING INTO HER OWN HANDS:
LOCAL sisters are doing it for themselves when it comes to fishing in the North.
From wetting a line for “bread and butter” fare in local creeks, to hitting the open ocean for bluewater species, local female anglers are building up their own skills and knowledge to reel in the big fish.
Bluewater mum Melissa Kenny, 46, started taking her fishing seriously in the wake of a relationship split, and can now be found hitting the water anytime she can.
“I had always been into fishing, but when my ex and I parted ways I didn’t want my son growing up playing video games,” she said.
“So I bought a boat and learned a lot of new techniques, because I wanted him to get out there and fish.
“I could go fishing and catch the table fish. I had a $2 handline and I’d go down to the creek fishing.
“But now I can go out on the boat and target fish.”
Former police officer Annette Swain, who now runs a boat hire business in the Hinchinbrook region, is another angler from the ‘fairer’ sex who has no trouble bagging prize fish.
“We go in the billfish tournaments up here every year,” she said.
“We got champion boat for under 7.5 metres last year with Innisfail Gamefish Club the year before.
“I was runner-up in the female class and in the 2015 Cairns Bluewater comp, I got champion female.
“I do like chasing the marlin, the reef fishing and mackerel.”
Then there’s teacher aide and mum Minjaia Welham, who said she started fishing by looking over the shoulder of her partner Nick.
“I just became obsessed with looking at the sounder constantly,” she said.
“When the kids were very little, I was always at home and I thought ‘no – I’m going to go out fishing too’.
“It was more so to prove a point than to actually catch fish.
“But I got my first 96 cm nannygai and I was hooked from there on.”
The North Queensland girls are online students of local fishing legend Ryan Moody, who runs courses on all areas of fishing, from catching a barra to reading sonar images.
“Each time you go back through it, you pick up something you didn’t see or hear the first time – there’s so much information in it, it’s hard to take it all in at one time,” Ms Kenny said of Moody’s courses.
“My favourite part was learning to watch the water and its lines – you learn a lot about how to read what you’re looking at.”
WHEN THE KIDS WERE VERY LITTLE, I WAS ALWAYS AT HOME AND I THOUGHT ‘NO – I’M GOING TO GO OUT FISHING TOO’
MINJAIA WELHAM