WHEN you spend your working hours giving tips on fishing, your own fishing is best done solo, says Cleveland fishing store owner Peter Stanley.
Peter said his fishing style was completely diverse.
“I like fishing. I could be catching whiting while sitting on the beach, or in a boat catching a 300kg black marlin. I do this and everything in between,” he said.
Peter said fishing was less about catching the fish and more about the experience.
“You get time to yourself. You get time to think about a lot of things. The fish are just a bonus,” he said.
“You think about it, as soon as you reverse your boat down a boat ramp, you are in a beautiful environment.
Look around. There’s Moreton Bay and there are the dams – like Somerset Dam. Fishing takes you to the most beautiful parts of the world.”
Peter said this scenery and ability to be alone was key to his fishing experience.
“It’s also great to catch enough fish for a couple of meals,” he said. “You don’t need to catch too many.
Actually, it’s best not to catch too many, because then you’ve got an excuse to go out again. Plus we don’t want people to catch too many fish. We have to keep things sustainable.”
Peter said that while he enjoyed fishing with his friends, he said there was sometimes expectations that he would catch something, given that fishing is what he does for a living.
“It puts pressure on me and then I can’t enjoy the day,” he said.
Peter thinks his parents got him into fishing because it was cheap entertainment.
“I have early memories of fishing. And there are a lot of proud fishing moments. One would be my first catch of a barramundi that was more than one metre long (Lake Awoonga, Gladstone) and another catching a 100kg marlin.”
