wazatherfisherman

Hi Yowie I still to this day can't believe that thing bit me that day. My fishing buddies had never heard me scream, but scream I did- it bloody hurt! It was only a real small Slender Tom, one of the big ones would be dreadful

Hi Isaac they are fun to catch and exciting for kids

Long Tom's are a fish that many saltwater fishers encounter throughout their fishing activities. Sometimes you hook them, but more often than not, they're seen cruising around on the surface and occasionally have a slash at a bait or lure. Mainly though, if you do hook one on a lure, they'll jump off in a wild series of acrobatics and free themselves before you get a chance to bring them in. Bait fishers seem to stay connected a bit better. As a kid, I loved catching Tom's because they skipped along the surface, jumped and even did mad cartwheels after being hooked- regardless the ones we caught were pretty small, they had 'scary' teeth and were still a trophy catch for a boy. The ones we got regularly were only about the same size as a good sized Garfish, but they were fun and easier to find than the Gars. Initially, we caught the odd one while float fishing for poddy Mullet, but as the bait for Mullet was always bread and the Toms are pretty much carnivorous, only the odd one was tempted. One Christmas holidays we went to Toukley, situated on Tuggerah Lake and stayed in a holiday unit really close to Canton Beach- a well known prawning area of the lake. The water was pretty shallow with a sand bottom and patches of that thin brown lake weed around the shore. A good safe fishing spot for kids and plenty of 'tiddlers' to catch. The first day, after arriving at the unit- which was one of four- we discovered there were a few more kids around the same age as my brother and I and it seemed everyone was a fisherman. Within a couple of hours, there was a group of us, all standing about thigh deep in the water, fishing for whatever we could catch, only about 150 meters from the units. Like a lot of kids rig up (or are rigged by their parents), a simple rig of some type of small float, set around a foot or so deep, with a tiny long-shank hook and a piece of split-shot will catch you almost any of the small fish around the lakes edge. It's the universal rig for kids, because it gives you something to watch and is relatively snag-free (great for the 'riggers-up') and most kids will be using it at some stage in their early fishing expeditions. The target species for the most part were poddy Mullet, as some of the men wanted them for bait, but any type of fish including tiny Luderick, Bream and Tarwhine were a welcome catch and each admired in their own right. Most of us were using bread, but one of the boys had a few prawns and he caught a Tom. Celebrations all round! I still remember the kid that caught it- not his name, but I remember him trying desperately to convince us that Toms were in fact baby Marlin. He was pretty convincing, but I remembered my Grandpa telling me that Tom's were their own species, after I'd asked him if they were a sort of Garfish. When we ran out of bait and went back to the units, we only took the poddies and the Tom and on showing them to the adults, one of the men said if we wanted to catch Toms, we should have cut some of the Mullet up, because you could get them on "a bit" of Mullet gut. Not knowing what "bit" of Mullet to use and not wanting to ask in front of the other kids for fear of looking stupid, I left it at that. The next day we went to Budgewoi, staying for the day and didn't get back in time to fish with the other kids, but went down again with my brother after breakfast the next morning. Once again we fished with bread under our floats and caught the usual poddies and small Bream, before deciding to try for Toms using some of the Mullet. As I'd never cut a fish up by myself and the little knife in our tiny fishing kit was really blunt, I made a real mess of the small Mullet, trying to cut it up on the sand. In the end I managed to cut it's head off and most of it's guts came with the head, now what part to use? The red part looked OK (I later learned it was the heart) and I gave half (less than half the size of a pea) of it to my brother and put my half on the hook. One thing we'd all noticed with the Toms was that they were always cruising around on the top of the water, just under the surface and also they often came in for a look at anything splashing on the surface. The small red plastic floats we were using had a short stems with a hole in each end of the stem to put your line through, but not knowing any better, ours were just tied on to our main line at the top and another piece of line with the hook tied to the bottom. Worked OK, but the depth couldn't be adjusted. After casting out as far as you could (which was probably only about 10-15 meters at most) if you wound the float back quickly, it splashed along on the surface and often a few Toms would cruise in for a look. With our new bait of Mullet heart, we cast and retrieved a few times before half a dozen or so Toms appeared and it was as simple as stopping winding and one would grab the bait right in front of us! They were 'big' fish to us at about 15 inches long, because fish always got measured by holding up your fingers, so regardless they were really skinny, they had the length to be 'big'. We only had a few poddies to cut up, but caught half a dozen Toms on them, before trying the other red parts of the gut like the intestine and this worked as well. After a couple more sessions there, we could easily get a few Toms once we'd caught some poddies for bait and soon all the other kids from the units were catching them as well. Red 'meaty' bait was the go- after attracting them with the splashy float. They weren't big fish, but their 'crocodile teeth' and acrobatic jumps were enough to make all the kids want to catch them and we fished for them almost every day of the holiday. Years passed and Long Toms never came into the picture again until a few of us went live baiting to the "Ovens" around from South Whale Beach. Top spot the Ovens and plenty of big fish have been caught there over the years. There's a small 'gulf' adjoining the platform and very early morning you can catch Yellowtail there for live bait, which in turn are then sent out under a cork or balloon for big stuff like Tuna and Kingfish. The times I fished there, once the sun was well up, catching Yellowtail in amongst the masses of Sweep and Mado's was difficult, so baits were treasured unless you lugged them in from somewhere else. This day I only caught 4 Yellowtail, so that was my live bait for the day. Not much action through the morning, we only got a Bonito between 3 of us and a couple of other guys got another Bonnie on a lure. Finally, mid-morning, one of the Yellowtail gets taken and after feeding the fish a bit of line, a solid hook-up. No line comes off the reel though and then a big Long Tom starts jumping around. A bit of laughter from the other guys using live bait and the call of "Thommo" from the couple of locals. When I lifted it out onto the platform, I was pretty impressed by the size of it, around three and a half feet long and by far the biggest one I'd ever seen, but before I even got a chance to get it off the hook, both my two mates Wayne T and Manuel V were both hooked onto them as well. They were all around the same size, green in colour with light coloured bellies. As we'd never seen them like this before, all three of us were happy to get them, but the local guys said although it meant the water was a good temperature for game fish, when the big Toms were around, you may as well go home. They'd beat the quality fish to the bait and if they didn't hook up, your bait was killed straight away anyway. They went on to say that on some days, heaps of them would get caught and they were pretty common in the area during summer. Other than the ones I'd caught as a kid, I hadn't encountered them for years and certainly never off the ocean rocks, or of such size. We fished on for another couple of hours and just as the local guys had said, all the remaining Yellowtail became victims to the Toms. Sometimes you wouldn't even get a run, the first thing you knew was one would be jumping around on the surface, after swallowing your Yakka. Wayne and I ended up with 3 each and Manuel 2 and the other guys live-baiting got a few as well. A couple were hooked by the spin guys also, but they jumped off pretty quickly. The next couple of trips to the Ovens we got a couple more Toms and I gave one to George F who owned the "Fisherman's Friend" tackle shop at Yagoona (long closed now) who wanted to get it mounted for the shop wall- so impressive are their teeth. Since then however, the only ones I've hooked have been on lures and they've always jumped off, other than one I caught at Mermaid's Inlet on Beecroft Peninsula, which was sent out as a live bait- no takers on it as a livey, but it swam all over the place and created enough commotion in the flat ocean to attract anything I thought. The last experience I had with one was at Fingal, right near the entrance to the Tweed River. We'd been spinning for Flathead with hard body lures and ended up at a spot called the 'Blue Hole' at the junction of Kerosene Inlet and the Tweed. The water was beautiful and clear and there was a fantastic looking deep hole, into which you couldn't see anywhere near the bottom- looked a prime spot for a big Flathead or two. Four of us tried a heap of lures, but other than two trevally that only stayed on for a few seconds before busting us off on something down deep in the hole, the only other fish was a Tom I caught. When I tried to unhook it for release, I wasn't paying it enough attention and it grabbed my index and middle fingers and bit down hard. I screamed in pain as I got multiple puncture wounds on each side of both fingers. My three mates gave me heaps and the one-liner jokes were constant, but the Tom really hurt- it was like getting about 20 needles at once and the blood really spurted out. Again, this Tom was only about 15-18 inches long and I still can't believe how well it got me. You sure wouldn't want to get bitten by one of those real big ones!

Hi Donna I looked back through Chat and put the corresponding page/yarn in some sort of order: P1) Trouble Below, The Old Zoo Wharf P2) Jackets at The Gate, Yamba- Bream, Yamba- Estuary Fisherman's Pilgrimage, Fishing at Burning Palms P3) Shaky, The One That Got Away, P7) The Great Pilchard Kill, P11) A Previous Rock Fishing Tragedy P13) The Mate's Rod Effect, Surviving P17) Hidden Dangers of The Cliffs P21) The Very Last Rock Comp P23) The Husky Jerk, Bream and "The" Jewie P25) Washed In Alone, The Wave, P26) Wally's Snapper, P27) Getting Rescued, The Cliff Fall P28) The Mattens Cliff P29) Disappearing Flathead, Bait Fishing For Bass Murwillumbah Style, P30) Huge School of Fish, Landing a Pig From a Boat, P31) Houseboat Fishing, First Hairtail, The Kingfish and The Turtle, Pike Eels P32) Rats, The Eels of Currarong, The Eels of Glasshouse Rocks, John Dory Fishing P38) Daytime Prawning, Reminiscing-Mulloway Kingfish and The "Murk" effect P42) When the Fish Bites Back! P56) Reminiscing-Silver Trevally

Hi Yowie I've already done the Jewie story! It was Bream and "The" Jewie- it's about 20 something pages back in fishing chat! No 10lb sand whiting- sorry! While I was working at the Australian Fishing Museum at Birkenhead Point, just about EVERY fisherman that came in had at least one story to tell me, often after checking out the life-sized casts of fish on the wall. The only ones I've put up so far are the ones I witnessed, but do have a few that I'll post over the next few weeks related to me by others, as they have to be told!

Hi Neil trust you're well. Thanks I'm glad you're enjoying the stories, it's the only way I feel I can contribute to my community, so it's become a priority with me. Just trying to help keep folks entertained with something different to read. It invokes great memories for me also and keeps me in the loop of fishing. Another side is the re-connection with old friends, even though some are far away, many of the guys in these stories read them and enjoy the recounts. The facts have to be exact or I'd get in strife! Connection with others is vital at the moment as many that live alone are suffering from isolation as well as the whole terrible situation of covid19. Always happy to get nice feedback so thanks mate!

Hi Grandad glad you liked it, I too have been overboard up in Jerusalem Bay in the night and actually have a photo of less than half of me wet, my legs were going like crazy to keep me up and the fish I landed on was a 6ft+ Hairtail caught on a new $400 outfit that I wasn't going to let go of. The photo is in storage or I would have put it up as 'evidence' that you can use fear to defy gravity! Regards Waza

Long before we started hiring houseboats for our Hairtail hunting trips every year, we used to hire the old Halvorsen cruisers from Bobbin Head. They were lovely old craft, fairly shallow hulled and suitable for the calm waters of Cowan Creek. When I say shallow hulled, what I mean is that the hulls were reasonably close to being flat underneath, nothing like the 'deep V' vessels of today, which made them slightly susceptible to any waves or swell movement. They were powered by inboard motors and had a fairly long keel underneath to effect steering. The old Halvorsen's were fitted out with all the necessary equipment for a couple of nights on the water but seriously lacked outdoor 'on-deck' space. Throughout daylight hours this wasn't that big a problem because you could fish from several different positions, including a decent space on the bow, both the raised stern area and the waterline boarding platform and also from the narrow walk-around sides. As night fell however, the lack of outside space became a bit of a problem. You could roll up the side covers of the stern interior by day and fish out of the 'windows', but they needed to be kept rolled down from darkness onwards due to the high condensation levels, which are a feature of the area on winters nights. The night time air would be wet and often misty, with an appearance of 'rain droplets floating through smoke' being the only way to describe it. The side covers on each side of the boat sat directly above lounges, which were converted from daylight seating to beds for the night time and the covers protected the sleepers from the cold, wet night air. Same applied if it was raining, side covers stayed down. It was our fourth trip using a Halvorsen for chasing Hairtail and after only catching a few the previous year, decided we'd give Smiths Creek a try instead of the regular grounds of either Waratah Bay or Akuna Bay, that we normally fished. Smiths is a really large creek- almost like a river in both size and width, with the same deep, emerald-green waters that Cowan is famous for and no dwellings or signs of man visible, bar a couple of public mooring buoys in each of it's three main bays. After dark, the only lights visible are either stars or occasionally other boats, and unless the wind is blowing hard through the trees, it's really quiet and as tranquil as it gets. The deep waters of the entire Cowan system for the most part, don't have a great deal of current either, which adds to the enjoyable fishing experience. As there were no sounders or fish finders on the Halvorsen's, we had to rely on old fishing map books in order to find the 'proven' grounds that regularly produced fish, in order to put ourselves in the right spots in this new part of the system. Part of the beauty of Hairtail fishing includes the knowledge, that Hairtail generally roam around the different parts of these waters and if they aren't found initially at your chosen anchorage, by using a constant burley trail and putting yourself in an area they travel through, will usually see them turn up at some stage of the night. In these 'travelling spots', you have to be ready for them when they turn up, as without either plenty of bait fish holding close to your boat, or a constant burley trail of sizeable 'chunk' burley, they often don't hang around for more than a few minutes as the school moves through. Organization is part of the key to success, so plenty of burley needs to be at hand prior to their arrival and all the crew spend a bit of time doing their share of cutting it up. Normally, for burley we liked to use cut up Pilchards, Yellowtail and some type of Tuna or Bonito. These are cut into about 2cm pieces and put into a few buckets, strategically positioned alongside each fisher's chosen position, where they'd be distributed just a couple of chunks at a time, for the duration of the fishing session. When a school of Hairtail turned up, a small handful replaced the couple of chunks, so you needed to have it all ready beforehand, as they are one species that really responds to this type of burley and the school will generally hang around for enough time for everyone to get a few before they're off again. On good nights, there would often be several 'bursts' of them, as different schools moved around the various bays of the system. They do of course, end up taking station 'somewhere' and seem to stay put, but often when they stop moving, they also stop aggressively feeding, unless of course you use something like the 'enticing' chunk burley. Along with the chunk burley, a secondary 'minor' burley trail is also employed, in the form of soaked bread, which is shredded fine and with a little Tuna or Whale oil added, was perfect for attracting and keeping the large schools of small bait fish around the boat. This burley was placed in a small purpose-made burley dispenser and sat partially in the water at the stern. Whenever the boat rocked or moved, a small amount of this burley was released and attracted hordes of bait in the form of Yellowtail and Hardyheads, both species being genuinely abundant throughout Cowan Creek and it's tributaries like Smiths Creek. With a generous amount of oil added to the bread, on most nights, the water around the boat is really alive with bait- Hardyheads on the very surface and Yellowtail within the top few meters. Daylight sees Garfish and Slimy Mackerel added to the mix, plus Herring at times, so there's tons of food for predators like Hairtail. For this first go at fishing Smiths, we chose a spot that was both marked in the map books and was also recommended to us by senior members of our fishing club. It was only about 15 meters out from a steep shore and you could guess what the underwater terrain was like, just by looking at the sheerness of the land. There was a vertical wall going straight from the creek side bush down into the water and you couldn't see the bottom even right in close. Nice and deep, over 12 meters and exactly what we wanted. Most of our Hairtail trips were organised around either the new moon period or a day or two before full moon, as that's when we'd had most success. Those nights also coincide with the largest tides for the month and are beneficial in the way of seeing greater fish movement. Another factor when fishing these locations on these tides is that with a bit more 'run' in the water, burley ends up being distributed over a larger area and attracts more fish. We anchored up just using the front anchor- as years went on, we later abandoned this form of anchoring and always used both bow and stern anchors instead, but on this trip, we just used the one. Burley trails commenced and some serious Yellowtail fishing done until enough baits were captured and swimming in the large plastic laundry basket we used for keeping the bait in. The beauty of keeping the live bait in the basket is, you don't need to change the water, run an aerator or worry about how many baits you put in it. The noise of an aerator alone breaks the tranquility and isn't necessary, with the hanging basket allowing fresh water to simply run through it's holes, keeping your bait aerated and importantly also- the same temperature as the creek water. Baits placed in above-river containers, have at times died, due to the air temperature becoming freezing cold, far far colder than the main body of water you've just caught them from. Like many fishing trips, sometimes even the best made plans don't end up rewarding you with anything and although we thought we were in a good looking spot, in a productive area, with plenty of bait around the boat and a steady, rich burley trail in place, no Hairtail appeared for us on on this first night of the trip, By about 1am we'd all succumbed to the wet, freezing cold night air and decided to turn in for the night; we had two more nights to fish and although we all knew that the fish are likely to turn up at any stage of the night, getting out of a warm sleeping bag to fish the pre-dawn session wasn't appealing this night. Nobody was that quick to get up in the morning, there was a pretty heavy fog- another feature of Cowan Creek during winter and although it was well light by the time someone got up to put the kettle on, the sun was well hidden and the air genuinely freezing still. The boat had changed position considerably and the tide was nearing it's lowest point, we seemed to have drifted about 15-20 meters from where we'd been sitting during the night and were a bit closer to the shore, still out off the sheer wall but slightly downstream of where we'd been. The boat had drifted over the anchor rope, which was just hanging limply over the side, but we weren't too concerned at all, in fact we decided to get breakfast organised before we thought of up anchoring and moving to the next location to try. After a big hot breakfast, with plans made of where to head next, attention turned to the anchor. As we pulled the rope up, it stayed under the boat and it was definitely rubbing on something, indicating it was fouled on some unseen object. When the anchor had got caught up on previous trips, just re-positioning the boat had always been successful to free it, but sadly, no matter which way we floated around, the rope stayed fast to whatever is was rubbing on under the hull. Not wanting to run the engine -as we didn't know if the rope was caught somewhere near or on the prop, or in fact if there was even a prop at all, we decided that we'd just try and raise the anchor up off the bottom and see if we could move it off enough to head slowly towards the shallower waters and sandbank of nearby Stingray Bay- the first major bay inside the mouth of Smiths Creek. Surely we'd know by feel, if the rope was caught on the prop pretty quickly. So we slowly hauled on the rope until the weight of the anchor chain could be felt, followed by the even heavier weight of the big anchor. Free from the bottom now, we slowly hauled the anchor up, but could still feel it caught under the hull, until all of a sudden we couldn't get it any further. We let a bit of anchor line back out and the lot seemed to go down easy enough, but on pulling it back up, again it would only come so far. We wondered if during the night, that a fallen branch hadn't fouled the line and got stuck under the boat, as the bush reaches right up to the water and the entirety of the surrounds of the waterway are completely tree-lined, maybe if we pulled a bit harder whatever was lodged might come unstuck or break if it was a small branch. We pulled the rope as far as it would come, until it again hit the unseen barrier, this time however, we pulled really hard and felt the sensation of the rope moving over a hard barrier. Unfortunately, this time after letting a bit of rope out again, the anchor refused to fall as it had previously. As we knew we'd got the chain under the boat and it wouldn't fall, this left us with a huge problem. There was no way to safely move the boat as we now had the big anchor and about 5 meters of chain hanging off something underneath and to make matters worse, as we were no longer anchored, started to slowly float further out from shore. What to do next? There was nothing for it, somebody had to go over the side and find out what had happened. As the vessel's hirer, the responsibility lay with me and I was aghast at having to go in. The water was warmer than the air, but still it would be really cold, we were now floating albeit slowly, but well away from the shoreline, we'd been burleying all night with both Whale and Tuna oil -which aside from attracting anything in the water was leaving an oily slick that would stick to the skin. Also, due to the sun not breaking through the fog enough to penetrate down into the water, frankly, it looked 'sinister'. Once the decision was made, I went inside to strip down and get a towel ready, only to hear a splash come from the stern where all the crew had assembled. My great mate Fraser had taken the initiative, stripped down and hopped overboard from the boarding platform at the back of the boat. To say I was grateful is an understatement, I was wrapped! It was a great gesture, but getting wet was only part of it. Initially, Fraser only went a couple of feet under before coming back up- the coldness had just about taken his breath away. He regained his breath and dived under the stern, out of sight for a few seconds, before coming back up to tell us what he could see. Under the boat, a few meters up from the stern was a keel about 90cm long, attached at one end, but open-ended the other. The rope had gone between keel and hull and stayed there. Then, as the tide had fallen and left some slack in the anchor rope, the boat must have done a complete 360 degree spin, leaving a complete loop of anchor rope around this gap between keel and hull. When we'd pulled the anchor up each time, it had got as far as the chain reaching the gap, where it wouldn't pass- that is until we'd pulled really hard and actually pulled the knot and chain a few links over the keel until it was stuck. From our very first overnight trip to Cowan, we'd caught plenty of sharks. Different types of Whalers, Hammerheads and one small but angry Bull Shark that Fraser himself had spotted, thrown a bait straight to and hauled pretty well straight on board. We ate that one, but were impressed by it's teeth, regardless that it was small, it still looked pretty mean. That shark and plenty of others caught were forefront in all of our minds, regardless that it was mid-winter, you just never know what's lurking in the deep, heavily burleyed darkness of the Creek. "Keep a REAL GOOD eye on the water will you- seriously" says Fraser before again diving under and out of sight. He resurfaced again a little further along the side of the boat and said "I'll get it this time", before again diving back under and out of sight. What seemed like ages passed, before he came up and with the raised thumb gesture, then swam around to the boarding platform and lifted himself out of the water. Two of the guys ran up to the bow and pulled the anchor rope and it was free, so up it came and the anchor was secured. By now, we'd drifted out a fair way from the shore and were well out in the main part of the creek. Fraser was cheered and went straight in for a well earned shower to both warm up and rid himself of the burley sticking to him. After he came out of the shower, he explained how the rope had been stuck and the difficulty of getting it off. Unwinding the rope wasn't the hard part, that hadn't taken long, but trying to take the weight of both the big anchor and long chain with one arm while untwisting with the other on a single breath in freezing water and looking up at what he described as what looked like a "loungeroom ceiling" of white hull was very difficult. We moved out of Smiths Creek and headed for Jerusalem Bay, where we stayed the night, catching half a dozen Hairtail and four Whalers and a Hammerhead shark to boot. Who says they aren't around in winter? Lucky they weren't in Smiths Creek and lucky to have great mates like Fraser!

Hi Donna yes I have a really excellent GP and Chemist also- they even deliver milk and bread for me if I need it. Andrew the chemist, the Dr and all the health staff are wonderful examples of the absolute front line for us all and every Australian should be really grateful to all health workers for constantly putting the safety and well-being of others before themselves. It really IS about doing whatever you can do for everyone

Thank you Donna, my Dr rang me this morning to tell me my INR level this week and said she'll access the certificate, print it and give it to the chemist who delivers my meds every week. Just wanted to say thanks though. Regards Waza

Thanks for posting this Donna. I had my first jab nearly 5 months ago and second one about 6 weeks ago now. AZ vaccine. I currently don't have a smart phone and am wondering if you know of a way to acquire the required proof by any other means, such as a card or some sort of paperwork. I will get a new phone in the next month or so, but just wondered if there is an alternative way. With thanks. Waza

Excellent story and photo's well done and all local to you as well. Good on you for thinking of the Flathead's well-being too Jamo. Respect!

Very sorry to hear and condolences to the family

Hi Royce I used to watch them fish at the Quay, Chains, Bennelong (we used to call it the "shark-boat wharf") etc, long before I got into fishing for them myself. It was Abby himself that called himself "king of the harbour" I'm almost 60 now. Regards Waza

Absolutely fantastic story! Thanks for posting it, they are really awesome fish

Fantastic story and great photo's- thanks for sharing your adventure

Everybody has experienced Leatherjackets, some hate them, some love them, but nobody can deny that they aren't too bad on the plate. For outside fishers, they can be a real pain, biting off any (and sometimes all) of your tackle, bait and even eating hooked fish before they can be brought to boat. There were horrifying images on the social media pages last year, of what was left of hooked fish after these 'piranha's' of the coast attacked them prior to being landed. The worst picture I saw was of two decent sized Flathead that had been brought up from the bottom on a regular 'Paternoster' rig; in the image all that was left of them were their heads and skeletons- there were just two heads on the two hooks after a 'cloud' of Jackets swarmed the retrieved fish- you sure wouldn't want to fall out of the boat! Outside fishers often have to leave their chosen fishing grounds as soon as the Jacket's turn up, mainly because they are so ravenous and will eat virtually anything, including coloured line and braid, it can quickly become a really expensive exercise. Inside fishers however, commonly chase them for a feed as they are fairly easy to catch and don't necessitate expensive outfits to ensue success. Shore fishers target them around kelp beds and from wharves, where they can often be seen feeding off the marine growth of the wharf, right up close to the surface. When you find them like this, usually by dropping a strategically placed bait in their field of vision will result in a bite. These 'inside' Jackets are quite often either the 'Fan Bellied' or 'Six Spine' variety and aren't usually quite as 'piranha-like' as their oceanic kin the 'Chinaman' Jackets. Fan Bellies in particular, are often spotted swimming in amongst the kelp or bright green seagrass beds and also seen commonly, feeding against structure such as pylons and the floating sections of wharves and pontoons. They are distributed right throughout Sydney Harbour and it's shoreline and are a realistic target for daytime fishing. Most young land-based fishers would have encountered them and although not a sports fishing target, are always happy to catch a few to take home for the pan. For many, a few 'Leathery's' have meant the difference between taking home a nice feed, or the dreaded 'donut', when the target species hasn't eventuated. To get a feed of Jackets from the south side of the Harbour, we used to have a few favourite spots. Walsh Bay from the wharves, fishing 'straight down' the pylons was good, as was the eastern side of Lady Macquaries Chair. Elizabeth Bay was extra good if it was a really big high tide and Rushcutters Bay had them in numbers as well. All four of these spots required different techniques to achieve a good bag. For Walsh Bay and most wharves, fishing straight down alongside a pylon with a Paternoster rig was the go. Elizabeth Bay you fished a running float set about 3 meters deep and Rushcutters, the rig was just a piece of split shot about 20cm above your hook and you sight-cast to fish spotted as you walked along. Lady Macquaries rigging was either the float rig or the split shot method, depending on which exact spot there you fished. These were all good spots, but there was another one that stood head and shoulders above the rest. As you walked around into Farm Cove from the Opera House, just before you got to the old iron gates which marked the start of the Botanical Gardens, there's a spot we considered the best in the harbour and we called it "The Gate". It didn't look any different to pretty much all of the shallow waters of Farm Cove, however, there is a small area along the retaining wall bordering the bay, where the water slightly undercuts the wall above and there were always heaps of Jackets there. The beauty of fishing at the Gate was, you needed minimum gear and good old green prawns were the only bait to use. It wasn't too far to walk from Circular Quay railway station, which made it easily accessible and if you decided on a spur of the moment trip, you could get there, catch your fish and be home again by train to Croydon all within a few hours. You could even buy prawns for bait at the Quay, even if they were the dearest bait shop around. After initially fishing there with handlines, using a rod proved far better, not because you needed to cast, you didn't cast at all, rather, just dropped straight over the side of the wall, but the rod came into it's own for both hooking and quickly lifting the hooked fish up. When we first started fishing there and discovered the amount of hungry fish that lurked below the wall, we originally used a large split shot about the size of a pea, squeezed on about 20cm above the size 8 long shank hook. After a couple of trips there, a better rig became a hook tied directly onto the main line with a ball sinker about the size of a 5c piece tied about 30cm below it. It wasn't a Paternoster rig as such, because the hook is tied onto the line without using a loop of any sort to sit it on. Reason for this being, that a loop of any size, prevented as direct contact with the baited hook- might sound a bit strange, but once the fish became 'activated' there were so many there that your bait would be gone within seconds of it being dropped over. Same reason for the larger sinker- you had to keep constant direct contact with the bait or you'd lose it in a flash. Usually, within only a couple of minutes the fish became so tuned in to anything coming over the side, that they were 'on' and we'd catch them one after another. The technique was simple, you'd put about a 1cm piece of prawn on, drop it over about 2 meters and just do a slow, continuous lift. When weight was felt, a short strike and you had one hooked in the mouth, dragged up and dropped in your bucket-easy fishing. Normally when fishing like this, you'll get a few other species like different Wrasses, Parrots and small Brown Groper in amongst your Leatherjackets- not at this spot, there were just heaps of Jackets and they beat anything else to the bait every time. One small handful of burley in the form of just prawn heads and shells was enough to get them going and then it was action aplenty and you could fill your bucket really quickly, in fact, in less than two hours fishing, you had as many as you'd want to carry back to Circular Quay railway station and then home. Being up on the roadway adjacent the wall also meant there was nowhere to access the water in order to clean your fish, so fish were taken home to be cleaned, luckily the old metal garbage bins were emptied twice weekly in those days! There was though, one real drawback to fishing the Gate and it was in the form of an unfriendly security guy who worked at the Opera House. In the 70's, the division between the Opera House and Botanical Gardens was basically where the gate (our gate) was. On the Opera House side, the grounds were patrolled by their security, on the other side, by Park Rangers from the Botanical Gardens. Most of the time, whenever any security patrols were done or Rangers came by, they were only interested in how we were going and what we were catching and were generally pretty friendly, but when this one particular guy was on, he'd make us pack up and leave the spot and usher us to the other side of the gate- which wasn't any good for fishing, albeit only about 40 meters away from our spot. He was the only one who did it and was genuinely "over zealous" in his approach. Problem with this was, we never knew if he was on duty or not, and although we weren't visible from the Opera House, neither was he and he'd do his patrol 'circuit' every half an hour, almost like clockwork he'd appear and chase anyone fishing off. As a kid I couldn't really understand why he wouldn't let us fish there, because there were nearly always people fishing the wharf at 'Man-O-War Steps' and he never seemed to make them move, the other security guys and the Rangers also never once asked us to move on either, nor did the police. We needed a plan if we wanted to keep going there. My old mate Steve G (who is a Raider also) and I came up with an idea that we thought would work for when this security guy was on duty. Firstly, we wouldn't walk past the Opera House, but instead go over the hill and access via the Botanic Gardens, then on arrival at the gate, simply wait back in the gardens until we saw who was on duty- if it was old mate, we'd just wait for him to wander up, about face and walk back off out of sight, knowing he wouldn't be back for half an hour. Then we could race over and fish for about twenty minutes safely, before again retreating to the gardens until he had done his next round. As fishing time would be limited to about twenty minutes each time, we'd prepare our gear and even our bait at home. Preparing the prawn bait meant shelling the prawns and cutting them into 1cm long pieces- that was all that was needed to put on your hook- we even salted the peeled baits in an attempt to keep them on a bit better and then put them in a Chinese food container each. We figured that we only needed to see off about 3 or 4 patrols and we'd have enough fish. Worked fine when we put it in practice, the Gate spot would live on! Just for the record, I don't advocate breaking rules or incite others to do the wrong thing, but this was more of a personality clash with someone who just seemed to like throwing his 'authority' around and after talking to other security, Rangers and the Police decided it was actually OK to fish there, regardless of old mate. These days, I don't think you can fish there, but if you could, I'd bet there's just as many Jackets as there used to be because it was one of those "unlikely" looking spots

Hi Jim trust you're well. Manly was another great wharf, especially for Dory and Luderick when the old Shark Pool was there next to the wharf, saw some beauties caught there. I remember running down onto the outside pontoon about the middle of the boardwalk to see someone landing a fish (I wasn't fishing) and waking up flat on my back. Apparently as soon as my shoes hit the pontoon's slippery surface, they went straight from under me and I cracked the back of my head on the hard pontoon and knocked myself out. Woke up with a crowd of people standing around staring and a lump on the back of my head. It's a real shame the new zoo wharf is off limits, the fishing was extra good while both the old and new wharves were there. The floating part of the old wharf was eventually towed to Walsh Bay and sat there up in the corner for ages. We went and fished for Luderick off it, casting back towards the wall- that spot was called "The Chains" as there were chains attached to the wall, another great Luderick spot. Always wondered what they did with the old pontoon.

Hi Yowie the guys that used to work in the tackle shop part of Barrie's Sports and Hobbies (closed more than 20yrs now) used to fish off there as well and winched the fish up using big Alvey's and surf rods. They caught some amazing fish off there on Pilies. I think they fished the SE side at night during the week where the first pylons are.

Hi Jiggy that was another great spot and they still get good fish there including Snapper that size as you describe. Long rods and long casts caught great mixed bags of eating fish

Hi Yowie those were the days, catching tons of fish and trading them was the norm. I was lucky enough to have a butcher living just down the street and he had a big smoker and loved smoked Tailor. A "standing order" for two dozen each time we chased them- he gave us some really great meat as a thank you. The bread van, milko (my boss), grocer and even the 'egg man' all delivered to our street and were happy to swap- you'd get in strife these days.- wish I'd had a chocolate cake swapper!

Hi Jordy yes was the greatest spot to learn things and the regulars were all really friendly. On your Groper, there were actually a fair few caught there. There was a real old bloke who came by ferry and fished purposely for them, brought crabs with him. When they were building the new wharf, once the fixed section was finished but before the floating part was added, he used to go and fish for them over off it and would catch 2 before going home, even if he had to stay all day. He used to trade one with his local shop. If Mum wanted Leatherjackets (she loves them) she'd give me 50c to buy the smaller bag from that shop at the quay and if there were a few of us it was $1.20 for the big bag! Coincidentally- I did a milk run after school too, used to get $3 for 2+1/2hr run and that was big money for a kid compared to only $1.50 for the 2+1/2hr paper run

Hi Ron the Botany Wrigglers were almost the same as one of the species of worms we got. There were several varieties- thick soft pinky-red ones, really soft green ones and the tougher variety like you mention. The tougher variety were found adjacent the sea grass, whereas the other two types were mainly found in the gritty mud. The wrigglers were sold for a while at a Sylvania tackle shop (not Mac's). Another spot we got a different type of worm was on the Georges River behind Hollywood Park. These were easily pumped and were as thick as a pen, dark red and a reasonable strength. About 6 inches was maximum length for them and there were a few of the super soft green ones there also, but they broke up easily when put on a hook

Hi Pete it was genuinely freezing when the westerly's were blowing in winter and there was only one small section about 4 meters long that offered any protection at all. The best Luderick spot offered no protection and saw not one bit of sun the whole day. Respect to the couple of guys like Abby who fished there much of winter.

Hi Mike thanks! Having fished from most of the harbour's 'good' wharves over the years, the only one that compared was the old Neilsen Park wharf. The zoo wharf was a fish attracting magnet, with all the bait, deep enough water and a great protected (except in southerlies!) location. Other fish of note caught there were good sized Groper and some of the biggest Trevally caught around Sydney. In Autumn, Frigates would also zoom by and in the good years for Slimy Mackerel, they would be there in plagues. Plenty of Garfish in early winter also. No doubt there would still be plenty of good fish cruising around it. I hope one day they allow fishing there again, it was such a good spot for younger fishers to get a chance of some quality fish