IT was during the war years, when the Americans arrived in Nelson Bay, that big changes took place.

The roads from Salt Ash, over the sandhills to the coast, were upgraded and tarred and on the waterfront wharves and jetties were built to handle the arrival of warships.

I will never forget a story I was told by George Todd, a great old character who became a commercial fisherman at just fourteen.

George and his brother Roger fished from the Port north to Broughton Island.

Many of their experiences are written in my book ‘Broughton Islanders’, first published in 2009.

George and his brother caught thousands of snapper using handlines.

Oddly enough of all the snapper caught by George, the biggest fish were taken in the most unlikely spot – inside Port Stephens!

It was 1937 when George, by chance, started to catch snapper over 20 kilograms in the calm tidal waters of the harbour.

Over a period of 20 years he continued to regularly pull monster snapper.

My jaw dropped closer and closer to the ground as George related his experiences with gigantic reds.

“They would come into the harbour every year about March and there were various locations that were known to yield big fish,” George said.

“These days they catch jewfish in those places and strangely enough in those days jewfish were rarely caught.

“It was unusual to have trouble with sharks for they seemed to leave in the cold weather but you would see the occasional one.

“The snapper would average about 30 lb,” the old fisherman recalled.

Fifteen kilogram reddies inside the port? Hard to believe I reckoned.

“Yep and plenty of them,” George replied.

“They were right throughout the harbour from Shoal Bay way back past Fame Cove, particularly when the mullet were moving around Anzac Day.

“The snapper would really come on the bite when a strong westerly wind whipped up overnight.”

One day, George was giving Norm Laman a hand at his camp in Cromarty Bay.

In the late afternoon he decided to do some fishing before returning home.

A storm could be seen coming from the west as he went out to fish in the deep water in Top Harbour off Soldiers Point.

“I caught 250 kilograms of snapper and it didn’t take long, about two hours, to catch them as they were all big fish,” George said.

“I had to quit fishing as the rain was belting down and the wind was howling, making it nearly impossible to see.

“A real westerly gale had developed but the fish were biting like crazy and they would have averaged well over twelve to fifteen kilograms.

“If I could have kept fishing I would have filled the boat for I left them biting.”

Fishing for those “big reds”, it was necessary to use very big hooks.

The giant snapper had incredibly strong mouths and George found that using hooks smaller than 12/0 would result in a lot of lost fish.

“It was all right when they took a bait and the hook was flat, however if they bit a hook on the side they would simply bend it into a circle and the fish was gone,” George said.

“Purchasing 12/0 hooks around Nelson Bay at that time wasn’t easy.

“Mrs Coady had six in her shop so I bought the lot.”

According to George, commercial fishermen never weighed fish in those days.

Fish were simply loaded into boxes and fishermen were paid per box.

“The only fish that was weighed was snapper and you always got consignment weight for them,” George said.

“One day I gave Neville Blanch a load of ten snapper to be taken to Newcastle and the fish weighed 450 lb, averaging 20 kilograms a fish.

“I used to send my fish down with carriers, Con Catsicas or Neville Blanch, and you never knew what they weighed for there were no scales about here and it was only when you were paid that you found out the weight of your catch.

“On one occasion I took some down myself, five absolute whoppers, and sold them to Gerry Grivas who had the Railway Cafe which was straight opposite the Newcastle railway station.

“He used to hang these really big snapper up in the window of his shop for a day or two so the people passing by could marvel at their size before he cut them up and cooked and served them in his cafe.”

By John ‘Stinker’ CLARKE