FISHERMAN David Holbert and his family moved to Soldiers Point in 1946.

“Bob, Geoff and Ken, Rod, me and Sue – there was a heap of us,” explained Dave’s son, Trevor Holbert.

“All fishermen at one time, except Sue – she was the smartest.”

Born in 1934, Trevor recalled when he and his sister Sue would head off to school at Anna Bay from Soldiers Point. “There was only one ‘Foggies’ bus a day that went to Newcastle and for us to get to school we had to be on it,” he said.

“Unfortunately for us it left the Point at 7am and we didn’t return home till after 7.30pm.

“A 12 hour day to go to school at Anna Bay – less than 10 miles from home!”

From about 12-years-old Trevor said it was “obvious” he was going to be a fisherman.

“Even at that stage I would work with my father on the boat fishing until 3 o’clock in the morning when he would drop me off on the sand flats in front of Ridgeways and I would go home and get dressed to catch the 7 o’clock bus for school.

“Thankfully Dad made the decision to fill in the required forms and take me out of school – a decision that I was very pleased he made.

“I gained a fishing licence when I was 17-years-old however I had put in at least five solid years before that.”

I once asked Trevor if he could remember any outstanding fishing experiences.

His eyes lit up as it all came back.

“There were heaps of them,” he said.

“I have some remarkable memories of special occasions but few would compare to the huge shot of sand whiting that Jack Chalkley and I caught at Neddy’s Point over the other side, the first bank east of the Pig Station.”

Jack Chalkley recalls the day well.

“I have no answer as to why there were so many whiting moving together,” he said.

“It may have had something to do with our sighting of a heap of porpoise in close, about 50 or 60, just before we shot,” Jimmy said.

“We started sorting them, up to our waste in water – little ones, big ones, little ones, big ones.

“We were still sorting when the tide went down and then the tide came back up again.”

Trevor takes up the story from here.

“We were still standing up to our chest in water when darkness set in,” he said.

“We come across to the ramp at Soldiers Point.

“Jack got on to his brother Jimmy who went down and opened the Nelson Bay Co-op and got a couple of truck loads of ice.

“Even with Jimmy helping us we were still there ‘til midnight.

“The dinghies were filled to overflowing with beautiful whiting.

“We worked on those fish for about 8 hours, at one o’clock we shot and at 9 o’clock we finished.

“By the time we tidied up and got back home it was midnight.

“We got about $2,500.00 a share out of it and they were all whiting, between 50 to 55 boxes, an extraordinary patch of beautiful fish – a freak shot.”

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE