Welcome to all member's, hoping everyone is fairing up in these most frustrating of times. Hopefully we can find the way back out to sea soon and get back to enjoying everything that we love, fishing & the club. All we can do is wait for Premier Gladys to give us the green light. We are planing to go ahead with this years AGM for the club via zoom on October the 5th at 7pm so look out for details going out via email and also in the SGFC Members only page for this notice. Once we have the AGM out of the way I am hoping we can have an official club meeting of some capacity in November so stay tuned for that. We are also planning on celebrating the prize winners for the previous season, dates to be advised. With regards to the Tuna slam, as soon as we can go fishing again the slam will be back on and we will look at the calendar for the end date. Still on the club scene we have been busy with maintenance thanks to Simon Patterson from Little John Charters. Simon generously donated the new fenders from Aussie Fenders, and with the help from Nigel Raderly, Rob Howitt (Howie) & Glenn we got the job done. We also had the floors sanded & polished so now all we need is you (once allowed) to come down and enjoy your club once again. Inside this edition of the magazine we have a feature on some of our sponsors. Don't forget to support them for the maintenance of your boat as they support you, the club and it's members. Try clicking on their ads for links to their websites, videos and more! Now is the best time of year to get your baby ready for what will hopefully be an awesome summer. On a very sad note we lost a very loved member "Taggy" Bob Tag I will always remember Taggy for all his help out around the club during tournaments. Taggy would always ring me and ask if he could help out in any way. He was such a lovely gentleman and such a great club man. He will be sadly missed. RIP Taggy. I look forward to seeing members back down and around the club as soon as these lockdown allow but do ask that you do sign in we have the QR codes in place.
FROM THE PRESIDENT
Tightlines Tiddles
Calendar of Events SGFC September 2021 To be advised due to Covid !! October 2021 5th SGFC AGM by Zoom To be advised due to Covid !! November 2021 To be advised due to Covid !! December 2021 To be advised due to Covid !!
Ambition report 12th. August' 21 So frustrating knowing there are fish out there and not being able to chase them. Though the temptation is great there are risks. There are reports of Yellowfin to the North of Broken Bay and Al McGlashin told me there are good sized Bluefin being taken by longliners as far North as Forster and down off the Shoalhaven. Browns is or was holding some Albacore while the offshore reefs have Kings but patience is required. I recently heard that the water police had been out at Browns checking for Fisheries and COVID compliance, in doing so booked several boats for breaches. I rang the Water Police to confirm that they had been offshore and to clarify the rules regarding offshore fishing. The response was that they had indeed booked several boats at Browns for non-compliance with COVID and Fisheries rules. The official stance putting it simply is that you must stay within a radius of 10 kilometers of your place of residence unless you are in a Red LGA where the radius is 5 kilometers. The club's advice to members is comply with the rules.
It is with regret that we have to record the passing on August 26, 2021 of our esteemed long time member and colleague Robert Thomas (Bob) Tagg at Royal North Shore Hospital, Sydney, following a short illness. Bob was born on 21 October 1939 and raised at Rose Bay, Sydney and started a life long association with Sydney Harbour, the ocean and boats from early childhood from the family home in Dover Road. He entered the motor vehicle industry after leaving school and was engaged in various activities culminating in his key roles as a licensed Auctioneer and Valuer with senior roles in a number of major organisations. He and Jan were married in 1961 from the Rose Bay address, but subsequently purchased a home at Frenches Forest raising daughter Deborah and son Steven. In later years they resided at Manly in an apartment with views of his beloved Harbour. He and Jan celebrated 60 years of marriage earlier in 2021. Bob joined the Club in 1978 through his friendships with various motor industry members, including the “Double Bay gang” from Keith Whiteheads DB marina. He crewed aboard a number of Club vessels, particularly Austin (Aussie) Tauranac’s beautiful “Capricorn”. He and Jan purchased their Grand Banks “Taggalong” and enjoyed many happy days aboard on the Harbour, at sea and in Pittwater. Later on they utilised a smaller vessel for fishing from Little Manly. Bob was a long time attendee at the annual SGFC Dinosaur social events, enjoying the company of a number of his contemporaries including his close motor industry friend Rod Washington, who regrettably passed away only weeks before Bob. A private family funeral was held on August 30, 2021. We bid farewell to a stalwart Club veteran and friend who enjoyed a long boating and fishing life and a close family. John McIntyre. September 2021.
VALE- THE LATE BOB TAGG.
More updates at the (SGFC) Clubhouse New fenders have also been installed. A huge thank you to Simon Paterson from Little-John Charters for organising the fenders
SGFC Clubhouse Updates While you have been away, we have been busy with improvements to the clubhouse and wharf. We can't wait to have you all back to see all the changes. See you all soon.
Click here to see what Short Marine can do for you
Nothing beats time and experience when it comes to successfully targeting gamefish. Fisho’s DAVID GREEN has spent a lifetime on the water and offers the following expert tips to help improve your results out on the big blue ocean. WHEN I was a kid catching bream and leatherjackets from a jetty I dreamed of a time when I’d get out to sea and chase marlin, mackerel and all the other big fish that lived in the wide blue ocean. Over the years I’ve been fortunate to live that dream. From early apprenticeships in small tinnies chasing black marlin to now regularly fishing wide of the shelf targeting big blue marlin, it's been a great ride. I’ve been able to watch the ocean in all its moods, and in more than 35 years at sea in a wide range of boats I’ve observed a lot of fish behaviour. The ocean can be a hard book to read, and the clues can be tiny and discreet messages. However, if you’re observant, these messages, or signs, will often lead you to fish. Over the ensuing pages are 10 tips I’ve picked up over the years. These snippets of info have helped me get better at catching the big predators of the open ocean. With the warm blue currents of summer upon us, now is the best time of the year for you to start hunting the big blue ocean for the fish of your dreams. (1) Bait Is The Key Gamefish are apex predators and as such are at the top end of the food chain. There are always fewer predators than prey species and popular game species such as tuna, billfish and wahoo are dependent on a constant food source. All gamefish have a very high metabolic rate and need a lot of fuel. In the open ocean there are often wide voids of nothingness and thus the fish need to maximise their energy intake in areas of plenty. This is the reason a blue marlin will demolish your lure. The fact is, that fish will have a go at eating every creature it encounters. Anything that will fit in its mouth is on the menu. This can range from flying fish to a 10 kilo tuna or even a toadfish. The message here is that you can't afford to ignore even a seemingly insignificant flick of a baitfish on the surface. Bait is like an iceberg – for every fish on the surface there are often thousands below. The art of finding bait can at times
Ten Top Tips to catch more Gamefish http://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/Ten Top Tips to catch more gamefish - Fishing World
be tricky, especially when there are few birds. A good sounder is an essential tool, but you will only see what is directly below you. The scanning eye that picks up a small flash in a swell, a different kind of rippling of the surface or a small oil patch in a rough sea will lead you to find bait. Tiny little clues can lead to big fish. In general terms, get in the mindset of finding the bait as your most important priority. Always track over to any small clues, even if from a distance they seem totally insignificant. I’ve caught marlin by following a single small flying fish. No bait is too small. (2) Troll With The Sea Ocean swells provide a free ride for travelling gamefish, and any sea will have a dominant swell direction. It takes a lot less energy for a big fish to swim in the same direction as the sea, and in summer off my local coastline in south-east Queensland it's common to see marlin “tailing” in an afternoon northerly sea breeze, cruising the swells using minimal energy. As this is the main direction of travel, it’s much easier for a fish to chase a lure or bait trolled with the sea rather than against it. While it’s generally impossible to spend all day trolling with the sea, maximise the time your boat is travelling in the same direction as the swell. In summer this may mean heading north in the morning when it’s calm and trolling home when the sea breeze picks up in the afternoon with the sea behind you. Regardless of the species you’re targeting, you generally get twice the hits trolling with the sea than you do trolling into it. (3) Never Leave Fish To Find Fish An oldie but a goodie. If you crack a decent bite, find a bait school and then find that things go quiet, don’t leave unless you’ve got a really good reason
to. Most of the open ocean is actually devoid of life, and I’ve learnt the lesson over many years that leaving a good bait school to try and find another often fails. Stick with the one you’ve found and work it hard. Track it on your GPS, work around it, probably up to a kilometre or so away, but don’t leave for bluer pastures. If you’re lure trolling and not much is happening, troll dead baits or catch some livies. Vary your methods, not your spots. Be patient, work out when your next tide change is and hang in there. Fishing a decent bait school is the best card in the pack. Random trolling in search of some unknown dream spot is the least effective method of all. (4) Learn About Birds Birds that live on the open ocean are the best clues you have when it comes to finding fish. They all use different methods to find baitfish, and some use incredible ingenuity. Even more incredible is the fact that some fish use birds to help them find their prey. There is an ancient Japanese method where a white handmade imitation bird is attached to a long pole by a couple of metres of cord. While one hunter is poised with a harpoon, the other person works the bird in constant figure eights over the water. In time this attracts the attention of predators, usually Spanish mackerel, that investigate the circling bird and can be speared. Shearwaters, aka mutton birds, locate fish by sensing the fish oils in the surface layers. This is how they can locate schools of slimy mackerel that are 20 fathoms below the surface. Some species, such as frigate birds, scan the ocean from a great height looking for travelling predators like marlin that then lead them to the baitfish. If you see a frigate bird (they have a very distinctive silhouette) there is a very good chance there is a marlin or shark directly underneath it. Gannets are extremely capable animals that can dive well below the surface and catch their own bait and generally indicate schools of pilchards or slimy mackerel. There is a lot to learn about birds and it isn’t always simple. If all the birds are flying in the same direction then that is the way you should head. Despite the best sounders and GPS, we actually know bugger all about finding baitfish when compared to birds
(5) Current Lines Are Highways When swirling masses of current intersect, they create compressive forces between the water bodies that create lift and force the two bodies of water to form a series of tiny back eddies that collect debris. In summer these collect dead algae and plankton that is often incorrectly referred to as “coral spawn”. These current lines create a food chain and also often have a distinct temperature and colour change between the two bodies of water. They make a great place to troll along, particularly for dolphin fish and marlin. The actual biomass in a current line can be huge and trolling along the edge of debris is a time proven method of catching a wide range of pelagic gamefish. (6) Record Your Clues! GPS has made gamefishing a lot easier, but a lot of anglers fail to record those small clues that, when you put them all together, add up to give you a lot of useful information. Most GPS units come with “event marks” as well as dedicated waypoints. This is your white board on which you can put a lot of seemingly insignificant events, from a circling bird to a flying fish, into a recorded form. By constantly adding little snippets of information you’ll often find you start to mark out productive areas where fish often return to day after day. I find, even when trolling a relatively lifeless piece of water, that the spots you got a “blind” strike on often produce more bites in the future. Sometimes these spots mark an unknown eddy in a current or there is a big bait school somewhere in the vicinity that you haven’t yet found. Regardless of exactly what it is, repeatedly plotting small events shows you the areas that mark productive patches of ocean. Similarly, migrating fish often track down distinct contour lines and repeated mapping can show you where these depth contours are (the 46m contour off the Gold Coast has been very fertile in summer for me). The more notes you keep, the better results you'll have in the future.
(7) Troll Over Reefs If you’re trolling but can’t find bait or fish make sure you track your troll over patches of reef rather than bare sand. There's a lot more life over reefy bottom and this often results in a lot of pelagic activity in summer. Sometimes you will find patches of deep bait on reefs and at times a lot of pelagic species feed close to the bottom. In addition, high reef causes upwellings when current runs over it which pushes food into the surface layers. We catch a lot of marlin in summer trolling over the same spots we catch snapper in the winter. Try to avoid trolling between spots where you spend too much time over sand. (8) Use Radios Carefully! Radios transmit and receive. Some of the best skippers listen to everything but talk little, and if you leave your VHF on scan you can often tap in on useful conversations, although it must be said that a lot of radio babble is unreliable. Some guys start rabbiting on as soon as a ratchet clicks, blabbing to all and sundry about the billfish they’ve hooked or dropped. Often these billfish turn out to be 3kg striped tuna. Despite this, you will, if you listen carefully, get a few clues as to the depth where the strikes are coming from or the general area of activity. (9) Moving Bites Most gamefish, especially billfish, dollies and wahoo, ride the summer currents. At this time of year the East Australian Current runs from the Great Barrier Reef down to the NSW South Coast at a speed of up to three knots. If, in your local waters, there was a hot bite to the north of you, you will often find in a few days that the fish activity has moved south. It often pays to calculate the next likely hot spot down the coast where the fish will find bait as the current pushes them south. So if the bite last weekend was 10kms to the north of you, next weekend it will likely be 10kms south. Always consider this when planning your trips. (10) Patience Is A Virtue Gamefishing is all about converting opportunities into fish. It’s common to spend 12 hours trolling for marlin without a sniff. It’s a game of persistence and self belief based on experience, preparation and careful thought. Be prepared for many fishless hours, they are just opportunities to plan better and think.
Marina Bayside is a busy Boat Yard located in Taren Point on the shores of Botany Bay. We are a proud sponsor of your club!
Click to watch a short video of our Facility and Shiplift
After much planning we have just received DA approval to further upgrade our facility. Some of the upgrades include, large state of the art undercover repair and maintenance sheds, accommodating vessels undercover up to 65 feet. We will also have a large undercover rack/stack dry boat storage facility for approximately 160 vessels, hosting a walk on, walk off service.
Our General Manager Mike Schlesinger, has been a SGFC member since 1990. Mike is also a Shipwright and delivers excellent customer service and has been looking after many club Members vessels at Marina Bayside since taking over in 2016. Our yard has a 65 tonne Travel lift, with a large hard stand area and undercover workshops. We specialise in repairs and maintenance, including antifoul, polishing, fibreglass, gelcoat repairs, spray painting, timber work, customisations, restorations and insurance work.
We know times have been tough with Covid lockdowns and we are still operating safely under the government guidelines. If we can be of further assistance during these hard times, we are able to make arrangements to pick up and deliver your vessel for any service or maintenance needs. Please do not hesitate to contact us should we be of assistance - 9524 0044 or email: mike@marinabayside.com.au
Little-John Charters
14th July 2021 Yellow Fin Tuna about 75-80kg 24kg line, 1.5hr fight Way off direct out off Jervis Bay entrance. Water temp 15.8c. Biggest I have caught to date !
MONEY A man will pay $2 for a $1 item he needs. A woman will pay $1 for a $2 item that she doesn't need but it's on sale. BATHROOMS A man has six items in his bathroom: toothbrush and toothpaste, shaving cream, razor, a bar of soap, and a towel. The average number of items in the typical woman's bathroom is 337. A man would not be able to identify more than 20 of these items. ARGUMENTS A woman has the last word in any argument. Anything a man says after that is the beginning of a new argument. FUTURE A woman worries about the future until she gets a husband. A man never worries about the future until he gets a wife. MARRIAGE A woman marries a man expecting he will change, but he doesn’t. A man marries a woman expecting that she won't change, but she does. DRESSING UP A woman will dress up to go shopping, water the plants, empty the garbage, answer the phone, read a book, and get the mail. A man will dress up for weddings and funerals. OFFSPRING Ah, children. A woman knows all about her children. She knows about dentist appointments and romances, best friends, favourite foods, secret fears and hopes and dreams. A man is vaguely aware of some short people living in the house. THOUGHT FOR THE DAY A married man should forget his mistakes. There's no use in two people remembering the same thing!
Men Are Just Happier People! What do you expect from such simple creatures? Your last name stays put. The garage is all yours. Wedding plans take care of themselves. Chocolate is just another snack. You can never be pregnant. You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park. You can wear NO shirt to a water park. Car mechanics tell you the truth. The world is your urinal. You never have to drive to another petrol station toilet because this one is just too icky. You don't have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt. Wrinkles add character. Wedding dress - $5,000. Tux rental - $100. People never stare at your chest when you're talking to them. New shoes don't cut, blister, or mangle your feet. One mood all the time. Phone conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. You know stuff about tanks. A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. You can open all your own jars. You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend. Your underwear is $8.95 for a three-pack. Two pairs of shoes are more than enough. You almost never have strap problems in public. You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. Everything on your face stays its original colour. The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. You only have to shave your face and neck. You can play with toys all your life. One wallet and one pair of shoes - one colour for all seasons. You can wear shorts no matter how your legs look. You can 'do' your nails with a pocket knife. You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache. You can do Christmas shopping for 25 relatives on December 24 in 25 minutes. NICKNAMES · If Laura, Kate and Sarah go out for lunch, they will call each other Laura, Kate and Sarah. If Mike, Dave and John go out, they will affectionately refer to each other as Fat Boy, Bubba and Wildman . EATING OUT When the bill arrives, Mike, Dave and John will each throw in $20, even though it's only for $32.50. None of them will have anything smaller and none will actually admit they want change back. · When the girls get their bill, outcome the pocket calculators.
SAINTLY WHISPERS