Mulloway Mania is a fish
tale about an incredible night's surf fishing for Mulloway
on the beautiful beaches of Mandurah, south of Perth in Western
Australia |
| Bob Fisher
with a catch of four Mulloway (between 42lb and 48lb) caught
while fishing the surf on the beaches of Mandurah, south of Perth
in Western Australia, in February 1973. |
The Sunday Times, February 11th 1973. . .
click on the above image to enlarge
| Not only do I find
the above article in the Sunday Time's about Mulloway Mania interesting
- but what about the advertisements from 1973? Nally tackle boxes
at Campbell's only $4.49 and Sleeping Bags at Crackel for Tackle
from $6.50! The entry fees for the 1973 State Amateur Open Angling
Tournament at Preston Beach read: Open $1.50, Women 50c and Juniors
50c.... |
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Bob Fisher with four
Mulloway caught during an Offshore Angling Club Field Day while
fishing from the beach at Mandurah during 1973. These Mandurah
Mulloway weighed in at 42, 42, 43 and 48 pounds respectively.
The bait used was West Australian pilchards and the reel was
an Alvey 650 C3 wooden, side-cast spooled with 500 yards of 20lb
line. The rig was a basic surf rig that I used for Mulloway back
then consisting of a heavier leader that came off a crossline
swivel with a short dropper to a 4oz star sinker. With side-cast
reels I also put a box swivel 12"-18" above the crossline
swivel.
I stayed up all night for these fish. There was a strong sea-breeze
at sunset that persisted for hours and with no action by midnight
everyone else on the beach had either left or gone to sleep.
It was a dark night (except for the stars) and as I looked around
the bay I could see that all of the Lanterns were out - except
for mine... So I collected some drift wood and lit a fire and
persevered. In the very early hours of the morning the wind had
dropped off completely and then the action started.
By sunrise I had caught four good Mulloway, had many screaming
runs and lost several other fish. (After I had caught a couple
of fish I went and woke up my good friend Lee Townsend who was
sleeping in his car back in the parking lot. Lee managed to get
two quality Mandurah Mulloway at 45lb and 50lb. |
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Two subsequent trips
that year were also successful, the photo on the left is Bob
with "Uncle Joe" and a pair of Mandurah Mulloway weighing
in at 25 pounds and 50 pounds respectively - and a heap of "chopper"
tailor in the foreground.
The photo on the right is Bob Fisher and Lee Townsend (background)
with a night's catch that included two 45 pound Mandurah Mulloway
(laying in the sand in the background) and a Grey Nurse shark
all caught fishing from the surf near Mandurah in Wesetrn Australia.
In those days I used (wooden) Alvey 650 C3 and 700 C3 sidecast
reels and (one piece) 12' - 13' Len Butterworth rods exclusively
for surf fishing. I had a couple of the 650's and every now and
then I would dismantle the spool assembly and then sand them
down and varnish them. I loved those reels!
The Alvey 650 C3 would be spooled with 500 yards of 20lb to 25lb
line and I would load as much 30lb line on the 700 C3 as it could
take. The Alvey 650 C3 (20lb - 25lb line) would generally be
used for fishing the surf for Tailor, Salmon and Mulloway while
the 700 C3 (30lb line) was used for was used for fishing Sharks
and Rays and in the surf. |
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