The Very Last Rock Comp

[wazatherfisherman]

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rebel]

Great story. Well done.

[Yowie]

I've been in a few fishing comps, where there was obvious cheating taking place. 

One was an estuary comp, most fish were weighed in, and a young bloke pulls out a Blue Spot Flattie, nearing the 60cm mark. The fish was gutted, and all fish had to be weighed uncleaned, the flattie was several days old by it's looks. Boos and hisses were heard, the organisers  talked but could not disprove where and when he "caught" this fish, so he won the biggest Flathead for the day. He was told to f*** off by other competitors and never try fishing again.

Another time was an outside comp, the waves were 10 to 15 feet, and my 13 foot tinny was bouncing around. Too hard and dangerous to continue, so we packed it in and headed home. Another team of juniors weighed in some John Dory and big slimies, and I picked it that they fished off Gunnamatta bathes. "No we didn't, you can't prove it." They won that comp, but a few days later, one of them bragged about Gunnamatta bathes to the wrong person, but it was too late to protest.

At other competitions, fish had obviously been caught the previous day before the comp started.

[Yowie]

Wazza,

not one to brag, but I found these in the cupboard at home.

[Yowie]

[Yowie]

[Green Hornet]

Great story Waza.

Fishing comps sure were different affairs back in the pre bag limit days.

I was an ANSA fisherman myself, and one or two good fish were enough for me to lug up the cliffs.

[PaddyT]

Good Story Waz , i knew a couple of the Central Coast comp fishos back in the day and their dedication was very similar to yours. Like GH i was more an ANSA fisho but dropped out of that when i got beaten at a comp with a kingie on 3kg line that took me 20 minutes to land -it was 2.8kg from memory by a guy who caught a stingray on 1kg by dropping a bait on its head on a sand flat and then waiting for it to settle back into the sand and basically freegaffing it-oh well.

[rickmarlin62]

Cracker story waz

[Dee Why Jim]

Thanks Waza - another great story.  The AFCA never considered having officials with the various teams?  Like golf clubs will have rules officials with the players for important club events.  Fishing and golf both rely on honesty but if the stakes get high enough some will feel the temptation to bend the rules.  I guess that would mean telling the officials where the teams were going to fish and in your case having someone willing the climb down the cliff.

The 1.5 to 2 lb tailor and about 1 lb trevally were what my mates and I mostly caught on the lower northern beach rocks in the early 80's.  My experience when fishing near home was that the signal for tailor to start (or stop) biting was that there had to be enough light to see the pilchard/garfish hit the water - in the morning no fish until just enough to faintly see a splash and in the evening the bite would stop when you were casting into the dark.  You were obviously able to keep catching them into the early evening (and beyond).  We didn't use much burley and mostly only two or three of us.  Maybe we weren't organised enough to keep a couple of baits in the water and the fish moved off to their night location.  

There have been a few pictures lately of massive schools of salmon off the rocks near Waverley and Coogee - do you think tailor school in the same way?  I had the feeling that they moved up and down the rocks in smaller schools - sometimes we would get two or three in quick succession then nothing for 20 minutes before another group would pass by.  

Are the big schools of trevally still around?  They were thickest for us around August (after the tailor started to drop off) and as you describe it could be as easy as cast, wind in the slack, count to 10 and strike you would be on.  They were good fun on 10 lb line and not too bad to eat.  My memories are mostly from 40 years ago - hope there enough fish and unoccupied rock platforms for today's teenagers to have fun like we did.

 

DY Jim

[wazatherfisherman]

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

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!

[Yowie]

I'm 66.

It was a pleasure to win those comps, like yourself, but I could not be presented with the pockets at the presentation, as I was not 18 and could not be admitted to a licensed club, usually the Brighton Fishos.

The McDowells SPORTSTAR of the WEEK was for a fishing comp that the Sutherland Shire Council held in 1970, to commemorate 200 years of the Captain Cook Landing. I was awarded 2 gold medals. Due to my age, I only just snuck in under the age limit.

The current Council was not aware of this comp, as it happened 50 years ago, so I was going to loan the medals to the Council for the big 250 year celebration that was planned for May this year, but cancelled due to Coronavirus.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Yowie

[wazatherfisherman]

3 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Great story Waza.

Fishing comps sure were different affairs back in the pre bag limit days.

I was an ANSA fisherman myself, and one or two good fish were enough for me to lug up the cliffs.

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.

[wazatherfisherman]

1 minute ago, Yowie said:

I'm 66.

It was a pleasure to win those comps, like yourself, but I could not be presented with the pockets at the presentation, as I was not 18 and could not be admitted to a licensed club, usually the Brighton Fishos.

The McDowells SPORTSTAR 

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

[wazatherfisherman]

1 hour ago, PaddyT said:

Good Story Waz , i knew a couple of the Central Coast comp fishos back in the day and their dedication was very similar to yours. Like GH i was more an ANSA fisho but dropped out of that when i got beaten at a comp with a kingie on 3kg line that took me 20 minutes to land -it was 2.8kg from memory by a guy who caught a stingray on 1kg by dropping a bait on its head on a sand flat and then waiting for it to settle back into the sand and basically freegaffing it-oh well.

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

[Burger]

Awesome story Waza!

The effort you put in can be truely felt!

cheers,

stu.

[Yowie]

When I joined the St George and Sutherland Shire Anglers Club (think that was it's name) I was invited by Gary Chapman to go fishing with him a few times. Out from Marley (I was the burley boy 🤣) and a few times beach fishing on the Central Coast beaches.

I learnt a few tips from him.

Now I am happy to catch a few fish, a feed or 2 for the missus and myself (not fish again she says ) and some for family members, and maybe friends if there is a bit to spare.

Edited August 23, 2020 by Yowie

[wazatherfisherman]

1 hour ago, Dee Why Jim said:

Thanks Waza - another great story.  The AFCA never considered having officials with the various teams?  Like golf clubs will have rules officials with the players for important club events.  Fishing and golf both rely on honesty but if the stakes get high enough some will feel the temptation to bend the rules.  I guess that would mean telling the officials where the teams were going to fish and in your case having someone willing the climb down the cliff.

The 1.5 to 2 lb tailor and about 1 lb trevally were what my mates and I mostly caught on the lower northern beach rocks in the early 80's.  My experience when fishing near home was that the signal for tailor to start (or stop) biting was that there had to be enough light to see the pilchard/garfish hit the water - in the morning no fish until just enough to faintly see a splash and in the evening the bite would stop when you were casting into the dark.  You were obviously able to keep catching them into the early evening (and beyond).  We didn't use much burley and mostly only two or three of us.  Maybe we weren't organised enough to keep a couple of baits in the water and the fish moved off to their night location.  

There have been a few pictures lately of massive schools of salmon off the rocks near Waverley and Coogee - do you think tailor school in the same way?  I had the feeling that they moved up and down the rocks in smaller schools - sometimes we would get two or three in quick succession then nothing for 20 minutes before another group would pass by.  

Are the big schools of trevally still around?  They were thickest for us around August (after the tailor started to drop off) and as you describe it could be as easy as cast, wind in the slack, count to 10 and strike you would be on.  They were good fun on 10 lb line and not too bad to eat.  My memories are mostly from 40 years ago - hope there enough fish and unoccupied rock platforms for today's teenagers to have fun like we did.

 

DY Jim

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.

[wazatherfisherman]

3 hours ago, Burger said:

Awesome story Waza!

The effort you put in can be truely felt!

cheers,

stu.

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

[wazatherfisherman]

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

When I joined the St George and Sutherland Shire Anglers Club (think that was it's name) I was invited by Gary Chapman to go fishing with him a few times. Out from Marley (I was the burley boy 🤣) and a few times beach fishing on the Central Coast beaches.

I learnt a few tips from him.

Now I am happy to catch a few fish, a feed or 2 for the missus and myself (not fish again she says ) and some for family members, and maybe friends if there is a bit to spare.

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

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, wazatherfisherman said:

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

He was, also Ken and Ray Appel. Ken built my beach rod nearly 50 years ago, still going strong with 2 runners being replaced recently. A 12 foot, 2 piece rod, so I could transport it inside my small cars in those days. He inscribed my name on it, I did not ask for that, but he said it was a one off special.

Dave.

[JimT]

I managed largest Luderick for a junior in an Syd Metro Estuary Comp mid 1970's. Luderick were taking Botany Bay wrigglers in the Cooks River. Weigh in was at the Fisho's club on Bestick St- just around the corner...so for us juniors we were in walking distance and fished the river breakwall/bridge all night.

Jim

Edited August 23, 2020 by jot

[wazatherfisherman]

21 minutes ago, jot said:

I managed largest Luderick for a junior in an Syd Metro Estuary Comp mid 1970's. Luderick were taking Botany Bay wrigglers in the Cooks River. Weigh in was at the Fisho's club on Bestick St- just around the corner...so for us juniors we were in walking distance and fished the river all night.

Jim

Hi Jim well done! There was always something exciting about winning anything in a Syd Metro comp. Did you have to sit on the stairs at the Fisho's club while awaiting results? I did! Often wondered how far up the river they go these days

[wazatherfisherman]

9 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Cracker story waz

Thanks Rick! Got an RSI injury from typing that one!

[rickmarlin62]

Hahaha  took me three beers  to read it