Ring in the New Year
I started fishing almost 70 years ago so you can imagine the changes and funny things that I’ve seen happen in that time – and I promise all my stories are absolutely true.
Many, many years ago, a pal of mine, Byron Barawitzca (no longer with us) and myself decided to fish Blyth Pier. Now it was New Years Eve and we got along the pier about 10.00 at night. There wasn’t another soul in sight just the two of us, and it was snowing very heavily - in fact there was a good foot of snow on the ground.
We got as far the gate – in those days you couldn’t get past it – and tackled up. Now Byron used to use an Apollo Hollow Steel 13 foot rod and a twelve inch Scarboro’ reel. We didn’t fish light in those days. We tackled up and cast out … nothing …not a bite. We kept checking the baits and rebaiting. After about two hours Byron pulled in rebaited and cast out. Now you can imagine the weight of his rod and reel, and as soon as he had cast out he put the rod down and rested it on the railing. He was kneeling down, winding in the slack line with the rod between his legs, when suddenly he got an almighty bite which lifted the rod off the ground and smacked him hard in the “crown jewels”.
He didn’t say a word, but after about 4 or 5 seconds he gave a low moan and almost in slow motion fell over onto his side, oblivious to the fact that his ear was full of snow and he was being covered in it. He lay there for almost ten minutes, every now and then giving out a moan and sometimes what sounded like a little squeak. Now, I was also lying in the snow not able to help him because, I was laughing so much.
By the way, just as he got the bite the church bells started ringing in the New Year, it certainly rang his bells. He walked funny for a couple of days afterwards.
