FINDING these old Land Based Game Fishing photos from over 50 years ago put the idea in my mind to show them again and relive an amazing time!
My early ANSA fishing days were very exciting and we explored most of the great rock platforms around Currarong and Jervis Bay in southern NSW. Big Beecroft, the Devils Gorge, the Docks and the Outer Tubes were some of our favorite spots, until one day we found the Crack!
The Beecroft Peninsula where all these great rock fishing platforms are situated were not easy to get to, except for Big Beecroft and the Outer Tubes, which only needed a fairly easy, bush walk. The Devils Gorge was sometimes very difficult to get to, especially after any heavy rain. The tracks in and out were very muddy and at times you really needed a four-wheel drive vehicle so
you didn’t get bogged.
Back then we couldn’t afford a decent four-wheel drive vehicle, so to overcome the problem we bought an old, rusted-out Volkswagon Beetle (pictured) that only had a few weeks rego left on it.
That gave us enough time to get the back wheels widened to take two big 2nd hand off-road tyres we bought and drive it from Sydney down to Currarong.
Even way back then, the popular Outer Tubes used to get very busy.
We had an old mate who had a house and lived in Currarong and we were able to leave the old V-Dub in his backyard. All we had to do when we went down there to go fishing was take a charged-up 12v battery, some fuel and the old Bug never let us down. With the wider rear wheels and bigger tyres we drove through the wet muddy tracks easily and never once did we get bogged.
When I met my old mate Paul D’Auria on the Devils Gorge platform one day, he told me about this place called the Crack! It was inside Jervis Bay, not far from the Docks and very few people knew about it. When the weather and the seas were bad and the eastern platforms were far too dangerous to fish, many of the land-based fishermen headed for the safety of the Jervis Bay platforms. Even way back then, the popular Outer Tubes used to get very busy.
Find the Crack
I organised to meet D’Auria at the Currarong boat ramp early one morning where we caught our live bait around the old moorings. Three of us squeezed into the Bug with two live-bait buckets and D’Auria showed us the way to the Crack. He was wrapped in the old V-Dub and told us how many times he had been bogged getting in and out of the Devils Gorge tracks. Getting to the Crack the dirt track was really rough, but it wasn’t muddy and the only drama we had was getting caught on a big rock that popped up through the rusty passenger’s side floor. We all had to get out and push the Bug off the rock. It was a big laugh!!
The Crack
Seeing the Crack for the first time was very interesting and the name said it all. It cut back into cliff face a fair way and climbing down to the platform wasn’t all that difficult. The deep water was right up against the platform and even into the crack itself. At first it looked like an ideal spot to catch some yellowtail baits, but like everywhere around the JB platforms catching fresh yellowtail
was always difficult. Luckily, we had our two live bait buckets with us holding a dozen or so nice size yellowtail we had caught earlier off the boat ramp.
Time to Fish
As always it was a race to set up the tackle and getting that first live bait in the water was exciting and without any breeze or wash we had a good technique to get a live bait well away from the platform. I had hand-made special cork floats that fitted very snugly on the trace size we used. With the weight of a yellowtail bait and the float we were able to cast the bait out some 20 yards or
so. When the live bait hit the water it straight away wanted to head for deeper water which pulled the trace through the float to the double knot.
That way the bait was nicely set about 15 feet down in the perfect attack zone. The first bait I grabbed was a nice plump one and I managed a good cast out about 25 yards. I left the reel in free-spool for a moment so the slack line would let the bait get down and I sat back and waited. The wait was short lived and the fast bite on the bait made the ratchet on the ABU reel absolutely scream. The run was a long one and at first, I thought it was probably a solid longtail tuna, but it was mid-summer and far too early for that species to turn up?
The excitement of the hook-up had my heart pumping thinking it had to be a nice size yellowfin tuna and it stripped about 500 yards of line off the reel. I was quickly backing off the drag as the line’s diameter diminished on the Abu’s spool and luckily in one way I was using a light 15lb line and the reel held plenty of it. When the run finally slowed up I was able to increase the drag a little and gain back some line. It took over half an hour or so to pump the tuna back to the waiting gaffs. It later weighed 65lbs and turned out to be my best light tackle tuna off the rocks.
