FOR more than seven decades, fishing has been part of Cleveland resident Karolyn Campbell’s life.
From catching eels in creeks as a child to teaching young anglers about sustainable fishing practices at Victoria Point jetty, the 81-year-old said the simple act of casting a line had always been about more than what ended up on the hook.
Holding her arms wide to describe the size of the biggest fish she ever caught – a Spanish mackerel off the Solomon Islands – Ms Campbell laughs at the memory.
“It’s your typical fisherman’s story,” she said.
“I don’t know the length or the weight, but it was sizeable.”
Ms Campbell said some of her earliest memories involved fishing with basic homemade gear.
“We’d go out with a long stick, some line, cork and worms,” she said.
“We’d catch eels in the back creek then we’d take them home and skin them.
“We had to put salt on them so we could hold onto them.
“I don’t remember the eating, but I do remember how slippery they were.”
At just five years old, she was heading out onto Port Phillip Bay in a rowboat with her father to catch flathead using hand lines.
“It was a good time. When I think about it, Dad did all the work, rowing and catching the fish, and then we’d take them home for dinner,” she said.
Over the years, fishing took her to different places and styles of angling, including fly fishing in Cooma after a family friend gifted her a metal rod and some spinners.
But for Ms Campbell, fishing was never purely about the catch.
“I like fishing because you become in the space of where you are, in and of nature,” she said.
“There’s a zone there, especially at that golden sunset hour.
“They call it fishing, not catching. Catching doesn’t really matter.”
She jokes that her children never quite developed the same passion.
“They would get bored and wanted to go home after a while,” she said.
“I would take them fishing and then get into my own world.
“I should have trained them better.”
After moving to Cleveland about 20 years ago, Ms Campbell became a familiar face at the Victoria Point jetty, often fishing four or five times a week.
“I’d go about four or five times a week and mainly catch bream and bait fish,” she said.
“I would also cast a net for mud crabs and blue swimmer crabs.
“I used to be a member of the Victoria Point Gardening Club at the Baptist Church, and I would put the crab pots out at the jetty before the meeting, then go back afterwards to see what I had.”
It was during those regular trips that Ms Campbell began helping younger fishers understand fishing regulations, bag limits and responsible practices.
That passion for education eventually led her to become a volunteer with Fish Care in 2007, where she helped teach children and families about sustainable fishing.
“We would talk about giving the fish a chance to grow up and have babies. It was a good program,” she said.
Ms Campbell also became an angler instructor with Sunfish, teaching children practical skills including casting, knot tying and identifying fish species.
Even now, she said fishing remained one of life’s simplest pleasures.
“There’s nothing quite like being out there at sunset with a line in the water,” she said.
