TUMBY TOM’S Angling Adventures (Hard Cover Book)

Description

Tumby Tom Tierney

Being raised in the small township of Hawker, nestled in the hub of the Flinders Ranges, my early childhood days had little to do with fishing. My hunting instincts were inherited from my father, who would take my brother, Terry, and me shooting rabbits, ‘roos’ and wild goats on most weekends. Summers in Hawker were extremely dry and hot, and dad would take us to the Hookina Creek and other permanent waterholes to teach us to swim. We were always fascinated with water and were often in trouble for swimming in the local water supply, the Railway Dam. The dam was full of yabbies and the “Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted” sign was too big a challenge to ignore. There were no fish in Hawker, but looking back I’m sure that’s where the lure of catching water critters first attracted me.

I can remember going to my cousins’ house at Glenelg during school vacations and watching people fishing from the Bay Jetty. I couldn’t believe how the idiots sat there for hours, seemingly catching very little from my observation; how boring, I thought.

My first actual encounter with a fish was while staying with the same cousins, the Oliver boys, after they had moved to Blackwood. They always loved a challenge and we were fishing in the local reservoir (after dark, because we were not supposed to be there).
I knew nothing about fishing methods, but managed to catch a ‘red fish’ on a home-made hook and hand line. It was probably a goldfish of some sort.

After leaving school, I transferred to the mid-north town of Balaklava with the Bank of Adelaide. The accountant there, Barry Koop, talked me into going fishing for yellowfin whiting at Bald Hill near Port Wakefield.

At the time I was batching with a couple of stock firm lads, so a feed of fresh fish sounded pretty good. We proceeded to the beach and I had a crash course on digging seaweed worms for bait. Barry loaned me a rod and reel (a Bakelite Alvey) and we waded out for miles it seemed, and followed the tide in. Surprise, surprise – we actually caught a good feed of whiting.

On a subsequent trip there I ran into and buddied up with Jeff Sutton, who had been a regular for years. I still hadn’t caught the fishing bug at that stage, but I liked the free feed. Some months later, Jeff invited me to go salmon fishing at Brown’s Beach, on the bottom end of Yorke Peninsula. Lots of preparation went into the trip. Jeff helped me build a surf rod from a Rangoon cane and I purchased an eight-inch, rosewood spool Alvey star-drag side-cast, which I still use to this day. We made our own lures from hexagon rod, sliced at an angle and sent to Adelaide to be chromed. Then we drilled a hole in each end and attached split rings and two 4/0 Mustad limerick hooks. Each lure cost seven pence.

We spent a whole weekend at Brown’s, catching quite a few large salmon. We lost most of our lures on the outer reef, and a few on bust-offs, due to my lack of knot-tying skills, but after my first stoush with a nine-pound leaping, thrashing, head-shaking salmon I was finally hooked – on fishing. I can remember saying to Jeff – This is actually good fun. From then on the disease rapidly got worse. Since that time I think I’ve fitted 100 years of fishing time into 50 years and enjoyed every minute of it.

From Balaklava I was transferred to Port Lincoln, which was pretty exciting for a recent fishing convert. I played football with the Tasman football club and soon gravitated to the keen fishermen in the club. I was pretty raw at fishing at this stage, and was like a sponge, soaking up information on all types of fishing.

Extract below from Shane Mensforth on the back cover of the book.

Tumby Tom Tierney is regarded by many as the fisherman’s fisherman. It has been said, in fact, that he could catch a big snapper in a roadside puddle on a bent pin with half a banana as bait!

Despite being born into a family where angling was never a high priority, Tom soon developed an interest in pulling all manner of fish from the water – an interest that gradually developed into a life-long obsession.

Competitive by nature in all sports, it was inevitable that Tom’s obvious skills with rod and reel would ultimately propel him into competition fishing. A short list of his club fishing achievements includes being 1991 runner-up National Angling champion, a mind-boggling 18 Angling Club championships, multiple State, National and World Record captures, a Master Angler award with ANSA, and consistent selection in the SA team at national titles.

Over the decades Tom has accumulated an envious fishing knowledge base, having travelled extensively to wet a line in his home state, interstate and overseas. Giant tarpon in Costa Rica, black bass and barramundi in New Guinea, king salmon in Alaska and bonefish in Christmas Island are just’ a few of the top shelf species Tom has racked up. Then, of course, there are countless others closer to home like big surf mulloway, yellowtail kings, samson fish and big snapper.

As well as being in the thick of the angling action himself, Tom enjoys few things more than putting friends onto a hot bite in his home waters. Literally hundreds of keen anglers have joined him to sample the incredible King George whiting fishing in the Sir Joseph Banks Group or the hectic surf salmon action on the beaches south of Port Lincoln. As long as there are bent rods and smiling faces around him, Tom is happy.

Now in the twilight of his angling life, Tumby Tom can look back on a plethora of fond memories. Without question, fishing has been the major driving force in his existence; it has enabled him to form unbreakable bonds with friends and acquaintances from around Australia and overseas, as well as guaranteeing him a place in South Australian angling history.
by Shane Mensforth