"It was a long time ago in March 1966. We went on holiday with Judy’s Mum and Dad. He’d been Mayor of Box Hill and we went with some of his fellow Councillors to what was then the new Snowy Mountains Scheme. Then we went on to holiday at a residence at Avoca Beach north of Sydney with Mum and Dad and our then two children, Neil going on for 3 years and daughter Carol about 6 months old.
Anyway, I fished every day for a week for one large Bream. Then Judy and I got a leave pass from the children one night and we bought a bait fish (mullet) from a fish shop and then went to the Avoca Surf Beach with a couple of rods. Judy was holding the first line I threw in about 8.15 pm and while I was throwing in the second line she said I think we’ve got a big bite. It was a big one and she handed the rod to me.
The line ran our rapidly and the silver appeared showing there was little line left to go , when the fish started swimming in and I retrieved line rapidly. We worked for about 45 minutes when we saw this huge fish, looking pretty exhausted, as I was, in the shallows. Somehow or other we went into the water and got the fish up onto the beach.
By this time it was dark but amazingly people seemed to come from everywhere once we dragged the fish up to a grassy area where we could clean it. The scales were one inch in diameter.
As Judy’s Dad said at the time “THE CATCH OF A LIFETIME”. And so it has proved to be despite me catching 4-5 foot gummy sharks and even a grey nurse shark with plenty of teeth.
Sorry to make this note so long but they are good memories!!!" Editor note: Thank you Ross, I just love this beautiful photo of the three of you.
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