Old days

[noelm]

7 minutes ago, wazatherfisherman said:

Smith's Jig- there's another great old lure- wonder what a younger fisher would think if you handed them one and said "tie this on, it catches everything"

 

You could always tell them it's a "plastic" they were such a simple bit of gear, but, they worked, I only ever saw red or white ones, did they ever come in other colours?

[PaddyT]

1 minute ago, noelm said:

You could always tell them it's a "plastic" they were such a simple bit of gear, but, they worked, I only ever saw red or white ones, did they ever come in other colours?

Didnt need to- ever seen the cedar "plugs" the Yanks use for albacore and tuna- they dont even paint them

[wazatherfisherman]

2 minutes ago, noelm said:

You could always tell them it's a "plastic" they were such a simple bit of gear, but, they worked, I only ever saw red or white ones, did they ever come in other colours?

Yes, orange and 'pearl'- Smith's were similar to 'bone' jigs of the pacific islands. Can't imagine how many fish were(are!) caught on both Smith's and plain old white feathers- pro's 'go-to' lures much of the time

[noelm]

It's surprising what works, my father used to make trolling "lures" from a straight hook (no offset) a bit of sheet lead squashed on the shank, and a bit of while cloth tied to the shank with fishing line, that was the gun Bonito lure, we would leave Shellharbour in the old boat, by the time we got half way along Bass Point, we would have 4 or 5 Bonito.

[wazatherfisherman]

3 minutes ago, noelm said:

It's surprising what works, my father used to make trolling "lures" from a straight hook (no offset) a bit of sheet lead squashed on the shank, and a bit of while cloth tied to the shank with fishing line, that was the gun Bonito lure, we would leave Shellharbour in the old boat, by the time we got half way along Bass Point, we would have 4 or 5 Bonito.

My mother told me they used to just use the white cloth on a Limerick hook when trolling for Tailor in St Georges Basin as a teenager- she's 89 now

[noelm]

Jesus, just thinking about the old "putt putt" my father would row out to the mooring, with a "sugar bag" for his gear, an old Lemonade bottle full of fuel, he would top up the tank, then to start the motor, he would get this gizmo out of the bag (it was a magneto) fit it to the engine, fiddle with something on the side, throttle maybe, flip a lever over on the top (maybe a valve lifter?) then use his foot to kick the flywheel around, flip over the lever on top, the boat would shake a bit, then chugga, chugga putt putt, the motor was running, looking back, it was pretty dangerous, no covers on the flywheel, or the prop shaft that had this three fingered clutch thing spinning around, inches from your feet, then slip the rudder into the back, fit the tiller handle, and away we went, rain hail or shine.

[frankS]

Just for the sake of it and something to add. I am 72 years old and been fishing since a young boy and had sea going boats since the age of 17. Have caught all species pretty well that is available on the east coast below Brissy and I have only been to Browns once in my life and that was just because a mate wanted to see whet it was like out there. Why ? Because I never needed to go out that far, The Peak was my hunting grounds and that was generally as far as I went, in later years when I started fishing the south coast I would venture out as far as the 12 mile and shelf to pick up Tassie trumpeter and Hapuka and the like, but that has only been since the turn of the century.

I remember one day going out to the peak ( or so I thought ) and looked for the chimney to line up and it was nowhere in sight, so I fished blind, I later found out that the chimney was demolished a week prior to my pretty well last trip out to the peak. Think it was about  1984 or there abouts  Wasa might be able to set a date when it came down , since then I have concentrated on the south coast Bermi etc. And I think around 1990 GPS was made available to the fishing public and the modern age of fishing begun.

Frank

[frankS]

15 minutes ago, noelm said:

Jesus, just thinking about the old "putt putt" my father would row out to the mooring, with a "sugar bag" for his gear, an old Lemonade bottle full of fuel, he would top up the tank, then to start the motor, he would get this gizmo out of the bag (it was a magneto) fit it to the engine, fiddle with something on the side, throttle maybe, flip a lever over on the top (maybe a valve lifter?) then use his foot to kick the flywheel around, flip over the lever on top, the boat would shake a bit, then chugga, chugga putt putt, the motor was running, looking back, it was pretty dangerous, no covers on the flywheel, or the prop shaft that had this three fingered clutch thing spinning around, inches from your feet, then slip the rudder into the back, fit the tiller handle, and away we went, rain hail or shine.

Noel. Before I bought a boat I would hire one from tom ugly's boat shed, It was wooden about 14 feet and had a 1 cylinder LISTER motor in it. Had a huge flywheel ( I remember it was RED ) and you had to advance the spark and turn the flywheel by hand, once the motor chugged over you set the spark to GO and throw the shift lever into gear and away you would chug, many a days fun had in them old boats.

Frank

[noelm]

I'm getting tired from all theses "walks down memory lane" when I was little,  my father and his mate used to row, with a double set of oars, out to their fishing grounds, before daylight, my father would get me up, make a pot of tea, then he would go outside, look around a bit, and say something like "we will head North today and come back with the North Easter" what he looked at, smelled or did, I don't know, but his mate would turn up, and they would row up past Windang, while I was curled up in the bow on a bag, then fish with hand lines until the NE wind came up, then row home with the chop.

[noelm]

7 minutes ago, frankS said:

Noel. Before I bought a boat I would hire one from tom ugly's boat shed, It was wooden about 14 feet and had a 1 cylinder LISTER motor in it. Had a huge flywheel ( I remember it was RED ) and you had to advance the spark and turn the flywheel by hand, once the motor chugged over you set the spark to GO and throw the shift lever into gear and away you would chug, many a days fun had in them old boats.

Frank

Yeah, there was something almost "romantic" about those old wooden boats, no banging in chop, no wind in your face, just a sedate speed, gently rolling along to the rhythmic putt, putt, putt, one of our old boats made a strange kind of "chooga, choog, chooga" sound, my father said it was a "hit and miss" engine that I learned only fired on every second stroke, why I don't know.

[wazatherfisherman]

16 minutes ago, frankS said:

Just for the sake of it and something to add. I am 72 years old and been fishing since a young boy and had sea going boats since the age of 17. Have caught all species pretty well that is available on the east coast below Brissy and I have only been to Browns once in my life and that was just because a mate wanted to see whet it was like out there. Why ? Because I never needed to go out that far, The Peak was my hunting grounds and that was generally as far as I went, in later years when I started fishing the south coast I would venture out as far as the 12 mile and shelf to pick up Tassie trumpeter and Hapuka and the like, but that has only been since the turn of the century.

I remember one day going out to the peak ( or so I thought ) and looked for the chimney to line up and it was nowhere in sight, so I fished blind, I later found out that the chimney was demolished a week prior to my pretty well last trip out to the peak. Think it was about  1984 or there abouts  Wasa might be able to set a date when it came down , since then I have concentrated on the south coast Bermi etc. And I think around 1990 GPS was made available to the fishing public and the modern age of fishing begun.

Frank

Hi Frank I think you're spot on with the chimney going around 1984- first "noticed" it wasn't there when trying in vain to find the Peak mid-week, which was always hard in winter as the pollution cloud from cars often prevented any landmarks being clear. As one of the guys mentioned earlier, on weekends, the crowd would often race straight for any already fishing boats, assuming they were on the mark, often they (and us) would be way off it.

[fragmeister]

31 minutes ago, wazatherfisherman said:

Hi Frank I think you're spot on with the chimney going around 1984- first "noticed" it wasn't there when trying in vain to find the Peak mid-week, which was always hard in winter as the pollution cloud from cars often prevented any landmarks being clear. As one of the guys mentioned earlier, on weekends, the crowd would often race straight for any already fishing boats, assuming they were on the mark, often they (and us) would be way off it.

Assuming boats are on the mark is a common event even today with GPS! LOL!

It seems that people don't trust their GPS marks or figure you know something better.

Great post by the way Frank.

Cheers

 

Jim

[Guest Guest123456789]

Back when I was a boy, I used to stand on the Rockpool rocks at Avoca and wait for the fish to swim past before I skewered them with a spear. A home made spear of course I carved from the jungles of Winney Bay.

[Green Hornet]

1 hour ago, wazatherfisherman said:

My mother told me they used to just use the white cloth on a Limerick hook when trolling for Tailor in St Georges Basin as a teenager- she's 89 now

Still to this day, when we see them busting up on the surface we take our flathead plastics off and throw bare jigheads at them. Its generally a fish a cast.

[Green Hornet]

1 hour ago, noelm said:

I'm getting tired from all theses "walks down memory lane" when I was little,  my father and his mate used to row, with a double set of oars, out to their fishing grounds, before daylight, my father would get me up, make a pot of tea, then he would go outside, look around a bit, and say something like "we will head North today and come back with the North Easter" what he looked at, smelled or did, I don't know, but his mate would turn up, and they would row up past Windang, while I was curled up in the bow on a bag, then fish with hand lines until the NE wind came up, then row home with the chop.

If you lived near the coast, I wonder if he listened?

When I lived at Culburra I was only a few houses back from the beach and before every fishing trip I would go out the back yard and listen. From the direction of the sound of the surf you could tell which way the wind was blowing even if was that light you could not feel it on your face. If it was blowing from the west I could not hear the surf near my home but that of Comerong Island near Shoalhaven Heads. By the sound of the surf I could also pick the wave size.

A pussy willow with those long, wispy flower stems was also invaluable as a wind vane.

An old salt told me, if you can see mist on the inland Hills around Kangaroo Valley early in the morning you can bet its going to blow north east that day.

[Yowie]

On ‎6‎/‎27‎/‎2019 at 3:37 PM, noelm said:

, but Prawns are long gone, there was a couple of years that some small ones were caught, but now they are gone too, I spoke to a pro a year or two ago, and he said that because the entrance is so big and deep now, the Prawns don't stay in the lake or continue to breed, Lake Illawarra Prawns were once considered prime quality, now there's none!

I spoke to one of the fishos from the seafood shop at the north of the lake, earlier this year, and he said it is now not worth prawning as a pro, as the amount he catches does not even cover the cost of his fuel.

I sometimes drive there if he has any prawns, but I phone before driving. I needed some good prawns for a family function this year, and he just happened to have a small batch of small king prawns from Lakes Entrance in Vic. They were excellent prawns, caught the day before and driven up overnight.

[noelm]

2 minutes ago, Yowie said:

I spoke to one of the fishos from the seafood shop at the north of the lake, earlier this year, and he said it is now not worth prawning as a pro, as the amount he catches does not even cover the cost of his fuel.

I sometimes drive there if he has any prawns, but I phone before driving. I needed some good prawns for a family function this year, and he just happened to have a small batch of small king prawns from Lakes Entrance in Vic. They were excellent prawns, caught the day before and driven up overnight.

Yeah he is right, even scooping at the entrance is not worth it now, years ago, during summer, the lake was just a sea of lights from people pawning, now you would be lucky to see 5 people in the prime prawning time.

[noelm]

36 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

If you lived near the coast, I wonder if he listened?

When I lived at Culburra I was only a few houses back from the beach and before every fishing trip I would go out the back yard and listen. From the direction of the sound of the surf you could tell which way the wind was blowing even if was that light you could not feel it on your face. If it was blowing from the west I could not hear the surf near my home but that of Comerong Island near Shoalhaven Heads. By the sound of the surf I could also pick the wave size.

A pussy willow with those long, wispy flower stems was also invaluable as a wind vane.

An old salt told me, if you can see mist on the inland Hills around Kangaroo Valley early in the morning you can bet its going to blow north east that day.

We lived right on the water, the row boat was tied up out the back, it was only later he got the boat in the Harbour.

[rickmarlin62]

I used to use 6 inch smiths jigs in chrome  or white with red painted head  remove double hook and replace with 9/0 seamaster  caught heaps of spanish n cobes at hat head on em

[rippinlips]

23 hours ago, bluefin said:

I still have 2 seascapes and my spin rod. Sabre ss220 .  1/2 by 1/4 and hex bars chromed. Iron Coffin and Assasin. Now days it's a Wilson live fibre, 10'6. and a Stradic fk . 15 lb braid in the Surf. With Plastics.  Howard.

Hi,

i have a sabre light overhead built by a guy out penrith way way back....he did a lot of light tackle work. Not Miller. The woven work on it is impressive...

 

[noelm]

Sabre blanks were very good, I think Fenwick had the market for years, but .sabre hit the scene with radical fast tapers, and "short strokers" and kind of revolutionised the whole sports fishing scene here, a couple of US guys came over in the late '70s and brought the gear with them (Joe Gospel and Wayne Handsteadt (spelling) and the GH range of blanks became the go to gear, I have two GH Ironglass rods today, one I still use for Snapper, can't remember the exact model.

[noelm]

Just thought of another "lost rod" story, years ago, we used to fish a drop off on the North side of Pig Island at Port Kembla for Snapper, one of my semi regular companions had a brand spanking new Sabre, fast taper spin rod, with an equally brand new US made Penn Spinfisher, we were getting setup, and one rod was out, and he just baited up the Sabre when the first rod got a run, he put the Sabre down, but the baited hook was over the side, just on the surface, a Bonito came zipping through, grabbed the bait and flipped the rod straight over the side, never to be seen again, but, to make matters much worse, he tried to grab the rod as it flipped up, and somehow his Seiko divers watch came off his wrist, into the water, I wonder how long the alarm went off for? it was set for 5:30AM to get him up for work, I reckon every morning at 5:30 for about a year that thing beeped! 

Edited June 28, 2019 by noelm
Typo

[noelm]

I just remembered another bad rod story, I still get shivers when I think about this, one of my mates was a great rod builder, and he built a complete set of matching Fenwick game rods, a 10, 2X15, and 2X24KG outfits, we were going on a trip to the Banks early one morning, and he had his set of rods up in the home made rocket launcher, we called into a servo for fuel and snacks, but it had quite a low awning, snapped every rod off, just above the reels, he was nearly crying when we investigated what the noise was, poor bugger.

[bluefin]

Im not able to access my gear, Will take some photos when I can.   I don't rock fish now, May be a spin off the beach for old time sake !!

 

[bluefin]

There was a spin stick a good mate used that was half aluminium tube. Very good rod, But cant remember the name.

I have used Butterworth 8144.and 8120 ?    Ironglass,   and sabre 220. Seascape  minor, standard and Major. Poly 2b. Everol 2 1/2 . 0    and  Pen senator, Jigmaster.   Anyone remember the 9 to 1 bolt on conversion for the Jigmaster ? And the newer Shimano tld 25.  Im Old !!  Howard.