I have been a member of SGFC since 2008 and I regard it as a foundation organisation within the fishing community for like-minded individuals who love game fishing, friendly competition and a forum to help guide existing and new members and the public as to how to interact with our unique and often understood ocean resources. We will be adding some more opportunities for existing members to demonstrate proper rigging and fishing practices for new and prospective members so that we can all benefit from shared knowledge and a better understanding of how to get the most out of your SGFC membership. We look forward to continuing the existing community and good will events which take place at SGFC such as Gone Fishing day and the Children’s Hospital Christmas Party in addition to some new social fishing days where Club members can get to know each other a bit better and help encourage members to participate in the yearly competitions for trophies and awards. Summer point score starts on the 17th of September this year and due to the weather being much worse than average over the normally stable winter period, many members will be itching to get out fishing. The SGFC Members Only Facebook page is a great place to look for extra crew if you are ever short. Categories for tag and release and capture are all up for grabs so there is not much left to say other than tight lines and I hope to see you out there! Tight Lines Ed Aspden
FROM THE PRESIDENT
I would like to thank the members for the honour of becoming President of SGFC for the 2023 season. Most importantly I would like to thank the outgoing President Karen Wright for her outstanding contribution to the Club during her tenure and well deserved life-member status. Karen has worked tirelessly promoting the interests of the Club and its members and luckily she will still be available for guidance and advice in navigating the intricacies of running the SGFC organisation. I would also like to thank the outgoing Committee members for their efforts to keep the Club running through some difficult times, without the help and brains trust of these volunteers, we would not be able to run SGFC.
ADVERTISE WITH US Tight Lines advertising is available. It's a great way to get your message out to your fellow members For more information please Email our club secretary Annita Flannery on secretary@sgfc.com.au
Calendar of Events SGFC September 2022 27th - Committee Meeting October 2022 1st - 2nd Summer Pointscore 14th - Club Meeting Tuna Champions 9th - Gone Fishing Day NSW 15th - 16th Summer Pointscore 25th Committee Meeting November 2022 1st Club Meeting TBA 5th - 6th Summer Pointscore 19th - 20th Summer Pointscore 29th Committee Meeting December 2022 3rd - 5th Summer Pointscore 6st - Club Meeting 10th - SGFC Children's Hospital Christmas Party 17th - 18th Summer Pointscore 27th Committee Meeting
Tight Lines is a members based magazine. We welcome and ask for any articles, stories, photos and information on what is going on out there from our members. No matter how big or small "remember it's your club too". Send all info to Email: stephen@pitchforkprinting.com.au all Call Stephen Pitchfork on 0404019683
October club meeting Friday 14th start 7pm This special meeting will feature guest speaker India Thompson of the Tuna Champions project offering tips on catching, post catch care and how to tag tuna for best survival.
Funding for this project is coming from Recreational Angler Fishing Trust and matched with a very generous donation from our good friends at Fishing Station. We especially thank Alex for his continuing commitment to the fishing community and ongoing support of the club’s activities. We encourage anglers to support Fishing Station in store or online (www.fishingstation.com.au) and take advantage of their open honest advice to get you the right gear and tactics. They are putting together some special kingfish gear packs to purchase to get you started. Entry packs will be $20/angler and there will be subsidised hand taggers available to get folks started. Entry packs will be available exclusively through Fishing Station. Once we sort out a few logistics, the competition is expected to run over 1 or 2 months in late spring when the bigger fish are around – watch the SGFC and Fishing Station web sites for details.
*** Watch this space to help with Project Kingfish research and win your share of a $10,000 prize pool for tagging kingfish. ***
SGFC and fantastic Club Gold Sponsor Fishing Station are joining forces to help Macquarie University’s Sydney Institute of Marine Science (SIMS) research into Kingfish migration and breeding habits. Sydney has an amazing kingfish fishery, and it seems to get better every year but talking with Tristen and Belinda (the scientists that work with SGFC at our tournaments), they do not know a lot about their spawning and migration habits. This research will help us all understand fish habits and better manage the fishery. They have a “Project Kingfish” Facebook page with a huge following where you can follow their research. The goal is to get the fishing community involved and helping out by tagging kingfish of breeding size (over 70cm). To encourage this, SGFC is running a tagging competition with up to $10,000 in prizes to help spread the word and get more anglers involved tagging this iconic species. There will be prizes for “longest kingfish”, “most tagged kingfish” and “total length of best 3 tagged kingfish” over the competition period. There will be categories for Adult, Junior, and Lady anglers so everyone can join in. Anglers do not need to be a club member or join SGFC to participate.
LIFE MEMBER KAREN WRIGHT 2022 For those who didn’t make it to the Club’s annual presentation lunch President Karen was, after nearly thirty years of membership and ten years as club president, honoured by being granted Life Membership. President Karen, since joining the club has represented us at almost every local tournament winning more than a few as well as leaving an indelible mark at NSWGFA level. The nominee’s prowess as an angler is evidenced by the list of World, NSW, Australian and club records held. I have worked on the committee with many Presidents over the years and I can safely say that Karen stands head and shoulders above the rest. Over the past ten years she has been the motivating force behind this club she has sponsored, promoted and been the life, albeit bacardi assisted, of the club. Again congratulations Karen a most deserved honour.
SGCF Presentation is done and dusted for another year 21-8-2022. Congratulations to all winners individual and boat winners Hugh shout out to Capture boat Reaper for cleaning up. Awesome job Jayden Hudson and Matthew Hudson Hugh shout out to T&R boats Smartbill another great season Sam Ayad and the guys. Also to Sammi-Jay for the other winners in T&R amazing results to Phil Millauro and crew Tantrum also managed to get themselves a nice haul as well. Hugh congrats to young small/now Junior Jayden Millauro for winning both sections. Jayden was a small fry for half the season then became a junior so awesome effort. Hugh congrats to Mia Wright another junior for heaviest Marlin and a few other awards. The juniors have outdone themselves. Shout out to Individual winners & boat winners Byrom von Bonde, Charlie Hare ( Junior), Andrew Paykel, David Moses, Tim Molnar (Junior) Groundswell, El Pirata, All results will be in the next tightlines So far in the tuna slam slam the heaviest is 38.4kgs to Sammi-Jay. This is technically the quiet part before summer point score, however if you go out fishing hand in your paper work as it still counts for over all and coastal waters etc. Remember any fish could be the winning one
Smart Bill 12/8/22 Central zone presentation night. Walked away with champion boat and champion angler for tag & release. Special thanks to NSWGFA and the team Sam
Notice of Motion has passed Alteration to By-Law 3 d Minimum weights Page 7, 2019-20 NSWGFA By-Laws & Regulations. Proposed by the Executive. The proposal is to alter the minimum weights for 2 species of Sharks, namely new minimum weights for Tiger Sharks and Blue Sharks for Adult anglers. Both these species are classified as NON Table Sharks. Tiger Sharks. New Min. Weights Line Classes 6 – 10kg min. 120kg which isan increase of 50kg,current is 70kg Line Classes 15 – 24kg min. 200kg which is an increase of 110kg, current is 90kg Line Classes 37 – 60kg min. 250kg which is an increase of 160kg on 37kg and 130kg on 60kg, current is 90kg on 37kg and 120kg on 60kg Blue Sharks. New Min. Weights Line Classes 6 – 10kg min. 100kg which is an increase of 30kg, current is 70kg Line Classes 15 – 24kg min. 125kg which is an increase of 35kg, current is 90kg Line Classes 37 – 60kg min. 150kg which is an increase of 30kg, current on 120kg on 60kg. Noting that Blue Sharks do not grow bigger than 200kg. Both Tiger and Blue Sharks minimum weights will have a 3 year Sunset period. NSWGFA will then again review the minimum weights of these two species. Note: This Motion does not include or affect the current minimum weights of shark species classified as Table Sharks which are Smooth Hammerhead, Mako, Porbeagle, Thresher and Whaler. It is imperative clubs are aware of the social media issue of posting pictures and comments on line and making sure if any public are at weigh stations when sharks are brought in and weighed they are advised that the Table classed species are to be used for food as well as science samples and the Non Table Tigers and Blues are being brought in for science samples and studies. Clubs are also reminded about our strict social media policy, which must be followed. NSWGFA by-laws will be updated to reflect these changes.
SGFC Monster Mako Tournament 2022 Thank you to all boats that fished the Monster Mako Tournament. The winner of the Tournament was Tantrum with 2 tagged sharks. Both shark were tagged on the Saturday 1 shark was tagged by Karen Wright a Blue shark the other was by Jonah Levi a Tiger shark .Tantrum also reported loosing another 2 sharks 1 Blue shark And another small tiger shark while fishing just outside of browns mountain. The weather didn;t help with entries, the Geoff Woollie memorial Monster Mako tournament still remains to be a excellent winters tournament
Raymond (Ray) Berry on June 19, 2022 Past president 1976-1979 Treasurer 1982-1985 and an active committee member along with Bob Danckert, Hank Newman and others who literarily saved the club after the demolition of the old clubhouse and wharf, rebuilding the present day clubhouse. Rest in peace Ray, a job well done. Born in Adelaide, Ray volunteered in a special overseas posting during the war in to a unit known as TELCOM attached to the British Army, proficient in Morse Code and high speed Radio Transmission it was 1944. Later that year on arrival in Colombo taken to an Army camp issued uniforms and to all intents in the Army, Identification papers, officers uniform and cap with badge, with a status similar to war correspondents and an honorary rank of Lieutenant when he was 17 years old. Early in the 50's his skipper King Hardwick on Atlanta introduced him to the sport he loved throughout his life rubbing shoulders with some of the great angling names of yesteryear Bob and Dolly Dyer, Jack Farrell and Jack Paton after whom Pattons Peak is named, off Sydney. Atlanta was the first purpose built Game Fishing Boat made in Australia, there was Tenesee 11 and Surfmaster, beautiful classic boats of the day. Old bikes ran the sandhills with low air pressure in their tyres so it was Ray's love affair with beach fishing and the bikes that got you there and back, sometimes with kids sharing the seats from Hawkes Nest to Seal Rocks on that big beach eating up the sand miles to fish the gutters and holes most had no hope of reaching. Good fishing then. An encyclopedic knowledge of Game fishing in Australia with interests running as far back as the 1900's Ray was entertaining and spun a tale with great humor { he was a funny bugger } he was a raconteur. He has held a heap of Australian and club records he backed himself to get the first and last Marlin of the season and got them too. His second wife Judy held a world record for a Blue Shark. Fishing on his boat Constance and on his second boat Konitoo participating regularly in club events and most competitions representing SGFC in inter club events and doing it well. Ray was a successful manufacturer of fishing reels and redesigned overhead geared reels for Surfmaster. Berry Engineering was his own business and to his credit he secured major clients across the country. A true Australian character with a larrikin streak he was charming and good looking man sadly missed.
On a beautiful winter midweek day 18/08/22. The boys from FV2 which is a serious Grady white fishing machine, headed out wide looking for yellowfin which they found. They trolled around for a while only landing the one estimated around 30kg on there return to port while trolling over a temp break they hooked up on a Shortbill Spearfish and soon after that excitement the Tiagra once again screamed off, this time to the tune of a beautiful Blue marlin which was tag & released estimated 180kg. The boys returned to Sydney game with lots of smiles so the moral of the story if the weather lots good winter or summer its; always a good time to go fishing.
TUNA SLAM Winners Sammy- Jay excellent effort by Jayden Millauro catching this 38.4kg yellowfin which earned them the take home pool of $2,300 for the heaviest tuna section
www.kingfisher-wines.myshopify.com/
Trailerboat Gamefishing Now is the time to head offshore in search of yellowfin, albacore and crazy mako sharks. GREG FINNEY details gear and techniques. SPRING on the NSW South Coast is one of my favourite gamefishing seasons. After a cold winter of snapper and squid fishing, I look forward to that first solid hookup like a single man looks forward to a one night stand with a hot blonde. Many years ago I used to enjoy chasing jumbo yellowfin tuna at The Banks, a famous reef system east of Greenwell Point, in spring, but the days of finding big (or any) yellowfin here are long gone. There’s still plenty of kings, though, and marlin in summer. These days we spend most good spring weekends out wide in pursuit of school yellowfin, albacore and mako sharks. The past four or five seasons have been crackers and this one should be the same so let’s have a look at the species and how to make the most of their upcoming appearances. Yellowfin Tuna For many NSW South Coast game fishermen, the yellowfin tuna is the ultimate prize in spring. There’s not a lot more exciting than a solid yellowfin hookup and if that fish is in the 60 to 80 kilo size range then you’ll know what a sore back is all about. Yellowfin have a well earned reputation for fighting hard and slugging it out down deep until they’re completely exhausted. Any angler who’s spent time chasing yellowfin will have a bad luck story about a big yellowfin lost after a long fight. They never give up and are one of the best looking gamefish on the planet. You can catch yellowfin by trolling lures or cubing with bait. We’ve taken some good fish by cubing and under the right conditions it’s a very effective and fun technique. However, we spend more time trolling lures these days and we only pull up and cube if the fish are in a concentrated patch or of any size. The advantages of trolling are that you don’t need to organise, buy or store pilchards for cubing. Also, you can cover a bit of ground by trolling lures and maximise chances on scattered fish. In spring we normally do a bit of trolling but if there’s a few big fish about we’ll put in the extra effort and take some pilchards and cube.
Spring on the SHELF By Fishing World - September 2009 | 1 December 2009
When trolling for yellowfin we normally run a couple of deep divers or bibless minnows off each corner and a couple of skirted lures from the outriggers. Most of the school fish in the 10 to 20 kilo size range come on the minnows but the odd large fish will grab a 6 or 8 inch skirt in green or Evil. We’ve had very good success with Rapala X-Raps over the past few years and I make no secret of the fact that we just about run these exclusively for yellowfin and albacore in spring. We run the 30 and 20 foot models on 24 and 15 kilo tackle for yellowfin with two metre leaders of 150lb Momoi trace. I like anything in green or lumo for yellowfin, but the pilchard and natural tones also work well. My favourite colour is D for Dorado. We run an eight-inch JB Dingo in lumo green on 15 kilo tackle off one outrigger for larger fish or anything that wants a surface lure. If the water temp is above 20 degrees or there’s some bait about on top we’ll usually run an skirt for striped marlin off the other outrigger on 24. We’ve had stripes up behind the lures in early November so if the conditions are right don’t hesitate in putting a marlin lure out in the spread. Anything in Evil or blue and green slimy colours will work. If you want to target a bigger yellowfin then there’s no doubt that cubing is the way to go. You can virtually pull up anywhere on or over the shelf and get a cube trail going but it helps to start where the fish are or likely to be. Unless fish are evident, troll around and find a few fish to start with or look for temperature breaks on the edges of a current line. If you have the contacts, find out if any long liners have been getting yellowfin and, if possible, where. We’ve also had good success by fishing in what I call “live water”. This is an obvious line or patch of water that may contain blue bottles, plankton or even those tiny blue sparkles. Find a patch of this water or even the edge of it and you’ll be in with a good chance. There’s been a heap written on cubing for yellowfin over the years and I’m not going to repeat it all here. There are a few basics and few things that you MUST do if you want to be successful. Keep a steady trail of pilchard cubes going in as berley. We cut our pillies up into two or three pieces and feed a few back every minute or so. Keep the trail going, even if you hook up. When cubing use a small but solid circle hook and light trace of around 2.5m long. For school fish in the 15 to 30 kilo size range I like the Mustad Demon (FineWire) in 6/0 with 100 pound Ande Pink trace material. I’d normally fish this on eight or 10 kilo stand up tackle. For larger fish I go up to 150 pound 150 pound Ande trace and use 15 or 24 kilo stand up tackle.
Finesse is essential when cubing for yellowfin. Use the thinnest trace you can get away with and hide the hook in the pilchard. I feed the hook through the mouth and out the gills then pin it in the pilchard’s side so it sits nice and natural. Keep the line going when feeding it back down the trail. Any tight line will stop the pilchard sinking and drifting naturally and a yellowfin will shy away from it like a bream in crystal clear water. Feed a bait right back long every now and then. Quite often a big fish will sit well back down the trail out of sight. We’ve hooked a few of them by drifting a bait back a hundred metres. Makos Chasing mako sharks has only been a recent thing for us. We’ve fished the past two springs from September to November and to be honest it has been an absolute blast. We’ve filmed and photographed some amazing sights, learned a lot and caught a few solid fish. Prior to our first season I was a bit skeptical about chasing sharks but my young bloke Andrew finally convinced me to give it a go and I’m glad he did. Those makos are great fun on eight, 10 and 15 kilo tackle and these days we look forward to each weekend in spring and spend the weeks in between organising berley and bait. The technique we use is nothing special and is probably the same as most boats use these days. We normally set up and drift along the Continental Shelf using current and breeze to our advantage. The best drift for sharks is due south at about 1 knot with a little current and a 10 knot breeze from the NE or NW. You need to cover a bit of area and the current does this but you also need to move along the water to get a berley trail established and you need some breeze to do this. Completely calm days with no wind are nowhere near as good as days with a breeze from the north. Once a drift is established we start putting fish frames through the berley pot. We get these from a few local fish markets. Blackfish, salmon or mullet are by far the best to put through the pot due to their oil content. We also run a 10 kilo frozen block of fish mince off the back corner in a nylon keeper net. We normally go through four or five of these in a full day’s shark fishing. We keep them frozen in an insulated fish box and just put a new one in the keeper net when the other one has slowly thawed out and done its job. We never stop berleying with the pot and masher but the frozen blocks add some good berley and are maintenance free. They do the job without having to be touched and double your berley output.
SAINTLY WHISPERS
When chasing makos we normally don’t put a bait in the water until we have a fish up in the berley trail. The advantage with this is that we can see the fish and make a judgment on what tackle we use to catch it. If it’s only around a 100 or 120 kilos we’d normally feed it a six or eight-kilo outfit. Anything between 150 and 200 kilos gets a 10 kilo outfit and over 200 kilos is for 15-kilo tackle. If you’ve been told that mako sharks are boring and don’t fight then I’d suggest you go out and hook one up before making a call on that one. They all fight and put up a pretty solid account of themselves. Some go absolutely insane and launch themselves out of the water in somersaulting cartwheels that just leave you open mouthed and thanking God the fish wasn’t right next to the boat. After a solid fight most makos are still pretty active when you get them to the boat. This is when you have to decide if you want to gaff or tag the fish. I’m not going to get heavily into the debate about killing sharks because most anglers have their own ideas and ethics. I can hardly expect to influence how you feel about this subject or change your mind and I don’t intend to try. I’m not even going to try and “justify” our shark fishing other than to say this: over the past 12 months we killed and kept three mako sharks and one bronze whaler. All of the sharks were weighed for NSWGFA Southern Zone points and the bronze whaler was a Junior World Record on 15 kilo line. All the makos were cut up and the best meat was given away and eaten by various people. We also tagged and released two mako sharks. As you can see we are not out there every weekend killing umpteen sharks and just wasting them. Having said that the decision to tag or gaff a mako shark is purely personal but one you need to make before you have a fish up and on the trace. If you do decide to gaff one make sure you are up to the job and have the right gear. A 200 kilo mako will make short work of inferior flying gaffs, tail ropes, bollards and even small boats. Don’t even contemplate trying to catch large sharks from small boats unless you have some experience and the right gear. Makos aren’t called “blue dynamite” for no reason and one little mistake can lead to a big problem if you’re 20 miles out in a small boat.
Albacore Last spring the NSW South Coast saw some of the best albacore action we’ve had in a decade. October and November were the pick of it and combined with some good weather, most crews had the opportunity to get out and concentrate on these wonderful fish. They average between eight and 12 kilos and the majority were caught by anglers trolling lures in between 80 and 200 fathoms. We had a very good success rate on X-Rap 15s and 20s on eight and 10 kilo tackle. The most consistent and productive colours we found included GGM, SBM and BTO. While trolling for albacore we will often keep a larger lure out there for yellowfin or even a Pink Squid to catch a few striped tuna for shark baits. We fish six and eight kilo stand up tackle for the albies and have some great fun catching them. We keep a couple each trip for food. We bleed them and put them in a saltwater ice slurry in an insulated fish box. We tag the rest with NSW DPI pelagic tags. The ones we keep don’t get wasted either. Albacore are one of the best eating of the tuna species and are great just seared on a hot plate or in curries, etc.
For more info email: greg.wall@computercourses.com.au
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Reel-y Funny Fishing Jokes Q: Why are fish so smart? A: Because they swim in schools! One day, two guys Frank, and Bob, were out fishing. A funeral service passes over the bridge they’re fishing by, and Bob takes off his hat and puts it over his heart. He does this until the funeral service passes by. Frank said, “Gee, Bob, I didn’t know you had it in you!”. Bob replied, “It’s the least I could do. After all, I was married to her for 30 years. Q: ”What do you call a fish that won’t shut up? A: A big-mouthed bass! Q: Why did the Vegan go fishing? A: Just for the halibut. Three fishermen were fishing when they came upon a mermaid. The mermaid offered them one wish each. The first fisherman said, “Double my I.Q.” So, the mermaid did it and to his surprise, he started reciting Shakespeare. Then the second fisherman said, “Triple my I.Q.” And sure enough, the mermaid did it and amazingly he started doing math problems she didn’t know existed. The third fisherman was so impressed he asked the mermaid to quadruple his I.Q. and the mermaid said, “Are you sure about this? It will change your whole life!” The fisherman said “Yes” so, the mermaid turned him into a woman. Q: Why are fish so gullible? A: They fall for things hook, line and sinker! Q: Why is it so easy to weigh fish? A:Because they have their own scales! Q: Where does a fisherman go to get his hair cut? A: The bobber shop.
One day a rather inebriated ice fisherman drilled a hole in the ice and peered into the hole and a loud voice from above said, “There are no fish down there.” He walked several yards away and drilled another hole and peered into the hole and again the voice said, “There’s no fish down there.” He then walked about 50 yards away and drilled another hole and again the voice said, “There’s no fish down there.” He looked up into the sky and asked, “God, is that you?” “No, you idiot,” the voice said, “it’s the rink manager.” Q: What is the fastest fish in the water? A: A motorpike. Q: What you get when four men go fishing and one comes back not catching anything. A: Three men and a baby. I caught a trout so big, the picture of it was three pounds. The negative was a pound. We went into the lake to eat it rather than bring it home. Q: Why did the husband go fishing on Valentine’s Day? A: To catch his wife a bouquet of flounders! Q: What kind of music should you listen to while fishing? A: Something catchy! Q: Why did Batman and Robin quit going fishing together? A: Because Robin ate all the worms! Q: Why didn’t Noah do much fishing on the ark? A: He had only two worms. Game warden: “Didn’t you see the no-fishing sign, son?” Boy: “I’m not fishing, sir. I’m teaching these worms how to swim!” Two guys are talking about fishing. One says to the other, “I am NEVER going to take my wife fishing with me, ever again!” “That bad, huh,” his friend responded.“She did everything wrong! She talked too much, made the boat rock constantly, tried to stand up in the boat, baited the hook wrong, used the wrong lures, and WORST of all she caught more fish than me!” Q: How do fish get from place to place while playing golf? A: By golf carp. Q: Why do fish swim in schools? A: Because they can’t walk!
Love the SAINT