Epic fishing yarns

[davent]

About 1989/90 I was a mad keen LBG Fisho (land based game fishing)
Fished anywhere from the Qld border to the Victorian border, with most of my time spent at Jervis Bay in NSW.
Anyway a group of 4 of us decided we had better check out greencape, as we knew its fame for land based Yellowfin tuna, and we thought we should check it out.
I remember an article by a bloke called Mick Rippon with a 66kg fin caught off the high rock, and that pic was one of the pics that got me into LBG in the first place, along with articles by Cooper and the tuna brothers.
We planned very well, two car loads, of pretty experienced fishos headed on a new adventure.
We got to bitangabee bay camp site, nice shady area and bbqs, great!
1st day we fished the pulpit, wind was really blowing accross us and live bait was hard to get, but we persisted, but no fish.
The next day we spent at city rocks, and the water was green and cold, we had great drifts and all set our lines out staggered, from about 30m out to around 130m.
While we waited we caught countless salmon, bream and black drummer, but no game fish. We gave it a red hot go for about a week before we packed up and decided to head north.
1st stop, Eden servo for a hamburger and a milkshake, as bbq salmon /drummer and rum/beer was getting old!
Because we had two cars, gear was a bit mixed up. My mate in the other car had left his wallet in his pack in my car, and asked for the keys to get it.
Anyway, we sat outside (because we probably smelled like a cat food factory) and ate our tucker.
The plan was to meet at tathra wharf , get on the turps and watch the shark fishing. The other two, took off and yelled see you at Tathra! We waved back and finished our burgers.
Anyway, went to get in my car, and my keys werent in my pocket!
I looked at my mate, chuck us the keys Mark!
I havent got em, its your car!
Oh shit, Pete still had them, and was about 15 minutes ahead of us.
Being 1989/90 , none of us had a mobile phone, only yuppies had mobiles, and Ill never get one!
So off to the phone box.
I rang the Tathra police, and explained our situation, they had a laugh and I described our mates and their car.
About 2 hours later, the cops arrive at Tathra wharf. Find the car, with no one in it.
They walk down the wharf and ask@ who owns the brown car?
My mate looks at his feet and thinks to himself ( not fu@$ing me!)
They were already into the stones Mac and beer.
The cops left after telling them who ever owns the brown car, you have your mates keys and they are stuck in eden!
By this time we realised we stuck, so walked up to the pub to get on it!
By the time our mates were safe to drive back to us, they couldnt find us, because we were at the pub, and they didnt notice the note under the windscreen wipers. When they finally found us we were as pissed as nits, and slept at the servo!
We made it Tathra, and had an awesome spin session on bonito, between us caught a hundred or more, only kept the damaged ones. Also caught my best snapper on a our, 4 kg. So it was a fun trip in the end.

Post your yarns guys! Im stuck at home with a bad back and need something to read!

 

[davent]

Heres a few old LBG pics, photos of photos

 

[Dihusky]

I remember Jervis Bay well, spent years diving down there, 'The Outer Tubes' had an amazing reputation for Marlin and other game fish, you weren't one of those mad buggers that rigged and used the ladders on the outer cliffs south of Croc Head were you, those climbs were insane down to virtually non-existent ledges.

Part that always amused me was the fisho's that chucked lead at the divers without realising we used to feed the fish with the students to bring in the fish!

 

[RM Outback]

Here's a fresh yarn, Charlie's mate last night just on dusk 1.5 metre thumper between Nagambie and Shepparton :beer:

The interesting part is the area is/was considered inaccessible by boat, not for these fit keen young blokes. They just dragged their tinnie over logs and trees and found a hole gotta love the spirit of youth erfect: :beer:

 

[StoneTheCrows]

Great fish RM

I have a yarn from Jervis Bay years ago
Those not familiar with JB - Aussie Navy uses the bay frequently for running up ships after refits and testing.
I was on HMAS Adelaide must have been mid 80's

We had just come out of refit and had spent 2 days doing laps of the bay. :sunny:
A mate and I decided while going round in circles we may as well drop a line off the back and have a trawl. :Y:

30 minutes into our fishing and a tiny little tinnie started following us and then out came the loud hailer.
Captain stopped the ship and was told in no uncertain terms trawling was not allowed in Jervis Bay.
oops

Needless to say mate and I were in deep trouble. :bomb:
Had shore leave cancelled for two months - no fish either. 8.(

 

[goody2shoes]

 

[davent]

I remember Jervis Bay well, spent years diving down there, 'The Outer Tubes' had an amazing reputation for Marlin and other game fish, you weren't one of those mad buggers that rigged and used the ladders on the outer cliffs south of Croc Head were you, those climbs were insane down to virtually non-existent ledges.

Part that always amused me was the fisho's that chucked lead at the divers without realising we used to feed the fish with the students to bring in the fish!

Used to abseil into one spot fairly regularly, lowered live baits and packs down on a rope after one of us went down, and then after the last load the other one one would abseil down.
The bloke who was the craziest of all was a bloke from Goulburn, Peter Obeg, he went to ledges that no one ever fished, he was a legend. Sadly the pacific claimed him at Seal Rocks some years ago. He went doing what he loved, extreme Fishing.

 

[davent]

Trying to resize pics but its not letting me post them, sorry.

 

[Teemore]

Trying to resize pics but its not letting me post them, sorry.

Not that I'm an expert in that sort of stuff ... I just take a screen shot, save it photos, then edit/crop it and it posts OK within the size limits.

Forgot about Tathra Wharf, never fished there myself, that name Mike Rippon rings a major bell, shame the mind it's what it used to be .... will check with the mates to see where he fitted in.

 

[Teemore]

davent ....... knew it would come to me eventually, just had to confirm it with my mate ...... Mike was a member of the Melton Sportfishing Club with us back then he would have been there fishing with his mate Peter Craig (and maybe Peters wife Annameika), both were teachers (Mike was a Principal), they also made regular trips to WA during school breaks (Shark Bay ??)

Remember one trip to Apollo Bay (Vic) where they bought heaps of tickets for a massive cray being auctioned at the pub ..... they weren't "stayers" and left before the draw ...... as luck (bad for them) would have it one of their tickets won .... big cray good 3-4Kg.

Being regular bastards in those days we thought it only right that it was better eaten fresh there and then so we took it back to camp and a group of use devoured the best bits.

We wrapped up the remains (hadn't touched the legs/claws) and handed it to them the next morning ......

To say they were a bit pissed off would be an understatement.

 

[Eldorado]

I remember Jervis Bay well, spent years diving down there, 'The Outer Tubes' had an amazing reputation for Marlin and other game fish, you weren't one of those mad buggers that rigged and used the ladders on the outer cliffs south of Croc Head were you, those climbs were insane down to virtually non-existent ledges.

Part that always amused me was the fisho's that chucked lead at the divers without realising we used to feed the fish with the students to bring in the fish!

Used to abseil into one spot fairly regularly, lowered live baits and packs down on a rope after one of us went down, and then after the last load the other one one would abseil down.
The bloke who was the craziest of all was a bloke from Goulburn, Peter Obeg, he went to ledges that no one ever fished, he was a legend. Sadly the pacific claimed him at Seal Rocks some years ago. He went doing what he loved, extreme Fishing.

I never had the pleasure of meeting Peter Oberg who was highly respected in the Goulburn community but I know his father. A mate of mine Mick Murphy used to fish with Peter quite regularly at Jervis Bay.I was asked if I would like to tag along one day but I said there is no way you would get me to abseil down a bloody cliff.

 

[davent]

I remember Mick, met him at the shallow area of drum and drum sticks, him and Pete were catching big kings in an area I would not have even thought of, using live squid.

 

[Eldorado]

I remember Mick, met him at the shallow area of drum and drum sticks, him and Pete were catching big kings in an area I would not have even thought of, using live squid.

Small world isnt it.

 

[davent]

I remember Mick, met him at the shallow area of drum and drum sticks, him and Pete were catching big kings in an area I would not have even thought of, using live squid.

Small world isnt it.

Wouldnt want to mow it!

 

[silver]

I remember going prawning with my cousins at the low tide on the mudflats at grasstree beach.... I was just a young teen then, anyway there was this tiny water filled open creek that ran straight across the mudflats ftom the mangroves for 30 of 40 yards. The older two set up a sock net on the flats by the river and a couple of us younger ones skirted round really wide and came back in on the little creek at the mangrove end.... mangrove branches in hand we thrashed the water as we slowly walked our way in the creek towards the others and the net. I remember wondering why they had the net lifted up into the air with wooden poles and spread right out wide across the mud flat up high either side of this tiny straight creek..... almost getting towards the net ourselves, the water ahead of us erupted into a frenzy of prawn jumping and flying about everywhere.... even out onto the mud as well.
When they jumped in to hold the sock shut and dragged it out there was a quick lift into a metal rubbish bin and..... it was a full bin of prawns (I kid you not).... back into the boat and heading for home. The whole operation took no more than 10 minutes on the ground, I remember there being a lot of watching out across to those mudflats before hand by the older boys, musta been to get the timing just right. Amazing what sticks in the old grey matter.... no matter what.

I still like a good feed of prawns hey ! :drooling:

 

[davent]

Wonder how many kilos? Schoolys?
Never seen prawns like that!

 

[goody2shoes]

We did the same thing as a kid

We all so used to catch whitebait...mmmmm whitebait paddies Yummy

 

[davent]

You a kiwi goody?

 

[silver]

Just normal old river prawns(that's the limit of my prawn type knowledge).... the older lads woulda been privy to good knowledge back then. Just guessing, but I'll bet they knew when the different fish seasons came on and timed it for a low tide when prawn eaters were abounding.... that way they woulda known all the prawns would hide up in the shallows.
Heres grasstree

Looks pretty much about the same

 

[silver]

Wonder how many kilos? Schoolys?
Never seen prawns like that!

I looked up the old rubbish bins and it seems they held 75 litres so that would tranlate to a lot of kilos of prawns.... not sure how much space is left between them, but youd recon it would have been close on 60-70 kilos of prawns.