BIG FISH OFF N.S.W.

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21707, 14 February 1936, Page 18

BIG FISH OFF N.S.W.

SPORT PERMANENTLY ESTABLISHED

LARGE RECENT CATCHES

(FBOU OCB OWIf COBREaPOKDENT.) SYDNEY, February '5. Big game fishing off the New South Wales coast has been encouraged by the visit, of Zane Grey; but the presence of from 30 to 40 Sydney and Melbourne sportsmen, • and numerous catches, show that the sport has been permanently established in Australian waters. It is only five years since the first swordfish was hooked, and such progress has been made that it is certain that swordfishing in January, February and March has been added to the attractions which New South Wales can offer tourists. The fishing grounds comprise a stretch of about 10Q miles of coastline from Narooma, 230 miles south of Sydney, to Eden near the Victorian border. A few miles south of Narooma and north of Bermagui, Zane Grey’s headquarters, is Montague Island, a barren spot in the Pacific, and it is in the waters within, a few miles of this islet, inhabited by only a lighthouse staff, that most of the fishing is done. Zane Grey caught the first marlin of the season, but he beat by only 10 minutes J3r. G. M. Faithfull, who has been trying for several years to catch one. Zane Grey has caught 10 or more, the largest weighing 4801b, but a Victorian, Mr E. K. Tolhurst, beat this by 11b. At least two larger swordfish have been hooked, but not landed—one by Zane Grey himself. A black marlin has been caught, estimated to weigh as much as 8001b, off Montague Island. Last week-end saw a dozen successes by parties from the three swordfishing centres Narooma, Bermagui, and Eden—between which there is great rivalry to win the coveted honours of the most fish and the heaviest fish. But big game sportsmen need not go so far from Sydney for fishing. Shark-fishing, of course, lacks the excitement of playing swordfish, but a party of three Sydney men had all the excitement and hard work they desired off Sydney Heads last Sunday. A nine-hour struggle, which tested almost to the limit the strength and endurance of the three men, ended in victory for a shark.