Red Tide!

Having orignially come from South Australia many years ago, Whyalla has been known to me and others as the Steel City for more years than I can remember.

Perched on the shores of Eyre Peninsula, its industry of smelting ore from Iron Knob, Iron Duke and Iron Baron made it the busiest centre in SA for decades until labour costs caught up with production and things slowed down.

The recently constructed rail line to Darwin had its tracks poured at the Steel City, but it is famous for more than steel; it also produced rocker Jimmy Barnes, who calls Whyalla his home town.

The quality of the snapper fishing is the other feather in the tourism industry's cap for this part of the Peninsula. It's fairly safe to say that Whyalla is Australia's snapper capital.

WHY WHYALLA?
So how does a featureless, flat mud-and-sand seabed along that part of the coast hold so many good fish? The answer is wrecks - and lots of them.

Not wrecks of silver, gold bullion and doubloons; rather HD Holdens, truck bodies, old boat hulls and anything else the industrious locals could pile aboard their boats and drag seawards to sink at their favourite mark.

While many such wrecks have nearly rusted away over the years, they still attract schools of snapper that move up the gulf each year to spawn in the shallows. Many wrecks are well known and others are being rediscovered.

The city council runs an annual fishing competition that is a drawcard for anglers from all parts of Australia. The past few competitions suffered weather bad enough to keep all but the most daring shore-bound, but this year's comp had seas so flat they shimmered - well, for the first two days anyway! 

INSANE BITE
John "Barney" Barnett from Don Moreton Marine suggested a group of us fish the comp in a 5.5m Sailfish catamaran - the same one I wrote up in Trailer Boat issue 177.

It was a good choice of boat, as the first two days were glorious and the third brought strong winds - the sort of conditions really needed to test an offshore boat. I'm happy to confirm my assessment of its seaworthiness, with the big plate-alloy cat chewing through nasty two-metre waves and revelling in a following sea.

On our first day we looked around the fish pens in Fitzgerald Bay where kingfish are farmed. The feed for these fish trickles through the mesh bottoms of the pens and is an attraction to the rest of the food chain. Areas around the pens can be fished, but ensure you stay out of the no-go zones close by the pens, which are marked with buoys.

To get there you must pass Point Lowly, which features a big tidal rip that fishes well on slack tides. It is near on impossible to get lead to the bottom on big tides. Once in the area, you'll probably see heaps of bait on the sounder, which looks promising and often is - except for the day of our visit, which produced a couple of undersized snapper.

Our second day was to be spent 30km south of the city and about 8km out from the coast. About 20 boats were on this drop, closely anchored together. The gunwale-to-gunwale reports were that there were some big fish in the area. It was 7am.

The session that followed was the most furious snapper bite I have ever experienced, with up to 10 boats at a time hooked up on 10kg reds - and I mean every rod in the boat!

A few metres away there were four anglers in a boat and five rods were bent double. A couple of fish were released but failed to survive. One floated past a 5.4m Haines Signature and a white pointer shark launched itself out of the water, crunching the big fish in half.

As the shark landed in the water behind the boat, its tail was visible behind the stern and its jaws were seen gnashing in front of the rig. We estimated this shark to be around the 1000lb mark. A big boil on the surface near our aft corner indicated he was not far away from us at times, and was obviously responsible for the removal of a few fish from lines. We decided against a dip.

By 11am our boat and many others had reached their catch limits and had weighed anchor. The next morning we returned for round two but the drop was stone dead, with a report of just one small fish caught on daybreak.

That's the vagaries of snapper fishing: they are a migratory fish and had moved on to other grounds.

HOW TO GET THERE
Whyalla produces some of the biggest snapper for recreational anglers in this country. The city is about a four-hour drive from Adelaide on good roads. It has big shopping centres, so food is not overly expensive. Petrol at the time of writing was around the 98-cents-per-litre mark.

In terms of working out where to go once you drop the boat in the water, nothing beats local knowledge. The helpful staff at North's Spot On Fishing Tackle Centre at 126 Norrie Avenue, Whyalla have it all.

They run a very good fishing-charter business in conjunction with the shop, and if you're in doubt about fishing techniques, it's well worth a day out to see how it's done.

Cost for four people is $150 per person, all tackle and bait supplied. I used them two months before the comp and it certainly paid dividends. Speak to Rob and Sam North for more information, tel (08) 8645 4887 or email northstackle@centralonline.com.au.

The reds from the waters off Steel City are a snapper fisho's dream and well worth the pilgrimage at least once in a lifetime - if not once a year. I'm putting my hand up for once a year.

Rick Huckstepp paid his own way for this trip to Whyalla. 

WHERE TO FIND THE BIG BOYS
There are a number of productive snapper grounds to the south-east of the city.

One of the closest is Marecks Reef, which is one made by the local council using old tyres. It can be found at S33.05.697, E137.36.387, which is about 5km off the coast.

Eleven kilometres south-east of Whyalla is Fairway Bank, which is the western edge of a natural shipping channel. Big fish come from this area, as it is dotted with wrecks. Here are the marks for two of them: S33.04.950, E137.41.855 and S33.04.971, E137.41.648.

Leeton Wreck is a trawler and accounts for some big fish. It is located at S33.14.430, E 137.32.390.

WHERE TO STAY
The biggest drama when we tow boats on extended trips is where to park them. For my second trip to Whyalla I stayed at the Westlands Hotel Motel on McDouall Stuart Avenue, Whyalla, tel (08) 8645 0066.

The hotel has large rooms that can sleep four blokes, as well as good meals, take-away food and pre-made lunches, room service, bar facilities and a drive-through bottle shop. Once ensconced here, you only need boat fuel and there is no need to run around.

The car parks around the rooms are big enough for a prime mover, so most of us are catered for with our rigs on the back. Usual precautions should be taken, such as stowing gear safely in your room.