The Big Fish: Fishing at Eucumbene now Safer

0:00On ABC Radio, this is The Big Fish with Scott Levi. Hi there, a cracking episode of The Big Fish for you this morning. Great news for boat fishers on the giant Alpine Lake, Lake Eugenbeen. That's our first cast as we head up to Buckendera and some brilliant female anglers from the fish her forum. At Newcastle on the weekend you'll hear from Monica from Eden and Bianca at Irunga, a couple of great female fishers and stinker talks boats. And I reckon he might be the skipper of the smallest outside fishing boat in New South Wales. But there's a reason for that, all coming up on The Big Fish. It's The Big Fish and as you know we try to keep you safe on the water.

1:02Give you all the tips we can. Some great news for those who love to troll for trout in the Alpine Lakes. Quite a specialized new unique form of fishing. It's the Big Fish and as you know we try to keep you safe on the water. Give you all the tips we can. Some great news for those who love to troll for trout in the Alpine Lakes. Quite a specialized new unique form of fishing. There's more help for you if you do get into trouble and if you get into trouble up there it can be very quickly life threatening. Cain Hopwood is the Marine Rescue Alpine Lakes Unit Commander and got some good news Cain. Good morning. Good morning Scott. Yeah, sure. We had our grand opening on the grand for the area. We had the local members there and federal and state members to open out. New facility, so a new shed that we have at Buck and Dera now. And that houses a brand new 6.8 meter dual motor rescue craft that we have that can go out in all weather.

2:10All conditions. We put it into the lake with a tractor which is great because it means that even when the lakes really low and I know a few of you will have tried to put boats in as that program extends and disappears. We can get very muddy so we've got the capability of getting the boat in and out of the water in almost all conditions. We can go out in any conditions. So if you get stuck out in one of the arms of you can be an utter huge lake. It's like five times the size of Sydney Harbor. You don't have to risk going through the choppy centre of the lake to try and get back to where you started. If you're stuck somewhere just bring the duty phone number. And we can certainly come and help you out. It's a great service. We've had boats in the area for 10, 12, 15 years I think. But they've always been based in gender mind because that's where we have the ability to keep them undercover and in good working order. But now that we've got this new facility there we've got a boat that's on the water in as soon as we can get a member to the location.

3:15Just looking at a photo of it now it's a serious vessel. It's a really fantastic robust looking big boat that very well insulated I would think to up there. You'll be operating in ice and snow sometimes. Oh absolutely yeah. We have tried to get marine rescue to put a heater in there. But we can close the cabin up completely so it does get a bit better and we can run it all weather. It's a big unit with basically very similar to the units that have down the coast. But you need it on that lake like we were going through the washing machine there which is the kind of center of the like north of the Buckingdale. The other day was like probably a meter and a half swell like white water over the bow you need a very capable vessel to operate in all conditions in that lake. Yeah it's got it's got twin 150s on the back. It's got a very strengthened bow so we can nose up to the shore and not worry about about breaching or anything like that.

4:17So it is a very capable vessel. It's got radar. It's got all the standard kind of rescue stuff you need these days to operate day and night basically. Amazing. It's also a vessel that will be used a lot because it's critical that you get there in the nick of time for a lot of people. The hyperthermia is a real risk isn't it? Oh absolutely and that's probably the biggest danger. I mean yeah unless you're sitting by the shore watching someone struggling in the water your chance of saving them from drowning is really low. But your chance of saving one from hypothermia is you know you've got a couple of hours before someone gets really critical and especially in those edge times of the season you know in the spring and autumn. It's a great it's often a beautiful day out you know on the on the weather it's clear but once that sun goes down it's like someone opened the freezer door and if you're wet. Even if you're even if you're on the side of the actual lake because you've you've you've you've you've voted sun call whatever it is.

5:18You can get cold really fast and you can go down any really quick so us being able to get out there and start searching activities when there's still a bit of light is great and we've had a few call outs like that where we've we've gone out at you know 6 30 7 o'clock at night. The light starting to wane at this time of year and and if we can get to someone before it gets really dark sun goes down the freezer door opens and it can get really cold really fast. So you might think you might be stuck on the side of the lake or you might be stuck with a dead motor somewhere you can be 20 or 30 kilometres back to base and and if you're wet it can be a real life changing situation. If we can get to you before you get hypothermia right we've got a couple of hours so if we can get in the water and get searching really fast that makes a big difference to people. It's the big fish we're speaking with Cain Hopwood who's the Marine Rescue Alpine Lakes Unit Commander about the the brand new boat that has found a home at Buck and Derrow which is a real anglers paradise.

6:22It's a great spot a lot of people launched there to go out and troll for the beautiful big rainbow trout of the lake and the Wiley Browns so it is a bit of an epicenter for the fishing community. It must be great for them to know that they can call and you can track them down and that app with the phone or just that ability you have now I had to be towed in the other day because my fuel line was playing up and that ability you have if you give permission for your phone to be tracked it's an absolute life saver isn't it Cain? Yeah that's a really handy thing to do if we and I did that the other day with someone on on on Jinderbine and yeah we send you a text message and in that text message user Solinky click the link now I wouldn't suggest people normally click on links they get some text messages but the messages from Marine Rescue please click on it because then that gives us your exact location on GPS and it makes it so much easier to find you. You can meet as a huge lake and even if we're sitting in the middle with binoculars on it can be really hard to see a gray tini that sitting up against gray rocks with some sticks in the background it's even with an ocular so yeah that happens really great and and the other thing is like you're logging on and logging off we have you can log on using the marine rescue app and log off.

7:42That goes to I think it goes these days it goes to either Eden or it goes to one of the other coastal phone centers but if they don't get your log off again they will contact us and they'll let us know so we're part of that whole system and and then we can go chase for you just make sure you log off before you go to the pub that's always good. That's that is a good idea and Cain this some shed that's housing it at Buck and Derra it's it's a fantastic setup you've got solar power you've got all sorts of things there and then the $300,000 plus boat Alpine Lakes 20 which is a beautiful big vessel as you said it's you know nicely sealed so you can get inside the snug cabin and it's very specially reinforced at the bow and the stern for towing and all all the rest of it. But it's it's a really really robust looking beast it's a big big boat. Yeah yeah six point eight meter aluminium raised marine craft it is big bit it needs to be as I said earlier you know the the weather can really come down bad in on you can be and you can get 1.5 meter swells we've had white water over the bow that boat as we're building along kind of a rescue.

8:58And it's a very short short swell too which is more dangerous because it's so so steep and choppy. Yeah and you can't kind of just nose into it like you can on the coast you know you don't have much choice sometimes on that lake and it's a nice stable stable craft and you know we've had we've had rescues where you know someone stuck they're poor they're mates they're mates who've gone down gone I will come and get you and that looked at the other we're like went now I think we're bothered to stay here. So we need to be able to go out and all whether that boat is is the boat forward it's it's basically an ocean going vessel so it can handle anything that the lake and throw at it. And it's interesting how much windier it can be up there to so often those weather warnings come through for the Alpine areas. I think one of the strongest gusts ever recorded at you can be near the river mouth 118.4 kilometers per hour on August 25 2024. That's life threatening stuff. It wouldn't surprise me and it changes so quickly and that's the thing you know it can be fantastic and put like you know mirror mirror like in the morning and by lunchtime it's it's a meter and a half as well.

10:07Yeah it's it's very changeable weather that's for sure. Yeah probably one of the windiest places in New South Wales up there on the high plane you can see why there are no trees around those mountains through the Manero. So one of the only good things about fishing on the bank there in winter is that the mud freezes if you're fishing the midch hatch in the middle of winter so you can walk on top of the mud rather than sinking into it because it's frozen solid. That's always nice to have a couple of layers inside your waders. That's the other thing to people wearing a lot of clothing and waders that can be a death trap if your boat goes over. Yeah there is a story before my time of a young lad who was wearing waders in his boat and they filled up with water and he just sank straight to the bottom so I would certainly take them off before you get into a vessel if you can. Yeah it makes it very hard to swim and and tread water if you have to but I mean if you're wearing a life vest I suppose that would that would help a lot. Yeah wearing life jackets is a great idea particularly well it's a legal requirement if you're on your own I think but navigating you can be.

11:16There are some traps for young players aren't there. Oh absolutely yeah there's a lot of those I mean if you can drive through Buridale you can see there are big Buridale boulders and they're all through that area as well. And so even if you've got like five meters of water in your sound like your sound is telling you there can be one of those with a nose just under the under the under the water so you've got to be careful of that that's what a bit of local knowledge is good trees you know it's a it's a it's a not a lake it's a it's a damn so at some point there were forests those trees tend to pop up and stick up and you know trees can be 15 or 20 meters tall so you could you could have a snag just sitting there right under the surface. So you can't see even if you've got lots of water under your under your stern and and then the lake moves up and down right as snowy hydro moves water in and out of it so those those conditions what's what what a track you might have done last week perfectly safe this week even though you might have the lake could have gone up or down two meters and that would be enough to make it dangerous so just always keep an eye out you know don't belt along too fast and yeah watch out for watch out for trees it just pop up.

12:25And to come up from the bottom and fight around as well which is not not ideal probably more of a problem for water ski as I think and people in tennis but nonetheless it can still can still shock you when you hit one and can take a take a leg on a on an outboard out and then well make sure you've got our number so you can we can come and get you. Yeah if you've got signal of course sometimes that's a problem too. That is true yeah you can be too bad there's some sections of it's particular up in the north that are really bad we're lucky we've got we've got the the new radios that cover the whole state now so they're really good we've had trouble in the past with signal. Yeah I mean if you've got a channel 16 like a normal bhf handheld then then then we we do call out that when we're doing rescues not that many people monitor that but that's something to have as well it helps you communicate especially if you can see us but we can't see you like if you're in a little corner of a code or a bay behind some rocks and like that it may be tricky for us to actually see where you come up.

13:31Kane it's really great news for safety on those beautiful but quite dangerous lakes at times it's wonderful that you've got new vessel it'll be a lifesaver. Yeah well we're ready there if anyone needs to we're on pretty much on call 24 hours a day so that's what we do. Yeah Kane Hopwood thanks so much for joining us. Thanks Scott have a good day. There's Kane Hopwood on the big fish the marine rescue alpine lakes unit commander and the brand new vessel was commissioned last weekend. It's now in a beautiful big purpose built shed at Buckendera and they can get out as he said it's like 70k's per hour to rescue you if you're going down. On ABC radio it's the big fish with Scott Levi. Great to have you on board I snuck into the New South Wales women's recreational fishing league fisheries fish her forum at Newcastle on the weekend.

14:3350 wonderful women from all over our state working towards equity in angling and I caught up with quite a few of our future leaders in wreck fishing in their communities. Going back with lots of great ideas to give women a chance and more equity in this past time this sport that we love. My name is Bianca and I'm from New Rungar. Bianca this big forum firing you just had the best idea ever I was ease dropping at the door. Well haven't we all walked into a taco shop as a woman and just felt completely overwhelmed with what we're looking at and completely ignored by staff especially the male staff in the store. So my idea was that to get women through the door we have a door matter a sticker on the floor and it says all women love fishing they just don't know it yet because I believe it 100% believe that's true. You've got some great fishing opportunities in your part of the world too but something that else was mentioned women are often the number one caregiver looking after elderly parents or children.

15:37I think people have to realise that there's a right it's a human right to go fishing it's hard to knock down those barriers. Well you just have to knock down the barriers I'm a mother to three children and since they were little I've always had to make time for my mental health and being out on the river and fishing has really helped give me that therapy time that I need just to ground myself and bring myself back. How can you describe that feeling because for people who don't do that it's very difficult to to sum up that I don't know for me it's euphoria it's it's just pure joy isn't it to have the wind in the hair and the environment all around you and and that anticipation of possibly catching a meal for the family. Yeah to me it's not even about catching fish that's a bonus when I'm out on the water all I can think about is just the present moment and I think we get so caught up in in our lives that we're not really grounded and present so yeah being out on the water is so relaxing it just gives me time and space to be myself without any external stuff going on.

16:44What to hope to take back to your community and hopefully women coming behind you. I'd love to take back to my community that there is a place for women on the water at all times anywhere and that they can find a real peace and sense of being within themselves by giving fishing a chance. Favorite spot? The Kalang River is just full of amazing fish every rock wall every bend every mud flat you'll find something yeah it's great. It's something pretty cool about the color and quality of that water too I love the sandy front end of that history it's just so inviting isn't it. It is inviting it's stunning and we're just lucky to live in such a beautiful part of the world. Good luck the anchor sounds like you really fired up and ready to go back and tell the girls everything. I've got the passion and the drive and I'm ready. The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio.

18:03The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio. The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio. The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio. The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio. And he's in a hip-boats, feeling up a crib Just as in a boat with a fish on the reel Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing, I'm not just fishin' My brother knows when it's all about him

19:03At your buzz That's why I catch him trap Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing, I'm not just fishin' I'm not just fishin' Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing

20:03Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody's fishing Everybody fishin'! Everybody fishin'. Everybody fishin'! Everybody fishin'! Everybody fishin', I'm just fishin' too. Everybody fishin' I'm just fishin' too. Hope you're fishin', hope you're catchin' as well. It's the big fish we'll have more from the fish, her, forum in Newcastle on the weekend with those very keen future leaders of fishing to bring equity to the sport. I had a good fish last weekend as well, just between chatting with the crew at the Women's Recreational Fishing League, Women's Fishing Forum and got out to a secret sand flat. Gee, I tell you what, there were more jet skis than I've ever seen. It was just incredible. What fuel crisis? I was going nowhere fast, thousands of them. I was tucked out of the way, very shallow water, just fishing

21:07away, lots of lovely whiting, catching a few, some good fish, two up to 40 plus centimetres, and a very strange thing happened. I was drifting a tube worm across the flats. It was a frozen treated one because the tube worm farm actually had some problems with their pumps and couldn't produce the live one, so I got the next best thing, and it's just drifting across the flat, it went past a weed patch with a fairly strong run out tide, and I thought I'll bring it back in and check the bait, so I'm slowly bringing it back, and a piece of kelp, or what seemed to be to attach from the weed patch, and started swimming up into the tide, and I thought that's rather odd for kelp to be moving a big piece of kelp too. It's very strange indeed to see a big piece of kelp going against the tide, and I thought, well, I'll continue to retrieve so I slowed down bringing the bait back, and it kept chasing it, and all of a sudden grabbed hold of it. I thought, what is that? Anyway, I started to fight, and I thought, hello, that's a big

22:10fan belly leather jacket. I said, you beauty, they're good on the table, so I managed to hook it, brought it to the net, and the hook came out just as it fell into the net, and I put it in the eski on the ice, and I thought, that'll be very good for dinner, with a few whiting and a nice big silvery sand flat brim. It was a very strange, but welcome capture indeed. Great fun to clean, too, just off with the head, and pull the skin off, and there it is, straight into the pan, probably the easiest fish in the world to clean. Target quite a few of them over the ribbon weed, over the Posadonia, in wintertime, particularly with a bit of burly and tiny hooks and pieces of prawn, and you've just got to jig up and down, because they suck the bait in, you don't feel the bite, but to catch one in that sort of environment was really an amazing thing, and it just goes to show you, never know what can happen, even in half a meter of water, to catch a big fan belly leather jacket, so it was most welcome, and made me think that I might have to target leather jacket again,

23:13because they're terrific fish to catch, and a great fish to eat, and very, very easy to clean, as well, no bones, and particularly the big fan belly, and this one was the size of a dinner plate, it was a really big one, it was just beautiful in the pan, fried with a little bit of butter, and went down very, very nicely, no bones as well, so you never know what you're going to get, get out and get into it. Stinker talks about horses for courses, the different boats he has, he's got four boats, it's not very flash, but they do the trick, we'll catch up with him, and we'll also hear from more of the women who went along to the big fish, her forum, thanks to New South Wales, DPI fisheries, and the WRFL, to create more equity for women in fishing, to give more girls a chance, to wet a line and enjoy what we love, it's all coming up on The Big Fish. This is The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio.

24:22Yeah, you get a line and I get a pole on it, you get a line and I get a pole today, you get a line and I get a pole, meet you down at that cool, that hole on it, you know I mean a rat, whoa on it, you know I mean a rat, and I'll catch you on The Big Fish, baby. This is The Big Fish with Scott Levi on ABC Radio. Where to find him? What's the boat? Are you catching any mate?

25:23It's Stinker on The Big Fish, good morning. Hey, good morning Scott. Talking about boats this morning because you've got four boats and they all do their job, I've got one little boat, little 10 foot punt, Bill Boat Baggins, who's got a flat bottom, but your boat to go out to sea, it raises a lot of eyebrows. Oh, well, you're probably, I've got two boats that go to sea, well let me tell you my four boats, I've got two Stink Pots, one Stink Pots is actually retired. After 30 years of hard work the original Stink Pots sits down in my boat shed, it's got a big smile on his face and he's retired. I just filled it up with tar and bogged and putty and everything and after a while it just sort of gave up and had a bit of a split. Then I was driving along on the side of the road and there on

26:23the side of the road to sail is an identical boat, an identical 11 foot tinny, so I just went and bought it and towed it home and put it beside the old one, so that I've got two Stink Pots, but then I've got Stink Bug and that's 15 and a half footer and that's the one I go out to see to brought an island in and then up at tweed I've got a punt which has been in the family for over 50 years, so they're all different all my boats but I can't do without a boat. I mean every speaking import Stevens because half a port Stevens is water, so I spend most of my time on the water in a boat and I just love the whole bobbing around in a boat out of sea, it's just I love it. Absolutely fantastic, no better thing to do but obviously horses for courses too Stinker, your boat on the tweed is just perfect for that environment and then your little V

27:27bottomed 11 foot tinny for the insure reef fishing is the one for that. How do they ride? What's the difference if people are looking to get a boat for insure waters? Well really no one, I wouldn't encourage anyone to go to sea in 11 footer, really. The only reason it suits me and it suited me for over 40 years is because the boat that I have is the 11 footer is thick aluminium, so it's rather heavy, so it doesn't blow around on the ocean, it's got a good grip of the ocean, it's got a 10 horse power, 9 point now and horse power motor but the reason that I fish out of an 11 footer is because the reef system comes very close to the coast, so I can push the boat off the beach, jump in, give it a kick

28:32and within 800 metres or probably even less than that I'm over good snapper reef. Now lots of places along the coast you can't do that because the reef is too far off the coast and if it was far off the coast like three or four kilometres off the coast I wouldn't go in an 11 footer. But everywhere pretty much from Newcastle right through to Sirox, the reef comes pretty close to the beach, particularly at Fingle and Boat Harbor and Annabay. The reef is very very close which makes fishing out of a little boat with a little motor very exciting and you've got one of those rare setups too without a bar to have to cross, you wouldn't be doing it in an 11 foot boat either, you've got incredible safe launching spot with a north facing aspect although even that's protected too, it's not called Kitty's Corner for no reason. That's right, it's so calm,

29:439 times out of 10 really you can get off the beach. There are tricks on launching off the beach but generally speaking particularly half tide in and then you come back you say you're launching as the tide rises, you don't want to go down there on dead low tide because rocks do come out of the water and I've been known to hit them occasionally, I try to avoid them but it seems to me I do bang into them occasionally but it's just perfect because I can just rumble down the beach, push a instinct pot, I'll use instinct pot off the boat and then give it a kick and then lift the motor halfway up to tilt and then also I go and then when I get out of the corner drop the motor down and then I've got a choice just to where I want to go. I can go over onto the beach on the island, there's an island directly in front of me and I can pull the boat up onto the beach

30:46on the island or I can fish on the point of the island where I used to always fish for mull away but that's where the apple tree is and that's only, that's less than a kilometer from the beach, the apple tree or what I normally do Scott, I go around the southern point of finger island and head for the lighthouse and there's some real tiger country there and then I anchor in amongst all the all the breaking bombers there and float a bait of big prawn or slimy mackerel or yellowtail or pilchards work and float them down a rich burly trail and hang on, it's just uh I get so, I still get excited, I'm like a kid when I went on the out there. We're speaking with Stinker on the big fish and it was interesting with the Old Stink pot

31:47and I was asking you because I started to develop holes in my little aluminium punt that I use on the sand flats and inside so it's just like your terranora lakes, countries, swancy, Brisbane water, you know those sandy front ends of the estuary and it's perfect for that because you can launch it yourself, put it up yourself, it goes in really shallow water but I started to develop these pinhole leaks and water was shooting up one day, I was out in the boat and was raining and I thought why is there water coming up and not coming down? I remember ringing you and I said Stinker, what do you bog up Stinkpot with and you said well there's tar, there's arral diet, there's glue, there's my big toe chewing gum, a bit of my shirt sometimes, you know, I got a bit of a boxy party and then a friend of mine who used to work for Quarters, he got me some aluminium sticky tape that you could stick on and then some pieces of aluminium from the aircraft engineers to stop the planes from falling out of the sky, that was really good but I worked

32:50out why it was leaking and this is a real trick for young players, I used to throw the anchor and the anchor chain up into the front well and that's where the leak started to spring, it wasn't because the anchor was banging around, it was because of electrolysis and now I fixed those leaks, put a plastic laundry basket in that space and I think you might have your petrol tank in that space so yours rides well and then the anchor doesn't touch the hull of the boat and doesn't create that electrolysis, couldn't work out why these holes in quite a good boat, we're turning up in that part but yeah thanks for your help on bogging it up, I didn't get too particular after that, any old thing will do, eh? Well it's funny, you know, I've just been thinking, I've got a breeze bank and you motor for a stinkpot and you 9.9 and I do, I actually haven't used it yet, I'm rare and to go but I was just thinking of all the misfortune I've had over the years and you can get

33:50into a bit of strife that I could say, I've got me always but on two occasions the boat has actually, I've jumped out of the boat and and fished off the beach on the island and when I've come back to getting the boat, it's gone, it was gone and I thought what, I know this happened and I looked out and there around about a kilometre out to sea, I'll stinkpot, bobbing up and down the tide come up and the wind changed and blew the boat off the beach, so there might be, I've stuck there, what to do, so I actually run across around single beach and back to home and then I got a stinkbug and drove down the beach, got into stinkbug and then drove out to sea, looking for stinkpot and there he was, about two kilometres out to sea, happy as Larry bobbing up and down, going out towards the shipping lanes and I just got it, I spoke, you know, I harsh words to it

34:55and then tied it up and tied it on, that happened to me twice, you'd think I'd get smarter, but the other time I had it in a rock pool and it blew out of the rock pool and took off again, actually come to think of it, there was another time too that I was a bit fortunate because I come back and there it was about only about 30 metres out heading off to sea, it's got a mind of its own, so I've jumped in and I'm not a very good swimmer actually, I'm a very poor swimmer and by the time I'd swam the 30 metres or whatever it was, the boat had gone another 10, so by that time I got to that 10 and it had gone another five, with my last stroke I think I managed to grab the boat and then I had to try and get in it, which is another issue, look at fair income, big boats are big trouble, little boats are little trouble, but all boats are trouble, but that's after fun.

35:56It's indeed stinker, get out on the water mate, I know you've got a trip to Broughton, maybe the seas will be kind and you can tell us all about it next week, tight lines. Here he is, God! On ABC Radio, it's the big fish with Scott Levi. Great to have you on board, I snuck into the New South Wales Women's Recreational Fishing League, fisheries fish her forum at Newcastle on the weekend, 50 wonderful women from all over our state working towards equity and angling. Hi I'm Monica and I'm from Adonis South Wales. Great part of the world Monica, where's your fishing journey out at the moment? It's pretty steady at the moment, I'm currently land based but I've been fishing for three years using lures and I'm fishing usually out in the ocean nowadays and getting back into estuary fishing on the boat. We went from starting off in a boat to land based fishing so I ended

37:01up going up to Queensland along the east coast and fishing out of the boat all the way and then coming back down to then start land based fishing, which is completely opposite to how normal people a lot of fish. A lot of fishers do, so it was actually quite difficult to do that and learn how to start from scratch again so I've basically joined WRFL to learn how to start from the basic needs to become an awesome fisher. We're here at the McQua Hotel on the banks of the Hunter River with a lot of very enthusiastic women who want to take their fishing further and want to spread the word that it's for everybody. Monica, the trip that you mentioned, that sounds like just something that absolutely hooked you. Tell us all about that. I'd love to do that myself. I mean, I fish in my own backyard. I really don't have that many long range trips like that. What was that all about? Oh, look, it was a long time plan and I'm thankful for my ex-partner

38:04that helped me out and we went together and did that. It was honestly the best experience I've ever had and it really did hook me into fishing and just to see more of Australia and different sides of the oceans, the Astres and learn a lot more. I learned about everything which was amazing. Favorite spot along the way? How far did you get? Because Eden's a pretty fair way south on the New South Wales coast. How far north did you get? I got Tosballo cans in Queensland so yeah, everywhere along the coast we basically fished if it was good weather. Favorite spot? I'd say you put in an alley beach. What did you catch? I was catching mangrove jacks, small GTs, queen fish. All the reef fish too, I guess, the odd trout and sweet lip and emperor and all that stuff. Yes, indeed so cold trout was one of the favourites especially on the pan. What sort of boat did you take up? A 4.2 metre boat and I was very grateful and lucky to

39:09have that experience. So good good out on the reef and good up the creek? Yes everything involved. Fantastic and then going back home after that experience and fishing off the beach off the rocks and things and beautiful Eden. I mean it's a great, pretty safe, giant, harbored fishing isn't it? Was that the backyard for you? Was that where you went land-based? Yeah so I ended up exploring everywhere going off the rocks off the walls down there. They're pretty pretty good to fish off and I've caught some pretty good kingfish off them and flooddies and brim and back to the southern estuary fish which is great and then I've been able to take my dad's boat out and go deep sea fishing as well off of Eden so that's been pretty good. Wow so it sounds like you really love it. Would you like maybe a career in it or just to be a really keen recreational angler and had that time to do so? Look I've got my own career started at the minute doing carpentry but I would love to be just a keen wreck fisher and help

40:14WRFL get out there and help women get confident in it and bring them into it. And how are you treated as someone who loves fishing within your peer group? You know men and women do they get it? That you're hooked because we all do here. That is a very difficult one. A few people get it and they're a very blasé to fishing I would say. The men that enjoy fishing that I know that I'm friends with understand it completely but I do find it quite difficult for everyone to understand it. With this 50 women here you would fit in perfectly. Would you? I mean they just all love fishing. It's just their life. Yeah it's absolutely unreal to meet women that are into fishing. I've never had that and I've probably met about two chicks in my life that love fishing and it's amazing to be out there and explore and talk to them all. I think that's one of the great things about this. People talk about quote net working but to have

41:16fishing buddies, keen women all over the state that's a pretty cool side benefit of this get together I would reckon. Yeah so it is really good. I actually competed in the 10X that happened a fortnight ago down at Churros' heads and Rose and I had the chance that we caught a massive whiting and ended up taking out those. Yes so her first whiting and it was a trophy and that's what got us an entry into the next tournament which is great. Good stuff. Love those whiting. I'm going out for a few at Swansea when we finish having a chat. I actually got the boat on the back of a car ready to go sort of mixing work with pleasure. Well fishing's work. Monica great to talk to you. Beautiful part of the world eat and love it. Caught some great fish off Haycock's point and you know in the harbor itself too with great place to get slimy mackerel off that wall for bait and live bait or cut bait there the best bait ever. It's just got everything going for it hasn't it? Yeah it's absolutely unreal. Yeah thank you. Thanks for having a chat with us here

42:21at the Big Fish Her Conference. This is the Big Fish with Scott Levy on ABC Radio. It's the Big Fish and we're sitting at the boat ramp looking out at beautiful Lake Macquarie under leaden skies with the rain falling down, vacillating as to whether they hit the water or not. John O. Bleakley you know him well from Oz Fish in the day but now he's working on the Big Fishing Challenge to help raise funds for some great causes John O and before we talk about fishing your backyard Lake Macquarie the big events coming up I believe. Well firstly I can't believe that we're not out on the water. That's the big one. I never thought I'd be sitting in a car at a boat ramp waiting to maybe go fishing. Five years ago I'd be wetsuit on and I'd be out there but yes the challenge is coming up that yearly those two days in the calendar every year that you know so many people look forward to and I'm privileged enough to now be to working with Michael guest on the challenge. It's a it's such a fantastic event and I think the big the big reason I'm

43:25so proud to work on it Scotty is because it's the causes that are behind it. Yes we love fishing we love being in the outdoors but this is a weekend of fishing it's designed to raise funds and awareness for two awesome charity partners which is the prostate cancer foundation of Australia so we all know what that is looking at you know prostate cancer and raising awareness around when to get checked and and how to diagnose and identify that problem nice and early and then they're funding nurses two hours talking to them the other day and they're taking a leaf out of the McGrath foundation book and they'll fund nurses to help men through that that journey if they're undergoing treatment so that's a really terrific cause isn't it? Yeah I had the privilege last year to sit down with someone at the foundation and have a good yarn about and they'd actually been diagnosed themselves so I got to hear firsthand what that experience looks like for a male you know it is it is something that you and I enough to to be on Scotty you know it's a very common cancer isn't it? It is it's one of the most common and yeah anyway I got to sit down with him and

44:28hear about the full you know where they're spending all their money and it's one of those really awesome charities where you know the big the big buzz thing around charities is how much of your dollar goes towards the charity you know and how much of it is administrative cost and this is a really high percentage of money that goes back into the good cause and the second charity is the Peter Duncan Neuroscience Research Unit which is all about MS, Alzheimer's and those you know terrible terrible diseases that that we have to go through sometimes. Great causes John O'Bleeckley and how can we catch a fish to raise the funds to keep the research and the support in these causes going? Yeah so the challenge the perfect fishing challenges all about fighting a fish for medical research. The best way to do that is just by entering the competition so you jump over to the website you submit your entry. When you do that you know not only are you supporting these causes but you're also going to get a heart, a bragmat, a sticker and it allows you to get out on that weekend, compete in the challenge for over $300,000 in prizes but that's not why we do it we do it because we're trying to raise funds and awareness for these two awesome

45:31partners. That's great and then you take a photo of the fish on the bragmat, it's very cheap proof actually. You've got all these checks and balances, certain species, it's all across the state. Hey we're just about to hit Lake Macquarie which is a terrific waterway, the sand flats are great, very difficult, very difficult to fish, great flathead, really diverse habitat. You've got really deep water in parts haven't you and then you've got these shallows teaming with life, huge seagrass beds. I know at Osfish you were really keen to look after the Positonia and had projects there to replant it and did a wonderful job in in that time you were working for them but where would we go to guarantee a fish? Because they're a squid here, they're a giant sharks, hammerheads that are 14 foot long, they're a kingfish, they're talking about catching a giant leather jacket, the other one, and then the number of species are a massive snapper, jewis, your name it. If anyone ever says the word guarantee to you when fishing Scotty,

46:33you know they're having you on because nothing in fishing is guaranteed but we can certainly increase our chances of catching one. So decision fatigue is something that I reckon a lot of people in Lake Macquarie go through because of the amount of options that there are and you don't really know where to start and you can be fishing in a particular area and then you start to think oh should I be over there or there's boats going that way which way do I go? So I'd like to break the system down by you know essentially fishing the tide and working out what the tide's going to do on that day, what species do I want to target and then you consume cross out of there for you areas. If we start at the top of the system you've got the channel. Channels are fantastic spot for squid if you're into your squid fishing. It's also got in winter time amazing run of Australian salmon which we're not too far away from and there's also really good brum and whiting right up on the flats and for me the run out tide is fantastic for brim whiting in my opinion level. Running tide, squid, not too worried and then salmon will at the right time of year they're in plague proportions. As we come through the heads you've then got the beautiful

47:35marks point area which is fantastic for for brim whiting flathead and like credible beautiful seagrass beds there they're very very rare and magnificent aren't they? Yeah and that's where you're going to spend your attention around those posadone emettos if you can get a good bait in front of them you're a good chance and then as we move back to the system it drops off into 6-8 and then eventually in areas it gets to about 10 to 13 meters and that's where you're a chance of those bigger predators like mull away taylor salmon and you've just the secrets of fishing the deep water just find the birds find the bait and the fish aren't far away. Such a big water though John I mean it's huge you can go for hours from one end to the other in a small boat so you really have to sort of have a plan I think if you're just going to drip for squid off the drop off you'll get those at the moment won't you they're they're not the calamari squid though they're a different type they're the longer ones without the big wings yeah the arrow squid yeah so there's we have a few different well I've caught green eyes in the lake before we obviously get the arrow squid for me squid are a 365 day species that you can go target some is obviously the best time to target

48:37them but yeah if you're going to fish the lake you need to put a plan together pick a species you want a target pack the gear for that species and then spend the time on that and the next time you go out you can try something different but you'll soon waste a whole day if you try to do too many things in once yeah great great tip there John oh I'm still confused as to what to do but we'll work it out when we get out there look for the birds they'll tell you where the fish are and tight lines hey thanks for joining us on the big fish and I think we're going to reciprocate too I think I might be jumping on your podcast at some stage and and we'll have a yak there as well mate we can never talk too much fishing I look forward to it John oh bleakly there on the big fish as we're about to hit his backyard like McQuarry when fishing last sunday and I caught a smelt put him in the pan and the fire he felt all the smells high ever smell well I never smelled the smell like that smell smell as the salmon smell up the river to

49:40yeah he said to himself we're the great big y'all the next time I come up this way I'm going to make the trip in a share from me you've been listening to an ABC podcast you can discover more ABC podcasts live radio and exclusives on the ABC listen up