North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

As a 5yo in Sydney l played in swamps and creeks near home , imagining I was 'jungle jim' , and my dad would take me for walks to the park to feed the ducks and seagulls. I was always amazed to see huge mullet and carp and eels come up and gulp bits of bread off the surface. He passed away when l was 6 , and then mum would take me to the park. I started to take a handline and bread , and mum would speak praise if I brought something home , whether it was a mullet , carp , or eel. I suspected it ended up in the garden or rubbish bin lol. One day I found an old rod in the shed , and that was it.
Often I fished several times a week after school and on weekends with a very old gent who lived in our street , and he fished for the big mullet with dough and a float on a long cane rod.
Barney.

My dad got me into fishing when we lived in Glasgow.
We use to got to a place called Millport every year for a week or 2 holidays.
By the time my dad paid for travel and the holiday unit he was pretty broke
So every year we went coincided with the mackeral run and he took me fishing with him.
We almost lived off mackeral and potatoes which my mum and dad would sneek out and pinch from a farmers field (or so they said).
When I was 7 the family moved to Whyalla SA and from then on fishing was a big part of my life
The attached pick is me at age 5
The pushbike in the background was our only means of transport and i use to sit on the handlebars

Ahhh, when i was a boy ...

https://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&rct= ... 3540,d.aGc

It's in the blood

My Dad takes great delight in retelling fishing stories about me when he's had to make speeches.
1) When I was two years old at Turkey Beach, QLD, I refused to give up a whiting that I caught. I carried it everywhere and I took it to bed with me for 2 days. They had to sneak it away when I was asleep because it began to really stink.
2) I crawled into a crab pot at Mitchell’s Creek, QLD and got stuck. My parents left me there so I couldn't get into any more trouble.
Both these stories are backed up by photos that the Old Man loves to put up on the projector while he's recounting the stories at my significant life events.

Great to see the old pix!

In a Yorkshireman voice ...

The first reel under the Xmas tree was a mission brown Daiwa eggbeater, long before spools had skirts, the spool had to be removed fairly often to unsnag the line.

The same Xmas there was a red rod under the tree, it was state of the art because it was hollow fibreglass. Before then dad's rods were heavy solid fibreglass or rangoon cane.

That red rod would be a broomstick now, but it was cherished for years. The white porcelain inserts had to be replaced when they cracked, because they would cut the line.

Cracking-free silicon dioxide (grey-black) runners came much later.

Dad had a wicker creel and/or bucket, an Alvey, and the yellowfin whiting around Adelaide then were so big they'd bite ya

He drove me (my brother didn't fish much) to Adelaide fishing spots in a Morris Oxford, then a Hillman Minx ... then an XL Charger with 245 Hemi

Had some great surf, beach, river and rock fishing, the Onkaparinga River then was all meadows, very quiet at Noarlunga, very few other fishos ...

Bream, mullet and tommy ruffs were fun for a while ... later I started chasing rays, sharks and snapper off the jetties at night, using boat rods and Penn Senator 6/0 reels with huge snapper leads "windmilled" off the end of the jetty. Them's were the days ...

Don't know if I'd eat anything out of the Port River now ...

Had a Penn Levelmatic baitcaster for bream fishing, I recall the early baitcasters had a fair gap between the spool and body, once again, you had to remove the snagged line from behind the spool, problem was solved by using heavier line.

Good Fenwick and Butterworth blanks were around in my teen years, was quite a bit of good kit around by about 1980.

I remember a popular early lure, think it was a Rebel Minnow, looked a lot like a B52. Also a hard-soft hybrid French lure called a Flopy, which had an adjustable bib, was popular on the Murray River, and casting metal lures called Irons. Tatler and Seascape(??) reels were about and Gordon Burford in Adelaide produced an awesome model airplane motor, the Taipan 2.5cc gold top

While visiting my farther in a wet season creek near heartbreak hotel many years ago then returning to Katherine fishing with my step father is when it really took off. From that point on I would annoy the hell out of him by asking if there were any barra in any small pool of water that I saw.

Bit of both I think. Mum & Dad were never into fishing when i was a wee tacker but for as long as I can remember I always had a fascination with the water and everything in it. Earliest memories of fishing were staying at Oma & Opas place (yeah, Mum was Dutch) at Putney in Sydney and seeing my uncle and Opa come back early in the morning after a night in the rowboat unloading the massive Mulloway they'd caught the night before. Monster fish to a 5 year old.

As a young fella our family we used to camp at Currarong on the NSW south coast every school holidays. Me and my mates would be out from sun up to sundown with our handlines and as many Soldier Crabs as we could catch fishing from the old road bridge for anything stupid enough to take our bait. Mostly Blackfish and Bream from memory but the big prize back then was the puffer fish which would be unhooked, poked and prodded till it blew up to full size then chucked up on the road to get popped by the next car to come by. The highlight was coming back to the tent at days end to see a rope strung up between the trees sagging under the weight of huge Kingies and Snapper caught by family friends who fished The Banks and surrounds back in it's heyday. Some monster Flatties on occasions as well.

Then came the Xmas I got my first fishing rod, think I was seven. I was in the big league now! I can still vividly remember the first fish I caught on it, a Bream about 6 inches long that committed suicide by jumping a foot out of the water to take my bread bait as I was winding it through the the tip of the rod........... I was hooked. A bit like Fish Tank, I think I carried that fish everywhere with me till the folks could stand it no more and ditched it when I wasn't looking.

Moved here in 78 aged 11 and lived on RAAF Base for about 12 months. First fishing foray was the lake on the RAAF golf course. Caught a couple of beaut fish first go! Nice big, shiny, real fish. They jumped and fought like nothing I'd ever caught before. The hunter gatherer had come of age! Strung them over the shoulder and rode the treadley back home at great speed, arriving to great fanfare. Tonight we feast! Can't say I've ever tried to eat Tarpon again.....................

Still get as big a kick now wetting a line as I ever did. My 2 young fellas (3yo + 9 months) have got no hope...................they will fish



Melv

Fishing? This is a fishing site? I hate fishing.

Forced was more like it.

Who else is going to wade out chest high during a high tide at Coffin Bay with a cold wind icy blowing and battle to drag the boat in, dodging sea urchins & stingrays/fiddlers for the old man, and shiver for the next hour.

It got to the stage of being "asleep" when the door was opened at 6AM for a call to arms.

It took me another 30 years to rediscover the pleasures of fishing in Northern Waters.
Now all I want to do is catch up..... but hardly get the chance

Great yarn Regis.

My dad was a sales rep for sunbeam, and we lived in NSW coastal town. He would spend 4 to 5 days away, driving from town to town. I would fish the rocks for tailor,drummer bream and black fish after school, and on weekends, dad would come, I used to out fish him for just about everything but black fish. Higlight for me, best memories, fishing with dad and gramps for drummer at bonny hills (home town) and black fish at north haven, not a care in the world, except trying to get better weed than the old timers!

Regis........ that is the sickest 80s hairdo I've seen in a long time.

Bit of a weird one for me. I remember sitting on the banks of the Murray with a handline (consisting of a glass coke bottle & about 15 feet of nylon) trying for perch, redfin or cod. Loved it, though didn't happen that much given that we had a block of sultanas that took up most spare time.
Loved fishing with dad in those days. Up before 'sparrows fart' (& fishing inspectors) to pull a couple of drum nets. Would always be in awe & wonder at what would be in them. No taking the Monty Python p..s, but we were poor & this was a major source of nutrition for the family. The onset of metal detectors used by fisheries put an end to this special time I had with dad..... so road kill it was.... if we were lucky (there is an element of truth in this).
Years went by with many, a raw pumpkin sandwich, before I moved up here. Took 15 years before I got my own boat & started fishing in earnest. Funny how life can go the full circle, as my own family now eat raw pumpkin sandwiches so I can keep the boat serviced & head out on the weekends.

Apparently i was born with a rod and reel in hand haha I was fishing as a new born in one of them.pouches that parents strap to thier chests. My dad always took me on the boat or land in south australia. There was no turning back from then. Love my dad even more for it as it has become a huge passion now and I cannot wait to teach my little boy all about it.

A late bloomer is me.

Started 10 years ago in Inland NSW Albury

Got sick of golf so bought my first tinny and never looked back!

Since then I've lived in Broome ,Mandurah and now Darwin!!

Been here 3.5 years and love it!!