EVERY year, a group of blokes from the Rotary Club of Cleveland swap meetings for mateship, trading in their everyday routines for rods, reels and a lot of banter.
Dubbed “schoolies for grown-up men”, the annual getaway sees between 10 and 16 Rotary members, aged 30 to 70, pile onto houseboats for a fishing long weekend.
This year’s trip took them from Coomera to the calm waters around Tipplers at South Stradbroke Island.
“It’s marketed as a fishing trip, but let’s be honest, fishing isn’t always the biggest thing going on,” organiser Chris Beattie of Cleveland laughed.
“It’s about the blokes having a break, telling a few stories, playing some cards, and enjoying a drink or two.”
Rainy weather this year meant more time under cover and less time with a line in the water.
But the group still managed to haul in enough crabs and tailor for a decent feed.
“There are some diehards who know how to fish properly – they’re the ones running the tinnie and setting the crab pots,” Chris said.
“The rest of us, well … we just eat what they catch.”
Chris admits his role is more social than sporting.
“I wouldn’t know one end of a fish from the other,” he said.
“For me, this trip is really about a bit of man therapy.
“We talk about sport, life, cars, boats – just general bloke stuff.”
He said the weekend offered something you can’t get in a one-hour weekly meeting.
“You really get to know people,” he said.
“We’ve got a mining engineer, an IT guy, a plumber, a sparkie – I’m a property valuer.
“The conversations are as diverse as the professions.”
Now two decades strong, the fishing trip has taken the crew everywhere from the Tweed River to Tin Can Bay.
But no matter the location, the theme remains the same – mateship, memories and a few dodgy fishing stories.
