Over the Christmas 2019 period my family and I visited my parents who reside at Tumby Bay in South Australia. The distance from Hervey Bay, where we live, to Tumby Bay is significant. Some 2,300 kilometers by road. Or a whole days flying, spread across 3 flights and lots of waiting in airport lounges.
Memories
This family holiday was not only about catching up with my parents. Whom, we have not seen for quite some time. But, a holiday designed to disconnect from work, explore a different part of Australia and to truly relax. Once I laid eyes upon the rickety old jetty at Tumby Bay. Childhood memories came flooding back to me of fishing for tommy ruff, garfish and squid.
Determined to share these experiences with my own young boys. It was not long after arriving that we were off to a fishing tackle store to equip ourselves.
I was amazed at how little I needed at the fishing tackle store. I guess as a kid we never really had a lot of money so we kept things simple and it worked. 3 pencil floats, 2 hand lines, some 4lb line, size 6 long shank hooks, a couple of squid jigs and we were ready.
The Conditions
Like many of the small town jetties in South Australia. The Tumby Bay jetty is surrounded by large patches of weed. To fish these areas effectively, you either need to place your fishy offering between these weed patches. On a suitable area of sand or float your offering just above the weed. Close enough to tempt the fish from the protection of the weed. But, not too close which would allow them to simply pull your offering into a weedy mess.
Fishing from a jetty can be difficult with strong winds and fast moving currents. Meaning that landing an offering on a specific and sometimes small sand patch can be hard. So, as kids we learnt how to use pencil floats to great effect.
The Rig
My sister who also lives in Tumby Bay splashed out and purchased a couple of $7 rod and reel combos to give to the boys while on holiday. Matched with a simple pencil float rig the boys were in for a treat.
A pencil float rig works very easily. The float sits on top of the water horizontally (floating). A very light bait is placed on the small hook which is suspended about 2m below the float. In this case we were using gents or maggots. Once a fish grabs the bait and attempts to leave with it. The pencil float follows it. Sometimes around in circles, but 99% of the time downwards. Once you see the float start to sink, you strike!
We would spend long Summer days, sitting on our buckets, with 2 or 3 pencil floats set. While nearby 1 or 2 squid jigs would also be set in a similar fashion. By the end of the day we would more often than not have a bucket full of tommy ruff and garfish with a few squid thrown in for variety.
Local Knowledge Helps
We enlisted the help of my brother in law for some local knowledge. He showed us where to start and set about making life long memories for my two boys. It did not take long, especially after my brother in law deployed some burley.
After showing my boys how to thread fresh (gents) or maggots onto the small hooks. How to cast from the jetty and what to look for when a fish had taken the bait. Both my boys started cheering and smiling. Fish after fish started taking their offering, and it soon became my challenge to keep up with with dehooking.
In the end we had a mini production line going. My boys, Liam and Elliot were happily catching tommy ruff, garfish and also small mackerel. My brother in law Bill would then float the small mackerel out as a live bait in an attempt to entice something larger for dinner. And boy, did we have fun watching, when he eventually hooked into a good sized kingfish which ran him around the jetty.
Final Thoughts
I guess this experience reminded me that you do not need a lot to enjoy fishing. Keeping it really simple helps and while all the modern fishing gear and electronics looks flash. For kids it is more about the essence of the experience. The less complicated the better. Just catch something, have fun, talk and get outdoors!
They can not wait to go back.