wazatherfisherman

Hi Stu I remember that ad too!

Hi Pete funny that- I've only ever seen them at night as well

Hi Frank hope you're well, Grandma didn't tell Grandpa she bought the boat and it arrived the same day she bought it, with the motor on a little trolley that it was kept on. The boat was just left chained to the tree out front of the van and everything else was just left in the van's annexe which was only buttoned up. Nothing ever got pinched. I do remember Vincents, you could buy them (like Bex) over the counter in plenty of stores. I've been lucky also and haven't been stung by any real nasties and didn't know Kirby's became BBC. Wayne Taylor who was in my rock fishing club-team worked with Joe the Gadget Man at their big store in town for a couple of years ("Don't forget to bring your money with you" was his cry on TV)

Hi Noel I've seen a few people spiked by them when prawning, but as I didn't know them can't relate the details. Both Fraser and Grandma really copped it from their spikings

Hi Neil ask a nurse every time! Didn't know Gurnard were another fish to be careful with! Cool looking fish unlike the Fortescue which are anything but attractive- When I was a kid the golden rule for 'dangerous' fish was if it looked 'ugly' or inedible, then don't touch it!

Fisher's come across plenty of creatures that need to be managed carefully. Some have sharp teeth or sharp spines, others have venom or poison of some sort and need to be treated with caution should they end up on your hook. The tiny Fortescue is one small fish that really packs a nasty punch and they are quite common in our estuaries. My introduction to Fortescue's was at Windang on the banks of Lake Illawarra, my grandparents had a permanent 'on-site' caravan in Oaklands caravan park and we used to go down there as often as possible. Extended family owned the caravans each side of ours and much of the time during summer, there'd be a fairly big group staying over on weekends. During the 60's, the lake was really alive with crabs, fish and prawns, and water activities, whether the catching of any of these or just swimming or boating, were always a big part of going to the 'van. Initially, we had a wooden row-boat and as most of the fishing action happened in one of the two main channels straight out from the van, it was a simple matter of just rowing a couple of hundred meters out from where the boat was moored to catch some fish. Grandma loved having a punt on the horses and after snagging a really massive 'daily double' at the TAB, decided to surprise Grandpa by buying a new boat with an outboard motor. The boat was aluminium- which was a fairly new material for building smaller boats at the time and it was painted white with the logo "Topper" painted above a top hat and cane on the bow. It was the first aluminium boat with outboard motor at the Windang end of the lake and arrived on a truck (no trailer with it) from Knock and Kirby's at Warrawong. Having a powerboat meant plenty of new options for fishing, opening up the 'big lake'- the main body of water just west of Windang, but also made prawning trips out to the channel near the bridge an easier proposition. Prawning from the boat is quite different from shore-based wading for them. The way we used to do it, the boat was anchored across the current with an anchor out both bow and stern, then a wooden oar was wedged under a seat each end of the boat, so it reached out over the water and a 'Tilley' lamp with small reflector shield was placed on each oar, the wire handle of the lamp fitting into a small slot cut in the oar. As the prawns moved down on the outgoing tide, a long handled prawn net was maneuvered downwards to catch the prawns as they'd float close to the boat. At times, especially after a few hours of doing it, you just leave the net in the water and scoop any prawns (and Blue Swimmer crabs) that you see swimming or clinging to bits of lake weed. Occasionally, also in amongst the lake weed would be small fish, including the Fortescue. Brown and black coloured and normally in the 5-10cm long range, these small fish have poisonous spines and they shouldn't be handled if at all possible, however, every now and then one wasn't seen when emptying the weed from the net. I'd been warned about touching the weed, and normally the net's contents were emptied into a white plastic tub to sort the prawns from anything else, but my Grandma- who was a good fisher- turned the net over one night and a Fortescue spiked her right across the palm of her hand. We stopped prawning straight away, but before we even had the anchors in, Grandma was in agony from the spiking. In those days, not a lot was known about the best treatment to use and as Grandma had been a nursing sister, nobody was about to tell her what to do. I was pretty young, so I don't remember what they tried, all I knew was she was both sick and in pain. The Fortescue affected her really badly and she was crook for a few days, so I learned that they were to be left well alone. From that night on, the prawn nets were turned inside out using piece of wire that Grandpa purposely made for the task. Other than coming across them in the weed at Windang, every now and then someone would catch one in a place like Narrabeen Lake, but they weren't something we often saw around Sydney Harbour. Then one night, fishing at Clifton Gardens wharf, my mate Fraser and I caught heaps of them. We had gone to the wharf to fish the whole night (there was no way home until the next morning as we were only about 14 - so no car) for Hairtail, which would often turn up as the tide got close to high. To catch the Hairtail, we first needed to catch small Yellowtail, to use as live bait. Most fishers would be aware that there's a distinct difference between the 'daytime' and 'night-time' Yellowtail, with the daytime ones usually both smaller and considerably thinner than the larger 'night time' variety. For the record- the Hairtail seem to prefer the daytime sized ones, so getting to the wharf and catching some bait was something you needed to do before dark. You would get the odd smaller one after dark, but they're mostly the larger ones when fishing around areas like Clifton. Hairtail fishing at Clifton, our favourite spot to fish for them was off the back of the pool, rather than out off the end of the wharf and our favourite spot to catch the small Yellowtail was right in the corner of the inside of the pool. I know that these days, it's strictly forbidden to fish in the pool, but when we were fishing there many years ago, no such restrictions applied and we also fished for Bream, Whiting, Luderick and squid in there as well. Arriving well before dark, we set up just along the back of the pool and started fishing in the corner for Yellowtail. Mince (always the gun bait!) baited up on a size 14 longshank on the 4lb handlines, with only a single small piece of split-shot for weight and soon started getting some beaut sized baits. These were kept in one of the old collapsible wire keepers, so no aerator was needed and no need to buy batteries. We managed about a dozen Yellowtail before the sun disappeared over the big hill at Clifton and although it was still a fair way off high tide, decided to put a live bait out each. Bobby cork, sinker then wire trace and 2 ganged 3/0 Limerick hooks the rig and you set the cork about 8 or 9 feet deep, before pinning the Yellowtail and sending it out some10-15 yards from the back of the pool. The Hairtail would come in pretty close as the tide got high, so no need for long casts. This particular night we got a Tailor on dark and had another couple of baits bitten pretty well in half by other Tailor, before the squid turned up and killed a few more of our precious small 'daytime' Yakka's. With still a few more hours before the tide, our bait supply looked a bit lean, so we decided to fish the corner for Yakka's again. We expected to get the bigger night-time variety, but better to have a few more baits than not. The actual pool 'netting' is made up of stainless steel rings about 6 inches in diameter, all linked together, that hang below the concrete top of the wharf and there's marine growth attached to the fence, providing a home for many small sea creatures including sea-horses and small fish. We only ever took about half a loaf of white bread for Yakka burley no matter where we fished and we had only used a couple of slices, so after throwing a tiny bit of burley in, started fishing for some more bait. Normally when fishing in close to the corner, with just a tiny bit of burley, plenty of small fish would turn up pretty quickly and as we'd had no trouble catching them on our arrival, expected to load up on a few more, even if they were going to be bigger. We knew from experience, not to let the line become 'straight down' when fishing the pool, because you wouldn't get a Yellowtail along the actual fence, but rather out from it in 'clean' water. If your bait sank close to the fence you would catch undesirable species like Sweep, Mado, tiny Bream and various kelp dwelling fish. After fishing for a while and no more Yellowtail showed up, vigilance in keeping the lines away from the pool net was forgotten and after catching a couple of tiny Bream, a Fortescue was pulled up by Fraser. I recognised it straight away and told him what it was, adding that the best way to deal with them was to put a shoe on them and pull the hook out with pliers. No problem, hook removed and Fortescue pushed back over the edge, down into the pool. Over the next hour or so another half a dozen Fortescue's were pulled up the Yakka lines, but not a Yakka to be seen. A couple more bites from Tailor on the live bait left us with only the one's we had out, no more left in the keepnet and prime Hairtail time approaching. Back to Yakka fishing with a lot more urgency, this time we moved from our pool corner further down the wharf. Within a few minutes we got a couple of Yakka's, but they were fairly large and really not suitable for what we wanted; we learned a couple of years later that any larger Hairtail would have no problem taking one of these large 'night-time' sized Yakkas, but at this stage, were convinced that you needed small ones for live bait, so back to the pool to put heaps of burley in. After using all the burley in the pool corner, the only fish we caught were several more Fortescue's. Each time one was landed, we'd just hold it down with something and go and grab the pliers to unhook it, seemed easy enough. Then suddenly, while Fraser was holding one down, it managed to 'flip' completely long-ways and spiked him in his thumb. Within only a few minutes, Fraser's thumb had swollen up almost double it's normal size and as there were no other people at the wharf to ask advice from, thoughts turned to going home. There was a public phone at the bottom of the staircase, way over in the car park and we packed our gear up and went over to ring home to see what to do. My mother was really sympathetic and told us to stay at the phone and she'd organise a cab to come and pick us up, don't know what we would have done otherwise as it was nearly midnight and I lived at Croydon and Fraser at Bass Hill. By the time the cab arrived Fraser's thumb no longer looked like a thumb and his whole hand was swollen dreadfully, he was in heaps of pain and the half hour trip back to Croydon seemed to take forever. I do remember the cab costing $11- which was the most expensive cab ride ever! On arriving home, Mum had already rung Western Suburbs Hospital and knew what to do. A bowl of really hot water was put on the table and the hand immersed. As the water cooled a bit, more hot water was added to make it as hot as Fraser could stand and this seemed to do the trick. About half an hour after immersion, the pain had subsided and the swelling was reduced considerably. In those days, the only home pain-relief tablets were either Disprin, Aspirin or Bex and after having a dose of one (I can't remember which) Fraser finally got to sleep. His thumb was still swollen the next day, but the pain wasn't too bad and neither of us tried unhooking a Fortescue again. If you happen to catch one, be extra careful with it- they have a spike on the side of their heads as well as the dorsal spikes that got both Grandma and Fraser and I'm pretty sure the treatment is still the same- immersion in as hot a water as you can tolerate (without burning yourself) as it neutralises the poison

Hi Stu I was all 'typed-out' after this one! Beach fishing up in that part of the world is totally different and really enjoyable, with huge spaces between people, wonderful solitude and various types of fish- catching a few is great, but just being there is soul-food

Done and a good idea

Hi Pete it's a great style of fishing and super popular up north- probably because there's plenty of great areas that still have plenty of fish. I wonder if not many try it due to the 'change-over' to spinning reels? You don't see many fishers standing well out in the water using them!

Hi Jamo comps like this one aren't organised in the Sydney region. There were only two I can remember- Dee Why lions club organised one and we fished the Mattens and won a couple of prizes and the other was Gosford 'Fun-fish' and we won a boat in that one!

Hi Grandad glad you liked it- took some typing!

As a fishermen who grew up in Sydney's western suburbs, beach fishing was never really something that was practical to do, usually, any trips towards the coast were based around rock fishing. If the sea conditions were predicted to be too rough, then Sydney Harbour, occasionally Narrabeen or somewhere in Port Hacking were the alternative fishing areas that plans were changed to. Beach fishing wasn't really of much interest for several reasons, mainly, because Sydney's beaches always have heaps of people using them, but also the range of species isn't anything like from the rocks and other than sharks, Mulloway were the only large species to target and they were more of a night time proposition we thought. So for many years, other than a few organised fishing-club competition days, fishing from the sand was something left until trips away from Sydney. About 25 years ago, John M, one of my best mates, moved to Murwillumbah on the far north coast of NSW and I've been lucky enough to have gone up and stayed with him, most years since he relocated. Fishing has always been high on our holiday agenda and we went all over the area, fishing for Bass at Clarrie Hall Dam, spinning for Flatties in one of the many estuaries, drifting a live bait for Mangrove Jacks and occasionally hit the beaches for Tailor and Dart. Plenty of times, we've had 'trifecta days' where we go out on three trips a day, chasing all the above mentioned species and even a couple of trips trying all four types of fishing in a single day. Great fun if you love fishing! Beach fishing in the area is totally different to anything I'd done before, most of the beaches we fished had few if any swimmers to worry about, heaps of great beach formations and often nobody around at all. Big beaches like Wooyung- which stretches from Hastings Point up the north end all the way to Brunswick Heads (it does have different names for different sections, but it's all the same stretch of sand)- a distance of some 30 odd km's, have countless fish attracting features and pretty easy access for fishers, even those like us without a 4WD vehicle. The coast road runs along within about 50 meters of the back of the beach, yet you can still see the ocean for about half the length of Wooyung, making it easy to move along looking for spots to try. In fact, the first year I went beach fishing there, a continuous gutter ran parallel to the beach for many km's. Wide, deep and right in close to the shore for much of it's length, I'd never seen a more 'fishy' location from the sand. Adding to this, there were plenty of holes, both large and small, plus the necessary outlet channels going seaward from the gutter in plenty of places. Pippi's are pretty easy to find and there are plenty of beach worms as well, a really great spot to go fishing. During the day, Bream, Whiting, Dart and Flathead are the main targets for bait fishing, or spinning for Tailor with metal lures can be really productive, but as dusk approaches and night falls, the focus turns to fishing for Tailor and Mulloway, again with bait. Pre-dark scouting of the beach needs to be done- so you aren't casting blind, and several spots need to be marked to cover areas that the fish are likely to move along at different heights of the tide. Marking the spots on a GPS unit for referencing after dark is really useful, unless there are distinct features on the beach you can easily see once it's got dark. Alternatively, you can use a 'cyalume light stick' to mark a few places to try. The best spots to look for in these long gutters, are places where there are 'channels' accessing the deeper water behind the main wave-break areas, especially good if there are several of these within a couple of hundred meters, because they allow both the roving Tailor schools and their predators like Mulloway, Spanish Mackerel and sharks to move freely in and out of the gutter. The Tailor come in through one opening searching for prey and often travel along fairly quickly, before moving back out via one of the next channels if no bait fish are found. When Tailor fishing these type of locations, often, only one or two fishers won't get many of these Tailor before they move on and this is one style of fishing that accommodates a bigger number of anglers. With more baits in the water and more excited and battling Tailor, often they'll stay around much longer. We don't see it down Sydney way, but when the Tailor are 'on' at some of these big beaches up north, at times, in areas adjacent bigger towns and populated areas, there are people standing shoulder-to-shoulder throwing Pilchards and Garfish out and the fish bite for a couple of hours or more each time. It's simple to find where the fish are- just look for the crowd. The large volume of bait in the water keeps the schools stimulated and feeding. The joy of long beaches such as Wooyung, is that for most of the long length of beach, with heaps of likely spots that fill the necessary criteria to attract fish, you can get well away from everyone else and four or five fishers can 'work' a school by keeping a hooked fish in the water, while the other guys land their fish, re-bait and get back into the school. Experienced Tailor fishers get plenty of fish this way. The bigger Tailor- known as "Greenbacks"- a term derived from the greenish sheen along the top of the fish's back- are fished for in a slightly different manner than the smaller fish. For general Tailor fishing, when targeting the big schools of migrating fish, a whole Pilchard or a Garfish, pinned on ganged hooks and sitting on a short leader of either wire or heavy line-say 40-50lb- below a suitable sized sinker to get the bait out as far as possible, is pretty much standard fare, but for many of the guys who chase the bigger fish, a different rig is often used. A short wire trace around 20-30cm with only 2 ganged hooks- commonly about size 4/0's or 5/0's- sits below the sinker and instead of using Pilchards or Garfish for bait, 'cut bait' is used. Cut bait? The most popular baits are small pieces of Mullet, Bonito or Tuna, with Tailor themselves also being popular as fillet baits. The really large fish take them readily and they also cast better due to being smaller, which is also an advantage, as many of these larger fish are caught well out from the wave break in the deeper water. A lot of guys frown on using a wire trace, but if using cut bait, these large Greenback's swallow the lot and their sharp teeth can easily cut through even heavy leader line- rather have less bites than lose the big fish. Every year, usually organised for Queens Birthday weekend in June, there's a large and well organised fishing competition called the "Greenback" tournament, which offers some really great prizes for participants. It's an overnight comp, and all proceeds from the event usually go to the local Lions club. It isn't only Tailor fishing, but the biggest prizes- (usually around $2,500 cash for the largest Tailor), are offered for the 3 largest Tailor caught. There are prizes for the top three anglers in Ladies, Men's, Seniors and Junior categories, plus largest of species in these same categories for the following species: Bream, Tailor, Whiting, Dart(Swallowtail), Flathead, Mulloway, Luderick (which are also known locally as Black-Bream) and Tarwhine. There are also 'secret weight' prizes included for junior anglers and a large raffle offering prizes in the 1,000's of dollars worth of donated gear and equipment. All fish weighed are also donated to the Lions club and are auctioned off on site at the weigh-in, so even if you don't catch anything, you can still bid on plenty of fresh fish. The fishing area is pretty much from S/E Qld to about Wooli in NSW, but all fishers need to sign-out from the weigh-in point at Cabarita Beach around 12-1pm on the Saturday and have fish back there by 9am Sunday morning. You can fish pretty much wherever you want to and target any of the above mentioned species, but most people are trying to get a large Tailor for one of the bigger cash prizes. It's also important to note- you can only weigh in 5 fish of each species, so you don't have to catch vast numbers of fish to do well. John fished the comp one year with some of the local guys and although he only caught one fish, enjoyed the trip enough to want to go again, so plans were made to go the next year and he invited me to go with them. I arrived in Murwillumbah a few days prior to the event and we decided to go outside fishing, to get some fish to use as 'cut bait'- a common term used up there for fillet baits. A quick trip out to Palm Beach reef in a our mate Wayne W's boat got us plenty of Slimy Mackerel and huge Yellowtail, all caught on small 5-7gm metals, then on the way back we spotted some fish working on the surface and ended up with half a dozen small Mack Tuna as well. Cut bait sorted to add to the Pilchards and Garfish we had already organised. Wayne borrowed a long wheel-based Land Rover from his father in law Bill, so we could move around different areas without having to get back off the beach, which gave us the opportunity to move along plenty of times if necessary. We got together and had a couple of drinks early on the Friday night before the next day's sign-off and made our basic plans. With Wayne being the council water engineer and father in law Bill living at Pottsville and regularly driving the beach there, we had a bit of an idea what was going on fish-wise. There were quite a few Tailor schools roving the area, but they were just 'hitting and running'- only staying a few minutes at a time before leaving the gutters via the next exit. There were Dart and also Bream around though, so we were hoping to get a couple of different species. Saturday morning arrived and we met up at Bill's place at Pottsville to put our gear in the Rover. Wayne and his son Matt had already loaded their gear and plenty of cut firewood- which ended up being a great move. The forecast wasn't very good, with constant rain forecast for the night, but as we all had chest high waders and good raincoats, we weren't too concerned. The important part of the forecast was that there wasn't any wind predicted and it's the wind that can ruin your night on the beach. Along with Wayne and Matt, we were joined by Matt's cousin Tim and both he and Matt at about 15, were around the same age. They'd be competing as juniors and John, Wayne and I in the men's division. Bill wasn't interested in coming, he said he could go any time and wasn't keen on getting wet for the night. With all the gear, bait and waders sorted, we left to go to the sign-off about 8km away at Cabarita Beach. On arriving at the sign-off area, there were probably over 200 people already lined up to register and as the rain had just started to come down, the majority of competitors already had their waders and raincoats on. A small tarped area had "Greenback" shirts, caps and other souvenirs for sale, so after signing on, we grabbed a few souvenirs to mark the occasion, before piling back in the Rover to head to the beach. As Wooyung where we were headed is in the Tweed Shire council area, Bill buys an annual permit for driving on the beach- as it's necessary to have a permit and during times like comp days, the rangers would be driving the beach sighting permits. They do have someone issuing weekend permits at the sign-off area for anyone who's just there for the competition. A large sign on the back of the beach marks where Tweed Shire ends and Byron Shire begins, and it's important to note that a permit from Byron Shire is needed if you want to access the beach south of the sign. As most of the competitors have found a spot well before the 'end of shire' sign, our plan was to go right down there first for a look, as we thought we'd have that end of the beach to ourselves. On the way down towards the sign, we passed stacks of really large and well organised camps, that had obviously been set up for plenty of hours. Some large groups from fishing clubs had got in early and on finding great looking water, set up for the night. The only disadvantage to doing this, is if the fish don't pass by your part of the gutter, it's too much effort to pack up and move, but on these family friendly trips, fishing isn't the only consideration. When we arrived at the sign, there weren't any other camps or fishers for a long way, so we decided that we also would set up, staying the night in the one spot, as there were several good looking spots all within walking distance. By the time we had the camp organised- which was really just setting up a tarp off the Rover, organising a fire pit and unloading much of the gear- a lone fisherman in a small 4WD stopped his car pretty well in between us and the water and ran down with a metal lure and threw in, hooking a Tailor within a few winds of his sidecast. That sent us scurrying down to the water immediately, but we were all rigged for bait fishing, not luring. The guy caught 2 more Tailor pretty quickly, before declaring they'd moved out of the gutter and he got back in his car and moved about 100 meters further north, again stopping and getting one pretty well straight away. We decided to stay put, mainly because walking any distance in waders and full wet weather gear is pretty hard going. At this point I should say that we were using 13ft one piece fibreglass rods and all of us using either six and a half or seven inch Alvey sidecast reels and around 9kg line. When the next school of Tailor came through about an hour later, we all managed to get a few each, but these fish were only in the 1.2-1.5kg range and we knew they wouldn't be winning any 'largest' prizes, however you can only catch what's there and we were happy to have some fish well before dark. The rain got a little harder as the sun set and no more Tailor came past our position. Then a very light southerly breeze started pushing along, making it quite cold and the dreaded 'sweep' started up. The 'sweep' is a sideways movement of water along the beach and once it gets a bit of power, it makes fishing really difficult. Your line gets pushed sideways along the beach, eventually coming back in to shore, regardless that you are walking sideways with it. As the tide came in more, the sweep got too strong to keep fishing, so we retired to the camp for a feed of sausages and a hot cuppa. We got a fire going in the fire-pit (open fires aren't allowed on most beaches unless in some type of containment) and nobody was too keen to leave the warmth of said fire to try fishing again for a while. Looking north along the beach, the lights of other fires were visible as far as the eye could see, indicating that plenty of other competitors had retired to the comfort of their fire and camp area. About an hour and a half passed before the rain eased right up and we decided to go back out for another go at the fish, again concentrating on Tailor. For this second session, we all spread out a bit in the hope of locating another roving school, although after another hour or so, no more fish were caught, but at least the sweep wasn't as strong and we could keep our bait out. John and I decided to walk further south than we'd tried all night and found a 'wave-less' area- which indicates deeper water- and after casting out, found virtually no sweep at our new location. Within a few minutes, both of us had bites, but not from Tailor, maybe Bream? As we were now several hundred meters from camp, it was a long walk back wearing waders to get the lighter Bream rods and before we left the new spot, cracked a cyalume stick, made a sand mound and placed the glowing stick on top, to indicate where to come on our return. Having the fire going made it easy to locate the camp, it's amazing how dark it is with no man-made light to be seen for a reference point. As we'd already organised our own signal system for alerting each other to 'come to the light' if fish were found, the five of us met up at camp, grabbed the lighter gear and made the fifteen minute walk back to where the cyalume light-stick was marking the new area. The gear we were now using consisted of much lighter actioned 11 and 12 ft rods, fitted with smaller six inch sidecast reels and 4 or 5kg mono, considerably lighter to hang onto for extended periods. All guys on the beach carry a 'standard' shoulder bag that holds everything you might need so you don't have to make the long walk between spot and camp. A basic array of tackle usually includes swivels, 3 or 4 sizes of hooks, ganged hooks, and 3 or 4 sizes of sinkers, all housed in a small lightweight tackle box, plus pliers, a knife, really small spool of leader line and a small 'secondary' torch- which is a must in case of your primary light source of a decent headlamp failing. Some also carry plastic fish-measuring rulers, but we just make a mark on our shoulder bags to use for measuring fish. Other items carried are a small drink bottle and a decent sized bit of rag to wipe your hands on. By the time you add a decent amount of a few different baits, plus the weight of any fish you catch, these shoulder bags get fairly heavy, so if fishing a long walk from your main camp, it's a good idea to lug a bucket to use as a place to empty your catch into once you've got half a dozen fish. Once we arrived back at the cyalume stick and spread out along the spot, it didn't take long for fish to start coming in. They were Swallowtail Dart and they put up a good fight for a small fish, battling all the way in to shore. Initially, we were using small pieces of cut bait and Pilchard tails, but as the beach had an abundance of pippies, which continued to 'surface' in our footmarks, we swapped to using them instead. The Dart really love the pippies and it was a simple matter of just picking them up as they appeared. To make a good bait, you need two pippies and you put the first one on lip first and the other lip last- so the 'guts' of the shellfish sit about the middle of your bait, the Dart swallow these baits quickly, as do any Bream around as well. As the night went on, the rain came down lightly but continuously and regardless we were catching fish, being constantly wet eventually took its toll on all five of us. Somewhere around 1am we decided to go back to camp, more for a rest than anything else. The fire was reduced to a mere glow, but looking north along the beach, only two more fire-lights were visible, meaning that either the other competitors were catching fish or had turned in for the night. Taking the weight off our feet was great and after putting plenty of wood on the fire, fired up the gas cooker to reheat some sausages and make some hot drinks. Something as simple as a reheated sausage on a bread roll can really lift your mood when it's bleak and cold and we planned how the rest of the night would go. We decided to take the Tailor gear down to the spot where the Dart were, otherwise there was no chance of catching the principle target at all, so after a feed and an hour's break, loaded up with both the Tailor and Dart gear and made the tiresome trudge down in our waders. For those who've never worn waders, walking in them is tiring, but they really are essential for keeping you both warm and dry, on miserable winter's nights like this one. While we were down at the fishing area, a car with a flashing roof light moved down the beach, stopping frequently for a few minutes. We were later to learn that it was a guy known as the 'Arab' and he was dishing out hot food in the form of either stew or a curry- which was given free to competitors, a great idea from the organisers. No more Tailor were caught and we eventually returned to Dart fishing, which we kept catching until dawn, when we again tried unsuccessfully for Tailor. By about 7.30am, we'd had enough of fishing and returned to clean up the camp area before loading everything back in the Rover and returning to the start point of Cabarita Beach. We each lined up to weigh our best 5 fish of each species, and as the rain finally stopped, grabbed a beer and yet another sausage sandwich from the food stall. The weighing takes a couple of hours, before all the fish are then auctioned off to the crowd, and then finally, the winners announced and prizes awarded. Wayne's son Matt won the junior champion's prize and what a good prize it was. A huge 'ute-boot' fibreglass esky, a 12ft beach rod, Alvey reel, fishing bag full of tackle goodies, plus clothing and several vouchers to use in the local area- a really generous prize and young Matt was wrapped. The rest of us didn't rate on the scoreboard, but having Matt win was just as good as winning ourselves. The largest Tailor weighed was over 6kg, with plenty of fish caught in the 4-5kg range as well. One guy I saw was trying to pick his largest 5 Tailor from a catch of around a dozen- not one under 4kg. The heaviest fish weighed was a Spanish Mackerel of around 25kg, which apparently grabbed a decent sized Tailor being reeled in from the rocks at Cabarita Headland and there were heaps of quality fish landed from all the eligible species. A Stargazer caught by someone not fishing the comp attracted plenty of interest also when the fisherman asked if it could be weighed just to see what size it was- ugly looking critter it was too. That was my first of five "Greenback" trips and I really enjoyed doing a type of fishing I couldn't really do in Sydney. The whole event is family orientated and well run and the profits go back into the local community. If you're ever up that way around Queens Birthday weekend in June it's well worth a look- especially at the weigh-in and even without fishing, you can still bid on fish at the auction.

Hi Stu wonder if old Bootle is still around? Don't know how long a fishlike him lives, but he had way more than '9 lives'!

Hi Grandad -OUCH!! Never trust one! They are the most aggressive fish I've ever encountered by far. I bet that freaked you out as well as hurt! We've caught some absolute giants- far bigger than they reckon they grow to Regards Waza

Hi Kobi Try fishing for them! They're fun to catch- just watch those teeth when you're unhooking one!

Exactly Paddy- once any of these type (or any type) of legislations become law, additions/changes are always on the cards and by approving this/these proposals, it just opens up an unwanted door for stakeholders that is always going to be used by activists to their advantage. Just my opinion, but fishing has always had various opposing groups that WILL use ALL the 'loopholes' not covered EXACTLY by word of law to try and limit/restrict/change the way we conduct our sport and this, just like the marine park proposal, is another way of opening up that gateway. Like PaddyT says, it's what could be added to the list that concerns us all

Hi Slothparade like Noelm says above- the cork will work but won't last long, if you have a close look at most cork butts they either have an insert of something harder on the end or in fact a cap/button of some type, otherwise every time you put the rod down you're causing wear on the cork and it simply won't last. Most hardware or furniture shops would have a cap and they're cheap items to buy, then fix like Noelm says above- masking tape and Araldite

Hi Blackfish glad you enjoyed it!

Hi Noel great story, when fish are hungry they feed!

Hi Grandad you're a braver man than I am retrieving anything from those beasts- seen some giant scary ones and they are one angry critter! We made a rule on houseboat trips to never bring one on board after dark, due to a few mishaps. Have seen plenty of shots of Pike Eel injuries over the years

Hi Yowie I saw a bloke lose a "big Jewie" on Narrabeen Beach one night then a few minutes later his mate caught the "jewie" with his mate's hook in it's mouth. It was a big Tailor and it bit one hook off before being landed by the other guy

Hi Pete no it certainly wasn't his looks! I've often wondered how many times he actually got caught! Catching your Dad's fish was the grounding for a lifetime passion! Glad you enjoy the stories

Hi again just wanted to let you know that although the cork looks OK and feels comfortable, due to it being a load bearing point of your rod, it won't be strong enough to withstand breaking. Just a suggestion- you can buy various chair leg caps from most hardware stores or find one on a throw-out piece of furniture which can go over the outside of the butt instead. They'll fit well over the black grip and provide you with a long lasting and more comfortable butt. Looks like all the guides need re-doing and you might find those type hard to find as they've been out of production for a long time.

Welcome Howard I had a GH jig rod but can't remember the number -maybe GH 13? Great rod built by the (long closed) Fisherman's Friend at Yagoona it was a 10kg stick a bit over 6 and half foot. Yellow glass. I still know who has it but he wouldn't part with it!

Hi Slothparade 1) decent quality guides have a very small number on the leg like 8, 10, 12, 16, 20, 25 and are their sizes and refer to the guide's ring diameter. It would be helpful to post a picture of the rod showing the missing guide and guides either side of it. If you think it is the last guide towards the tip or butt let us know with a photo if possible. 2) Binding thread is much stronger, far more UV proof and relatively inexpensive for the small sized spool. When looking to buy some you want "C" or "D' size for most applications on saltwater rods. Black is pretty common as an over-bind and should give you good all around use. 3) When removing old guides, use a razor blade (one sided!) and cut the thread along the remains of the guide that was there or gently cut along the length of the rod ray=ther than down onto the blank. You don't need to cut all the old thread off usually because it will peel off with you 'unwinding' it. If totally coated you can try nail polish remover to soften it if you're having difficulty, but usually just the blade will remove both thread and remaining sealer/epoxy. 4) Bind towards the guide and up over it, a good trick is to use a thin type of cello-tape (clear!) to lock your thread down and simply bind over it and up the guide leg. You need to seal the thread when finished with some type of thread sealer or rod 'filler' which preserves colour, locks the tread down and leaves a protective coating over the top of the thread. If just using thread sealer/filler apply several coats and it's best not to use it on days of high humidity. Epoxy resin over the top if you want long lasting result. 5) Not that necessary usually to repaint a rod unless the blank is perishing and fibres becoming exposed. Wouldn't bother usually Hope this is helpful Waza