Sunday, December 03, 2006

Those rods are expensive...


This article tells the story of a veteran angler, Bertie Weerasooriya. You can tell he is a true angler's angler by the way he recounts this tale of a time that he nearly lost his life while fishing:

“I was with my friends, E.R.Wijesinghe, Willie Obeysekera, Arthur Morawaka and J.A.R. Grenier when suddenly a huge wave hit the embankment where I stood. The embankment collapsed and I was washed out to sea. I was a good swimmer and had won a silver medal from the Royal Life Saving Society, but the receding waves were too strong to swim against. Fortunately Grenier reacted fast and cast out his line to fall within my reach. I held onto the line wrapped it round my arm while holding onto my fishing rod and tried to swim towards the shore. Grenier was an expert angler and he started to reel me in, just like fighting a fish he kept the line on a light drag to avoid it snapping. It took almost 30 minutes to drag me back to the shore.”For once Weerasooriya had the unpleasant experience of being at the wrong end of the line.

Aside from having been "reeled in" like a fish, the fact that he never let go of his own rod speaks volumes about the man.

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