wazatherfisherman

Hi Yowie you were in great company with Gary Chapman, he was one of the best ever

Thanks Burger! We felt it for days after and it took it's toll on us all. Everyone needed time off after that weekend.

Hi Jim I'm not saying anyone actually cheated, that'd be poor form on my behalf, especially since the blokes in question were the elite of rock fishers and regularly caught tons of fish. There may have been a perfectly good explanation for catching all those Tailor that we don't know about, such as sending someone up for more bait- we'll never know. As for official scrutineers, too many would have been needed to cover the coastline and I doubt anyone capable of climbing into some of the locations would go other than to fish themselves. Also as fishing the rocks is so "swell-dependant" last minute location decisions are more the norm for most competitors. Tailor will happily feed in any light/dark, first quarter to full moon is prime time in Sydney, but that is more location specific from what I know. When there's plenty of moon, they feed aggressively of a night and when there's little moon, the dawn and dusk periods are prime time. New moon will often see them biting both daytime and of a night. Have caught plenty on really dark nights from both the rocks and in the estuary. During the 70's and early 80's the catches of Tailor taken from the Sow and Pigs Reef in Sydney Harbour had to be see to be believed, enormous schools would take up station all around the reef and would sometimes bite all night, on both tides. Triple figure catches were the norm and in competitions, hundreds of fish were caught by individual competitors. Obviously (now) this contributed to species decline, but surely can't be any worse than a beach- hauler netting the majority of some large schools that are in migratory spawning periods. The netting of spawning "anything" has always been a bane of contention- In the couple of weeks leading up to the last rock comp, we had climbed down later in the night after work and got fish from the first cast- no burley either on those nights. There are just natural places that the fish sit and I think Tailor are a naturally aggressive species. I've caught them so full of bait fish you wonder why they have struck your lure, I think it's just that predatory instinct. After installing a "headlight" on the front of my mates boat, you realise how many prey sized bait fish there are on the surface of a night and the Tailor are tuned into this by nature. Keeping both bait and hooked fish in the water definitely contributes to bigger catches and the more fishing the better, have you ever seen the Tailor fishermen on the beaches of SE Qld? Sometimes there are genuinely hundreds of anglers, shoulder to shoulder catching them. When the Tailor are finished, the natural burley-trail left by them attracts whatever else is in the vicinity. As they rove when feeding/searching for food it's hard to keep them anywhere without a constant food source- hard to do with only 2-3 fishers unless alternative food is already present. There are plenty of locations where the fish just "sit" for reasons only known to them! I've seen Tailor schools so massive they have covered large sections of Sydney Harbour and Botany Bay, but never seen them as densely packed as the Salmon when they're milling around, I might be wrong but in my observation they seem to need just a little more "personal-space" in the school than the Salmon. Can't answer the question on the Trevally, in the days when the murks were operating, you could troll along the separation line and look under the discoloured water and see thousands of them. The schools stretched all along until the discoloured water disippated. They were probably the easiest fish of all to troll for, anything small and white was eagerly taken and you could catch them all day if you wanted to. When the deep ocean outfalls commenced operation and the effluent was released off shore instead of adjacent the coast, I don't know if the Trevally moved out there instead. Bluefish, Bondi and Yellow Rock murks had them in plague proportions for years and years and they were widely distributed along the rocks,all along the cliffs. We didn't always get them, but when they were in peak season of July-September they were more frequent visitors. Again, the Sow and Pigs Reef area holds heaps of them and they feed prolifically of a night. I did a post some time ago called "Reminiscing, Silver Trevally" have a look at that for info.

Hi Paddy great capturing any Kingie on 3 kg mono, disappointing result, but sadly stuff like that always happened and easy to think we had "sour grapes" for that rock comp, we didn't as the winners were great fishermen in their own right and the previous year took the biggest and most varied bag I ever saw caught. The year prior to that they had won the beach comp by fishing at Tamarama Beach and weighing in another big catch with heaps of Pigs, Bream and Luderick all taken off the sand. There were heaps of objections lodged by other competitors, as the guys who weighed Whiting, Flatties etc had no chance against the weighty species. They had burleyed the beach for several days before the comp and their ingenuity won them the day. Had to respect that

Hi Yowie yes I had the same problem and two wins were weigh-ins at Brighton Fisho's. Had to sit on the staircase and got handed the pockets, trophies, fishing reel etc when everyone had finished their beers. Juniors better catered for now. You must have won Sydney Junior Angler of the Year also in those years

Hi Pete thanks! I became more ANSA orientated as the years went on. The age old argument of skill verse speed was always a major discussion point. Why should the fishers catching say large Bream on 1 or 2 kg (with genuine skill) have no chance against the guys skull-dragging Tailor and Blurters. The best idea (I thought) for choosing "champion angler" was to have a bag limit of say 5 fish for all species (long before any bag limits were introduced by fisheries) and the winner would have to have the ability to catch multiple species bags- far more skilled in my view. Sadly, as mentioned in other posts, catching Tailor, Trevally and small Tuna/Bonito usually decided many competitions. Sure there was skill involved with finding and catching large amounts, but the multiple species showed more versatility- more "champion-worthy" in my opinion.

Hi Yowie I have 6 or 7 of those pockets as well from 1977 and 78 like you I won Estuary, Rock and Luderick as a junior, plus the junior teams and an Open Day Senior teams. They are sewn on my old fishing jacket which is in storage. You must be about 6 or 7 years older than me? I'm 58. Great effort on winning so many!

When you're in a fishing club, naturally you get involved with competitions. Club comps were always fun affairs with the emphasis on having a good time,. The four "B's" were the focus of the day- BBQ, Beer, Banter and Board Fish- "Board Fish" being everyone's point scoring catches of that day, plus there was a year-long largest of species category to aim for. Weigh-ins were the place to get any fishing info for future outings as everybody talked about what worked/didn't work and their methods and techniques. Our club was almost like a brotherhood, everybody shared "secrets" and all questions asked were genuinely explained and if someone was having fishing problems, there was always plenty of offers of help, much like here on Raider. The governing body of fishing clubs was the NSW AFCA- Amateur Fishing Clubs Association of NSW, which in turn was a part of the Australian Anglers Association and each state divided up into "divisions". We were in the "Sydney Metro Division" which was pretty much most of the clubs on the southern side of the harbour, along the coast down to Port Hacking. Each year there was an annual "Championship" in each of the following sections- Rock, Beach, Estuary, Luderick, Deep Sea, Fresh Water and an "Open Day" where you could fish any section you chose. All the competitions were based on 1 point per fish and 10 points per kilo (or part thereof) and there were a few rules such as strict boundaries, eligible species and restricted zones- like no fishing within close proximity to sewerage outlets. You could fish with two lines with up to three hooks per line (mainly a deep sea restriction more so than anywhere else) NSW fisheries legal sizes strictly adhered to and there was a minimum size of 12 inches for any eligible species that didn't have a legal size (there were many species that had no size limits in those days and no bag limits on any species) There was also a list of "ineligible species"- no "vermin" to be included in catches, including Sharks and Rays, Wirrah's, Kelpfish, Eels, Catfish-(saltwater) etc. The annual Championships were hotly contested by all the clubs in the division and divided into the following categories: Men's, Women's, Junior's and Veteran's. The "Teams" section was also made up of these categories, with pre-nominated teams of four or less competing each time. With only one weekend each year for each category and the dates set at the start of each calendar year, a lot of planning and organisation was necessary if you wanted to be a serious contender. Most of the comps had hours like- Start fishing 2 or 3 PM Saturday and weigh-in around 12-2 PM Sunday. All the events were run by a "Host Club" and each weigh-in was at one single designated area. You had to be inside a roped off area with your fish before the cut-off time and if you caught a large number of fish, you had to make sure all of them were the correct size once you'd entered the roped area, anything under size, "mutilated" or illegal meant instant disqualification for the competitor and their team of four. You had to fish with at least one other person who was registered as fishing each comp as well. Actual starting times were based on the "honour system", but as most of the popular locations were fished by multiple competitors from many clubs, there was enough scrutiny to ensure fair starting times and often the call of agreement between rivals would commence proceedings. Most of the comps were planned around suitable times of year for the likely events, such as April/May for the estuary section and May/June/July for the rock titles.These times were chosen more in regard to "Bread and Butter" species availability (rather than "Sport/Game" fish) as they were the sought after species for the great majority. Later, when ANSA (Australian National Sportsfishing Association) was growing, competitions were run orientated towards "Sports" species and fishing done with lighter tackle, "sports-fishing" ethics and the emphasis being on meritorious individual captures on light line instead of large captures of species- a completely different format to the AFCA competitions. Our club fished both AFCA and ANSA competitions, in line with whatever format was applicable each time, sometimes fishing as light as 1 kg mono in ANSA competition and other times really crunching the Tailor, Trevally or Tuna on heavier gear in AFCA events. After competing in the Rock titles the previous year and not catching a single fish, due to our location choice becoming far too dangerous in an ever rising sea, I was really keen to do better when the next years competition was looming. We were taking big bags of fish consistently and fancied our chances of knocking off reigning title holders Eastern Suburbs Anglers, who had caught a tremendous catch of fish the previous year, fishing from a high location at the other end of the Mattens at Dover Heights. The southern end of the area was deluged by big swell and we'd spent most of the night just sitting watching the big waves roll in, while the east's boys caught a huge bag of Pig's, Bream, Tarwhine, Tailor and Luderick from their high ledge about 900 meters north of us. Reconnaissance of intended locations to fish was the focus of the week or so leading up to the event, so you knew what was around in numbers and what to organise bait-wise. The east's team had turned up the previous year with two of the big white buckets full of already cut cunje, plus other bait and a huge amount of burley- it takes a lot of time to cut that much cunje and shuck it. As this year's competition was set for early June and there had been really stable weather conditions, with light westerly winds every day, the sea had been really flat for near enough to two weeks prior to the event, meaning safer night time fishing on the low ledges. No swell for extended periods also means the fish feeding patterns vary more and fish were generally more widespread, likely searching the leaner pickings and also likely to be using the high tides after dark to search out a meal. Even with really flat seas and little wash, during the week prior to the competition, we had done really well on both decent sized Tailor and smallish Trevally (which are known as "Blurters") on each of a few night time trips, both species are more inclined to roam about, but can be burleyed in and then with a lot of baits in the water, the schools could be worked productively, so we planned around those species rather than cut a heap of cunje and fish for "cunje species"- Pig's, Luderick, etc. At the club meeting on the Tuesday night before the weekend comp, we organised ourselves, sorted out two teams of seniors and one of juniors, plus one "veteran" and another two guys who weren't fishing the comp but came down to give us a hand with all the gear. Bait for the event was organised, everybody was going to take a few blocks of Pilchards each for Tailor fishing, plus prawns for the Blurters. My team decided to buy a few of kilo's of Garfish and some fresh Whitebait for variety and for burley we'd organised a stack of boxes of fish frames from two fish shops, which we transferred into a heap of new sacks and a heap of white bread also placed in sacks for carting down the cliff.. A lot to carry down a big cliff climb. As for tackle and gear, plain series Alvey reels matched with low mount rods in the 10-12 ft range are the choice of the rock hopper, nearly everyone fished either 6 or 8 lb mono on their lighter Bream/Trevally outfits and 18-20 lb mono on the heavier Pilchard throwing rods. Everybody used Tortue brand line. Luderick fishing and putting out a live bait wasn't considered productive enough, even though you could get fish, it wasn't deemed as productive "team-wise" and we only took one heavy duty live bait outfit- in case of Kingfish- although it was never even rigged after being taken down.. Food was simply rolls and sandwiches, a few biscuits and the ever popular "Space Food Sticks". Most of us drank really weak strength cordial, no room or time to spend boiling a billy or cooking on a fire, it was to be action stations from the 3 PM start off. When I think back to how much emphasis was put on the fishing and how little we took in the way of food, drink and anything in the way of comfort, I realise how mad-keen on fishing we all were. On arrival at the dead end street where we parked the cars, somewhere around 12.30 PM on the Saturday, some of the guys from two other clubs were also just rolling up, including a bloke known as "the mouth"- I won't mention his name, he wasn't liked by other competitors, we certainly didn't like him, and he proceeded to have a go at anyone in earshot. After seeing how many Pilchards we'd brought with us, he scoffed "youse are wastin yer time, it's too flat, there ain't no Tailor down there in that sea, there's no wash, youse'll get a big nuthin" We noted that amongst all their bait, there was only a single block of Pilchards and we laughed, as we knew the Tailor had been there every night. That single block wasn't going to go far between four blokes, even our juniors had at least two blocks each and all my team had either three or four blocks each. One of our boys replied he didn't know what he was talking about and after watching the mouth unload two huge white buckets of cunje, told him all those poor cunje's had died in vain and we'd been slaying the Tailor every trip. The mouth neither believed us or cared and continued his unfriendly rant until we loaded all our gear into whatever backpacks and sacks were going with us and left him still ranting to one of his embarrassed team members. We lugged everything across the parkland to the cliff-side fence we needed to climb over and the trip down was underway. There were fourteen of us, with another team member coming down later, due to work commitments. It was a slow and steady descent and we chain passed backpacks, sacks and rods for a fair bit of the time and had about four guys working the pulley rope lowering it all down to the bottom level. All safely down the climb, followed by a slow trip over the boulders and ledges until we got to our southern end of the area. It took us about an hour and a half before we could finally stop and have a breather, and for once, we didn't set up in our usual sea cave, instead, we made our camp on the lower ledges, closer to the water. I'd taken a plastic rubbish bin- the same sort everyone used for their garbage before the introduction of today's "otto" bins and we soaked a heap of bread and "rock-plated' a lot of the fish frames and mixed up a huge burley, which we then distributed in a couple of waterside pools and crevices, to flow out naturally with the late afternoon's rising tide. Doing the burley that way, meant nobody really needed to stop fishing. Once the first lot of burley had been strategically placed, and the bin emptied, we made up another lot and put it in a sack to be distributed later in the night and a "reserve" lot for the predawn session. Everything sorted, burley done..We all rigged two rods each, one for Pilchard tossing with a set of ganged hooks tied on with about 18 inches of 40 lb leader below a swivel and the other, on a lighter 6-8 lb outfit with a small ball sinker running between a swivel and 1/0 hook. There were 2 guys from each of South Sydney and Eastern Suburbs clubs and thirteen of us- Veteran Wally had decided he wasn't going to stay with the crowd and left us all to secure the high spot "Magpie" where he'd caught 2 Snapper in the previous year's comp- one of near 17 lb and one 8 lb. He'd be up there for the night. The rest of us all headed out to the main night time area known as the "front of the lake" and everyone took out whatever they thought they'd need for the first few hours. Little did we know at that stage that we'd be out there for almost the whole night. With all ready to cast about five or so minutes before the 3 PM start-off, a bit of friendly banter and the usual wise cracks were shared around, then on the stroke of 3, with all fisher's agreeing on the time, seventeen baits were launched eastwards. Everyone had decided on throwing a full Pilchard on ganged hooks, but as it wasn't quite "Tailor-time" of dusk, and the burley had only just started to trickle from the pools, it was pretty quiet initially. About 3.15 and one of the boys spotted a lone figure coming down the top section of the cliff in the far distance and recognised the bright coloured jacket of our late team mate Wayne, who after reaching the pulley level above the climb, started whistling and waving his arms. He kept it up for about 5 minutes and we decided there must be some sort of problem, so as team captain, I made the decision to put my rod up and take the fifteen or so minute walk back towards the rope climb (which I pretty much ran in about ten minutes without carrying gear!) to see why he hadn't climbed down. On arriving back at the climb, our pulley rope had been tied off to a spot at the bottom, by the guys fishing the other end of the area. This was common practice by all of us, to prevent the rope being blown by wind into a crevice high up, but we knew Wayne was going to be late and had left it hanging free. Rope undone, Wayne's gear lowered and we bolted back around the rocks and down to the camp area. To my surprise, although there were sixteen guys fishing for about a half hour while I was gone, not a single fish had been caught. Everyone was still throwing whole Pilly's so I grabbed my lighter rod with 6 lb line and threw a pilly tail out instead. I was "rewarded" for my thirty minute break with the first fish, a good sized Bream, followed by another, after which almost everyone put the Tailor rods down and swapped to their lighter set ups. A few Pike were landed, but no more Bream, and it stayed pretty quiet until about 4.30 PM. The two East's guys left, to go and join their club mates up the other end of the Mattens and the two Souths guys also moved a short time later, not sure where they went, but we didn't see them again that night. The burley had started to flow off the platform a bit better as the tide came up, and dark approached. Time to fish for Tailor again. The Tailor we'd been getting on all the previous scouting nights, hadn't started biting until it was virtually dark and right on schedule, they turned up. Within a few minutes of the first one hitting the rocks, everyone was into them and for the next few hours, as soon as a bait hit the water, the fish were onto it. When there's a big group fishing a Tailor school like this, there's always bait in the water, hooked fish splashing along the surface and plenty of commotion, which excites the fish and they're kept in a sort of feeding frenzy and they seem to stay put. All the hooked fish shake off whatever bait is left on the hooks as they're dragged in and that creates a burley stream of it's own. We worked that school for about three hours and got a stack of fish, then like someone flicked the "off" switch, they were gone. It probably took less than five minutes for us to realise the bite had ended. Talking about it later, our thinking was that a big Jew or a shark must have turned up and spooked them on the top of the tide, but whatever happened, they were gone. Probably a good thing the fish vanished when they did, it gave everyone a chance to get reorganised- working a school like that with a group of others in the dark, you need to keep your wits about you. Lines are going in and out at speed, most of the fish are rapidly dragged across the surface and hit the rocks "green" and it's organised chaos all over. Having a few minutes off from working the fish was a good thing and everyone that had filled a sack carried them about 150 yards back towards the main camp area, where there are safe spots to store the catch. They weren't as good a run of fish as we'd been getting- which had been in the two and a half- three and a half pound mark- but were still decent fish between one and a half and two and a half pound and we had plenty from the session. Surprisingly, in that first big Tailor session, not a single fish of any other species was landed, which was pretty unusual with all the bait and burley floating around. Normally, you'd get a few other fish such as Bream, Blurters or Snapper, but it showed how strongly the Tailor had been feeding, as the bait probably didn't even get two feet under the surface before you were onto another Tailor and all the other species generally sat under them. I'd been using the empty garbage bin lined with a sack for my fish and after it was full, only had to put a new sack in to reclaim "my" position on the front, which gave me a little advantage by the sheer fact of not having to move at all. My bait bag was attached to the back of the bin, a couple of spare rigs in the pocket of my raincoat (we all wore those cheaper thick plastic raincoats that many of my vintage would have worn to school). They were wind and waterproof and ideal for swinging the hooked fish up against your chest to rip the gang of 5/0 or 6/0's out as quick as possible, even though it was winter, and regardless everybody had shorts on, they made you sweat. Two of our juniors had kept on fishing, no Tailor around now, but they were getting bites on the Pilchards, so we all switched to Pilchard pieces on the lighter gear and it wasn't long before "Blurter" Trevally started coming in. We swapped from Pilchards to peeled prawns and started getting into them. Catching Blurter's from the rocks is pretty easy, you just throw out, let the bait sink about 10-15 feet, point your rod tip down and to the side and just start a dead-slow retrieve. When the fish tap on the bait, you just keep winding without striking until you feel the "solid" weight and then a gentle strike of the rod. They bite well on Pilchard pieces, but peeled green prawns are the gun bait and they take them in well. They were small fish, the majority from just under to just over the pound, every so often someone got one closer to the pound and a half size, but none of the larger ones we'd been getting in the couple of weeks prior to the comp, which were averaging almost double the size of these ones. Still, you can only catch what's there on the night and we were filling our bags. Well after midnight, the fish had slowed and we realised the burley had run out, and as the tide was well on the way out, we needed to redistribute some more a bit lower, so three of us went to grab the next lot and while we were back at the camp, grabbed a roll and a couple of biscuits each. My bin was only about half full, but we needed it to soak the bread in, so I lugged the fish back in the sack and put it with the other lot, before grabbing another sack and I remember putting a few Space food sticks in my raincoat pocket, but didn't eat any. We had all taken something to eat and some drink bottles over when we first started the afternoon, but I don't remember eating anything until we went for the second lot of burley and that was the longest break we'd had in quite a few hours. It took a while for the burley to work and the fish to return, in this quiet period, most of the guys went and grabbed something to eat and there were only four of us left out front fishing. A few Bream were caught, but the Trevally had stopped biting, so we reverted to Tailor fishing again. Towards low tide now, and a couple of Tailor took the baits, but not up on the surface, they were deep, nearer the bottom (it's about 45-50 ft deep) and the bites were different to the earlier session- much less aggressive, so we changed down to 3/0 hooks and were getting a few down deep. They're easier to get on the smaller hooks when they bite like this and you always have the chance of a Bream or Trevally on the smaller hooks also. For the next few hours, until just before dawn, we got a mixture of fish, nowhere near as quickly, but still filling our bags and we were feeling we'd get another big burst of Tailor on dawn, but although still getting a few down deep, they just didn't come back to feeding on the surface. We put the reserve burley in and after a few more Trevally were landed also,it seemed the night was just about finished fish-wise and we were all pretty much too tired to keep going, so over for something to eat and make plans for getting all these fish back to the climb. The enormity of the task of getting what turned out to be well over 1,000 fish back over nearly 800 yards to the pulley, looked pretty daunting. The weigh-in was at 12 PM at Caringbah, so we decided to forget fishing and start lugging everything back. It was around 6.30 AM and we all packed up. Wally, who we hadn't seen all night, came down from where he'd fished the night and told us we'd better hurry, just in case the fishers at the other end of the spot had done well also, as there is only one pulley for everybody to use. Just after 7 AM the carrying began. We had prepared well for a big catch, with a heap of new sacks to carry the fish up in and everyone tied something onto their sacks for identification. As the sea was so flat, we could take a lower than normal route back, which was mostly flat walking instead of climbing and "scrambling", but as everyone had to make either two or three trips, it took nearly two and a half hours to get everything back to the pulley, and then the drama began. While on our final load back, before we could get to the pulley, the others from the north end arrived and claimed first use of it. They had a heap of fish as well and it was going to take a fair bit of time for them to get theirs up before we could start. It was around 9.25 AM when we got to the pulley and we HAD to be on the road by 11.20 to be sure of making the weigh-in The other club took their time getting all their gear up and we couldn't start hauling up until about 10.10 AM, then disaster struck- it started raining, in fact it started pouring. A big storm front had swept in and it really started coming down hard. We got the juniors up the ropes quickly, they were all well-versed in climbing the cliff, but with a stream of clay/water flowing down the ropes, running down your arms and into your face, it is suddenly far more dangerous. The pulley rope also, becomes saturated and a little slippery, so we only hauled two or three full sacks up at a time. By the time we got the last few backpacks up and then two loads of rods it was nearly 10.50 AM and we weren't going to make the weigh-in. We made the decision to leave all our gear on the side of the cliff and just take our wallets and the fish up- everything would be safe as all the guys who fished the location were involved with the comp and anyone who wasn't, certainly wouldn't be going down on a Sunday afternoon in the pouring rain, we'd have to come back after and get all the gear, there was no choice, we'd run out of time. While we'd been hauling up loads, everyone not hauling or tying on at the bottom had formed a chain of sorts and were constantly keeping the fish moving upwards. Finally, the last few sacks were lifted over the cliff-side fence at about 11.15. Then another disaster- one of the cars wouldn't start! No time to muck around with it, so the four juniors had to pile in the back of a ute with about half the fish and sit in the rain, which by this time was torrential. Poor buggers got even wetter (if that was possible!) Due to it being such lousy weather, really cold and wet, there didn't seem to be too much on the road, but we only pulled into the car park where the weighing was being done with about five minutes to spare and just got all the fish into the roped-off area with about 30 seconds to go. Phew!! In front of us in the queue were the opposition that had fished the other end and we got a look at their fish. Nowhere near as many as we had per man, but their Tailor were more than twice as big as ours. Straight away an argument broke out over how they could get so many on ONE block of Pilchards? - we'd taken about 38 blocks to catch all ours. We put that question to them in front of the officials and two of them gave different answers as to where the extra Pilchards had come from, however, as nothing could be proved nothing happened. Accusations flew and nearly punches as well. Protests were lodged in regard not only to the catching, but also the condition of some of these big Tailor, I didn't say much at the time I was too exhausted and if you're going to accuse others of cheating, well, you need hard evidence. Some of the fish looked old to me, but it wasn't up to us to make any decisions. We still felt we might just have enough to win though and waited nervously while the officials tallied everything up. When the results were announced, the guys with the bigger Tailor got both champion and runner up, plus the champion team. We were runners up team, but we won both the Veteran (Wally) and Junior Champion plus junior champion team. I caught the most fish -139, which earned me third place and selection to represent Sydney Metro in the state teams titles in a few months time. I really thought we were going to claim the title and we only missed out by a lousy few fish (two more in my case) but that's how it goes. No sour grapes from us, we did our best and the team work getting everything back and up was truly amazing. We really enjoyed a sausage sanger at the weigh-in, but then soaked and freezing had to drive back to Dover Heights from Caringbah to go halfway down the cliff again and retrieve all our fishing gear in absolutely torrential winter rain. All involved had the next few days off either school or work, from sheer exhaustion. The trip had been really successful and we caught an amazing bag of fish, it was the massive effort involved that was the stand-out thing about the event, but due to the "hostilities" and drama at the weigh-in I decided (as did most of the boys) that it was my last rock comp.

Hi Jim the pen-light torch bobby cork was fairly common in those years because there was nearly always someone fishing for Mulloway at the murk of a night and cyalume sticks were only new-ish and a one use item. The murks got "murkier" as the day went on and by night time, well, you can imagine the water was pretty (ha) "solid" At Bondi murk it was chocolate brown for about the top 8-10 ft of the water column- pretty hard to see anything under the water through the mess. The big silver fish thrived there and could hunt really successfully in the clouded water. The penlight corks were available at a few different spots, but made by Alan Skelton at Bronte. I still have corks he made for me to put out legal sized Tailor, Luderick and large Pike, baits up to about a pound and a half. As everyone used Alvey tackle to live bait, if you didn't strike straight away, the inertia necessary to get the spool turning was enough to make the fish drop the bait, as your line was covered in all sorts of horrible stuff like hair, paper and a jellly-like substance that they told me was used to break down the effluent- it resembled those clear jellyfish.. I never live baited there and only fished it a few times with "non climbing" club members- it was just a dreadful place, regardless of the huge amounts of fish there. Definitely not a place to bite your line or give your face a wash! In cleaner water where we were, if after Mulloway in the late afternoon/night, a three hook snood rig was used instead of the standard two hooks and you would strike immediately when the run started, no problem taking up the slack as the strike is always a "hit and run" at speed and as soon as the line tightened and spool moved you strike. Failing to strike immediately often resulted in the fish dropping the bait. Even when I was using a Penn 4/0 Senator reel (overhead), the large bait, bobby cork and large sinker was a pretty weighty affair at any rate and regardless of minimal start-up inertia, the rig/bait was enough to make the wary Mulloway drop the bait if you didn't strike. In answer to the comp questions, I'll post the story of the trip in the next couple of days, but we often got a lot of fish, just stopped when we got what we wanted; the comps however, you caught as many as you could. I stopped once for a couple of rolls that night and fell asleep for about 20 minutes, then back into it. That stop, combined with one of my own team taking one of my sacks of fish "by mistake" cost me winning- I ran third by less than 20 points at 1 point per fish 10 points per kilo, we came runner up team (4 per pre-nominated team) Estuary comps when the Tailor were at Sow and Pigs reef in the harbour saw catches of over 350-400 fish PER MAN! There was a "semi-professional" hand-liner who got 1,006 (he claimed) working with just one other guy, I never liked him, but he probably genuinely caught that many. They were caught a few nights after the annual Estuary Championships, AFCA comps were everybody's "focus" each year. Catching triple figure (into the 300's sometimes) bags of both Tailor and Trevally was the norm for the top ten or so comp teams every comp and it was highly competitive. "Machine-like" Tailor fishing was almost an art form, so "fluid" you had to be. Using 15-20 lb line, 6 or 6+1/2 inch Alvey's, 7-9 ft rods and 3 x 6/0 or 7/0 ganged Limerick hooks you'd go through 3-6 blocks of Pilchards each, sometimes more, plus a couple of kilo's of prawns if the Trevally took over when the Tailor finished. Add burley plus whale-oil etc and it was an expensive trip every night. There was no such thing as "sports-fishing" in most of those comps The first AFCA comp weigh-in I ever went to was in 1975-76 and the two piles of "free" fish left at Brighton-Le-Sands Fisho's club after the Estuary comp were almost unbelievable- there were about 4,000+ fish that nobody wanted, all Tailor and Trevally. The Brighton club used to give notice to residents that the comp was on and there were stacks of people filling up shopping trolleys, bags etc. I was a junior and was thinking I might win something with my 3 fish! The junior winner caught over 100 fish. After seeing what others caught I was pretty much "hooked" and there was no such thing as conservation/bag limits etc on anyone's mind (including NSW Fisheries)- we just didn't know of the ramifications of the wholesale slaughter- the thinking was always "there'll be more fish- it's an annual thing"

To continue from above- the Mattens is actually an awesome spot for spinning as there are normally bait like Slimy Mackerel, Yellowtail, squid, Pike and most of the year Tailor. Add Frigates and Bonito in season (Bonito likely any time) and occasional schools of both Gars and Pilchards and you generally had the recipe for big stuff to be in the area. Kingfish were a daily occurrence hence being such a realistic target, Rarely a day went past when they weren't sighted at some stage through the daylight hours, often cruising really slowly along or coming up from the depths to harass a hooked fish. It was live baiting that became the preferred method though. We normally fished our live bait deep during the daytime- 15 to 25 ft and that resulted in both Kingfish and Mulloway. If after a Bonito, Tailor and Salmon about 15 ft was the depth. Night time live baiting for Mulloway with larger live bait was set about 15 ft and either a cyalume light-stick or in some cases a sealed light source pushed into the cork as a strike indicator. Alan Skelton the great float maker from Bronte also made really large corks that accommodated a tiny "pen-light" torch (they were used at the murks so as to be more visible in the "thicker" water there). As many of the LBG guys will attest, 8-10 ft under the cork/balloon is common practice at other locations and it was also a well practiced method to send the bait out a fair distance- not so with us, we found most of the action was close in to the rocks, but I guess that is location specific. I reckon if there had been more guys live baiting at the spot instead of just two or three (often I was the only one) and baits sent out further, then a bigger range of Tuna would have been likely, but personally, I loved catching Kings (and eating them too) so was mostly after them. As for club competitions, in regards to fish, the old system was one point per fish and ten points per kilo, regardless of species and methods. It's easy to see why mainly only three species dominated catches at weigh-ins. Tailor, Trevally and Pigs were concentrated on due to the sheer number of fish that could be landed in quick time, add Kingfish and Tuna for outside fishing and that was pretty much it. The very last comp I fished was the annual Sydney Metro Division Rock Championships and I weighed in 139 fish, but due to rules being broken by others and the general hard work of getting the fish back up the cliff, I decided it was my last go at the comp scene. Those fish were caught between 3 pm Saturday and about 6.45 am Sunday morning and the story is a tale in itself, not the catching, more the "Herculean" effort of getting everything up- we had over 1,000 fish between 9 seniors and 4 juniors. As for the generation gap, I don't think the Alvey thing had any more to do with it other than that was the most practical and successful tackle to use. For a time, we did use overhead reels etc, but went back to Alvey's due to ease of use and particularly ease of landing large fish

Hi wizza was Billy an ex commando? If so say g'day from Warren. If it's the same guy I'm thinking of, he had his tinny at North side of Bondi. They used to shoot the break to get into the lake with the boat- there were two different tinny's that did it and they all just did Blackfish. Eventually Bill started climbing the cliff. Glad you are enjoying the old stories and it's great that Jamo posted the movie so people can see what the location is like

Hi Jim I don't know that there was ever really a "transition" period then, it was a time when (like now) there were vast improvements in technology- tackle wise- plus the growing trend towards "sports-fishing". High speed spinning for pelagic fish had already been around for many years, stemming in part from the advent of reels like Seascape, which came into larger scale production from the mid fifties-early sixties, enabling land based anglers the access to fish species that had previously only been seen to be available to boat fishers, who mainly trolled lures for their Tuna etc. A growing number of fishers, after either reading magazine articles or witnessing captures, decided they'd like to try spinning for "something bigger" than table fish. Higher speed overhead reels like the Seascape, made in Australia were not expensive, rods the same basic cost as any general rock/beach rods and with the new "hollow fibreglass" made light enough to be casting for much longer periods than the heavy old solid glass models, this form of fishing became more realistic. Also one of the most successful lures- the "half by quarter" another inexpensive item was responsible for continuous big catches of fish like Striped Tuna and Bonito. There were other lures of course, such as lead fish, arrow types and similar chromed bar-type lures, then Ron Calcutt and Joe Gausephol (unsure of the spelling!) made the classic movie "Spinning for Spaniards" and that really got a lot more guys into the spin scene. Irons, Mavericks and WK's became go-to lures for rock spinning and Werner Kossman who was a club member of my old club and owner of WK brand, was constantly trying new designs. He often donated lures for the weekly club meeting raffle. So in effect, high speed spinning was already a "thing", especially on the central coast of NSW and places like Avoca, The Skillion at Terrigal, Tomaree at Port Stephens etc all had lure fishers catching stacks of fish- anything from Bonito to Longtail, Cobia and Spanish Mackerel were regular catches. Down this way- Sydney- we caught Bonito, Mack Tuna, Stripey's, Tailor and Salmon and won enough battles with Kingfish to keep the excitement levels up. Casting a lure pre-sunrise was always appealing as it meant fast, exciting fights with hard running fish and on good days, the action was fast, with anything liable to get dragged out on a fast retrieved metal. Having said all this, it was actually slow-"speed" spinning that became more appealing to most of our guys. Reason?- Kingfish were our main targets and we discovered that big minnow lures were more likely to get fish and these of course could be successfully worked with Alvey tackle. Add to this the fact that using sidecast reels from the rocks was by far a better option for landing fish, often without the aid of a gaff. Reason for not often gaffing? "Tailgating" an already hooked fish is a surefire way to get another one and it was common practice to wait for a fish to be brought in range and everyone else would cast well behind, often resulting in some spectacular multiple hookups. Nobody was keen to be spectating and holding the gaff unless absolutely necessary. We found that big minnows like Speed King XSP, Rebels, Killers and Nilsmaster Invincible's were great fish takers, you just couldn't cast them as far as metals, but that didn't seem to matter. Bright Orange and matt Pink were the choice of colours that provided the most attention. White also was a really good colour, in fact many of the mackerel pattern and more natural coloured lures just didn't get the same attention of the "un-natural" colours. I've since learned that the mackerel pattern in particular is really more of a camouflage colour scheme, for protecting the species from predation- doesn't make sense to use lure colours that help to hide the prey. Overall, spinning is just a natural progression from bait fishing and some days produces heaps of fish, however when fishing for food, bait produced more "eaters" barring Kingfish. Live baiting was seen as a better way to catch big fish once the dawn period had ended and the sun was higher in the sky and we sometimes just set the live bait out and took turns monitoring the rods, while the rest fished for something else. Live bait also meant Mulloway were available, as they hadn't been "discovered" as a lure target, bar fishing "chair-leg" lures or giant feathers on the north coast breakwalls. Having a deep set live bait accounted for plenty, especially when the discoloured water from Bondi murk got pushed into the rocks during southerlies. More on the club scene etc to follow.

Thanks Rebel! It's great Jamo posted the video to show a bit about the location, climb and a couple of the spots fished.

Jamo thanks for posting the movie mate, it's great to see the old place. Spent a heck of a lot of time down there! The spot pictured there is called the "Sedges" which is short for straight-edges.Next rock along is called "Suicide" as you had to jump TWO rocks to get away from a wave! Next rock towards the "lake" is called "Pig Rock"- no mystery about what species lurked along there!

Hi Dieter thanks! The video shows many of the spots I talk about, including Magpie (referred to as Scarecrow by these guys) they don't show our two favourite locations down there however, but it's brought back plenty of memories for many of us. It really is an amazing place down there.

Well done AVR! Reckon they look mean and angry critters any size. They are certainly addictive, although the larger models know every dirty trick in the book. 10 lb mono is definitely sport-fishing for them. Look forward to seeing more success from your next go and you'll enjoy eating one too.

Love it! Great story again Yon

Great story Yon hope you get revenge soon

Hi Jim only a maximum of four guys could fish Magpie and that was really one too many. When the big group was up there, only two (Wally and Max) were fishing- the rest of us went up to see how they were going as we could no longer fish any of the lower platforms due to a constantly rising swell. If it hadn't been the annual Sydney Metro comp we would have gone home early. No need to worry re getting pulled over, mono stretch from that high was considerable. Where they cliff-gaff the Pig is a wider, much larger spot ("Bombie High") that could easily accommodate more guys and had more casting room by far, but didn't produce anywhere near as many fish and not many Snapper (the big attraction for high fishing at Magpie) even though it was only about 50 yards away from Magpie. Wally was a rock fishing legend who won the Veterans title in both Luderick and the Rock Championships in the Sydney Metro division of AFCA club competitions, multiple times as well as the AFA club veteran's title heaps of times. He basically just fished with a Butterworth MT 4144 rod built up for an Alvey or Grice and Young "Golden Eagle centrepin. He used the 'pin for Luderick but took a 650 A5 Alvey (drag-less) down during comps to fish for Tailor etc. As for Snapper fishing, 95% of the time he used a 45 lb hand-line and not just from up high, his favourite spot was actually on the low ledge directly in front of the cave- to the left of where they get the Groper in the movie. Most of us caught our biggest Snapper there, often while Tailor fishing with Gars or occasionally Pilchards. Wally "trained us" to always put our fish frames and guts in this same corner and had a throw for Snapper before leaving almost every trip. Average size Snapper in this spot was over 10 lb. He probably got one about every fifth or sixth trip, but wouldn't fish there if there were guys he didn't know fishing nearby-we knew almost everyone after a couple of years, however if they weren't in the inner-circle, he didn't want to give away the secret spot as it was pretty unlikely (everyone else thought!) Snapper water- calm and pretty close in. He washed all the big Snapper up without using a gaff etc, as did most of us fishing the location. In the movie, a Port Jackson shark is caught from the spot. He also only used three or four baits for Snapper, the most common either Luderick gut or Garfish he caught himself from a canoe at his holiday house at Batemans Bay. He actually trolled for the Garfish which were the largest ones I've ever seen. Squid were bait of choice number three. Rig was usually just a double strength suicide (Mustad 92554) in 5/0-6/0 for the gut and 4 or 5 ganged 5/0's (Mustad 8260 "Limerick") for the Gars. He often got smaller Snapper off Magpie on a piece of Garfish while after Bream. Using either the gut or ganged Garfish he never used lead from the low spot and only a small sized ball on the hook from the high spot. A lot of vermin species such as PJ sharks, big Wirrah, Sergeant Baker etc were caught in the "Snapper spot" and that put many of the guys off fishing there, however Wally persisted with the rubbish fish and got some great fish there. Wally also fished with an even heavier hand-line using live bait for Jewies in October each year and in years past caught plenty of them also. I lost touch with him when I left the club (as did many of the rock fishing guys) but last heard he retired to Batemans Bay after his wife passed away at North Bondi. That was many years ago now. He was still climbing the Mattens at age 78 (I think until in his 80's) and we once took a Sun Herald journalist John Webb down with us who did an article on Wally that was in the Sunday paper- two pages from memory. We caught a heap of smaller Kingfish that day and John Webb had both his spinning reels gears stripped by fish, before catching one on my Alvey outfit. Perhaps the Sun Herald archives might provide more info or at least the article. When bobby corking Gars we usually fished them about 6-8 ft under the cork, but most of our Gars were just cast and retrieved same as yours. Different tide stages would see the Tailor at different depths, although generally dawn and dusk they were within the top 6-10 feet of the water column. They of course rise when plenty of baits are in the water and the more fishermen, the more action usually. Retrieved bait out-fished "sinking" bait virtually always, whether that was simply because of the movement attraction I couldn't say. Most bobby corking was done from high spots as low level fishing was mostly cast and retrieve. Often the Snapper seem to be just under the Tailor schools, the sinking bait not retrieved accounted for plenty Most of the big Snapper caught (other than Wally's) were caught on unweighted bait while Tailor fishing, although I used to get a few smaller versions 3-6 lb long distance casting with a sinker between 2 swivels above the hook leader and fresh Bonito strips as bait, purposely fishing for them- just never a real good one in the location we distance cast onto the sand. I reckon the bigger ones are more prone to be over reef and bombies. In my opinion, Garfish are miles more a superior bait than Pilchards for Snapper, Tailor, Bream and particularly Kingfish, not just because they are more hardy, but simply because they seem to prefer them. Having said this, when Snapper fishing at spots like Curracurrang Bay, Striped Tuna and Bonito always caught the most fish, even more than Gars. As for the Salmon, yes they weren't as common a catch to us, you'd only get the odd one and then it was mostly a large one on a live Yellowtail set deep for a King or a Jewie. My mates up the far north coast had never seen one until we went to Wooli when the Sydney Olympics were on and we caught a heap on lures off the beach, which was a real novelty for the guys who'd never seen let alone caught one. Since the banning of commercial fishing for them past Stockton Bight (I don't know if that still applies) they seem to have extended their distribution (in numbers) to the far north coast virtually to the border. For several years (until the last year) they seem to have become far more prolific than Tailor, although it was heartening to see good numbers of Tailor re-appear recently. Glad you have enjoyed the old stories, they have re-connected me with several mates from the past. Regards Waza 9

Hi Blackfish thanks! The movie JamoDamo put on shows the spot at around 13 minutes in. The guys in the movie started fishing there not long before we finished up with climbing and did things quite differently to us.

Hi Mulllatt funny you say that- my Mother has only just found out a lot of this stuff now from reading these stories on Fishraider! I would have been barred from going is her take on it! The fact that we started going down in the first place through an organised fishing club and our mentor was 67 when he took us allowed us to go, but the danger was never obvious at home

Hi Rebel glad you enjoyed it

Hi Yowie funny you say that about the thin ledges- in the Sydney Metro Rock Championship when we gaffed Wally's Snapper with the treble and fishing line, it was from Magpie and there were about 8 or 9 of us (only 2 fishing) up on the ledge. Years later, after I stopped climbing and started fishing there in a boat, we went in real close there and had a look from below- it's a wonder that the thin ledge held up the weight of the lot of us that night- could have been a major loss of life if the ledge gave way as it was a wild sea that night too. The two hook rig became standard for bobby cork fishing in many locations and the Bream still took the trailing bait even though it was often attached with wire instead of mono.

Hi Pete every one of all the old crew had at least one "incident" happen to them. I was talking to my mate Fraser at Sawtell about the years we spent down the cliff and he said the same thing, that we are pretty fortunate to have come through those years pretty much OK. Still, I wouldn't have swapped those times for anything, many of the best times of my life having adventures down there and as for the fish, there's nowhere like that place anywhere else I've ever been or heard of. Not having to fish shoulder-to-shoulder with others like most of Sydney's other good spots was pretty special also. Not many places you can leave rods, reels and gear rigged up and know they'd be there next time you arrive either

Thanks Burger, yes damn lucky and still have the scar on my noggin- couldn't have even been rescued by helicopter from that ledge.