wazatherfisherman

Hi JAKSShark for me it's Kingfish, They fight hard 95% of the time and at times are extremely hard to tempt, they get you to try different ways to fool them into taking the bait/lure, so they get you thinking as well. Also great to eat

Good luck Dan, they are getting them in Cowan now as well as Sydney Harbour. A bit shy last week they reckon and ganged small Pilly's WITHOUT wire was getting more action last weekend

Hi JAKSShark thanks glad you enjoy them

Hi Dieter lucky that didn't land on you or your gear, that stuff can kill you. What I didn't mention in the story was the amount of fence palings that came over, all removed from the cliff-side fence, which was about chest high. Made long lasting firewood. There was usually enough stuff around the back of the boulder bay we had to pass for a small cooking fire

Hi KC not quite as fine as gemmies but they go with anything. They are getting them in Sydney Harbour again and plenty, albeit small so far, in Cowan If they're finicky, either no wire and gangs, or light wire and single hook. I always make long traces- about 60-70 cm for them so you can let them have the bait as long as necessary without a bite off.

Hi Neil sorry I missed replying- the fishing was great and you could successfully target heaps of different species during one trip and expect results on what you were after- well mostly. After a while though, Kingfish and Black Drummer were the pick of the big stuff to chase, Bream and Luderick the small's.

Hi Rebel really glad you're enjoying these

Hi Pete, never took the camera down the cliff, any photo's I've got from actually at the bottom were taken by others. Sadly, most of my photo's I have of fish were taken in my backyard! Not exactly very interesting! You're right about what we could have shot though, amazing sights and "one- of" occurrence's. That rock comp was it for me

Hi Pete we only carried those really lightweight old nylon type raincoats due to the bulk/weight factor. The very last Sydney Rock championships we fished, it absolutely teemed on the Sunday morning and we had to get about 850 fish plus gear up the cliff, then drive to St George and Sutherland Shire Anglers club for the weigh-in- about 40 minutes drive away. It was in May and really cold. Due to being held up by rival Easts anglers at the one pulley, we were running out of time and had to leave all the rods and gear along the top section of the cliff and only make the dash with the sacks of fish, before returning in now torrential rain, freezing cold and exhausted to then collect the gear. It was a "super-human" effort, but 10 of the 11 of us needed the next week off work and school.

Hi Neil we had a cache of spare stuff in an old vinyl Adidas bag, stashed in the boulder bay you had to climb over to get to the most fished south end. The rats got in by eating their way through and only ruined the toilet paper. We thought they were eating it but later discovered it in nests more than 200 meters away.

Hi KC Hairtail are great to eat, always been one of my favourites. Like Zoran, I cut mine into 8 in chunks, then fillet the chunks, cutting from dorsal edge towards centre of the fish, right on the bones, the fillet then "folds" over the the spine as you run the knife along the raised spine edge and back flat along the bones. They are really easy to fillet ad you get no bones at all and have almost no waste whatsoever. The filleted frames look like the classic "cartoon" fish skeletons A lot of my friends like the skin and I never bother getting it off any more, you can take it off simply after it's cooked if you fry it or bbq it. Just flour it for the bbq, but cook well any method from steaming to frying

Fishing really "opened up" for my mates and I after joining a fishing club, the club members all friendly and really knowledgeable. More like "passionate" about fishing would be a better description. Before long, we were fishing all over the place around the Sydney area. Firstly, it was mostly around Sydney Harbour, where we'd been fishing for quite a few years already, then rock fishing came into the picture, with the prospect of more consistent, better sized fish for shore based trips. If you fished off the ocean rocks during the dusk or dawn periods, Tailor were pretty much a "given" from most Sydney ledges in the 70's and 80's, add some Bream and Trevally, plus the odd Bonito or Salmon-(the Salmon not as common as they are these days)- and that was the general "low-light" species assortment. Day-time, add the now hated Leatherjacket (by most it seems!) along with Black Drummer (now called Rock Blackfish) and of course Luderick for those "in the know" of catching them. Every now and then, someone would get a Snapper or a "Jewie", but these were more of a chance encounter than a targeted species in those early rock fishing days. Kingfish, although often sighted and occasionally hooked, managed to evade capture for the first couple of years, mainly due to the inexperience of those on the rod and some of the locations being totally unsuitable for landing anything large. As time went on, after excursions all along the southern Sydney coastline, pretty much from Burning Palms in the south to the infamous "Gap" at Watson's Bay, we eventually became regulars at the "Mattens" below the towering cliffs of Dover Heights. Climbing 400+ ft cliffs, is definitely not everyone's cup of tea, but guided by early rock fishing mentor Wally McLuckie (great name for a fisherman!) who was a long time member and the veteran champion of the A.F.A club and reigning Sydney Metro Division Veteran Rock Champion of A.F.C.A clubs, we learned both the right way down the hidden "goat track" and the method of climbing the two big rope climbs down the final 160 odd feet. No gear was carried on the last rope climb, which was roughly 115 feet, straight down a vertical wall. Instead, it was all lowered from a permanently mounted pulley, with a lowering rope about as thick as your finger. The climbing ropes were anchored by four solid iron rods, cemented into a tiny, flat spot at the very top, protruding up about a foot and around an inch and a quarter, inch and a half diameter - roughly the same diameter as the ropes. As a comparison, the ropes are a similar size thickness to those used on the ferry's at Circular Quay. Watching people in movies climb cliffs on ultra thin ropes gives the wrong impression, you need thick ropes to hang onto properly and you need two ropes- one in each hand for steady climbing. Once down at the bottom of the climb, a huge expanse of area was available to fish, encompassing virtually all types of rock fishing waters, from waterline rocks and ledges to high cliff-side perches. A natural "lake", gutters, an island, several bombie's and plenty of deep water "straight-edges" along with 5 platforms completed the location. Sea dependant, there was always plenty of places to fish and most of the time, plenty of fish. Over the years of fishing the Mattens, with exposure to the great variety of species and the styles of fishing and methods needed in the different locales, experience grew. Instead of just going fishing for whatever we could catch, species would be targeted specifically and mostly, by working to the rough plan of what we were after, the results got better and better. Having said this, you still had to be willing to do different things if your chosen quarry simply weren't on the bite, so the tackle kit had to expand. By expand, I really mean become more specific, as you could only carry a limited amount of things in your backpack, leaving of course, plenty of room for the catch. Due to the difficulty of the climb, trips quickly became overnight affairs, necessitating a "full kit" of gear. When you spend around 24 or so hours on the rocks, you of course have time to try a variety of methods, necessitating different tackle. Mainly, we carried 3 rods each, all 9-12 ft one piece. In summer though, that could change and mean 4 rods and 4 or 5 reels, plus the associated tackle, food, drink, rock-plates, float tube, keep-nets etc. Even the hooks and sundries in the small tackle box were limited to only the necessary items, so as to stay within the limits of both weight and space. The pulley rope was dropped from the pulley and carried to the fishing areas as a safety line, in case someone got washed in, but again, had to be carried the last 750 metres around the rocks at the bottom to the spot as well. Generally, on these overnight trips, we based our "camp" in a wind eroded cave, set well back and high up above the water. It was also set well back underneath the cliff, and had a nice flat area to both sit and lie down on to give the back a rest. Between fishing sessions, we'd go up to the cave, which of course meant going underneath the base of the cliff wall. Going under would expose you to anything that came over the top of the cliff and vigilance was needed looking up as you ran to the safe underneath wall. This "vigilance" became second nature as time went by, even through the night, when you couldn't see anything coming down from above anyway, you still looked up and bolted the last 6 or 7 yards to the safety of the wall. All bar two of the different fishing areas, are well out from the base of the vertical cliff wall, so while fishing, you didn't have to worry about falling objects. Falling objects?? Plenty of things come over the top of the cliffs, presenting another danger to add to the list of concerns for the fishers below. It isn't just waves and the swell that can do you in, being hit by a falling object from 400 feet above means serious, if not fatal injury. Often, clay, dirt and small bits of sandstone would come over silently, dislodged by either wind, water or the cliff dwelling creatures, such as lizards, pigeons or Sulphur Crested cockatoo's- which seem to nest in cracks and crevices. Rats also lived all over the cliffs, but being pretty sure-footed, they seemed to get around easily and silently, without dislodging much of the constantly eroding sandstone. Every so often, a larger rockfall would take place and it was hard to tell what size rock it had been, due to it pretty much just "disintegrating" on impact. Now and again, a mudslide would occur after heavy rain, bringing down mud, sandstone and cliff-side plants. Mostly, there was no warning, or sound until it crashed onto the ledge directly below. Then there were objects that came over from one of the eight or so houses, whose homes backed onto the cliff edge directly above us. A letterbox drop of PLEASE DON'T THROW OBJECTS OVER THE FENCE AS THERE ARE FISHERMEN BELOW put and end to much of that though. Most of these homes had swimming pools as well- it is a very exclusive and expensive area- and a few times, a pool seemed to be emptied, straight over the cliff, causing mini "avalanches" of debris, but mainly just water- still annoying and scary if you were needing to get past it below. The Mattens wasn't the only rock spot to have these problems, "The Block" accessed below Eastern Avenue and Rosa Gully just a bit further north, had houses above some of the main fishing ledges and things often came over there also. The "Lighthouse" platform, further along towards South Head, had a more sinister problem though. Down the bottom of the cliff, well back from the water, were stacks of bags of dead dogs and cats- I mean stacks, we saw about twenty broken open bags, in various states of decay, suggesting that it was a regular dumping ground for them. There were a few different theories, from council "disposal" to a an unethical vet. First time I was there, we reported it to the Police on the way back. Worse even still was fishing at the infamous "Gap". There are two completely separate platforms at the Gap. The more northerly one was easily accessed, by just hopping over the fence back up in the corner above the boulders and climbing down a short, permanently fixed iron ladder of about 10 or 12 feet, then scrambling a short distance around to the ledge. This ledge sits out a bit from the cliff and not much other than people's take away food packaging and the odd drink bottle came over. The second however, sat almost directly below a much higher part of the cliff, only accessible via a short rope ladder that was dropped through a hole in a ledge, only about 20 odd feet down below the cliff top. Then you walked and climbed down a fairly accessible route to this larger of the two ledges. I personally only fished each spot a couple of times and only rated them as average spots, compared to others along the South Head to Bondi stretch of coast. A few of the club guys that didn't fancy the real big climbs, fished there a bit though, mainly at the rope ladder spot (Big Gap it was known as) and they had a few stories of things coming over. One night on a weekend, three of the club guys were fishing Big Gap on a really dark, moonless night and had three separate "incidents"- firstly the empty coin box of an old pay phone came over, smashing almost on their gear. About half an hour or so later, the metal inner bin of one of the old style council garbage bins came down and frightened the wits out of them, fishing only about 30 yards away from the impact zone. They decided to get out of there after that, but before they'd finished packing up, a pushbike was also thrown from the top, narrowly missing them as they were just about to leave. Considering it's about 130 feet down to the ledge, it also made a heck of a crash on hitting the bottom. As well as these incidents from the other locations, there were other unsavoury episodes at the Mattens, such as youths throwing stones at us from the very top of the cliff, stones bigger than eggs, that would certainly kill you from over 400 feet above. These weren't sandstone, but river stones and had been purposely taken there to be thrown at the fishers below. One trip, there were about seven of us staying put under the cliff wall, as two throwers rained rocks down from above. They couldn't see us once we got underneath the cliff base, but kept on bombing us by using a third kid as a "spotter", who was motioning to the throwers from a better vantage point about a hundred yards further north, which allowed a view of where we were sheltering. Steve Davies, who owned South Sydney Bait and Tackle and his fishing buddy Tony Clibborn, both from South Sydney club, ended up making a dash around the bottom without their gear, in an attempt to catch the mongrels, but by the time they got about halfway up the goat track, they were spotted and the bombers bolted. Same three youths (they were easy to spot as one had really long white hair) also liked setting fire to the small amount of cliff-side vegetation and the fire brigade came more than once while we were watching, fishing from our front ledge, through summer. Problem, other than the obvious fire, was that this vegetation- small shrubs and plants- helped to keep the cliff-side intact. Destroying the plants and their root systems, had a big effect on soil erosion up near the cliff top. After any significant rain, less root systems meant more mud-slides and rock falls. These youths also started stealing or destroying climbing gear that was left in place and became a dangerous trio. Their mindless vandalism and rock throwing was reported to Police, however, at that stage no action was taken. The rain, also had a significant affect on climbing the cliff, other than the more slippery rock surfaces, the ground that wasn't rock was either really sandy coarse soil or (mostly) clay, which turned to thick sticky mud in any large downpour. The ropes too, would have a steady stream of slippery, clay "juice" running down them, then down your arms and saturating your clothes, luckily though, the old "Sisal" ropes or the quality ropes sometimes sourced from the fire brigade guys (who fished it sometimes) held up well to water on them and were still OK to climb on. Plenty of trips in summer, a southerly would blow up overnight and you'd be climbing out in pouring rain. Other hazards were birds nesting in the crevices adjacent the climb, I had a pigeon fly out of a crack, it went between me and the cliff while I was stretched on the ropes going up and luckily for me I managed to "rope-burn-slide" down a few feet, rather than fall about 60 or 70 feet to the bottom. It just startled me and got me off guard. That happened the same day as a Blue Tongue lizard fell from the cliff, landing between myself and mate Ross, as we walked back out to fish after having a lunch break under the edge. On this occasion, we suspected it had been hit with a shovel or similar, and flicked out from above, as we were some 15 or so yards out from the cliff wall- a bit far for just a straight fall. Imagine having that engraved on your tombstone- "Here lies Waza, killed by a Blue Tongue lizard"- just doesn't seem right! Anyway, for those fishing under cliffs or wanting to, consider some of these incidents when planning a trip down.

Hi James when I was in my teens we used to be able to fish Taronga Zoo wharf and I've seen them do that there before, just sit virtually motionless in the shadow of the wharf. We already had live Yakka's when the Kings turned up and although we ended up virtually dropping the Yakka on the Kings heads, they didn't go for them. Has happened to me plenty of times in plenty of places. Happened out off Jibbon when we saw the massive school of Kings in the shadow of the turtle, then they just switched on. They might have been after those tiny "Jelly Prawns" about a cm long, and the mere presence of Kings schooled up freaks out any schools of Yakka or other small possible prey. Sometimes, no matter what you do, they just aren't interested. Especially lure fishing for them, they'll just switch off a particular colour that you're catching them on and all of a sudden switch onto another colour. A trick game fisherman Hank Newman showed me to use for trolling when fish are there, but not taking, is to tie a single strand of thick, coloured wool, only about an inch and a half long, to the bight of the hook, so it travels as the furthest-back part of your lure. Regardless of the lures colour. A few minutes of trolling and if no result, change the wool colour until you get a strike. The top game guys often have a stack of different wool colours on their boats

Awesome fish!

Thanks for the good wishes, I'm OK, the road to recovery is just really long, but far from insurmountable. I'm not in any serious trouble, especially at home and I'm also enjoying the writing side of this

Hi Dieter yes was cheeky, but I was wondering if they had simply gone off due to the sun now being above the pool or they weren't interested in the lures. I have since learned that Bass LOVE those black shrimp, no matter where you are. We got the same black shrimp down the Shoalhaven and got Bass on them straight away as well

Hi Neil great story! Glad you got out and got a couple of fish, Carp fight long on light tackle. Hope you get to see the crow again soon Regards Waza

Hi Dieter and thanks! It was more like Flathead crawling skills, I've seen countless flattie impressions since then, and even though plenty have had great definition, none have fooled me as much as that one did- maybe "once bitten twice shy?"

Hi Bessell1955 thank you, that's high praise indeed. I'll give it some thought, I do have heaps of yarns, as you'd expect from a lifetime of fishing/camping/hiking. I'm just happy that others are enjoying them at the moment, I have some serious medical problems and am staying pretty much in "lock-down" as like most others am worried. Typing these out is giving me something positive to work on, bringing back great times to myself as well.

Hi Burger thanks, these stories are all true! I started writing my own "memoirs" a while ago, not originally intended for others to read, but due to the current situation, decided to start putting them on. Have quite a lot, and there are some that really don't sound believable, regardless they're true, so have steered away from them, well, so far anyway You might notice that quite a few don't really have that much fishing in them, just trying to put things on related to fishing as an alternative read! Regards Waza

Roughly, a bit over 27 years ago, John, one of my best mates moved from Sydney to Murwillumbah on the far north coast. He'd done a little bit of fishing in Sydney and down the freshwater end of the Shoalhaven River near Goulburn, but although he liked fishing, was fairly inexperienced as a fisherman and rarely went out by himself. After he settled in, I went up for a holiday and of course we went fishing a few times, mostly lure fishing for Flathead in one of the many estuaries, or beach fishing, mainly for Tailor. At holiday's end, I returned to Sydney, but John had got the fishing "bug" back and started going again regularly. Networking with others he met, John started trying a few different types of fishing, such as live baiting for Mulloway, bobby corking for Mangrove Jack and fishing for Bass around the upper Tweed River and Clarrie Hall Dam. We both had a bit of experience catching Bass down near Goulburn on the Shoalhaven, which in fact were "bi-catch" when we were after the giant Carp that had infested the upper reaches of the river, but in general knew relatively nothing about Bass fishing, other than reading a few articles on them. As a teacher, John got time off with all the various school holidays and started to have plenty of success with catching Bass, mostly on bait. I liked going up whenever I had time off and we'd often do our "fishing trifecta" of Bass in the early morning, Flathead spinning through the day and either beach or Mangrove Jack fishing in the early evening- great days if you love fishing! The first time I went Bass fishing up at Clarrie Hall Dam with him, an early morning start was planned and bait needed to be caught before fishing the morning. The bait was to be live shrimps and we drove about 20 minutes west of Murwillumbah, to the freshwater end of the Tweed River, just outside Mount Warning National Park. I've read a bit about catching shrimps before, mostly with baited traps, using things like cat food and Sunlight soap for bait, but had never seen it done. John had 2 traps (one for each of us), but it was the location he chose to place them, that surprised me. A narrow, quite fast flowing set of rapids about knee-to- thigh deep, with small boulders and river-stones, a fair bit of white-water and reasonably fast current flow. After baiting the traps, they had to be weighed down with a couple of large stones, once in place, we left them in to be collected early next morning. On arrival at dawn the next morning, retrieving the traps revealed a surprising number of shrimp, of three different varieties. There were heaps of really small clear brown ones, ranging from about half an inch long to about an inch and a half, these look pretty much the same as the shrimp found near the sea-grass beds in saltwater. Next ones were very much the same colour but had long "spindley" arms with tiny claws- these were slightly larger, up to about two inches long, and finally the ones he got excited about, almost black ones with a caramel coloured stripe down the centre of their back. These black ones were probably twice as thick in the body as the others and reminded me of "rock prawns" -very similar to restaurant "Scampi", without the arms and up to about two and a half inches long. These he said, were the "gun" bait. We kept the black ones and the ones with arms and just a few of the tiny variety (they might be just immature "armed" variety, I don't really know), tipped the keepers into an aerated bucket and headed for the dam, some ten minutes from the shrimp spot. We drove through a foggy morning mist and the gate to the dam was open earlier than the stated 7 am, so we parked not far from the dam wall and a ten minute walk had us beside the water, well down below the spillway wall. Looked great, but we had to get wet to cross to the other side, so shoes off and across the narrowest water. Pretty cold wading across, shoes back on quick smart. Arrived at the spot, which was a nice looking pool about 30 odd yards long by about 20 wide, with a small faster flowing section coming from the dam. The rig was simple, 6 lb mono with a size 6 "mosquito-style" Hayabusa brand hook and a single split shot pinched on about a foot above the hook. Rods were 6 foot light Ugly Sticks with 1000 size spin reels. Method seemed easy enough, put a shrimp on and cast into the faster flowing bit, letting the current take the shrimp into an eddy of calm water, where it would sink down to the bottom. As soon as a bite was felt, you strike straight away, so as to hook them in the mouth. Every now and then, the shrimp would get to the bottom, avoid the Bass and manage to make it to safety under a rock, where you'd get snagged. A few snags and we decided to try using tiny foam bobby corks that we use for fishing for bait like poddie Mullet and snub nosed Gar. This proved to be really successful. We set the tiny running corks about four and a half feet deep, with just a slightly larger split shot pinched on about fifteen-eighteen inches up from the hook. Cast out into the flow and the water would take it into the same eddy. Within a couple of minutes, down would go the cork and most of the time you'd hook up a Bass. Pretty easy fishing to be honest. We caught a heap of them, from about 7-8 inches up to about 14 inches long, one after another, until we heard a heap of cars above us on the road heading to the dam wall. There are often break-ins to cars left there, so John stopped fishing to run back and check what was going on. As he was leaving, I thought I'd better follow him, grabbed the backpack, rods and tipped most of the water out of the shrimp bucket, just leaving about an inch in there with the remaining 8 or 9 shrimp. By the time I'd crossed the creek and put my shoes back on, then walked most of the way back, John was coming back with the news that the cars were all fishermen from the original "Australian Fishing Championships Bass Tour" and were being filmed just standing on the dam wall, rods in hand. Not fishing, just getting a bit of footage for a show that they were going to film on the dam later. Since we had some shrimp left we decided to have a last go in the big pool below the dam wall, where the spillway overflow meets the outflow from the pressure relief flow, the two flows meet in this large deeper pool and there are quite a few fish in there, including really large Mullet, Catfish, Eels and of course the Bass. We had a few drifts each with no takers, then decided to set the corks about 6 or so feet deep. In the mean time, some of the Bass tour guys came down for a look and a chat, no rods though. They smiled when they looked at our set-ups and started giving advice on what would be a more likely way to get a fish or two. It was genuinely friendly advice and they were interested in what we were doing. We told them we'd already caught heaps, but I don't think they believed us, not at that moment anyway. Meanwhile no takers at 6 foot, so we went down to about 8 foot and bingo! a Bass each straight away. A double hook-up pretty well straight after throwing in. The other guys nodded approval as we got the fish in, slightly better size in this pool. Released them quickly, same as all the others, and re-baited. Bang! straight away, another double hook-up! Fought these ones in and one of the Bass guys said if we got another double, he'd love to have a fish if we didn't mind? "No worries" was our reply. Another two shrimp cast out, another double hook-up- it was too much for the guys and four of them literally ran for their gear. The four who remained, were impressed and started asking plenty of questions, which we were happy to answer. The guys returned with some gear and as we now only had a couple of shrimp left, and I was interested in seeing up-close what they would use, we stopped fishing and had a sandwich while we watched. The sun began poking over the hill and was just starting to hit the water on the far side of the pool while we ate our food and watched the Pro's do their thing. The Bass guys must have tried about half a dozen different lures each and tried different retrieves and techniques, without a single fish caught. It was decided that the sun must have stopped the bite, or the water-flow might have slowed or something. I couldn't help myself, I gave John the "cue" and we cast 2 of the last 3 shrimps in, just like earlier, double hook-up pretty quickly! There was stunned silence for a minute, then laughter all round! As a "teaser", I asked if anyone would like the last shrimp, "just so they'd get one" - "cheeky bugger" one of them said and as nobody dared take the shrimp, we made a "symbolic" gesture and let it go. We left the Bass guys there and went back to the house to change fishing gear for our next mission, the Flathead spinning. Over the years, we've fished those same two pools stacks of times and tried lure fishing there most times, but have never caught a Bass there on a lure- down further about 2 km, plenty of Bass on surface lures, just not up at the dam. We stopped fishing there when we saw 2 Platypus there three trips in a row, they are so rare for a city bloke like me to see, so we decided the "Platypus Pool" is now off limits for our Bass fishing trips.

Hi mate and well done on the Flattie's some tasty fish there and congrats to your mate's first on a lure. Look forward to reading your next reports. Maybe some Blackie's eh?

Hi JonD and thanks, glad you are enjoying them. It's funny how by reading other folks posts, different things "open-up" in the memory bank, a few times, I've not set out to do a story, but it's ended up that way!

Hi Rebel and thanks! Fishraider is my fishing mag. Just trying to put some things on to help entertain members while we're all in lock-down. I know I've strayed a bit from actually catching fish, but as long as readers enjoy what I've been posting, I'll keep it up. Thanks again

Hi Pete LOL iki jime! It wasn't conventional but was looking like dinner for six had it been real!