One of my other favourite pastimes apart from riding is fishing. Now, I’m not much of a fisherman, coming home empty rather than full more often than not, but my rationale is that, if your really HAVE to have fish, go to the fish shop. If, however, you’d like to spend some quality time by the ocean and maybe catch some fish as well, then go fishing.
I’m strictly a land-based angler, and definitely not a rock fisherman. No fish is worth risking your life for. My wife kindly shouted me a ticket on a fishing charter boat at Merimbula a few years ago and my brother and I headed off with high expectations. It was a huge boat and the feeling of power as it crashed through the swell on the way out to the fishing grounds was intoxicating. However, once stopped, the huge swell that day began to take its toll, and soon the cabin of the boat began to resemble an emergency ward and the hardy ones who stayed outside didn’t fare much better. Despite many requests to the skipper to return to port, he decided to tough it out and, by the time we returned later in the afternoon, the only passengers on board (out of about 50 people) who weren’t violently ill, were the crew. Needless to say, the captain was roundly abused by many as they left the boat, most vowing never to use his charter again.
So, it’s land-based for me. As my dad used to say, “Terra firma – the more firma, the less terra.” And, out of all the places that I have fished in NSW and Qld, Tathra Wharf on the far south coast of NSW has been my favourite for well over 20 years. Tathra is a small town on the ocean, about 17kms east of Bega. It’s pretty deep water off there as the wharf used to be used by the coastal steamers carrying freight and passengers to Sydney and points north and south.
As you can see, the location is somewhat idyllic, and a day spent on the wharf watching the ocean is pretty rewarding eveen if you do go home empty-handed. By 1973 the wharf had fallen into both disuse and disrepair and it was recommended that it be condemned and demolished. However, the locals rallied to the cause, and over the next 20 years, the wharf was repaired, restored and brought back to a condition that is probably better than it was in its heyday.
You can read all about the wharf at the Official Tathra Wharf Web Site.
Since returning from Queensland in 1987, the wharf has been my favourite fishing spot. Favourite catches there are bonito, slimey mackeral, Australian salmon and kingfish.
If you get a salmon on you know you’re in for a fight, not just to wrestle it to the wharf, but also get it on the deck before the local sea lion snatches it off you and disappears with it. I’ve lost a few good fish that way. I might say that, while living in Queensland, my favourite spot was Deception Bay where, in the summer time, a friend used to take me out in his “tinnie” and we’d return a couple of hours later with 100 or so sand whiting, yum.
Scott, who for many years ran the shop and the museum at the wharf, used to say that the best thing the wharf provided was head space. I so agree. There can be few things more enjoyable than spending a day at the wharf watching the sky and the ocean change colour and texture as the day passes. Next to a good long ride, I can’t think of anything more theraputic. I could, of course tell you about the whales that cruise by, just a few metres off the end of the wharf, or the dolphins that regularly do the same thing. I could tell you about the massive bronze whaler shark that cruised by one day when Paul and I were there on our own and there was nobody else to see it or tell about it, but this would be gilding the lily. I could tell you about the time my brother smacked a very surprised English tourist in the side of the head with an Australian salmon while he was swinging it up onto the wharf, but, as I said, that’d be too cruel.
If you love the Australian coastline and you haven’t visited Tathra Wharf, put it on your itinerary. If you have some time to go there and fish, do that too. You may not catch anything, but you’ll sure have a good day. As the saying goes, “A bad day’s fishing still beats a good day at work.”
sanoptic says
Wasn’t that the wharf where a father dived in to save his two sons but they all drowned not that long ago?
I agree though fishing is very relaxing,my brother has a holiday house near Jervis bay & i have fished near the island & under The Point many times but not in recent years unfortunately.
Salmon are great fighting fish off the beach too just a pity there not a good eating fish so lucky for them we always let em go.
Nothing beats a freshly caught bream or snapper on the BBQ though.
Phil Hall says
Yes it was Tathra wharf where those people drowned. Very tragic. Australian salmon aren’t really a salmon at all, as you know. They are actually a sea perch and not related to salmon genetically. The early settlers called them salmon because of their shape and the speckled skin on each side of the backbone. And, yes, they are pretty poor eating, the flesh being quite dry. The only way I have found where they taste anywhere near good is if you bake them in the oven, wrapped in foil and liberally doused with lemon juice. I agree about the bream and snapper, too. And flathead tastes great if it’s really fresh. If you leave it too long before you cook it, it gets a “muddy” tang to it. Not nice.
sanoptic says
There are places in Jervis bay where you can catch monster flathead but the big ones are all females so we let them go as well.Ever since they kicked out the trawlers from the bay & also made alot of it into marine parks there are more fish now then there has ever been.
Flathead are good eating too & one of my favourites as well as leather jackets…damm i’m getting hungry now!!
Phil Hall says
Yeah, we probably shouldn’t be doing this.