ROBERT Hughes was not just a celebrated author and internationally renowned art critic but also, by his own description, a fishing addict.
He wrote about his addiction in a beautiful memoir, titled A Jerk on One End.
In his book, Hughes drew parallels between fishing and writing, in the act of throwing out a line, dropping a hook into the depths, to see what you could catch.
"With luck, you bring something up," he wrote. "If it is undersize, you throw it back."
The only fishing I do is for words. Usually what I catch I release. It's not worth keeping.
Yet, living by Lake Macquarie, I do know recreational fishermen and fisherwomen. To most of them, fishing is not so much a pastime as a passion. A few of them love the tussle with a fish and the prospect of catching a meal.
But many of them are happy to catch nothing. They don't mind if their line never tightens. Landing a fish is not the main reason they fish. They simply love having time to themselves, to be able to slow down, to reflect and think, as they sit on the shore or on a boat.
In their approach, they seem to live by the motto of the Flyfishers' Club in London: "Piscator non solum piscatur". Basically, that means there's more to fishing than catching fish.
What a wonderful philosophy. What mindful and considered human beings recreational fishers can be.
And what mindless and inconsiderate human beings a few recreational fishers can be.
I feel this way pretty much every time I do what I do to relax and reflect. I enjoy walking along the shores of Lake Macquarie and paddling my kayak on its waters. Yet inevitably when I walk and kayak, I collect rubbish.
A lot of what I collect could have been dropped by anyone. Perhaps it was accidentally lost overboard from a boat, or it could have been washed out of the catchment into the lake.
Sometimes the deposit doesn't look accidental. Last weekend, while kayaking around Pulbah Island, I picked up a garbage bag bulging with beer cans and bottles that had been left on the shore. Being an island, Pulbah is reached only by boat. What's more, it is a nature reserve. Who goes to a place of exquisite beauty, fills a garbage bag with cans and bottles, then just leaves it behind?
That selfish act against the environment, against the rest of us, was at least turned into something positive. The cans and bottles were fed into a Return & Earn machine and the money forwarded to a dog rescue organisation.
While it is often hard to imagine who is doing the dumping, occasionally the rubbish gives clues.
Whenever I scoop plastic bait bags out of the water or become entangled in a fishing line - sometimes with a hook still attached - that has been left on the shore or in the shallows, I take a wild guess as to who may be responsible. In those moments, I sometimes catch myself muttering variations on the saying that Robert Hughes used for his book title; that the definition of a fisherman is a jerk on one end of a line waiting for a jerk on the other.
I've also seen fishermen - and it's always been men - walking away from a pile of discarded cans or bottles. Those characters strike me as less piscator, more pisshead. Which is why I don't confront them and tell them to clean up their mess. You don't want to bait them. Instead, I clean up after them.
Tomorrow is a national day of picking up after others. Clean Up Australia Day.
This community initiative began more than 30 years ago, when sailor Ian Kiernan decided to act on his disgust at seeing rubbish-strewn waterways and shorelines.
"He was never one to sit back and complain; he was a doer," recalls Ian Kiernan's daughter, Pip Kiernan, who is chair of Clean Up Australia.
As a result of Mr Kiernan acting, more than 18 million Australians have since helped clean up Australia, collecting the equivalent of 380,000 ute loads of rubbish.
Pip Kiernan says she is expecting a big turnout this year, including at the 78 clean-up events around Newcastle and Lake Macquarie, as people respond to the impact of COVID-19.
"There is a huge sentiment of wanting to do something," she says. "We know we've been unkind to the environment in the past 12 months, and we've been cooped up."
Among those volunteering will be members of the Hunter chapter of OzFish Unlimited, an organisation of recreational fishers wanting to help improve the health of waterways and ensure they have something to catch. Tim Marsden, the Hunter chapter's president, has a simple message for fellow fishers: "It's not that hard - take a bag, put your garbage in it, and put it in a bin at home."
As a fisheries biologist, Tim Marsden sees the terrible impact of plastic on marine life and birds, "because they're eating the fish that eat the plastic".
"It's having an impact right the way through the food chain," he says.
And we're part of that chain. Fishers often eat what they catch, so, unless you enjoy feasting on plastic, that should be incentive enough to take away your rubbish.
Leaving behind that rubbish, Tim Marsden argues, also affects the standing of fishers in the eyes of the community.
"As fishermen, we need to be on our best behaviour and be worthy of access to all the wonderful waterways we have around Newcastle," he says.
History also provides a reason why we need to clean up around Lake Macquarie. It seems the lake provided some inspiration to Ian Kiernan for his Clean Up Australia juggernaut.
According to Lake Macquarie MP Greg Piper, Mr Kiernan was sailing on the lake in the late 1980s, when he encountered a local environmental event. Clean Up Lake Macquarie was being held.
"I guess it helped him solidify his idea," Mr Piper says.
Greg Piper came to know Ian Kiernan well, who, in turn, came to know Lake Macquarie well, frequently visiting the area.
"I think he was a good friend of Lake Macquarie," Mr Piper says of Ian Kiernan, who died in 2018.
Each of us needs to be a good friend of Lake Macquarie, including those who reel in enjoyment and nourishment from its waters.
So let's make every day Clean Up Lake Macquarie Day. As Pip Kiernan says, "Every little bit you pull out makes a difference. Keep picking it up!"
