Rats

[wazatherfisherman]

As many who fish the Sydney rocks already know, most of our spots have plenty of rats scurrying around after dark. Unless they're fighting or mating, they are pretty quiet and often when you think you saw something move after darkness has fallen, it's a rat. No noise, they sneak around and you often second guess yourself as to whether you saw something or not. They are natural "opportunists" and quick to get into anything that resembles a meal.

Our first experience with them was on my third "official" fishing club outing, which was to "Jolong" ledge past the pistol range on Cape Banks. The plan had been to fish from dusk to mid evening, then stay at one of the guy's places locally and return to fish the dawn. When the evening session had ended, the rest of the party left to stay at one of the other guy's homes, leaving just the 3 of us on the cliff top to organise our gear for the 15 or so minute walk back to the car. Problem- Norm, the driver, couldn't find his car keys. We did have two torches, but the batteries were just about dead, and we couldn't find the keys anywhere, so we had to stay there for the night.

Norm was in his twenties, my mate Fraser and I about 14. To say we were really ill prepared to stay the night was an understatement. It was autumn, blowing a westerly and genuinely cold. We'd already eaten our food and only had the clothes on our backs- nothing extra, no light bar the almost run-dry torches, no insect repellent and no shelter. Norm had a small "space blanket" which he rolled up in, leaving Fraser and I only our backpacks, a garbage bag each and about half of a Herald" newspaper to use for warmth. We'd left our bait- about 5 or 6 lbs of half frozen Garfish and some now defrosted Pilchards about 15 feet away on a ledge, so that as they defrosted, the juice would run off and not turn the bait to mush, after all, we'd be first there to fish the dawn now whether we liked it or not.

After finally getting to sleep somewhere around midnight, we were all woken by a squealing, shrieking noise, followed by multiple noises of the sound of creatures fighting close by. I'd never heard rats fighting before, they make a lot of noise and it was obvious there were more than just a couple of them. Too cold to go and check on the bait, we just stayed in our garbage bags and newspaper until falling back to sleep sometime later in the night. Almost forgot to add- the mosquito's were thick and we all ended up being 'blitzed" by them too.

Around half an hour or so before dawn, the other members returned and woke us up and we tried to get ourselves moving to go for a fish. When we went to grab the bait, there wasn't a thing left, blasted rats had eaten or dragged off the whole lot. The guys who'd returned shared their bait so we could at least have a fish. My total catch for the trip was 2 Tailor and 1 Trevally and to be honest, it almost put me off "rock fishing" for good.

Then we started fishing at the Matten's below the big cliffs at Dover Heights a short time later and some 45 years ago, due to the difficulty getting down, we often stayed overnight. As you needed a decent amount of food for overnight trips, rolls and sandwiches were the go, a packet of biscuits and a few "Space Food Sticks" along with the mandatory 2 litres of weak cordial, made up the food kit for the summer months. 

We used to make camp in the "cave" which was just a wind eroded corner, set back about 40 yards back from the water and up about 40 feet above sea level, well underneath the cliffs and protected from most wind bar a Northeaster. It had a long, perfectly flat section that was great for sitting on or lying on to give your back a rest, but as it was about 250 yards from our main night fishing spot, all our gear was left unattended while we were off fishing.

First couple of trips, the rats got into the food while we fished and we went hungry for the trip, even the Space Food in thick foil-like wrappers had been got to. We tried things like suspending the food bags about 3 feet off the ground, hung by fishing line from above, didn't work, the buggers would just slide down the line, tear or eat an opening and then it was a "free for all".  Leaving a torch on, putting insect repellent on the bags and even leaving it in the old "Tupperware" boxes didn't work either, as they'd get into them, by biting holes in them or simply getting the lid off. Clever buggers.

One night, after a longer than usual session, we went up to the cave for a feed, a break and just to get the wet rock plates off. For those who've never worn them, plates get uncomfortable due to your feet being soft from being wet and even 2 pairs of innersoles weren't enough to make you forget the flat heads on the bolts underneath. As we approached the cave, where a gas lantern had been left on in an attempt to ward off the main pack, rats took off in all directions as we clattered our way back- there's no "stealth" approach wearing noisy cleats.

The approach to the cave was only accessible from the direction we were coming and all the rats bar three, had managed to get to a long undercut section where they could escape. The three remaining went in the other direction, where a small tunnel-like wind eroded hole went inwards off the cliff wall and in there they went. The hole went inwards about 4 or 5 feet with a slight raised section about 3 foot in- this is where the rats went. In the torch light we could see the three of them, but no amount of prodding inwards with the rod butt's could actually touch them.

Better check the food! Only one of the four backpack's had been ransacked, but they hadn't been able to get the Tupperware box open and the food still intact.

What to do about the 3 rats in the hole? It was decided to try and smoke them out, so we scrounged around and found enough stuff to burn, things always fell from the cliff above and we lit a fire in the mouth of the hole and pushed it in a few inches. We then armed ourselves with rock plates, PVC float tubes and knives, intending to put paid to the rats for good.

After about 5 minutes of smoke going into the hole, we started running out of wood, so a plastic bag, followed by another added to the thick smoke filling the hole. As the smoke thickened we had to move back a few yards as it was really toxic black smoke from the plastic burning and we temporarily abandoned guarding the entrance, so as to breath ourselves.. We all agreed that nothing could survive in the hole, not in that acrid, thick, dreadful smoke cloud, so revenge was ours.

Not so.

First, as the smoke started to clear from the entrance, a rat appeared, looked at us and then ran and did a "suicide" leap off the steep wall in the other direction to us. It was roughly 30 feet down to the ledge below and it hit with a thump and rolled over the next ledge and dropped into a pool, a wave washed over the ledge and the rat disappeared in the darkness. 

About a minute later, rat number two comes out, looks toward us and decides to do exactly what the first rat did, "suicide" jumping over the edge, thumping down below and rolling off into the pool, to again be claimed by a swell coming over the ledge. 

Rat three was much larger and appeared at the entrance to the hole, but on seeing rat two jump and the smoke nearly cleared, decided to go back in the hole again.

More plastic sourced, this time an empty 2 litre bottle was added to the plastic bags and we soon had another thick smoke cloud filling the hole. Didn't have to wait long after the flames were out and rat three reappeared. After looking at the cliff, the cheeky bugger ran straight at us and jumped on a tiny wind-grooved ledge that went right past the four of us at about chest height. Everybody had a "weapon" in each hand, so everyone had two goes at donging the rat and we all missed, even though he was only two feet from each attacker! After missing him with my left hand rock plate, I swear he jumped backwards to miss the blow with the right hand, then jumped the next attacker and the next and then had to go back the other way again- upwards to safety and he did it. 

That ledge was later nick-named "Rat's Highway"

We decided to eat just about all the food, and as we already had a good bag of fish, stayed up at the cave for a few hours, before going back out to fish around 3 AM some three hours or so from when we'd first stopped fishing around midnight. Fished through until about 10 AM and then gutted and scaled the catch and were getting ready to leave by about lunchtime, when another mate, Wayne, came down. He was going to stay the night and tried in vain to convince one of us to stay another night, but after about 26 hours on the rocks, and it was also a Sunday afternoon, nobody was interested.

Wayne had come well prepared for the night and had brought what we considered a "luxury"- a sleeping bag- which was something just too bulky and heavy for cliff fishing, besides, we were going down there to fish not sleep. 

We told him of the rats the night before and warned him not to leave any food anywhere with the gear while he fished that night, he'd be better off taking his food out to the fishing ledge, just to keep it safe. We said our good-byes and started the journey back. 

Wayne usually spun with big metals, casting them to the "horizon" with his 13 ft rod and Seascape reel until it was dark, then he fished for Bream or Tailor for a couple of hours before going back to the cave and crashing out for a few hours. Heeding our warning re rats at the cave, he decided to go and camp up on the next level above the cave, which involved climbing another 20 odd feet up via a short, permanent rope attached to a peg. Up on that ledge, it was quite open and although still under the cliff face, there were not really any protected spots for rats to hide.

Although Wayne worked in a big tackle shop in the city, he'd never owned a decent torch, but had finally bought a good quality small torch, which included a spare globe and even spare batteries. After setting himself up on the high ledge, well away from the rats below, he got in his sleeping bag and keeping his torch close, lay down to have a snooze. 

While lying up there quietly, after a short time, the rat noises started up. As he was using his pack as a pillow and his remaining food was in the pack, he wasn't too worried about them getting the food- more concerned that they might have a go at him while he slept. He lay there listening to them squeaking away, quite close he thought. So best strategy was to put insect repellent  on, close up the sleeping bag hood and crash out.

He finally got to sleep, but woke in fright- something moved INSIDE his sleeping bag! He struggled to get the zipper down, but scrambled out and grabbed his pack and started belting the daylights out of the lump, visible in the moonlight, in the sleeping bag! The old 'H" framed backpack, with it's hard aluminium frame, made a great weapon and the daring rat lay motionless in the bag. 

After waiting a couple of minutes and now wide awake from the cold night air, Wayne poked and prodded at the now much smaller lump in the bag.

No movement at all this time and no rat noise anywhere to be heard. Phew! Got the bugger! He then gingerly opened the sleeping bag right up to get rid of the rat- he could turn the bag inside out if there wasn't too much mess.

 Imagine his surprise when there in the moonlight was his new torch, smashed to bits in the sleeping bag-  it, as it turned out, had been the "rat" and rolled against him in the bag. 

 

 

[noelm]

Not quite as dramatic as that, but, the cleaning tables at my local ramp are built near lots of big rocks, put there decades ago to make a better road to the ramp, if cleaning fish after dark, it only takes a few minutes before you see dozens of "eyes" watching you, if any scraps get tossed within range of them, they scurry out and fight over it, and at times you will be cleaning fish, and somehow, like magic, they appear right beside your esky waiting to take a fish, they are very sneaky things, and really big, they must be well fed!

[big Neil]

Great series of yarns there Waza. You and your mates must have been really keen anglers back in the day.

Are you a competent typist too? A story that long would take me a week to type and I'd definitely need a few sleeps in between.

Cheers mate, bn

[Bolts1]

Great story Waza.. we fish the break walls at night for jewfish and the rats are everywhere. I certainly wouldn’t be shutting my eyes there lol

[Green Hornet]

Another great tale Waza.

It reminds me of a breakwall where we fish for Jew. When we first started fishing the place we used an inflatable babies swimming pool to keep out tailor alive for baits. The first night we had 8 or so tailor in the pool and the rats got the lot as soon as darkness fell.

After that we had to use large plastic buckets with the lids on and often we'd find the rats trying to get into them. The little buggers would continue at the buckets 'till you were only a couple of metres away before scurrying off.

[61 crusher]

Another great bunch of stories there Waza, had a good laugh about Wayne & the torch, when I used to fish the balconies at bundeena we would grab a hot chicken on the way & usually eat it within the first couple of hours for fear of the rats getting to it only ever saw about half a dozen at best not like your rat packs & if we got bored or the fishing was slow we’d throw the bones out near the edge & watch them watch us as they’d try for the morsels & we would occasionally charge at them or target practice would send the odd one over, what used to surprised was the crabs that would get onto the scent & come up over the edge of the shear Cliff that was at least 40 feet up off the water.

In the early seventies as a family we went a few times to the old Flanagans Afloat restaurant near the boat ramp at Rose Bay & as we passed the kitchen galley ramp one time which was a good 5 foot across I peered over the gate & called to my dad to come have look at this huge rat which spanned across a good portion of the ramp, the base of its tail was the size of ones thumb & 2 foot long it’s head was the same size  as half a beer can & its rear end was as high as a beer can needless to say I was looking forward to some Chinese food but we about faced & never ate there again 

[wazatherfisherman]

8 hours ago, noelm said:

Not quite as dramatic as that, but, the cleaning tables at my local ramp are built near lots of big rocks, put there decades ago to make a better road to the ramp, if cleaning fish after dark, it only takes a few minutes before you see dozens of "eyes" watching you, if any scraps get tossed within range of them, they scurry out and fight over it, and at times you will be cleaning fish, and somehow, like magic, they appear right beside your esky waiting to take a fish, they are very sneaky things, and really big, they must be well fed!

Hi Noelm the rats living down the bay at Fivedock have got more game over time and will steal bait in plain sight now

[Rebel]

Super Story. Keep them coming.

[wazatherfisherman]

9 hours ago, big Neil said:

Great series of yarns there Waza. You and your mates must have been really keen anglers back in the day.

Are you a competent typist too? A story that long would take me a week to type and I'd definitely need a few sleeps in between.

Cheers mate, bn

Hi Neil, we all used to "live" for fishing, back in the day before responsibility, age and health started catching up with us.

Sadly , I'm only a one finger typist, so these take a few hours to put on, hence some of the "posting times" being way into the early morning. Glad to do it as long as anyone's enjoying the stories- I think it's good to escape to past times at the moment.

Regards Waza

[wazatherfisherman]

7 hours ago, Bolts1 said:

Great story Waza.. we fish the break walls at night for jewfish and the rats are everywhere. I certainly wouldn’t be shutting my eyes there lol

Hi Bolts1 years ago, when the Hairtail were thick along Stockton Wall, people had been catching tons of them (literally!) and the beach-side of the wall was absolutely littered with both bones and tons of rubbish just left there by uncaring fishers. We had stopped to visit a friend while on the way to Yamba for a 2 week fishing trip and knowing we loved our Hairtail fishing, he suggested we go and have a look at the wall- not fishing, just walked out to the end and back, which is a fair walk.

Couldn't believe how many rats we saw on that wall, breakwalls like that are just rats paradise!

[noelm]

Those of us who have fished for years have lots of stories about "things" that have happened to us, most are kind of forgotten until someone posts something that jogs the memory and you kind of chuckle to yourself.

[wazatherfisherman]

7 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Another great tale Waza.

It reminds me of a breakwall where we fish for Jew. When we first started fishing the place we used an inflatable babies swimming pool to keep out tailor alive for baits. The first night we had 8 or so tailor in the pool and the rats got the lot as soon as darkness fell.

After that we had to use large plastic buckets with the lids on and often we'd find the rats trying to get into them. The little buggers would continue at the buckets 'till you were only a couple of metres away before scurrying off.

Hi Pete it's amazing what they can break into. I have a mate who breeds birds and they got into one of his "impenetrable" aviary's and ate all the new born birds. On close inspection of the colour-bond structure, we found scratch marks where they had bent the wall in order to get under the wire mesh- you wouldn't think they could do it but they managed

[Green Hornet]

22 minutes ago, wazatherfisherman said:

Hi Pete it's amazing what they can break into. I have a mate who breeds birds and they got into one of his "impenetrable" aviary's and ate all the new born birds. On close inspection of the colour-bond structure, we found scratch marks where they had bent the wall in order to get under the wire mesh- you wouldn't think they could do it but they managed

An old farmers trick if you want to keep vermin away is to put a radio on. They don’t like the sound of human voices. 
The ABC is best as there’s plenty of talk back programs. 
My sister on the farm does it in the chicken coup when they have chicks, to keep the foxes away. 

[wazatherfisherman]

5 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Another great bunch of stories there Waza, had a good laugh about Wayne & the torch, when I used to fish the balconies at bundeena we would grab a hot chicken on the way & usually eat it within the first couple of hours for fear of the rats getting to it only ever saw about half a dozen at best not like your rat packs & if we got bored or the fishing was slow we’d throw the bones out near the edge & watch them watch us as they’d try for the morsels & we would occasionally charge at them or target practice would send the odd one over, what used to surprised was the crabs that would get onto the scent & come up over the edge of the shear Cliff that was at least 40 feet up off the water.

In the early seventies as a family we went a few times to the old Flanagans Afloat restaurant near the boat ramp at Rose Bay & as we passed the kitchen galley ramp one time which was a good 5 foot across I peered over the gate & called to my dad to come have look at this huge rat which spanned across a good portion of the ramp, the base of its tail was the size of ones thumb & 2 foot long it’s head was the same size  as half a beer can & its rear end was as high as a beer can needless to say I was looking forward to some Chinese food but we about faced & never ate there again 

Hi Dieter where I'm living in Croydon, my mate here has 2 ponds in the backyard. One is a 12 ft aluminium boat sunk into the ground and he's got large fish (goldfish but big ones) in it. Over the last year, they have been slowly "disappearing" to the rat population, as have the large freshwater yabbies he has in an old sunken bath tub on the opposite side of the yard. The biggest yabbie was nearly a foot long and lived during daylight hours in a piece of pipe in the tub. Even with chicken wire strung tightly over the top and fastened down every couple of inches, the rats attacked the big yabbie head on and chewed off the ends of his nippers, which were pretty big and then got him a few nights later.

It's almost unbelievable they managed to do it, being over 2 ft deep and up the back of the tub.

I had a mate at school who used to sneak under Flanagan's and spear Luderick and the odd Bream. It was certainly a popular eatery, as was the Chinese restaurant that was there after.

Have plenty of rat stories, but the rats are almost always the winners!

[wazatherfisherman]

14 minutes ago, Green Hornet said:

An old farmers trick if you want to keep vermin away is to put a radio on. They don’t like the sound of human voices. 
The ABC is best as there’s plenty of talk back programs. 
My sister on the farm does it in the chicken coup when they have chicks, to keep the foxes away. 

That's a great tip! By the way, there are plenty of foxes around up here of a night time too, some are pretty big. Saw one down the bay with a rat in it''s mouth, so there is something that goes for the rats other than cats

[wazatherfisherman]

1 hour ago, Rebel said:

Super Story. Keep them coming.

Thanks Rebel, will do

[noelm]

Maybe we should start a thread about funny/stupid/dangerous things we have done ourselves or had happen to us.

[61 crusher]

Bummer about your mates yabbie, I’ve heard people used to throw broken glass Into the concrete when making the floors for the bird coups to try & stop them getting in, also remember seeing a big tabby cat stalking a fox across the fig tree bridge one night