The Hammock Papers: Help.

25 July 2012

Help.

In early 2000 my best mate Earl and I decided we would take our girls on holiday to a Pacific Island. Not only is Earl my fly fishing "partner in crime" he subsequently became our cameraman for most of our productions (Once in a Blue Moon, Casts that Catch Fish)

Being keen anglers it seemed only fitting that our holiday destination should include some fishing, and after all, the girls wouldn't mind... too much. Aitutaki fitted the bill perfectly for not only was it an idyllic tropical paradise, we had heard rumours of some very large Bonefish in the lagoon.
We had a wonderful holiday, caught some fish, and although we saw a few Bonefish we did not hook a single one. At that time it was accepted practice to net Bonefish (and many other fish) for food. Many of the Islanders live a very simple subsistence lifestyle and it is only fitting that they should harvest the bounty from their lagoon and surrounding waters.

On our last day as we were taking a scenic cruise around the Island we drove right by a small group of Locals netting Bonesfish - they had caught many and their nets were full. I clearly recall a handsome young guy holding up a Bonefish for us to see - he was grinning from ear to ear.

Earl and I almost wept!

We headed for home the following day and for many years afterwards Earl and I recounted the story of the young man with a canoe full of Bonefish when we had caught none. We often discussed what a great opportunity those guys would have if they wished to set down their nets and start a guiding business.

We now jump forward to 2010.

My fishing buddy Bob Wyatt wanted to take his girl on a romantic Pacific Island holiday - somewhere there might be a Bonefish or two...

I recommended Aitutaki. Bob went, and a young man took him out fishing. Bob caught a couple of very large Bonefish and during their brief time together the young man told Bob that he might be interested in stopping netting and becoming a fly fishing guide - if only someone could help to train him.

Read the rest about Itu's Bones here.

Thanks, Moldy Chum.

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WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

"When I am, as it were, completely myself, entirely alone and of good cheer – say travelling in a carriage or walking after a good meal, or during the night when I cannot sleep – it is on such occasions that my ideas flow best and most abundantly. Whence, and how, they come I know not ; nor can I force them. Those ideas that please me I retain in memory and am accustomed, as I have been told, to hum them to myself. If I continue in this way, it soon occurs to me how I may turn this dainty morsel to account, so as to make a good dish of it. That is to say, agreeable to the rules of counterpoint, to the peculiarities of various instruments etc. All this fires my soul, and, provided I am not disturbed, my subject enlarges itself, becomes methodised, and defined, and the whole, though it be long, stands almost complete and finished in my mind, so that I can survey it like a fine picture or a beautiful statue at a glance. Nor do I hear in my imagination the parts successively, but I hear them, as it were, all at once. What a delight this is, I cannot tell."

MARCUS AURELIUS

"Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away. Are there briars in your path? Turn aside. That is enough. Do not go on and say, 'Why were things of this sort ever brought into this world?' neither intolerable nor everlasting - if thou bearest in mind that it has its limits, and if thou addest nothing to it in imagination. Pain is either an evil to the body (then let the body say what it thinks of it!)-or to the soul. But it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquility."

VINCENT van GOGH

"What am I in the eyes of most people? A nonentity or an oddity or a disagreeable person — someone who has and will have no position in society, in short a little lower than the lowest. Very well — assuming that everything is indeed like that, then through my work I’d like to show what there is in the heart of such an oddity, such a nobody. This is my ambition, which is based less on resentment than on love in spite of everything, based more on a feeling of serenity than on passion. Even though I’m often in a mess, inside me there’s still a calm, pure harmony and music. In the poorest little house, in the filthiest corner, I see paintings or drawings. And my mind turns in that direction as if with an irresistible urge. As time passes, other things are increasingly excluded, and the more they are the faster my eyes see the picturesque. Art demands persistent work, work in spite of everything, and unceasing observation."

DAN CAMPBELL