Fishing or just Fishie

Yesterday 5 blokes pulled up into the ‘Council Vehicle Only' parking next to the park. They debunked and as I was throwing the ball or dog, I watched them phaff around with fishing rods and the like. And then one by one they walked down to the canal.

Now there can be no doubt that the beach at the end of the canal next to the park is public land and anyone who wishes to fish from here, well I say, ‘Go your hardest!’ even though I have never seen a fish caught from there. There can be no accounting for taste when it comes to leisure pursuits, some people like motor racing, some like macramé, some like playing video games and some like planning heists, so if someone wants to try to drown an already dead prawn or worm whilst trying to tempt an all too savey fish onto a lethal bit of metal, then who the hell am I to stop ‘em.

But yesterday’s bods were not happy to stay on the unequivocal public beach, instead they opted to wander along the canal onto private pontoons, all the while taking enormous interest in the boats and houses on the way.

One guy went one side of the canal and 4 on the other. The group of 4 became 2 groups of 2, one group tossing unbaited hooks into the water and the other pair moving further along, not even pretending to fish, instead they surveiled the boats and houses. The lone guy on the other side kept up with them and was clearly acting as look out.

They were not the most convincing bunch of fisher people you might ever have seen. I mean I am not a fisherperson, oooh YUK, but I reckon if I was gonna try for a ‘fish meal I made myself’, I would take a bucket and some bait and maybe a net and possibly even a bag with fishing stuff in it. These guys were empty handed except for the rods.

Steve and I were very conspicuous as we watched their progress. They spent a long time at the pontoons where there are big boats and less time on empty ones like ours.

I rang the police, but as I could not in all honesty describe these fellas as possible Bikies, there was very little interest. Prevention is clearly not as good as cure when talking about crime on the Goldie.

The lone lookout guy finally came back and was quite confrontational asking us if we had a problem. I said that I thought the behaviour was a little odd. He said he would get the other guys to come back and they would leave. He said they had been fishing like this for years and I said that he had not been doing it here for years, as we had never seen him.

They were not in a great hurry to go. We had been standing in the park for more than an hour watching them. They were brazenly walking onto private property and checking out the boats, and looking into houses.

I do wonder what the coppers were doing at 10am yesterday which prevented them popping over for a quiet chat with these blokes. Surely if they had been up to no good, a police presence would have proved to be a deterrent. Surely if the police want public assistance in solving crimes they need to be seen to be interested in such reports. Surely they could have had their coffee in a takeaway cup.

I don’t want to own a gun, but I can see how people might arm themselves if this is the response they get from the police.