Old days

[noelm]

My jigging reel was a 4/0 wide Senator, usually with cheap 40lb line, or a 499 Mitchel for "light" jigging,  caught hundreds of fish with them.

[Jiggy]

I've got a box at home with some of Bill Ways metal lures; LU-K in 4 or 8 ounce and maybe some Nat Nats. I need to dig them out as they would still work. I probably have a pile of other old stuff from the eighties in there somewhere too.

Cheers

Rob

[Blackfish]

7 hours ago, noelm said:

Yep agree, the best fishermen (in my opinion) start off young, catching Mullet, Nippers and Squirt Worms, then just learn and move up, fish off jetties and beaches and continue to observe and learn, it's a great sport, and can often be a great leveller, plenty out there that have big money, but couldn't catch a fish if you threw it to them.

That because they have the Fishing Passion/Bug.

I would as a kid fish in all sorts of weather and wrong tides just to go fishing, ride my Push Bike bloody miles just to fish. Good times, there still would be kids out there as keen but with the web would certainly help them and good on them.

[Blackfish]

2 hours ago, Koalaboi said:

I remember the high speed spinning days: Lyn Donoghue was a gun and he did a bit of pioneering fishing down at Jervis Bay...I worked with him in a fishing tackle shop Shappeare and Hoare in Top Ryde back in my uni days in the early 70s. Lyn took up hunting and seemed to lose interest in fishing. haven't seen him since those days.

I still have my 5:1 Seascape reel in good nick.

From memory, the coffin series of lures were meant to work well on pelagics using a slower retrieve.

KB

There is a great photo of Lyn I think at Big Beecroft hooked up with the long Butt of the Rod between his legs. Awesome shot. May have graced the front page of Australian Angler.

Unfortunately, many years ago Lyn was standing on the Medium strip when he was hit by a car and was never the same.

A good mate used to take him to the Hunting shows after that, not quite sure if he is still with us. I'll ask.

[Yowie]

3 hours ago, flatheadluke said:

You could have helped them - i doubt you would have caught any less fish if you did.

Some spots I found and fished over the years are only big enough for 1 boat to anchor, so telling people means someone may be anchored up when I want to have a fish.

Other spots may be big enough for a couple of boats to anchor up, or are good for drifting over a larger area.

I have helped many fishos over the years with advice, but not everything is discussed.

[noelm]

2 hours ago, Blackfish said:

That because they have the Fishing Passion/Bug.

I would as a kid fish in all sorts of weather and wrong tides just to go fishing, ride my Push Bike bloody miles just to fish. Good times, there still would be kids out there as keen but with the web would certainly help them and good on them.

I have been lucky enough to live all my life right beside the water, and my son since well before school age would fish, pump Nippers, get worms and catch Mud Crabs, right from home, he had "limits" where he could go, no further than the neighbours fence line either side, as he got older he took up diving and that taught him lots about how and where fish feed, and to this day (he is in his 30s now) he fishes every chance he gets and is a very accomplished thinking fisherman, and thankfully, most of the grand kids are following.

[Scratchie]

What a great thread fellas and awesome to read your stories and look at the pics you’ve provided! 

Makes me feel so much younger!!! Lol 😝 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[rippinlips]

Memories...

So now when I say I was into  LBG people question my sexuality....no land based game LOL.

Have a few pacific composite rods sitting around from back in the day. Also a shimano tsm4 . Also have my first overhead Combo.. A shimano bullwhip rod and similar reel...

Have some floppy lures and full sets of tassie Devils and many old school freshwater lures....

Cheers old boys

[wazatherfisherman]

12 hours ago, noelm said:

Yep, the days of big Yellowfin in close are few and far between now, still hear of one occasionally, but most are smaller and out wide, I guess we should consider ourselves lucky to have seen fish like we did, and witness advances in gear and electronics, a "thinking" fisho will beat all the fancy gear in the world, technology just makes it easier to locate spots and sound the bottom better, I remember many trips to "the banks" off Greenwell Point when we couldn't find the place, if it was misty or rainy, you couldn't see the land marks, and if the big pro boats were not there, you were doomed!

Or the Peak during the week once the traffic started and 'brown haze' prevented seeing "the chimney" over the building. I've also got 2x JS980's- one I rebuilt the other the "Butterworth Jig King Deluxe" as is- "deluxe" meant a roller tip, great off the shelf Jig rod. Cost about $45 new. Penn 113H 4/0 Senator 'Special' my first jig reel, then 500L Jigmaster 4/1 "Hi-Speed" - had huge amount of gear stolen from Carramar garage but they left the 980'S and Jigmaster. Still have FT70 120 Snyder and Silaflex original FT 70 with the aluminium 'extension butt' cut down as a LBG rod.

 Irons mostly named 'death related' names like 'Assassin', 'Coffin' and Maverick's 'snake related' names like 'Rattler', 'Sidewinder' etc. Also WK(Werner Kossman) 'Super-jig's' and Speed King 'Swivel-hips' (my fav)

[Blackfish]

7 hours ago, wazatherfisherman said:

Or the Peak during the week once the traffic started and 'brown haze' prevented seeing "the chimney" over the building. I've also got 2x JS980's- one I rebuilt the other the "Butterworth Jig King Deluxe" as is- "deluxe" meant a roller tip, great off the shelf Jig rod. Cost about $45 new. Penn 113H 4/0 Senator 'Special' my first jig reel, then 500L Jigmaster 4/1 "Hi-Speed" - had huge amount of gear stolen from Carramar garage but they left the 980'S and Jigmaster. Still have FT70 120 Snyder and Silaflex original FT 70 with the aluminium 'extension butt' cut down as a LBG rod.

 Irons mostly named 'death related' names like 'Assassin', 'Coffin' and Maverick's 'snake related' names like 'Rattler', 'Sidewinder' etc. Also WK(Werner Kossman) 'Super-jig's' and Speed King 'Swivel-hips' (my fav)

Sportex 3327a was my Jig Rod, bought the blank and made it up.

Mate had the Jig King but I found the Tip a bit wippy. He used that with a 3/0 Policansky but gee it was easy to knock the drag lever and yes the Red/Orange Swivel hip in the 5oz was my also my favourite Jig that I used.

[noelm]

I tried to buy a Jig King Deluxe for my collection, but couldn't find one, I used to use a rebuilt one for Snapper, my mates were horrified, Snapper rods were long and whippy, not short and fast taper, coupled to one of my modified 499 Mitchels it was a deadly outfit, I also looked for a Mitchel without success a few years ago. My good mate (who passed away at only 42) had a Mitchel 50 Game Reel, never seen one before or since, he went to a shop in Taren Point road , I think maybe the old "Bluefin Sports"?  to get it, don't know what happened to it, good reel though, it was the Mitchel kind of blue, grey colour.

[noelm]

10 hours ago, rippinlips said:

Memories...

So now when I say I was into  LBG people question my sexuality....no land based game LOL.

Have a few pacific composite rods sitting around from back in the day. Also a shimano tsm4 . Also have my first overhead Combo.. A shimano bullwhip rod and similar reel...

Have some floppy lures and full sets of tassie Devils and many old school freshwater lures....

Cheers old boys

I did a bit of LBG, but not a lot, one of my mates was keen though, he knocked over some impressive Yellowfin on a long rod and an Alvey of all things, he moved on to a Policanski when they hit the scene, poor bugger, the second trip with it we hit the rocks just on daylight after carrying a couple of live baits in a bucket for miles, as we were getting all our gear sorted, he rigged a Yakka and cast it out, then put the rod down while he got his "rod holder" setup, he hadn't even got it out of the bag when something hit his bait, taking the rod and near new "Polly" straight into the drink, it took off at speed and disappeared, after that day, he always made sure of drag and freespool before putting anything down, gees he was cranky, hardly spoke for days.

[noelm]

All this dreaming has made me think of the big sports/tackle shops that used to be around, most built great custom rods,  there was a good one in Nowra, I think Mcallums? then a handful of smaller ones around the Illawarra, Ern Webs was probably the biggest, in the later years they more or less went into fishing gear only, they moved location, then closed, in Sydney there was the one in Taren Point and the one in Hurstville, and one in the city, maybe Complete Angler? most have vanished as the big chain stores eat them up, kind of like Bunnings did to hardware stores, anyone know of a good/favourite shop from back in the "olden days"

Edited June 26, 2019 by noelm

[noelm]

I just remembered, most of us "old timers" will remember almost every barber shop was also a sports store, don't quite know why, but as well as a haircut, you could buy a gun, a fishing rod, get a tennis racquet strung or buy a knife, wonder what the connection was?

[kingfishbig]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

I tried to buy a Jig King Deluxe for my collection, but couldn't find one, I used to use a rebuilt one for Snapper, my mates were horrified, Snapper rods were long and whippy, not short and fast taper, coupled to one of my modified 499 Mitchels it was a deadly outfit, I also looked for a Mitchel without success a few years ago. My good mate (who passed away at only 42) had a Mitchel 50 Game Reel, never seen one before or since, he went to a shop in Taren Point road , I think maybe the old "Bluefin Sports"?  to get it, don't know what happened to it, good reel though, it was the Mitchel kind of blue, grey colour.

Bluefin Sports was in Forest Rd Hurstville. They had a cast of a big sailfish caught between Botany Heads. It was run by Dick Hanks and later Billy Heaton.

[PaddyT]

17 hours ago, Jiggy said:

I've got a box at home with some of Bill Ways metal lures; LU-K in 4 or 8 ounce and maybe some Nat Nats. I need to dig them out as they would still work. I probably have a pile of other old stuff from the eighties in there somewhere too.

Cheers

Rob

They were great lures-was chucking a Luk off Whaley one afternoon and managed my first spooling (actually my only one)- became very hard to find after that. The Nat NAts were very effective, shiniest finish on a jig ive ever seen, and they would hold their action at any speed.

[frankS]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

 anyone know of a good/favourite shop from back in the "olden days"

Harbord tackle was pretty big in it's day, Ian miller started off from there I think. they used to put out a catalog each year that was like reading a short novel I got one each year, don't know what happened to them all, I used to read them and compare gear and prices from the new one to 5-10 years ago  .

Frank

Edited June 26, 2019 by frankS

[rickmarlin62]

Js980  home made bent butt  penn6/0 senator  24kg line

[rickmarlin62]

[rickmarlin62]

[Mullatt]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

I just remembered, most of us "old timers" will remember almost every barber shop was also a sports store, don't quite know why, but as well as a haircut, you could buy a gun, a fishing rod, get a tennis racquet strung or buy a knife, wonder what the connection was?

A fantastic thread for us old timers (and others obviously) noelm.  Dont know why barber shops were places you could buy all that stuff, but I certainly remember it well. Maybe because there weren't many sports type shops and definitely no big chain type stores.

I'm certainly no great fisherman, but i did start off as a young bloke in the early 60's catching poddy mullet in oyster bottles, pumping nippers and chasing worms (mostly unsuccessfully), fishing with cheap handlines off wharves and watching old timers to see how they did it. It taught me a lot and I'm still learning and enjoying it.

In the old days you didnt have all the expensive toys and gimmicks and actually didnt need them. 1st boat was an old Pongrass, 60 hp Johnson with no power trim or tilt (it was a beast to manhandle up and down). We used to go outside regularly (Ulladulla, Moruya, Batemans Bay) in it, didnt have any sounders etc, no auxiliary motor and only used handlines.......but used to come back with a feed of fish every time.

How times have changed hey.

 

[noelm]

1 hour ago, kingfishbig said:

Bluefin Sports was in Forest Rd Hurstville. They had a cast of a big sailfish caught between Botany Heads. It was run by Dick Hanks and later Billy Heaton.

OK, do you know the name of the shop that was in Taren Point? 

[kingfishbig]

2 minutes ago, noelm said:

OK, do you know the name of the shop that was in Taren Point? 

I think it might have been Ken Apel's.

Edited June 27, 2019 by kingfishbig

[noelm]

1 hour ago, frankS said:

Harbord tackle was pretty big in it's day, Ian miller started off from there I think. they used to put out a catalog each year that was like reading a short novel I got one each year, don't know what happened to them all, I used to read them and compare gear and prices from the new one to 5-10 years ago  .

Frank

Yeah, I forgot about them.

[noelm]

Just now, kingfishbig said:

I think it might have been Ken Apells.

Could be, now you mention it, I think it was a persons name.