Newcastle Port Stephens Game Fish Club

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Tourism Impact of the Big Game Fishing Camping Ground at Shoal Bay – 1934

By 1934 a camping ground had been established by the newly formed Pacific Big Game Fishing Club on crown land leased at Shoal Bay and a club house was planned for construction.

The Newcastle Sun of 13 August 1934, page 2, reported:

‘Regarded by the Newcastle Publicity Director, Mr. Cahill, as an important tourist project for the Newcastle and Northern district, a modern club house which will accommodate 80 or more guests is about to be built at Shoal Bay at the entrance to Port Stephens. The object is to popularise deep-sea fishing at Port Stephens and provide facilities for big-game fishermen whom it is hoped to attract, not only from all parts of Australia, but also from overseas.

The project is being undertaken by The Pacific Big Game Fishing Club, and work has already been commenced on the er****on of 14 cottages (or “huts” as they are called) which are included in the scheme. An expenditure of between £2000 and £3000 will be involved in the complete project.

“Preference is to be given to club members who require accommodation,” the Newcastle Publicity Director (Mr. Cahill) said today, “but tourists will also be accommodated. The whole idea is to organise the tourist facilities there, and the scheme will bring Port Stephens into line with the leading fishing resorts of the world.” Mr. Cahill conferred with the organiser of the scheme (Mr. R***r), who is now in Newcastle, and who hopes that the project will appeal particularly to big-game fishermen in this area. “The facilities being provided,” Mr. R***r said, “are badly needed by big game fishermen who like fishing at Port Stephens”.

The club has about 40 acres of land there, and the main club house will include a dining-room for 140 people.” The situation is in picturesque scrub, the area being a declared sanctuary for native flora and fauna. The club house will be practically on an island at the entrance to Port Stephens and will be connected by a good track to the main road at Nelson’s Bay. There will be good surfing, swimming, and fishing on the ocean beaches at Zenith Beach, False Bay [Shoal Bay], and Fingal Cove, and the property will face Shoal Beach, which is a picturesque and safe anchorage.

We expect to commence constructing the club house within a fortnight, and that the whole job will be completed within two months.” The club house will be a two storey weatherboard building with a frontage of 138ft. Besides a dining room, which will also be used for dancing and will accommodate 140 people, it will contain vestibule, office, library, cloak room, buffet, two sun verandas, a billiard room, and two balconies overlooking the bay and the grounds. A view of the dance floor will also be available from the balconies, and a novel feature will be a balconette set in the centre of the chimney. The 14 huts, or cottages, six of which are now built, will be erected round the quadrangle.

Mr. R***r said that it was also intended to build a wharf, and that the scheme included the construction of a swimming baths. Both the wharf and the baths would be flood lit by electric light, and the Lands Department had now been asked for permission to proceed with this work. “If the fishermen are interested, tennis courts and a golf course will also be provided,” Mr. R***r said. “But this will depend on the desires of the fishermen who visit the place regularly.” Mr. R***r explained that the club was a proprietary company, which was about to be formed, and that membership would cost £10 for shares in the company. It was proposed to limit membership to 200, but accommodation would also be available for fishermen who were not members.’

The Newcastle Sun of 6 September 1934, page 18, also reported:

‘In these delightful surroundings the Newcastle and Northern District Big Game and Deep-Sea Fishing Club has its camping quarters in the Port Stephens district. The photograph [below] was taken by the Government official photographer, who has just completed a tour of the district in connection with the publicity drive launched by the Council Tourist Bureau.’

The Newcastle Sun of 6 November 1934, page 10, also reported:

‘The Pacific Big Game Fishing Club, Ltd., which has been registered in New South Wales with nominal capital of £20.000, in shares of £1 each, has for its primary object the establishment of a Fishermen’s Club at Shoal Beach, Port Stephens. Shoal Beach is the old headquarters of the famous Tunny Fishing Club, in which the late Sir Herbert Maitland was prominent. The property acquired by the company is regarded as being ideally situated for a clubhouse.’

Preparations for the Opening of the Clubhouse at Shoal Bay – 1935

The Sydney Morning Herald of 19 February 1935, page 10, reported:

‘Provision for big game fishing as an organised sport in New South Wales coastal waters on a scale comparable with that developed in other countries is to be made available to sportsmen at Shell Beach [Shoal Bay], Port Stephens. The Pacific Big Game Fishing Club, Ltd., which has been registered with a nominal capital of £10,000, is about to take over a large and specially equipped clubhouse erected at Shell Beach by Dr. H. P. Elliot, of Tuncurry, and proposes to develop deep-sea big game, and other fishing in the waters of Port Stephens and the adjacent coasts.

It is proposed that membership of the club shall be limited to 300, all of whom will be subscribers. The clubhouse provides living accommodation for 64 members. In the grounds, which comprise more than 40 acres, there are also a number of comfortable cabins for the accommodation of parties. It is proposed, also, to lay out a golf course and tennis courts. A fleet of launches suitable for deep-sea work is to be provided for the use of members

The object is to attract oversea sportsmen to the coastal waters of New South Wales when the fishing grounds have been properly explored and proved. The new club is to be formally opened by the Chief Secretary (Mr. Chaffey) on March 2.’

The Newcastle Sun of 26 February 1935, page 4, also reported:

‘The Chief Secretary (Mr. Chaffey) will officially open the new club house and headquarters of the Pacific Big Game Fishing Club at Shoal Bay, Port Stephens, on Saturday, at 3 p.m. The Newcastle City Council will be represented at the function by the Mayor (Ald. Christie), the Town Clerk (Mr. Glassop), and the Publicity Director (Mr. Cahill), and many leading anglers from Sydney and Newcastle will be present, as well as the head of the Government Tourist Bureau (Mr. Lamble), of Sydney. Competitions for beach, estuary, and deep-sea fishing will be arranged.

Tunny fishing will be in full swing, and anglers are promised a good weekend. Mr. Cahill regards the establishment of these club headquarters as the first definite attempt to organise the fishing attractions of the area.’

The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate of 27 February 1935, page 6, also reported:

‘The clubhouse and individual accommodation huts which have been erected at Shoal Bay, Port Stephens, for the establishment of what will be known as the Pacific Big Game Fishing Club will be officially opened by the Chief Secretary (Mr. F. A. Chaffey) in the presence of district and visiting local government authorities and the public on Saturday afternoon. Newcastle City Council will be represented by the Mayor (Ald. R. H. Christie), the Publicity Director (Mr. F. J. Cahill) and the Town Clerk (Mr. John Glassop).

Visitors from Sydney and Newcastle are expected. It was stated last night that those interested in the development of the club are keen to foster big game fishing. Beach and port fishing in the vicinity of the club quarters has been very successful, fish have even been caught by throwing a line from the clubhouse veranda, but little has been due in the direction of catching bigger fish. The clubhouse is a spacious building, erected on the water’s edge. Near it are a number of small huts, now leased to casual visitors, which will later be reserved for the use of members of the club.’
The Sun of 28 February 1935, page 2, also reported:

‘An elaborate fishing camp at Shoal Beach, just inside the heads of Port Stephens, will be opened by the Chief Secretary (Mr. Chaffey), for the Pacific Big Game Fishing Club, at 3 p.m. on Saturday. The clubhouse has been designed by Mr. R. J. Magoffin (who designed the new Mosman rowing shed). The big game fishing waters round Broughton Island and Seal Rocks are close at hand, while the port itself is a noted fishing ground.’

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Early History of Game Fishing at Port Stephens (part 4)

Description of Big Game Fishing at Port Stephens – 1927

The Sydney Mail of 18 May 1927, page 10, reported:

‘One of the favourite haunts of the big-fishmen is Port Stephens, a beautiful harbour a few miles north of Newcastle, with good places of accommodation. “You leave Sydney as a rule early in the morning,” said Mr. Chidgey, in describing the sport, “and get to Port Stephens by train, car, and launch, arriving at the Port at about 6 o’clock. You can always get plenty of bait there. The fishing is done from the launch (shown in the two illustrations below).

On the reel is a line of about 400 yards in length. Sometimes it is longer. In fishing, we have about 100 yards out behind the boat. We are after Spanish mackerel or tunny. When a big one bites it carries out in a rush for another 200 yards or so. That’s in the first rush. After that the fight begins. The fish makes more rushes. You get him closer and closer to the boat, and generally when you get him up close he starts off again. It is hard to get him in, and it can only be done by pumping. Sometimes the tussle will last half an hour; sometimes an hour and a half. You never know what you’re in for. If the tackle is light you have to let him go. Once you get him 15 or 20 feet from the boat it is difficult to shift him, because there is the danger of snapping the rod. You bring him a little closer, a little closer, every time he goes off — a little closer, until at last he is within striking distance with the gaff.

If he is smaller than you want you cut the wire with the pliers and let him go. Sometimes you will catch the same one a second time, which proves that fish haven’t got the feelings that we have. I’ve done that repeatedly. We are ‘game’ fishers. We don’t fish wantonly just for the mere killing. ‘Sometimes the catch will show tremendous power. In the rush they will pull you from one end of the boat to the other.

We can’t fish with toys in those circumstances. Inexperienced fishermen will break their rods easily. Sometimes an experienced man will do that when the fish will be brought underneath, and will make a rush straight down. That gives a pull on the rod in a way that makes it impossible for a break to be avoided. ‘The boat, when we are fishing, goes at about five or six miles an hour, with the line out and what is known as a teaser on it- — an imitation of a fish. They jump at the teaser.’

The Spanish mackerel run up to about 40 and 45 pounds in weight. It is known as a mackerel, but it belongs to the herring family. We catch them anywhere outside. They are a migratory fish, chasing the garfish, travelling up the coast all the time. We have never got them further south than Bateman’s Bay. They travel up north, and are gone by the end of May, after which we don’t see them again until about February. Sometimes those fish will jump 30 feet out of the water — a tremendous jump, but they are big powerful things, running to five and half feet in length. ….

The big game fish as we know them are the Spanish mackerel, the southern tuna, or tunny, the king fish, the tailer, and the sharks. Once we caught a swordfish as they do in New Zealand, but we haven’t discovered them properly yet. They have been seen off the coast by the fishermen in the last few years. The mako shark they catch in New Zealand is similar to the blue pointer, and we have millions of them here.

We have not long started this salt-water section of the society. The rodfishers, who are essentially trout fishers, decided to go in for it, and Mr. Pope, Mr. Andreas, and myself [Mr. Chidgey], joined the committee formed to popularise big game fishing in New South Wales. Mr. Andreas is a famous Australian fisherman. We are out for ‘game’ fish, and it is a sport that should be something more than the hobby of a society of a few members.

It should be a government work, popularising it as they do in New Zealand, where they make so much out of it. Look at the men who go from here to New Zealand after the big game fish. They go there because they don’t know we have big game here. As to shark fishing, is there anything so far as sharks are concerned in New Zealand to compare with what can be obtained here? Big fishing is not a matter of our own coast alone; you can go up to the Great Barrier Reef.”

Proposed formation of the Pacific Big Game Fishing Club – 1933

The Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate of 20 October 1933, page 10, reported:

‘Many times in fishing circles round Newcastle the possibilities of big game fishing have been discussed for Port Stephens waters, but up to the present nothing in the way of an organisation has been formed. It is claimed that Port Stephens compares favourably with the world’s famous game fishing resorts. A number of Newcastle leading anglers desire to form a big game club, and a meeting has been convened at the N.S.W. Sports Stores, 655 Hunter-street West, Newcastle, for 8.15 p.m. on Monday. Judging by the interest shown, it should be largely attended. Further particulars may be learned from Mr. Rex Asher. of the N.S.W. Sports Stores.’

The Newcastle Sun of 24 October 1933, page 8, also reported:

‘At a meeting of more than 50 fishing enthusiasts last night, it was decided to form an anglers’ club, to exploit the game fishing facilities of the Port Stephens and North Coast grounds.

The following officers were elected: President, Mr. R. A. Derkenne; vice-presidents, Messrs. B. M. Wainwright, W. R. Moore, P. Flohm, W. Thomas, and P. M. Gaussen; secretary, Mr. Rex Asher; assistant-secretary and treasurer, Mr. G. Grahame; auditors, Messrs. O. Banks and F. Armstrong; committee, Messrs. O. Banks, H. O. Hopkins, G. Stanley, F. Dickinson, N. V. Silverthorne, and Sutcliffe.’

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Early History of Game Fishing at Port Stephens (Part 3)

Catch of a Rare Specimen – 1914

The Referee of 4 March 1914, page 10, reported:

‘Dr. H. L. Maitland [Herbert Lethington Maitland] and Messrs. C. H. Gorrick, Guy Belisario, and P. Hyland spent the weekend at Port Stephens, for the opening of the big sea game fishing season of the N.S.W. Anglers’ Casting Club. They had already sent up a launch from Sydney, and another was engaged at Port Stephens, the party splitting into two. Unfortunately, owing to rough weather, the launches could not get out further than the inner lighthouse, but by keeping close in shore, smoother water was found, and some large kingfish were struck. …….

A fish totally new to all anglers who have seen it was caught by Mr. Gorrick, and brought to Sydney to Mr. McCulloch, of the Australian Museum, who quickly identified it as an American black kingfish, and described it as the biggest specimen he had ever seen. This must not be confused with the local kingfish, with which it is not at all allied, being a distinct species, and more of the perch tribe. The fish, caught by Mr. Gorrick has a large, flat head, closely resembling that of a Murray cod. From the shoulders back to the tail the shape is very like the ordinary kingfish. It is dark brown in colour, with a silver stripe or band running from the gills to the tail along each side. It has a vivid orange belly. The Museum authorities intend setting up this fish, as it is the largest of its kind they have seen and consequently will form a valuable addition to their collection.’

Description of Game Fishing at Port Stephens – 1921

The Referee of 30 March 1921, page 14, reported:

‘Searchers for game fish are getting good fun with the tunny, Spanish mackerel and kingfish at Port Stephens. Shoals of garfish have attracted these sporting fish and those who enjoy the thrilling pastime are being kept fairly busy. The sport is somewhat exhausting, the strain involved in holding a big fighter for a long time being very severe on arms and wrists. Before this phase of angling became so popular Dr. Mark Lidwill, in an address to the Rod Fishers Society of N.S.W., said “The sport beggared description. At Broughton Island I lost twenty piano wire traces and hooks in as many minutes. If the fish were hunting gar and pilchards at the top of the water, there was no need to load the lines with lead, but if they were down a few feet it was necessary to put leads two feet apart until as much as a pound was on, then send the boat along at a good race — six or seven knots.
Kingfish are not nervous fish and will come after a boat to see what is doing, but they know every cavern in the deep, and if they can’t run ashore they dive and find a convenient rock to cut the trace below.” Regarding the fighting qualities of the fish, Dr. Lidwill said: “The swordfish did not fight as well as an 18lb snapper. The tunny is the king of them all. He fights till he dies and I reckon it takes a minute per lb of his weight to get him still enough to gaff him. A kingfish takes half the time. The speed of the tunny is almost 60 miles an hour at first.”

Some years ago, the Anglers Casting Club of N.S.W. drafted a code of rules, simple but comprehensive, to control competitions amongst its members. Anglers were compelled to bring fish to gaff unaided, and a broken rod, either before or after gaffing, constituted a disqualification. Buttons were awarded for different captures, and the sport was generally controlled on the lines adopted by the Santa Catalina organisation.

Whole garfish or pilchards make excellent bait. Garfish, which are proving the attraction for the game fish may be caught in quiet waters after being brought about by soaked bread berley well scattered.’

The weighing station on the public jetty at Nelson Bay was named in Dr Lidwill’s honour on 9 February 2003.

The plaque reads:

Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fish Club Ltd (established 1929) Official Weigh Station. Birthplace of Game Fishing in Australia 1913. Weigh Station dedicated to the captor of the first Black Marlin (Makaira Indica) captured on rod and reel in the world.
In February 1913 Dr. Mark Lidwell from Sydney captured an 86 lb. Black Marlin off Port Stephens thinking it was a Swordfish. He sent it on board the steamship, Karuah, to the Australian Museum in Sydney for identification. This fish remains on display, in the Skeleton Section of the Museum, also can be viewed on their Web Site.

Weigh Station dedicated for the 90th Anniversary of that event by the President, N. P. S. G. F. C., Mr. David Litchfield. February 2003.

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Early History of Game Fishing at Port Stephens (Part 2)

Dr. Mark Lidwill and his Port Stephens Fish Specimen – 1913

In 1913, during one of his big game fishing excursions along the north coast of New South Wales, Dr. Mark Lidwell, caught a number of Spanish Mackeral, which he then thought were swordfish. Dr. Lidwell was a Sydney medical pioneer in anaesthesiology and cardiology. To identify their true species, he had one of the fish sent by the steamer ‘Karuah‘ to the Australian Museum in Sydney. The museum identified the specimen to be a Makaira Indica or Black Marlin and it became recognised that it was the first such fish in the world to have been caught on a rod and reel. The skeleton is still in the possession of the Australian Museum and was on exhibit there for many years.

In February 2003, the Newcastle and Port Stephens Game Fish Club named the weighing station at Nelson Bay in Dr Lidwell’s honour.

Early Plans for a Big Game Fishing Clubhouse at Port Stephens – 1913

The Sun of 7 December 1913, page 22, reported:

‘The big-game hunters who find their sport in the ocean off the New South Wales coast are not going to be content with the formation of a club affiliated with the Tuna Club of Santa Catalina Island, California. They are going to have their own clubhouse at a convenient centre for engaging in their exciting and dangerous sport. Dr. H. L. Maitland, president of the Anglers’ Casting Club and the local offshoot of the Tuna Club, is at the head of the movement, and his enthusiasm is shared by several medical men and others in professional and business circles in the State.

At present the club-house idea is in embryo, but it will not take long to make it an actuality, and once it is, its success is assured, for the waters of the Pacific are rich in fish of the game variety. Seen respecting the project Dr. Maitland said: “The club house is a necessary development of the magnificent ocean sport available here. Undoubtedly it will be at Port Stephens, which is convenient and safe. Broughton Island, near which the best fish are caught, is too far from the port, and too dangerous to approach in bad weather, but we can run to it in about an hour and a half from the port. In the bay near the entrance [Shoal Bay] to the port and not far from the lighthouse one can hardly throw a stone, during the Spanish mackerel season without hitting a fish. This great sport is bound to become very popular. The excitement of it has no rival, except in American waters, where varieties of game fish, such as the tuna, the giant yellowtail, the swordfish, the basses, and the albacore, are plentiful.

“The best way to establish a club will be on the company basis. There will be an outlay for the house and punt, and possibly a couple of launches, and in no time the club will pay its way, and the club “premises will increase in value automatically. Without undue optimism I can see a great future before the Port Stephens club house. Already we have a big membership, and there will be no difficulty about the financial side of the matter. It may take another year to get under way, but after that it will all be smooth sailing. I expect we will have members in all the States and New Zealand, and big-game fishers from other parts of the world will soon visit us when they see what New South Wales has to offer in the way of big fish.”

Alas, Dr. Maitland did not anticipate the First World War [1914 – 1918] which would delay the construction of the much-needed club house.

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Early History of Game Fishing at Port Stephens (Part 1)
Researched and compiled by Kevin McGuinness

Introduction

Fishing has been an important activity at Port Stephens since the Woromi Aboriginal people relied on it for obtaining food.

After European settlement, both recreational and commercial fishing commenced. Oyster farming also became significant to the local economy. Before 1913, fishing was primarily undertaken in the port and rivers. Commercial fishing expanded into surrounding ocean waters after the Pindimar Fish Processing Factory was established in 1917.

In 1913, Dr. Mark Lidwill, a doctor from Sydney promoted the area’s potential for big game fishing. Before the sport was introduced in Australia, big game fishing was popular in America and often drew Australian competitors. It gained popularity in Sydney and the south coast of New South Wales before World War I, especially among medical professionals from Sydney.

A group of big game fishing enthusiasts from Sydney, Newcastle and Maitland formed the Pacific Big Game Fishing Club Limited in 1933 at Shoal Bay. By 1934, a camping ground had been established by the new club on crown land leased at Shoal Bay and a club house was constructed, opening in March 1935.

The formation of the fishing club popularised big game fishing to at Port Stephens and marked a major change in recreational and competition fishing in the region.

Big game fishing targets large sea fish such as kingfish, tunny, Spanish mackerel, and sharks. During competitions, members used regulation reels and lines with a specified maximum breaking strain, requiring skill to land large fish without breaking the line or rod.

In more recent times there has been a transition from capturing and weighing of game fish towards tag and release.

Over the years, numerous Australian and world record catches have been made in the waters off Port Stephens which is still regarded as one of the top areas for big game fishing in Australia.

Using the resourses of the National Library of Australia’s Trove newspaper collection, this reearch paper explores the early history of big game fishing at Port Stephens. It also looks at the beginnings of the Shoal Bay Country Club, as the premises of the fishing club became known.

Description by Dr. Mark Lidwill of Game Fishing at Port Stephens – 1913

The Sun of 11 May 1913, page 24, reported:

‘Dr. Mark Lidwill, of Strathfield, is a man who takes his holidays strenuously amongst the magnificent game fish of the world. He has found since his stay in New South Wales that in local waters the best representatives of the fighting fish are present in immense numbers, and that they give better sport to anglers than the tarpon, of Florida, or the leaping tuna, of Santa Catalina, off the Californian coast.

Speaking of his recent experiences in boats along the coast, Dr. Lidwill told members of the Rod Fishers’ Society the other night that the sport with the giant mackerels and kingfish here beggared description. “I went first to Tuncurry, where I heard there was big sea game,” said Dr. Lidwill, “but I couldn’t find them there”, and I hunted about the coast for a long time, till I found them. At Abraham’s Bosom, near Jervis Bay, I got my first local experience with something that took shifting. There I found thousands of huge Sharks. They were so thick that you could pick out the fish you wanted. They burst up my reels and tackle in no time, for the blue-pointer is a fighter of quality; and there is plenty of him.

Then I heard the tunny and big kingfish were off Port Stephens, so I went north and secured Dick Waterson and his boat, for the hunt. I purchased all the strongest spinners I could find; sent to England for the strongest made, and to America for the heaviest tarpon lures, and spun and spun for four weeks, with the result that my bag was a four-inch mackerel, caught in the eye. “I went again and tried round Broughton Island, and pretty soon all my spinners were proved to be useless. The big fish came on the job, and they smashed things to bits. The first day out I caught two kingfish, the biggest weighing 40lb., and a jewfish of 36lb., but they played the mischief with my reels and I found the thumb brake the biggest curse ever invented. I had to be content with what I had, though, until I could get better.

Then I got a Vom Hofe reel, and didn’t find it suitable, so I designed two or three kinds of reels, until at last I made one which gave all the brake-powers I wanted, and which ran freely when I wanted to reel in line. “Dick Waterson suggested that it might be advisable to try towing a garfish on lighter tackle and smaller flights of hooks behind the boat, so we went this season to Broughton Island again. We made our way into Esmeralda Cove, where there is a little boat haven, and in twenty minutes I lost twenty piano-wire traces and baits. The fish were there thick, and I learned something new every day. If the fish were hunting pilchards and gar at the top of the water there was no need to load the line with lead, but if, as often happened, they were down a few feet it was necessary to load the line with lead, each piece two feet away from the next, until as much as a pound was on, and then send the boat along at a good rate— six or seven knots. I used barrel loads, and I found short towing the best for kingfish. They are not nervous fish, and they come after a boat to see what is doing. ….

Dr. Lidwell did not try all the time close to the coast. He went 40 miles wide for the game fish, but did not get them so freely as close to the coast. He caught a young

diamond trevally that had evidently been carried hundreds of miles south from its accustomed waters in a fast south-setting current. It had curious dorsal extensions like the pennant fish. Then he came back, and got fast to a sword-fish— a rare catch— and to use his own words, it “came in like a mutton-bird.” It fairly stood on its tail in the water at times, shaking its head, and the party aboard expected the boat to be scuttled by its sword. Ultimately, however, it was beaten and gaffed, and subsequently figured in a photograph (see next section) as a remarkable catch, which it undoubtedly was. The fight with it lasted about 12 minutes, and the rod was a 14oz. one, which Dr. Lidwill considers will catch any fish in the sea.

Dr. Lidwill brought with him to the meeting three handsome specimens of the Spanish mackerel, kingfish, and tunny to show that his talk of the catches was not so much hot air. He had them cleaned and cold-stored, so that they kept splendidly. “One day off Broughton Island,” said the doctor, “I caught six Spanish mackerel, averaging about 65lb. I found them working in shoals, but directly two were caught the rest sheered off, and we had to hunt for them in another place. They differ from the kingies which will follow the boat for miles to see what has happened to those that have been caught. Coming back to Port Stephens one day we caught nine, and our average was nine for some days. …..

“The swordfish did not fight as well as a 15lb. schnapper, but the tunny is the king of them all. He fights till he dies, and I reckon it takes a minute per pound, of his weight to get him still enough alongside to gaff him. A kingflsh takes half the time, and a Spanish mackerel a quarter. A large schnapper comes next for lighting capacity; the 28-pounder was a great fighter. Next comes the blue-pointer, and then the hammer-head shark. A tailer 3ft. 6in. long also puts up a good fight. The speed of the tunny is about 60 or 70 miles an hour at first.”

[Left to right] Athel D’Ombrain, Newman Silverthorne, Sil Rohu. The first big game catches of 1935 at Shoal Bay were two grey nurse sharks and a wobby-gong. The new clubhouse is in the background [Newcastle University Living Histories collection]