I was the first of my immediate family born in WA - in 1980. So my family's fishing cultural memory probably doesn't go back far enough for this discussion (though I can certainly relate a few places we used to fish that are now, in my opinion, fished out)

I used to work in a fish shop in Bunbury, run by the region's original fishing family, the Soulos'. Each morning, old Nick would come in and we would fillet whiting for the day's sales. He was one of the brothers who started up the commercial fishing ventures for real there, back in the day post-WWII.

Man, I would have my ears hanging off my head as he told me what they used to catch, and where. Basically, they wouldn't have to go much further than Koombana Bay (the little bay that the Port of Bunbury is in) to catch dozens of all the big demersals we travel 100's km for these days. Dhuies, snapper, sharks etc. Enough to supply the commercial fish requirements for the region, all out of Koombana Bay!!

They used to set lines overnight off where the Bunbury Power Station is located, near the Cut, and one night he said they caught 'a couple of dozen' grey nurse sharks!!! Obviously was (once) an aggregation site for them. And before anyone reckons it was probably mis-identification...nup - he knows his fish, and grey nurse aggregations are well known as a diminishing phenomenon around the country.

Not to mention netting the herring, whiting etc in the estuary(s) and beaches that they used to do in the area - needless to say, they caught ALOT!!

I think it is important to remember that people back in those days and even until relatively recently, didn't know any better. The fish were there and so they caught them.

 Also - I didn't mean for this to be all doom and gloom...we have alot of tools like fisheries regulations and like marine parks to prevent extinctions like are in the article link above - if we use those tools!! But it is important to remember, and nice to dream about how it once was.

Anyhoo- I look forward to any stories that might be related!

Cheers,

Ewan

read ross cusacks "hooked for life" book. its a really good read.

it tells heaps of stories from yesteryear, and what it was like back then.

he tells of 1 boat catching like 26 dhus in one morning, only a few miles out from fremantle harbour. and dhus from the shore at rotto.

on another note, my grandad used to go to rotto quite a bit when he was young, and spoke of (before he carked it) SCHOOLS of big baldys swimming around in most of the bays around rotto. imagine that these days!

Getting a weekly dose of herring at the North Mole as kids. Even thats a lot harder than it used to be.

Remeber the days of the yearly trip to worra station around 15 years ago.

Every year we would make the trip north as a family from Bunbury, and back then would not be to much for us to get enough fish to feed the lot of us for a year. In 1 week. and the 2nd would be chillin out.

I took a weekend to go down from Ktown to see Dad and Mum as they still go to worra. And went fishing with Dad and we were lucky to get 2 in the day, lots of sharks and travlly.

How times are changing.

At all the 1970s fishing publications, to see what we recreational fishermen were like. 

I think Rex Hunt has done alot for the catch and release style of fishing that we enjoy today(Even though Hes a tool)..Thank your mother for the rabbits!!!

I only go back 40 years myself, but I never remember it being like 'shooting fish in a barrel'. I remember days drifting around out there and hardly catching a thing. Dad would always say "I must have run over a bloody chinaman"..still dont get that one!!

With todays technology (boats, gear, gps) I am going to go the other way and say it has probably never been easier for the average punter to get a feed of fish...but get out of the metro area!!

Grandad use to be a  pro down in Albany and some of the stories he has told me are hard to believe. They use to net in the Wilson inlet for pink snapper. Said the water around the net looked pink because the nets used to be that full of pinkies. 100 to 200 a night was common.

They also fished King George sound for KGs with hand lines. He said they use to fill a 44 drum with whiting in a mornings session.

The other thing he always go on about is the salmon schools around town. He can remember Middleton beach blacked out from huge salmon schools. Schools the size of many footy fields were common and there were always plenty of great whites around with them as well especially when the whaling station was still active.

He cracks me up at times because he always got a story to better mine. If I said I had great day catching a few dhuys, he would tell me stories of huge dhuys in large numbers caught out of a dingy only minutes from the ramp.

Never boring having a beer with my grandad he has always got a story to tell about the war or fishing. Dont know if there all true but it certainly makes you think what it was like 60 odd years ago and what it will be like 60 years from now.

Hahaha... same as my pop... it doesnt matter what i catch, back in the day, he caught one bigger...

Back in the old days (30 odd years ago) I remember salmon schools the size of the MCG, theyt would run a net at get a tenth of the school and still have 80-100 tons. also remember netting herring overnight, 125 tons in a night, thats a lotttttt of herring. tool from sun up to sundown to cart it away, loading the trucks with cane baskets onto a conver belt then 50km into hunt cannery in Albany.

said they caught unbelievable amounts of snapper  in a short time

up to ten kilos 50 years ago

no sounder

all with 100 pound handlines and tackle that sticks out like dogs balls

he still thinks of the old days while he catches undersize snapper and how they used to be legal size

he regretfully always puts them back

yeah the hooked for life book by ross cusack is what it used to be like

Back in my day ! ..only kidding ,my kids hang shit on me every time I say it.

It fair to say that fishing over the last 40years has gone through massive changes and the ratio of people with a boat has increased to something like a boat every 3rd family.

Not to mention that each of these boats probably has state of the art GPS  & sounder technology. If you do manage to find a nice fish ,you chart the spot and go back to it .

 In the old days if you were out of site of some visible land marks ,you were buggered ,it was just luck if you ever managed to get back there .You might have pulled a nice fish or two from that site ,but that was it.

The odd's are definately stacked against the fish these days .

buckets of prawns drag netted from the swan and cooking them right there on the shore and eating them on bread. All but memories these days.....in hindsight it was a horribly unsustainable practice, but it was the norm.

First salmon season I did was at Hamelin bay IN 64.Used to drive down to Boranup having a look at the school to work out which one had about 12-20 ton,not too many to handle first thing in the morning.Would be nothing to see 20 schools from between 5 -30 ton lots.
Caught sea mullet in 6 inch mesh nets in the estuary in Bunbury the size of big salmon.Netted 5+ton schools of skippy and tailor off the beach,average weight 2-4 kg.

Remember putting about 5lb of lead on a handline and only one big bait so it would have a chance of getting through a school of pinkies[10-15kg]to get schooled up dhuies under neath.Dhuies were averaging 30lb[13-14kg]Pinkies were worth $1 a pound and dhuey $3-$4

Worked with Nick Soulos's grandfather,father and all the brothers,lots of stories to tell.

mate dhui schools wtf

Hey Andy - I heard a rumour you were on the radio the other day - something to do with this kind of thing???

It was a good topic so we had a few callers talking about what it was like in years gone by. The older generation had tales of mountains of fish caught in a day back when there were no size or bag limits and they didn't know any better.

We also talked a bit about the humble blowie and how they have taken over a few beaches in recent years. They seem to be the only biomass that is growing rather than shrinking.