The fishing in this part of Australia is second only to that on offer in the remote parts of the Great Australian Bight around Ceduna and the dog fence.
http://www.fishsa.com/steyre.php
As a result of these trips and a massive decline in enthusiasm towards my employer the female, emo hitler, exploiter of young tradesmen and owner of the plumbing business in Port Lincoln I made a decision. I would become a freelance fishing journalist! What a life, go fishing a lot, take some photo's write up a yarn and get paid. Yes this was a good thing. So I got to work. around 37 hours of work later ( I had to go fishing of course) I had produced my first write up, stuffed it all into an envelope and posted it off to the editor. Three months went by, I heard nothing.
One day I decided to grab the bull by the horns and I played telephone tag with the publications employees until I finally got to speak to the editor.
The story was good he said, but the photo's were too low in resolution, I needed to invest in a better digital camera if I wanted to carry on. Oh... shit. OK. The photo's were mainly of a once in a lifetime brace of fine plump Australian salmon, that was going to be hard to do over. I got off the phone and proceeded to file an application for a pipeline project managers position in Adelaide. Anyways I got the position, we made all the arrangements and moved everything 700km to Adelaide. Not long after, the phone rang. "Mike, we'd like to publish your story." Oh... shit. OK. A few months later the cheque arrived in the mail along with a few complimentary copies of the magazine. I got paid about $150 for a dream that had consumed four months of my life!
I never did get another day of pure magic like that stormy winters day on a remote beach north of Sheringa, but that's the good part about good memories, they don't fade like the bad times do. I reckon next year I'll head back over for the Australian Salmon fishing competition and I'll drag along my good mate Bessell, he's one serious ass fisherman. Hell, he fished the Darling river through a 12 year drought, that makes my four months look pretty lame!
