CASTLE HILL RSL FISHING CLUB NEWSLETTER TIGHTLINES www.castlehillrslfishingclub.org.au Jim Tucker Club President 0403981449 jimlives@ausfish.com.au Welcome to this edition of Tightlines. I hope it finds you well and again, Happy New Year. Dam the nature of the dam weather, hasn t it knocked us around in the last few months. Poor old Captain Clawed and his charter boat crew have been hapless in their recent attempts to get out and fish. This has been due to the sea conditions and they are yet to test out the charter boat Fishfinder after its recent refit with seating and shaded areas. This must be some sort of recorded we don t want to have, 5 cancelled trips (6 if you included a rescheduled attempt). Not much for Bob the Recorder to do for this division so far this fishing year. Small Boats have had a bit more luck getting out over the last few months, even with the not so kind conditions they have had to endure. Some great catches have been recorded along with some bruises and battle scares. Roy has this division very active in deep sea trips. Recent members Kevin and Brad look like a force for some of the trophy s in the future as they fish keenly and embrace just been out on the water. Estuary small boats are now getting some action as well. It was great to see a new member Trevor join the club on Friday night and fish with Rees on the Sunday. Rees continues to fit out his new boat and take up the challenge along with Glen, Peter and others for some small boat estuary trophy honours. David has our newest division Kayaks firing along with great attendances and some good catch reports. The word is that as more people become more comfortable with their craft and special technics the catch rate should continue to grow. I believe there have been some funny stories going around about some events that have occurred on these trips. Rock and beach have been out and about on the sand in good numbers with Paul guiding them on recent trips and are away as I write at Stockton Beach for the weekend. Good luck guys and girls chasing that big jewie as we lead up to the full moon. Freshwater has had some great weekends away and Barry is doing a top job organising this division. It has never been as active with an extra weekend away planned this fishing year. Good luck for the Lake St Clair and Burrinjuck trips. Thanks to Rob for the recent face lift of the website which is looking great. I can t stress enough this is the place to get all the information on club activities and forms etc., that you may require. The club continues to be in a strong position under John s trusty eye as Treasurer making sure our bills are paid and subsidies to the divisions accounted for. This is enabled by the great support of the Email: chrslfc@gmail.com CHRSL Club and its directors along with the continued solid support of our Friday night raffles by you the members. Thanks to Roy for his MC work on Friday nights along with Sue behind the meat trays ensuring our winners collect their prizes. The butcher has apologised for the mess up the other week and thanks to the club for their quick response to our need for replacement gift vouchers. Bob has the records of our divisional trips in place and advises there is some close competition within various divisions, so we look forward to a busy completion of our fishing year at the end of June and our presentation in September. Allan continues his work behind the scenes as Club Captain checking in on all divisions and Lawrie keeping track of our meetings. Yvette reports that we have 172 members currently and we once again welcome our new members, please make them feel welcome. Thanks again to Sue for her assistance in organising the Christmas party in December and I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. It was pleasing to hear the good reports that were received. We will be changing the venue for this year s Christmas party and have some exciting ideas already. We are asking for suggestions from the members to also consider for this event so please pop them in to us. Please be reminded again of the Club BBQ at Lake Parramatta next Saturday 27 th Feb from 10am. The club will be providing a sausage sizzle on the day and please bring your own specialities, drinks and deserts if you wish. This is a family day with swimming, freshwater fishing, demonstrations and products on display. There will be lucky door prizes as well. David, Sue and Roy have done a great job taking the lead on organising this event for the members and families to enjoy. We will also be suppling extra BBQ,s for you to used so no need for you to bring one. I hope you can make it and I look forward to seeing you there. We also look forward to our combined division s weekend away at Greenwell Point in May. Charter will be fishing on Saturday on the new vessel. The other divisions will be fishing both Saturday and Sunday if you re still chasing that next bite. There will be a sausage sizzle on Friday night at Coral Tree Lodge and no doubt we will end up at the local bowling club Saturday night at the Chinese or bistro to review the fishing stories or tales of the one that got away. There may be some dancing too. Please assist Captain Clawed by RSVP ing by 22 nd of April to receive discounted accommodation. Please list your details for this or any other event on the notice board as usual. Please continue to support your divisional Captains to assist you and please feel free to bring any matter to the attention of the committee. Our next committee meeting will be in the Sovereign room at the club on 21 st of March. All members are welcome to attend. Stay safe out there on the water or the shore and enjoy our planned events. Till next Tide Jim Tucker Page 1
Paul Isaac Rock and Beach Captain Stockton Beach Weekend 19 & 20 February: A good attendance with 8 adult members and 3 kids camping at Birubi Beach Holiday Park. Three of us arrived Friday morning but decided not to fish off the beach because it was excessively hot. We spent the afternoon relaxing in camp and in the swimming pool until the rest of the crew arrived early evening and set up camp. The wind was blowing and Tonie headed for the beach for an brief fish. He had some bites but no keepers, and we decided to retire to bed at a reasonable hour ready for an early start on Saturday morning. We all rose at 5am on Saturday morning and drove along the beach to the 10km mark to commence fishing before sunrise. Conditions were absolutely calm and we witnessed a beautiful sunrise with light winds and some cloud cover. Fishing was slow with Paul and Brent each landing a Tailor. The Tailor were legal size (only just) and not worth keeping and were released back to the ocean. Tonie fished a few hundred meters north of us and his mate Darren landed a decent Flathead. Tonie caught several small Tailor but all were released. Glen Elliott and the family enjoying the early morning. The boys were wrapt to see a fox and two rabbits (all alive) as we entered the beach. Paul Brent By 9am the wind was blowing strongly whipping up the seas and making fishing very difficult. The Brent Maxwell group decided to pack up and return to camp for a relaxing day. The wind blew consistently all day but dropped off in the early evening. We split up with Rob and Paul fishing the beach, and Brent, Glenn and Les fishing off the breakwall at Nelson Bay Marina. We fished into the night with a variety of small fish caught and released, returning to the camp in a rainstorm. By Sunday, the enthusiasm for an early start had waned and we had breakfast and packed up camp. Rob fished the beach on his way home, but again no luck. A very enjoyable trip in spite of having very little luck with fishing. Our fishing opportunities were limited by the variable sea and weather conditions, but in spite of that we all had a wonderful weekend away with great fellowship. Page 2
Small Boats Captain - Roy Kington Four boats got out on the recent club day, February 14. Phase 111 with Skipper Roy Kington and crew Jim Tucker and Tonie Venter. John Leotta skipper, was crewed by brother-in-law Max and Brad Baxter skipper with Kevin Crouch. Rees John Skipper, fished estuary with new member Trevor who having joined the club on Friday had a small boat crew position on the Sunday, a club record. the pilchards as they will pick it out from the other bait on the hook no matter how well concealed. You feel the tug of the pilchard going but they just do not return for the other bait. A good part of the day was that we met up at the ramp for a bit of a natter and shared experiences before heading home. The weather forecast from the BOM was marginal with high seas and 15 to 20 knot winds, despite this a decision was made to chance it which proved to be the right one as the weather fell far short of the forecast and halfway through the morning you could travel across the water at a comfortable 15knots and coming back to the ramp at 20 knots The wind was steady at about 15 knots so fishing in about 35m we could hold bottom on 3/4lb weights. Rees and crew fished on their own in the Hawkesbury and the rest fished pretty much together out wide. Brad and Kevin in their Boston Whaler Fishing was slow, very slow, at the 35m mark so with daylight giving a better view of the sea conditions we all struck out wide to some known spots at the 53m mark. Here we encountered a swift current but on Phase 111 we did pick up some fish but were forced onto 1lb weights. At one stage the wind came up for a while and we had the motor on in reverse to keep the weights on the bottom. Calls to Rees established he was not doing much good either despite going around his known hotspots. Having seven fish aboard six flatties a big Rock cod and a 60cm trag, (This would be the first Trag caught by a club member for many years) we decided to go back to the 35m mark in which we could fish on ¾ lb weights where wind and current were less but the only fish biting was small stuff. At midday following some inter boat discussion, we all decided to pack it in and head for the ramp. In summary it was a great boating day but despite the Solunar predictions of a good fishing the fish were just not on the bite. Phase 111 was the only boat that caught fish despite the other deep sea boats fishing in the same area with the same bait and rigs. Tonie Venter with his Teraglin (Trag) The fish were light on the bite and one fish was lost at the gunnel. Once again salted pilchards were the best bait although we also tried prawn, squid, and fresh fish flesh. It seems the fish are attracted by From DPI Fisheries Roy delegating - Phase 111 NSW Research Angler Program off to excellent start with new species The recently expanded NSW Research Angler Program has begun receiving its first donations of frames from the four new key recreational fish species in the program. Some impressive sized fish frames have been donated across a range of sizes including Snapper, Yellowtail Kingfish, Tailor and Dusky Flathead. All these species are hugely important to the recreational fishing sector and effective future management relies on getting as much data on them as possible. In addition to these new species, 93 Mulloway frames were also donated over spring. An incredible 220 fish were also tagged over winter as part of the NSW RAP-ANSA pilot Mulloway tagging project. Eleven Mulloway were also recaptured over spring, including a 66 cm fish which swam 35 km up the Georges River from Botany Bay to Chipping Norton in 163 days. Get involved, visit the program web page or contact the program coordinator at research.angler@dpi.nsw.gov.au to learn more. This program is run using funds from the Recreational Fishing Licence fee. Page 3
Kayak Division David Spencer 0418277573 Hi members, just a brief report on the recent outing for the kayak division at Mooney Mooney where we had 4 kayaks participating in the outing. Unfortunately, Rob Cooper arrived at the ramp to find he had left his phone and wallet behind at the bait shop and decided to head back and see if it had been handed in. It had been picked up by another fisho and all seemed lost however it turned out to be an honest mistake and both the phone and wallet were returned later that evening. Greg Finnie and Daff Arriving at 5:30am Paul Isaac and myself were setup and on the water by 6am with Brent and Greg joining us at about 6:30am. I m sure a little more practice will improve the setup times as we streamline the process. It turned out to be a beautiful day on the water with a light breeze and not a cloud to be seen. We fished the area around the bridge for a little while before Paul and I headed up the shallow channel beside the expressway to try our luck around the numerous oyster leases and shallow flats. Trolling up through the channel produced my first couple of flathead and one bream however all were undersize. Still, great to prove the strategy and confirm that there were fish about. The channel varies from 0.5m to about 1.2m at low tide so caution is advised for small boats but the kayaks are fine with the ability to get by in as little as 0.3m. As all our kayak participants now have the hand held VHS radios, it was easy to stay in touch and find out how they were all doing. Unfortunately, I seemed to be the only one catching at this early stage apart from one small catfish brought in by Paul. I was only fishing with lures on the day, however some of the others are also trying with various baits as well. I tried a couple of soft plastics for some of the deeper areas once out of the channel but soon swapped back to the Atomic Hardz and the ever reliable Jackall TN60s sinking vibes. followed along a bit after Paul and ended up picking up a 38cm flattie on the way back through the channel. Still a great day to be out on the water and a new location with some results. The current proved useful with an assist in both ways through the channel and after I pulled in the trolling lures I was easily able to get up to 8km/h on the water back to the ramp. Our next trip is along with the freshwater team up to Lake St Clair where we hope to get onto some of those overweight yellowbelly and thumping bass that school up there. Really looking forward to trying the new location. Camping only but you still have time to put your name down and join in the fun. I hope some of the information in this brief overview is of benefit and if you have any questions at all about kayaks or our planned activities, you can see upcoming trips on the Club s Google calendar or just ask me up at the Club on Friday evenings. Last and certainly not least, if you re free Saturday the 27 th of February, please grab all your fishy friends and their kids and join us down at Lake Parramatta for the fishing club BBQ. Loads to do and entertainment with guest speakers and a kid friendly fishing comp as well. Free sausage sizzle for members and we hope to see you there. Until next time, stay safe and have fun on the water. Cheers, David Brooklyn looking towards the Hawkesbury Traffic Bridge. The Atomics were great on the bream with one looking like someone had taken a bite out of him earlier in his life. The others were still reporting no catches so far and so I continued to troll and cast around the area with Paul. Brent and Buttercup The morning wore on and I got two more bream to the kayak with one being a keeper at 26cm however I put him back to get a little bigger. The others were starting to make their way back to the ramp so I Page 4
Once the 1.6-kilometre (0.99 mi) long Woy Woy Tunnel was completed, the three hour trip was considerably shortened as the boat only had to cross the river and negotiate the lower reaches of Mullet Creek to reach Wondabyne railway station. The first "Brooklyn (Rail) Bridge" In January 1886, the Union Bridge Company from New York was awarded the contract to build a railway bridge across the Hawkesbury River. Local stories say that many of the American workers had actually worked on the Brooklyn Bridge in New York. 27 th February Family B-B-Q 10:30am to 5:30pm. Lake Parramatta Illawong Drive Parramatta. 5 th and 6 th March Lake St Clair Freshwater trip. Near Singleton. Camping Only. 13 th March Kayak Trip and Small Boats 19 th March Charter Trip - Balmain Rock and Beach - Budgewoi Beach 5pm to 10pm 21 st March Fishing Club Committee meeting. All Members are welcome. 2 nd and 3 rd April Freshwater - Burrinjuck Dam. The Hawkesbury River Railway Bridge was the final link in the Eastern seaboard rail network and was a major engineering feat at the time of its construction. The piers consisted of concrete below water with sandstone masonry above. The spans were assembled on Dangar Island and floated 1,500 metres (4,921 ft) or so across to the bridge site on barges. The bridge had seven spans of 416 feet (127 m) each for a total length of 2,910 feet (890 m). Five of the piers were sunk to then record depths of between 150 to 160 feet (46 to 49 m) below high water. The bridge was officially opened on 1 May 1889. "Hawkesbury River" was the original platform name when the station opened in 1887 but the nomenclature varied over the following twenty years with the names "Flat Rock", "Brooklyn" and "Hawkesbury" all being used until the final change in 1906 to Hawkesbury River. Although the track on either end of the bridge was single line, the bridge itself was constructed to double track width with an eye to the future duplication of the line. This led to the undesirable practice of using the bridge as a crossing point for trains operating on this section of line, thus regularly subjecting the structure to maximum stress loads. Perhaps it was this reason that resulted in the double track being replaced by a single track in June 1893. Check the notice board for details. Note: There won t be a meat raffle on Good Friday Brooklyn owes its existence and location to the main northern railway line with the railway arriving in Brooklyn in 1887 when the single track section north from Hornsby was completed. Early Rail Prior to the bridge on 7 April 1887, the single line section of railway track was opened between Hornsby and the Hawkesbury River. Passengers and goods heading north were unloaded at the River Wharf platform located on the eastern end of Long Island. Here they boarded a double decker, rear paddled-wheeled steamer named "General Gordon" that conveyed them out into Broken Bay and up Brisbane Water into Gosford where they could rejoin trains heading north. The bridge gave admirable service until 1927 when it required strengthening and then during the 1930s cracks developed in one of the piers and it became necessary to replace the entire structure. The depth of sediment had made it impossible to reach bedrock with the foundations on the southernmost pier and it seems that this was the cause of the structural faults. Brooklyn Rail Bridge during WW2 The importance of Brooklyn during WW2 was highlighted by captured Imperial Japanese Navy charts, with the rail bridge being identified as a strategic target. Recently one of the lost mini submarines which attacked Sydney Harbour was found off Lion Island at the mouth of the Hawkesbury River. To protect the rail bridge, Brooklyn was defended by a 3 inch Anti Aircraft (AA) gun at Flat Rock Point, another 3 inch AA gun at Juno Point, a Bofors 40mm AA battery at Mckell Park, two Bofors 40mm AA batteries at the railway bridge (one each end), and two anti-submarine nets stretched between Brooklyn to Dangar Island and Dangar Page 5
Island to Little Wobby. Additional protection was provided by two QF 4.7-inch guns and mine fields laid across Broken Bay. The present Brooklyn Rail Bridge The amount of traffic being carried (up to 100 trains a day) during World War II made the replacement extremely urgent and prior to the new bridge being brought into operation the speed limit on the old bridge was restricted to 15 miles per hour (24 km/h) and finally down to 5 mph (8.0 km/h). Work commenced on the new bridge in July 1940 and despite best efforts it was not completed until after the war finished, opening for traffic on 1 July 1946. The new bridge was positioned 60 metres (197 ft) to the west or upstream of the original bridge and consists of eight spans in three different lengths and piers sunk to depths of up to 183 feet (56 m). New tunnels were bored through Long Island to the south and Cogra Point on the northern approach. The spans for the new bridge were constructed adjacent to the bridge site on the northern side of Long Island, raised to the correct height, placed onto barges and floated out to the piers at high tide. Upon completion of the new bridge, the old bridge was removed, however the sandstone piers remain. Page 6