Hey guys,
Just recently I have found out that the owner's of the pub that my fiance and I run are selling up. What this basically means is both my partner and I will end up losing our jobs and because we live in the apartment above the hotel, we will have to move out. This news is bitter-sweet news for us, but especially for me.
The sweet aspects of this for both of us is that we aren't just being fired, we are receiving a redundancy package of at least $10 000. Enough money for us to move 800 miles to Melbourne (her birth-place and location of her family, and where I was temporarily living when we met), which we both agreed was where we would move to next and settle down. So leaving in this manner is not a bad thing, it sets us up really well career-wise and financially in a time when money is hard to come by for alot of people. Whilst we didn't want to leave under these circumstance's as we feel we weren't finished with this venue, there is not much we can really do about it. Plus, with our move to Melbourne, it means I will most likely be back into the music scene again and playing bass on a regular basis.
In the 4 years we have been together, she has been away from her family for 3 and a half years. I believe it is only fair that she gets to be around her family and for me, I have my best mate (who I have known from when I first lived in Sydney) living in Melbourne too. Not to mention my mother and most of her family and many other great mates. Actually, to be honest, I prefer the people of Melbourne to the people from my hometown in Sydney
But here is the bitter part for me. I am originally from close to this area of the country and I thought we were going to be here at this location for at least the summer. Anyone who has been following the fishing threads in this forum may have seen some pictures of Marlin that I had caught throughout the summer. I did it for my youth and absolutely fell in love with this form of fishing, so much so that I have a tattoo on my back of a Marlin leaping out of the water. To say that this style of fishing is an obsession for me is a severe understatement.
However, even with the numerous fish that I caught last summer, I was not happy. I felt like I had the worst run of bad luck, I only fished (on average) 1 of every 5 trips that I had tried to organize or was supposed to go on. Bad luck spread from the tow vehicle breaking down on the way to the water, to another tow vehicle going in for service the day before it was supposed to be loaned to us, and even a bloke who owned another boat not even turning up at the marina to take us out fishing at 5am in the morning. Oh, then there was the whole foul weather factor which ruined many trips as well.
This up-coming season was shaping up to possibly be the best season I may have ever had. With my father finishing his re-build of what is an absolutely brilliant gamefishing trailerboat, through to my guaranteed spots on regular competition fishing boats, our preparations to fish the southern hemispehere's largest gamefishing tournament and my investment of tens of thousands of dollars in a small boat and my own elite gamefishing gear, I was thoroughly excited for the prospects of this season. Talk's of possibly catching 50+ Marlin this season had me itching for the warm current to start trickling down the coastline to a place that is a 40 minute drive from where I am now, which many consider is one of the very best destinations in the world for marlin fishing. Boats catching 10 fish over 200lb in a day is not uncommon at all, and even fish up to 1000lb are encountered there.
With the news of the hotel's sale comes the end of those plans. I will be in Melbourne before the hot current arrives most likely, and with that is a new home location that does not have Marlin off it's coast. I know it must seem silly and I might sound a tad melodramatic to some people as most may think it's a whole lot of fuss over 'just a fish', but to me it's alot more than that - it is something I have dedicated much of my life to learning about and studying to ever improve my chances of catching more fish. It is a real science and anyone who does it regularly will tell you that it is more than an addiction, it is life. If I was forced to choose between being a bassist and being a gamefisherman, I guarantee there would be a couple of Warwick 4 string basses on Ebay
What this move to Melbourne means is that my gamefishing career will be all but over. I could fly up for a weekend and pray the weather holds out for me, but that will be once a year...maybe twice if I am lucky.
The most crushing part for me about this whole situation is probably the money I have spent and the time I have put into perfecting it all for the up-coming season, especially with my first boat. I won't get to use any of it before I move to Melbourne, the fish will not have come down the coast yet.
I could go on forever, but I won't. So how do I feel about this whole situation? Well, I don't really know. I was shellshocked by the news and I am still trying to decide whether I am excited, upset, frustrated...
Peace guys,
Jordan
