The Thrilling Dangers of Rock Fishing A Strong Man's Game That Requires Nerve and Pluck

The Thrilling Dangers of Rock Fishing
A Strong Man's Game That Requires Nerve and Pluck
By Charles Thackeray (Wobbegong), Founder of the Amateur Fishermen's Association of N.S.W.

Rock fishermen are not averse to the title of "rock-hoppers." They make light of dizzy heights and climbs which test the muscles. One of the rock fishermen of the Amateur Fishermen's Association of N.S. Wales gravely assured his fellow members at a meeting the other night that all the members who followed him on the rocks could feel assured that they would have a feeling akin to that when they got a new £1000 life assurance policy.

Those photographed on the perpendicular climbs were Messrs. G. Hollingdale, oft-times champion fisherman of the A.F.A., A. Sara, the expert shark-angler of Bondi, and the writer.

Izaak Walton, in his wildest dreams—if such a staid and kind old gentleman ever had wild dreams—could never have envisioned all the angling developments that the world has accepted since his time. Anglers have not changed much, but their methods have altered. There are as good liars among fishermen these days as ever there were, and the latter-day men have better excuses for small bags than the old-time chaps.

Walton placed angling ahead of hunting, hawking, and fowling, and these sports still carry on in the rear of the many-sided king of sports, which in Australia, as in other advanced centres of civilization, counts its adherents by tens of thousands.

Grounds for a Riot
A nice argument could be engaged in as to what branch of modern angling has the greatest attractiveness and thrill, and probably the following observations will help to stimulate devotees to specialized branches of it to warmer espousal and greater endeavor. To hear a blackfish angler expert in the use of the split cane rod defending his sport against the superior assumptions of the man who fishes with the finest of gut lines from a boat moored fore and aft for black bream that have reached the age of discretion and know that a hand-line is a delusion and a snare for their unsophisticated shoal brethren, is a dialectical diversion; but it pales into insignificance when a fly fisher for trout crosses linguistic swords with a spinner and troller for big game of the ocean.

Bitter Rival Claims
After hearing these sections get to verbal work on one another, the arbitrator may be able to listen with patience to the rival claims of the drift fisher for whiting, to the beach angler who catches half a ton of live shark on rod and reel, and to the cliff climber and rock fisherman who despises all the rest for playing a "sissy" game compared with his strenuous pastime.

The deep-sea trawlers and the net fisher, being wholesalers who may be good sports but do not fish for sport, may be left out in the cold for awhile. They are the people who laugh last, because when all the rest of the fish-seekers fail, they can go out and enclose a catch worth good money.

Of all the fishing games, that of the cliffs is the most spectacular. It may be truly said of it, as Dame Juliana Berners said of angling generally in the year 1496, that it "seemeth one of the good dysportes and honest gamys in whom a man joyeth without any repentance after." Just scan the list of your friends who fish from the ocean rocks and see if they are not active, healthy men even in their seventies. Any rock-hopper will tell you that his game keeps him clear of rheumatism or cramps, such as are sometimes the lot of the man who only fishes from a boat and does not use his legs as well as his arms. Cliff-climbing has its own fascination, but when it is allied to fishing, it is a veritable magnet to the sportsman of the out-of-doors.

To reach the best fishing rocks along the coast, men may have to use ropes, rope ladders, and wooden ladders, or they may use hand-holds and footholds cut in the face of the cliffs. They make precipices their friends, and they have clear heads and supple muscles.

No cliff-fisher dreams of extending his fingers only to grasp a friend's when climbing. He stretches his hand down or up to grasp the wrist of his friend who similarly clasps his wrist. Wet or nervy fingers may slip, but the wrist clasp is the clasp of life. The feet of the man below may slip, but the wrist clasp will snatch him away from death.

Wet rocks covered with marine or other algae are more treacherous than brittle honeycomb rock or the crumbling shale of the celebrated Goat Track at North Head.

There are rock fishing places near Sydney where a man on a climb is as insignificant an item as a fly on a wall. On some of these places, clear-headed and fearless men have hung suspended from rope chairs in order to drill holes in the cliff face into which they leaded or cemented iron spikes.

Such a place is found at Rosey Gully, a little to the south of the big lighthouse at South Head. Most of this was done by sewer workers who happened also to be fishermen.

Beware the False Step
At several places along the coast, fixed wooden ladders are perched on narrow ledges. A false step or a sudden attack of nerves will imperil a climber, but the regular users of Jacob's ladders do not suffer from nerves. Their footing is their main consideration.

The inexpert climbers suffer from a peculiar nausea. They cannot stand upright on a narrow ledge without feeling a desire to lean outward. The sea seems very near to them and suggests something to lean against. That is the dangerous feeling of the cliffs that must be overcome.

The whole attention of the climber should be concentrated upon the footing, and anything outside it should be shut out of the vision and mind. Perpendicular climbs such as the Honeycomb at Bluefish, near Manly, are safe to the expert but death-traps to the inexpert. Even to the former, Honeycomb rock is never an entirely trustworthy thing. In a down climb on Honeycomb, the foot goes first all the time, and it is simple to kick and test the footing before shifting.

Boom Over Worst Pinches
Cliff fishermen need to have their hands free, so they usually carry bags that go around their shoulders. In such a place as the Ladders (the matting), between Bondi and Rosey Gully, they have a boom with a pulley stuck over the worst places, and haul their loads of fish and gear up after they have negotiated the climbs. Personal courage has nothing to do with the business. There must be a liking for it, freedom from dizziness, and a degree of physical fitness.

Sometimes the climbers have two sugar bags tied together and suspended around their shoulders by knots that are never "grannies," but safe reef-knots.

Here and there along the coast, chimney climbs are used. These are rock angles in which the knees and elbows may be employed to ascend or descend. What does it matter to a cheerful rock-hopper if he grinds through the knees of his pants? He wears his oldest clothes for such strenuous sport.

Neither does it matter to the rock fisher whether prawns are a shilling or five shillings a pound. He does without prawns, but he does not always despise a bit of fish bait. His appliances for getting bait are a knife and a crab spear. The knife cuts open the tough cases of the tunicate known as cunjevoi, in order that the meaty contents may be scooped out with the fingers.

Blue or brown groper, sea carp, morwong, schnapper, eel, kelpfish, drummer, and sea-perch that will not take crab or a meaty piece of "cungy" are rare birds. The rock fisher's finny rewards make the fish hunter assert with his hand uplifted that his game is worth the risks.

Spinning for Kingfish
Another sturdy band of men who enjoy taking a risk in the ocean fish from motor boats, sailing or pulling boats, with rod and reel for game fish. Theirs is another sort of thrill altogether, and time never hangs wearily upon their hands except when a southerly wind blows and sends their quarry away from the surface.

Sometimes they spin from a stationary boat, but more often they troll from a moving one, and have fights with big fish that take beating by force and cunning.

The kingfish is one of the finest fighters in the Pacific. It is a combatant worthy of any angler's respect, and the number of piano-wire traces and flights of hooks it has got away with brings smiles to the faces of fishing tackle sellers and swear words to the mouths of the hunters.

The sport is highly flavored, because the sea is often rough, and it may be a long way to port, but there are plenty of men prepared to take the risk of being blown away to New Caledonia for the sake of a few combats with large fish that do not know when they are beaten.

Tunny Stalking
It is not only kingfish that these sturdy sons of the cult pursue. They go after Spanish mackerel, tunny, swordfish, sharks, and porpoises. With a tuna or tarpon rod, large reel (either a Vom Hofe or one like it), and a cuttyhunk line, the men challenge the swiftest of swimmers in the sea, and often beat them. Most of the experts belong to the Anglers' Casting Club of New South Wales, and one of the best catches of southern tunny was secured seven years ago off Port Stephens, the headquarters of the club, by Sir Herbert Maitland and Messrs. C. H. Gorrick and H. O. Chidgey.

Game fish hunters do not fish for the pot, but for insignificant prizes. They take immense pride in their stirring sport. The fourteen tunny caught by the three anglers referred to averaged 45 lbs apiece.

It is a strong man's game, and one must have the stomach for it.

Beach Fishing and Sharks
Less risky from the personal point of view, but full of rich excitement, is the game of fishing for sharks from ocean beaches. At night, the scenes on some of the beaches near Sydney, when the great shoals of sea-salmon have brought sharks in close, are full of interest. Strong men, strong tackle, and rods and reels that hold nearly a quarter of a mile of cuttyhunk line play parts in the moving work of shark fishing. It is not hard to persuade a shark during the salmon season to eat a big lump of coarse salmon and get a strong steel hook stuck in its jaw.

No casting is done from the rod. The baited wire cast, with an anchoring sinker and a big piece of bait, is thrown into the water by hand. The place selected is called a gutter. It consists of a channel that comes close to the shore.

All beach water looks alike to many, but it is full of character in the eyes of shark fishermen and surfers. The most interesting features are gutters where treacherous undertows lurk at high water and the beginning of the ebb. Rarely is it necessary to cast the shark bait more than forty yards from the beach into a gutter.

Black whalers, grey nurses, blue pointers, hammerheads, white pointers, tigers, wobbegongs, blue sharks, and all the rest of the big fellows demand play when they take hold. The fight may be over in a quarter of an hour, or it may last the greater part of the night, but it is a six-real thriller if it lasts the whole night, and only the strongest fishermen can stand the back strain for such a time.

Fight with a 13-Footer
The best feat accomplished by a rod fisher for sharks near Sydney was that of a Bondi angler, Mr. Aubrey Sara, who fought a black whaler on Bondi Beach for two and a half hours, and landed it. His fish was 13 ft 6 in long, and weighed half a ton. That huge fish sometimes broached clean out of the water, and tore nearly four hundred yards of cuttyhunk line, possessing a breaking strain of fifty pounds, off the reel several times.

Mr. Sara and other enthusiasts have fought sharks during half a night, and then lost them with some tackle. So keen is the sportsmanship that no man expresses regret for the loss of expensive tackle, but plenty for himself for losing his fish. No one need laugh when the angler says the biggest fish got off or broke away. If it hadn't been the biggest fish, it would have been landed, so that's an end of that argument.

Some Monster Jewfish
Most of our beach anglers are seekers of jewfish and tailor as well as sharks, and sometimes a monster jewfish takes a bait. As these fish are edible from head to tail-shaft and range in weight from ten pounds to over a hundredweight, they are foemen worthy of the shark fisher's attention. One weighing 69 lbs was landed at Bondi recently.

Tailor also run to twelve pounds weight near Sydney, and sea salmon about the same size may be included among the game fish of the beaches. On finer tackle and lighter rods or hand lines, whiting, flathead, and black bream are the best of the rewards for the honest, live semaphore of the sandy slope. When whiting come along and start burying their short, sharp snouts in the sand in search of pippies and beach worms, sport among them is fast, if not exciting.

Some Quieter Sport
Men and women who use their brains while fishing become specialists, and so we find each estuary, harbor, and bay with its small or large band of constant fishermen. They know the movements of fish in the water they favor, the tides, the fish foods most suitable for use on a hook, and the natural signs of the locality. They get fish when others fail.

Drifting in the coastal lakes for whiting, flathead, flounder, and other classy food fish is highly popular at Narrabeen, Tuggerah, Lake Macquarie, Lake Illawarra, Wallis Lake, and all the other marine lakes that are sometimes cut off from the sea by sand-bars. Moored in channels, or on flats, sportsmen catch bream, tarwhine, sand mullet, whiting, flathead, and tailor on prawn or worm bait.

Blackfish anglers are entirely specialists. They may fish from the rocky natural piers on the cliffs, in the pot-holes of the marine lakes, from the broken rock frontages of the harbors and bays, or from harbor wharves. Their number is legion, and they are full of lore and language, especially on Manly's wharves. It is the dream of all blackfish anglers to catch fish over 5 lbs weight, and some have realized their dream. An eight-pounder was caught at Port Stephens in 1913, and six-pounders have come from St. George's Basin and Sussex Inlet. As a fighter, the blackfish is a fine doer, and when eaten fresh there is not much difference between him and a tarwhine.

A 'Bonzer' Berley
But if blackfish anglers are keen sportsmen, black bream fishermen are superfishermen. They are the mooring experts, the berley connoisseurs, and the skillful hand-liners and rod fishers. One of them, reading the brew of the witches in Macbeth, remarked about it: "What a bonzer berley for black bream!"

The tackle used is so fine that much dexterity must be displayed to keep it from tangling. The fishermen dream of big finny rewards and often get them; hence, when they arise in their vocal might and declare all other fishing to be piffling business, they have something with which to back up their assertion.

The largest black bream caught on a fine Corticelli silk line, Jap gut cast, and 2-0 French hook weighed 7 lbs 6 oz. It was secured by Mr. F. Negus, of Alexandria, at Como in April 1916, and an excellent plaster cast of it is in the Amateur Fishermen's Association museum at 240 Pitt Street, Sydney. The fish itself was given by the A.F.A. to the Australian Museum, Sydney.

The winter of 1919 was remarkable for a visitation of black bream to George's River, and for two months many professional hand-liners made £10 a week with their catches, while equally clever amateurs had great hauls.

With Rod and Fly
Because fly-fishing for trout is the best of all angling sports, it is referred to last. One day at Captain's Flat, on the Upper Queanbeyan, Messrs. W. Bollard and H. K. Anderson caught 36 rainbow trout averaging 5 lbs each on rod and fly. Mr. Bollard's best fish weighed 9 ½ lbs, and Mr. Anderson's 8 ½ lbs.

The trout knows as many tricks in the fast, clear upland streams of New South Wales as any black bream or blackfish ever spawned, and it has a trick beyond them. It fights in the air as well as in the water, and its leap at the end of 30 yards of plaited silk line is a sparkling exhibition, demanding all the skill of the angler.

Does time ever bore a fly-fisher working up the Snowy or the Eucumbene or the Goodradigbee or the Tuross for trout? Not much! He may have scant success, but his clambering over granite boulders and through rapids, where a false step may mean filled waders and a possible watery grave, have the elements of danger.

The spinner or natural bait trout fisher does not have the same high quality of sport as the fly-fisher. He certainly has plenty to do, but the spinner for river perch along the coast district has better sport, with a bigger average run of fish.

Big-Fellow Trout
The largest trout seldom rise to a fly, but in 1900 one weighing 12 ½ lbs was caught at the junction of the Umerella and Murrumbidgee by Mr. P. Heyland, now of Mona Vale. In 1911, one a pound lighter was caught by a trout angler in the Tuross; and Mr. B. G. Kelly, at Gingera, on the Upper Queanbeyan, landed one weighing 9 ¼ lbs.

If anyone now dares say that fishing is not the most fascinating and many-sided sport in the world, let him come forward. Only a part of it has been dealt with herein. Boat fishing for snapper, perch fishing on the North Coast, and mullet angling on the Richmond and Clarence, and other branches, have not been touched.