From: David Russell

A recent trip to Greencape in southern New South Wales got me reminiscing.

My family and some friends have holidayed in this area for the last twenty-eight years and we have fished the rocks on either side of the cape. The excitement of land based game fishing first drew us to the area, a far cry from fishing for flathead or trout in my local waters.

The middle of January, to fit in with school holidays, saw us target the mighty yellowfin and northern bluefin tunas. Kingfish were always part of the catch as were a constant stream of chunky southern bluefin and striped tuna. Sharks too were also part of the scene, if you could be bothered.

The first of these to disappear were the bluefin. Large northerns were often the first fish of the day crashing the baits close in to the rocks. Southerns, rarely large, were mixed in with the schools of striped tuna. We would stand on the rocks, watching the schools as they came down the coast until they came close enough to cast to. When in range pandemonium would break loose as everyone tried to get a lure to these great little gamefish. The northern and southern bluefin quickly became a dream and not long after so did the big schools of stripies.

Yellowfin tuna were not initially our target species, but as the other tuna faded away more and more yellowfin hit the rocks. Tackle and techniques quickly developed to tackle these powerful fish and some extraordinary captures were made. Just as quickly these stocks went into decline and another great gamefish became a piece of history.

For a while it appeared as if when one fish stock declined another would take its place. Throughout these earlier years kingfish were always around, if you could land them. Australian salmon often took our live baits or lures but these were generally scorned as either rubbish or shark bait.

With the decline of the larger tunas sharks quickly became a popular target and with plenty of large baits available heavy wire, large hooks and big balloons replaced the Jinki and lighter terminals.

Smaller fish replaced the big kings that regularly busted your tackle. Schools of bonito replaced the smaller tunas and became our next target species. A mornings fishing ending up with a couple of nice kings and a couple of bonito was considered to be OK.

Then it seemed as if over night all were gone!

Over the years were watched all these fish stocks decline quite rapidly. At the same time we noted significant changes to the currents and water temperatures. The sparkling blue water that seemed to crackle as it flowed south past the rock ledges was replaced by cold green water that made swimming in the inlet at Bittangabee less than fun. We also noted that the flocks of mutton-birds that continuously streamed past on the horizon too disappeared. Had climate and seasonal changes allied with the well-documented effects of over fishing throughout the east coast, and beyond, caused these changes?

For quite a few years the rocks produced only spasmodic catches. The odd kingfish or shark, an all too frequent barracouta and a few salmon were all we could manage. We fished the beach at Womboyn as often as the rocks and the salmon and tailor became our next targets of choice.

A couple of years back the banning of the kingfish traps had us wandering down to the rocks with high hopes. These hopes were well rewarded and over our stay we had great fun catching nice fat kings around the four to six kilo mark. Unfortunately subsequent trips have yet to prove the effects of the bans and again we have had to fall back on salmon for our fun.

This year's trip saw a little variation to this theme. Australian salmon, yes, but we caught and saw some very large fish up to about 4 kilos. Undersize kingfish were about too and a few of them were mixed in with the salmon. Is there still hope?

Some of this year's catch of salmon from the rocks at Greencape. When you are sitting on a rock, gazing out over the ocean and waiting for that unmistakeable sound of your reel hitting maximum velocity it is not hard to cast you mind back to the sights and sounds of yesteryear. Is it just wishful thinking that it might happen again?