WOMEN IN ACTION
After a month in Port Hedland, averaging 30-33 degrees every day ( had to sneak that in after seeing the cold mornings down south ) Viv and I are now on Broome time and as you would expect, it is quite hectic at this time of year. Between skipper’s courses, I managed to snag a few mud crabs, blue swimmer crabs and blue nose salmon in Hedland and now looking to target threadfin salmon in Broome. Not surprisingly, the threadie and barra stocks in Broome have increased markedly since the Government bought out the only two commercial gill net licences, operating between Roebuck Bay and Eighty Mile Beach, back in 2013. But more on that next month!
I now have a weekly radio segment, every Monday morning 745am, chatting during ‘Breakfast with Angie’. Unfortunately Margaret River reception is not so good for the Spirit Radio Network on 621 am, as the southwest region cuts out around Dunsborough, but if you are heading north, be sure to listen in. So a few weeks ago I mentioned a fantastic program that started in Derby last year and is on again this year. Run by local fishing legend, Sara Hennessy, the West Kimberley Women’s Fishing Clinics are proving hugely popular and for all the right reasons. To quote Sara back in 2017, “The West Kimberley women’s fishing course is something that I have wanted to do (through the Mary Island Fishing Club) for a long time. There are so many women out there that go fishing and camping with their partners and families and do not have the ability or confidence to really ‘do it for themselves.’ As a result they tend to gravitate to the stereotypical women role of organising the food, looking after the kids and just winding in a fish and more often than not reliant on the ‘men’ to help them all the time to facilitate the act of fishing.” With the assistance of a grant through the Recfishwest Community Grants Program, 43 keen women were involved last year and so they had to limit the numbers to 20 this year, because the program is so jam packed. Highlights include, knots, rigs and tackle information and demonstrations, casting and learning to throw a net, how to back a trailer, launch and retrieving, how to look after your reels, basic boat mechanics, how to fillet fish ( barramundi from the Cone Bay fish farm ) and finishing with the Recreational Skippers Ticket Course. So, when Sara asked if I was able to be involved in assisting 12 women obtain their skipper’s ticket in Derby this year, I was happy to reschedule my Broome program to fit it in next weekend. Now anyone who has been to Derby knows about the big tides ( second biggest in the world actually ) and because I will be there on a new moon cycle, the high tide will be over ten metres. Therefore, I will be staggering the practicals over the weekend to avoid being stranded in the mud at the Derby boat ramp, which would not be a good look for the business. Photo attached, courtesy of Mary Island Fishing Club, shows last year’s women putting their skills into action. Maybe something that could be started up down south?