by Tony Orman
A good friend of mine in Hawkes Bay was the late Ted Webber the editor of the “Hawkes Bay Herald Tribune”. He wrote a book “You Should’ve Been Here Tuesday.”
It was a delightful trout fishing book in which Ted cocked a sceptical, humorous eye at trout fishing, “one of the great loves and despairs of his life”. The fun-filled little book was published in 1961 and then twice in 1962 and again in 1963.
Assisting him was a brilliant cartoonist Neville Lodge who was full-time the featured cartoonist in Wellington’s “Evening Post.”
Ah, those were the days when when cartoonists were clever and witty and often politically penetrating without offending your own political views and comedians were really funny and didn’t resort to potty-mouthed four letter words to try and get laughs. And newspapers were many times bigger than the dozen wafer-like pages are today and newspapers could be trusted to accurately feature news and published with integrity.
Ted Webber headed the “Hawkes Bay Tribune”with his good dollop of integrity.
But I digress – to reiterate the title of his book was “You Should’ve Been Here Thursday”.
Probably you’ve guessed it was the often heard remark between two anglers, the first who was there Tuesday, and the other who was there any day of the week except Thursday when the fishing was superb.
“Jeepers! You should’ve been on the river Thursday!” exclaimed one and added “The trout were just everywhere, so full of feeding on a wonderful hatch of mayfly, you couldn’t go wrong.”
But on Friday the hatch and sight of constantly feeding fish, was gone.
Saturday was similar to Friday, and so on.
Zilch!
Recently I had an attack of “You Should’ve been Here Thursday.” I was there Thursday afternoon and pursuing kahawai with the fly rod. I caught nothing. I tried the fly rod and then spinning gear to no avail.
Trouble is I wasn’t there Thursday morning. When a friend phoned in the evening and told me he had caught several nice kahawai – not big mind you – but nevertheless nice tender fillet sized, I listened and couldn’t help thinking of Ted Webber’s book title. Inwardly I groaned.
My mind flicked back to the previous week when I went down to the river mouth one evening. On the way back to the vehicle, I met another angler.
“It’s pretty quiet, “I told him. “Didn’t catch one and only hooked one a tiddler.”
“Is that right?” he beamed. “I was here yesterday and it was all on! Got several big sized kahawai. Kept two for the smoker and released the rest.”
“Is that right?” I weakly asked wondering if yesterday was Thursday.
Yes it was!
“Too right and the previous evening to that, there were good fish caught too!”
Same Day Now!
So more recently I tried early morning on another day. A chap just packing up and leaving told me about 7.30 am the kahawai were on. But they had gone quiet just as I arrived at 8 am.
He even had the audacity to show me three splendid sized fish.Very insensitive of him I thought.
My Thursday syndrome has got so bad now that it doesn’t matter whether it’s the same day.
To heck with Thursday. It’s now got down to “You should’ve been here an hour ago”!
Did I hear a bit of a giggle from up above. Was Ted looking down and grinning?
Ted wrote a sequel to his “Thursday” book. It was titled “Try Again Friday.”
Yes I might just do that and go to the river this Friday.
One of Neville Lodge’s cartoons in Ted Webber’s book
This book was often quoted amongst the regulars at the mouths of the main salmon rivers. It was obviously widely read. What a brilliant man Neville Lodge was. His cartoon books are now collectors items.
How long has Tony Orman been fishing. Seems like years and years. I remember his articles on trout fishing in the 1960s in the “NZ Outdoor” magazine. Good to see he can laugh at his own expense!
Ted Webber’s two trout fishing books were a hoot. He did a sequel called “Try Again Friday.”
Recently I gave Webber’s first book to an American friend who came here to fish. It made a great gift.
His second book, while also amusing, carried warnings about what could happen to NZ rivers threatened by hydro dams and pollution. His fears have been borne out, so all anglers should keep fighting to maintain their sport.