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MCKEAG AND ME.
THE INTRODUCTION; OLD WALL EYE AND OTHER SHARKS.
Tale tales and true. Many stories have been recounted about "OLD WALL EYE", he lived in real memory, and he was not a figment of too much ‘rum and coffee'. Our ‘friend' lives out from Brunswick Heads, he has one good eye.
This "Bushy", read ‘watery' yarn comes from a personal experience. This must make me 121 years old. Also read; he for she, she for he?
OLD WALL EYE, the big bastard.
OLD WALL EYE, he was big and brown, he had a huge set of teeth and he terrified us. A dog? A bull? no a bloody great shark that's what old wall eye was. He lived near Brunswick Heads N.S.W.; He lived in deep water and was notorious amongst the trawler men and the boaties. He wrecked so many prawn nets and ‘took' so many fish, always distinguished by his one white eye, can't remember which was the good eye, it may have been his starboard one.
He was a legend; he was not a figment of some body's imagination. Ask any fisherman from up here and they will relate a story of this huge BRONZE WHALER. My mate John and I can tell you first hand of our encounter with the toothy creature from the deep.
GOTCHA, she is a beauty.
John owned a fiberglass bond wood boat, it was distinguished by the name ‘GOTCHA'. When the Bar Mouth was flat as a ‘night carters hat', we would down tools and head out for few hours of fishing. Mostly we fish the local reef and if conditions allowed head for the 38's. So here we are; anchored and down goes the 70lb lines with ‘pillies' for bait, got some bites and landed some nice Schnapper, John suggests he has caught Australia, you fisher persons will relate to hooking the bottom. The only option is to keep hauling in until the hook lets go or the line breaks. For some time John hauls away but still the weight remains on the line. We both know something big has been hooked up, sharks mostly take a run and break you off, this was to be an exception. SO, what was this dead weight, it was not long before the question was answered.
Out of the murky deep an apparition of huge proportions becomes very evident, John has hauled to the surface "The Legend", the, "walled eyed monster". Two blokes with normally complacent personalities are incredulous at the size of this fish, GOTCHA is 18 feet long, the monster is nearly as long, it quietly surveys us, we survey it and a stand off is happening. The rest of the narrative will be a blur; a knife is produced, the line is cut, the motor started, the anchor is retrieved and we get to buggery out of there. WE have had our encounter with ‘OLD WALL EYE' AND SURVIVED!
This chronicle is mentioned else where on the WWW, more ‘at length' narratives? (http://www.johnfarlsbrunz.com/), described as JOHN D. FARLEY, SUPERBLOG.
THE BRUNZ PUB.
I guess that's where I met Johnnie Mckeag, (Sign writer extrodiner). Isn't that where you meet everybody in BRUNSWICK HEADS?
Importantly, ‘Keggie owned a boat called GOTCHA.
I had an association with the boat through Johnnie Fuller, an old AVALON SURF CLUB mate. We would take the families to Tumbulgum for a day out on occasions, water skiing, bit of a picnic, some amber ale. Orignally the vessel was of bond wood construction, the power unit was a 115hp Mercury Out Board. Mckeag acquired the boat a couple of years later; he was a deft hand at fiberglass lamination and applied a layer of woven strand mat to the hull for added protection and strength.
John was and still is Sign Writer in BRUNZ, I joined him in a venture; FARLEY AND MCKEAG, Fiberglass Laminators. We made a range of Prawn Trawler components, this included deck lamp shades, ventilators, and the illustrious Prawn Cooling Tanks. Some of these items are still in use to this day. WE laid up wheel house roofs, fore decks and main decks. WE glassed sorting trays and cool rooms, we made fish boxes and anything that required ‘glass laminating, we had quite a name back then, we seemed to have a lot of work, remembering there were nearly 20 Trawlers' in our little Port.
I need not dwell too much on "real work", as I get of ‘me butt' the jobs I've had will be described. This epic chronology is all about FISHEN' FOR A LIVEN', (and just for pleasure).
Let me again set the scene for MCKEAG AND ME;
"when the sea is flat as a shit carters hat, it's time to down the tools.
‘cause for Mckeag and me, FISHEN' is where were at, FISHEN mate, she rules.
Guess another poem is in the wings. In fact, this general concept, this BRUNSWICK HEADS, is the inspiration for several "BUSHY POEMS", like the "ROCKY BOARDWALK", "MUMMY DOLPHIN", "OLD WALL EYE", and others I have not thought of yet, MORE SOON.
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