Lois Heaney
By Kathryn Roberts, August 1 2005, Country News (www.countrynews.com.au)
With the Broken River running through her Goomalibee property, Lois Heaney always has a place to go and relax and indulge in her favourite hobby, fishing. Mrs Heaney has enjoyed tossing in a line since she was a young girl and stil tries to get in some angling "almost every day".
"It's something I've always enjoyed doing," Mrs Heaney said.
"I used to go with my mother and father and brother up the Murray, fishing at Sharps Bend when I was in my early teens.
"My grandfather used to like fishing and so did my father, so I guess it's in the family.
"In those days they used to catch very big fish in the river like cod."
She said fishing was a great way to relax in between her work on the farm and her job as a nursing home night-duty nurse.
"It's beautiful, it's lovely actually," she said.
Mrs Heaney and her husband Geoff run a sheep farm and she said although her husband didn't really do much fishing, he enjoyed eating the proceeds of her time by the river.
"I say to my husband, 'do you want fish for lunch today - do you want redfin, yellow belly or cod?'," she said.
"I don't eat a lot of fish but my husband loves eating fish."
"Most times I'll catch enough for a meal - I've given a lot away over the years to some of the older people who I offer to cook a meal."
Mrs Heaney says she regularly enjoys going up to the Dartmouth Dam with one of her friends, whose husband also does not enjoy fishing, and fish in their boat.
"Once a fisheries inspector came around to check licences and he was fascinated with us," she said.
"He said 'I can't believe it - two senior ladies sitting out here in the middle of Dartmouth fishing - I love it'.
"He kept stopping in the middle of the conversation and saying: `This is beautiful to see'."
One of the most memorable things Mrs Heaney has seen was when some redfin spawned in the river on her property.
"It (the river) was just black," she said.
"The fish were about two or three inches long and I've never seen anything like that since."
She said while her children were not into fishing, her grandchildren enjoyed going fishing with her.
"I always take them down the river in the holidays and we pack a picnic to have down on the sandbank and they love it."
