How far would you go to reach the ultimate fishing spot? Whether it’s trespassing or driving hundreds of miles to get to that secret honey hole, we guarantee you probably haven’t gone to measures anywhere close to as extreme as Gideon Mettam.
When he saw a spot on the side of a cliff that most people would’ve just thought was somewhere to avoid, he saw an opportunity for a fishing spot unlike any other. His end result certainly isn’t for the faint of heart or anyone with a fear of heights.
1) Have you had a lot of experience rock climbing? (ie is this you https://www.thecrag.com/climber/gideonmettam )
“So I’ve been rock climbing on and off for about 10yrs now. Done lots of traditional climbing(placing natural pro) so I’d say I know what I’m doing pretty well by now.”
2) Can you offer any warnings to anyone on Facebook thinking of copying your fishing style off the side of rocks?
“Don’t do it! Ha ha but if you’re determined you need to be very competent with abseiling and placing natural protection (caming devices and nuts etc). Don’t know if that makes sense to you, climbing talk can seem like another language to someone not involved in the sport.
Basically if you need to ask how to do it in any way you shouldn’t be doing it.”
3) Do you have any other photos that you would like to share?
“There’s a few photos some people took from a boat as I abseiled in. I yelled to them to send them too me and gave them my number. (Note the ledge was setup the evening before and stashed out of site afterwards).
I don’t have a Facebook account but plan on getting one so I can start sharing some of these adventures”
[Special thanks to Chris and Dan for taking the time to take the photos and send them.]
4) Can you give us any details about the climb (height, difficulty, challenges etc)?
“It’s a 70m abseil in. I fished it a few weeks earlier and discover it was good fishing but no natural ledges close to the water so I came up with the idea of a timber platform. I’m a carpenter by trade and not afraid of a challenge if there’s good fish to be had land based. Hardest part was carrying that platform in on my shoulder and a slow tedious abseil in with it dangling just below me. Then dragging it back up 20m to stash on a higher ledge.”
5) Did you do it for the fishing spot, the challenge or the glory!
“Did it for the spot, I saw on the charts that it was very deep right off the cliff there, then I managed a just legal dhu on my first fish there with no platform, but I had to fish about 15m up with not much to stand on. A good size dhu off the rocks has been very high on my bucket list for a few years so that’s exactly what I was after. I’ve got go pro footage of me pulling it in. It’s a laugh I’m pretty excited.”
