By Wayne Kampe •
Being between boats for several months, the Kampe fishing team was looking at some fishing alternatives. The point is that we love our fishing – any fishing. We were obviously land-based for a spell.
The Spit at Southport can be good for tailor during a late afternoon or early morning. The only drawback is that tailor are somewhat unpredictable. We saw some lovely gutters, but, as tailor are not being paid appearance money, they tended to be quite hit and miss. We missed.
Cleveland Point
I can remember my short pants days when I lived at Raby Bay and fished all around the Cleveland area from my bicycle. In those days, my brother Peter and I caught enough fish from various places (many now part of the canal estates) to feed Mum and Dad and three siblings.
I remembered Cleveland Point was a favourite location, especially at high tide. Figuring that not much would have changed (so far as habitat was concerned) at ‘The Point’ in the past 55 years, Denise and I had a good look at the area to gauge the potential for some shore-based fishing. A Sunday recon trip saw us with only our picnic tackle, as fishing would have been difficult with all the people there. I loved to see all the boats, but really wished we had ours; it was still in the mould at Galeforce at that stage.
Bream still on the job
We found that some things had changed. The lighthouse on the northernmost point – what happened to the old lighthouse? Ah, there it is, now some 80m away to the southwest. And the pine tree I used to climb right by the lighthouse? Gone, no doubt converted to shavings and in someone’s yard.
But the formed wall was still there, as were the numerous rocks covered by over a metre of water at high tide. That northern area was always good for a feed of bream, and other fish as well, so would they still be there despite the fishing pressure of today?
Yes! A chunk of bread thrown a short distance out was attacked willingly by these master scavengers.
Shore-Based showdown
Next morning on first light and with a high tide at 07:00 hours, we were back with the tackle – light tackle at that – and a good lashing of berley to liven things up. We set up with 8lb braid and 3kg leaders on fine rods and, to prevent snags on the very gnarly rocks that still extend a long way out from the wall, we used luderick floats to easily detect bites as well as keep our bait moving in the current.
My feeling was that bream in this locality would be among the most educated on the east coast. I decided that the only sure way of fooling them would be to keep things as light as possible and make generous use of a mix of bread, prawn heads, pillies and sand as a berley to fire them up.
A few berley bombs fired them up all right, but it also fired up other fish as well. With main baits of fresh bread or slivers of prawn on our size 1 hooks, tarwhine, bream, butter bream and some tasty, nicely sized gar also joined us on the bank. With some heavier tackle in reserve, I landed a tailor on a spinner when I noted a few chopping into baitfish around 50m out. The undoubted highlight of the morning was Denise and the ‘Cookie Monster’ – a big wobbegong shark.
There were some solid bream belting into bits of the bread we were throwing out to see if we could upgrade to some larger fish. Of course, these fish hold a degree in Angler Savvy 101, so while there were plenty of fish that were more than happy to whack the bread, few would touch the hooks.
This was not so for the big 8kg+ wobbegong shark that latched onto Denise’s small sliver of sliced prawn. The weight of the rough skinned warrior was impressive. Her canny in keeping the 3kg leader intact among all those sharp teeth during determined runs was phenomenal, and a small crowd gathered to watch her playing what we first assumed was the mother of all flathead.
A broad head and a mouthful of terrible looking teeth soon revealed the truth, but the lady was not for quitting. She wanted photos.
Guiding the brute’s boofy head into the bream-sized landing net was a challenge in itself, but old age and cunning outclassed the rough skinned rock-dweller, and once his head was in the net up he came.
Held bravely by Denise and distributed among the crowd for children’s show and tell, and some selfies, it was a fun time and that old wobbegong is still probably wondering just what happened. Once he was released back into the water, he certainly wasted no time in swimming away as fast as he could.
Great for youngsters
So there you have it. The Point is still a viable proposition for some fishing fun from the shore, and an absolutely ideal place for a keen youngster to find out what fishing is all about, with mum or dad guiding them. The area demands light tackle, and the bait can’t touch the ground or a snag, courtesy of the tidal flow. The bottom is very rough, but if things are done correctly, there will be some fun on that light gear.
Strips of prawn or small bits of bread (it must be fresh) work well when suspended around 50-60cm under a fine float. For the record, we took home three bream and a nice gar for our dinner and had a lot of easy fun from our shore-based outing.
If you go
Try to select a big early morning tide when there are light winds, or a high tide towards dusk, so long as there’s not too much chop. With daylight westerlies likely this month, there would certainly be some ideal early morning tides to enjoy, but even a stronger west wind would not prevent easy fishing from the east side of the point, between the restaurant (great coffee) and the north facing area of the wall.
