March 1975 Newsletter Highlights
Brian Tudor is still the secretary and the headquarters is on The Quay in Looe.
For many years it had been an ambition of eth SACGB to have their own social headquarters and it now looked like this was a real possibility in 1975.
The club had been given the opportunity to rent premises in East Looe. The objective of the club was to, “establish an intimate Club for our members and their guests on the quayside”
In order to raise funds to support this objective the Club invited members assist by loaning the club £10 or any multiple thereof up to £500. The Club committed to pay interest at 5% per annum with full repayment by 1st January 1980 or earlier. At the time this newsletter was published it was reported the progress made on the Shark Club had reached the point where the lease was signed and planning permission had been granted. The club were now proceeding to apply for their licence.
It was also reported that the President (“Briggy”) was still in hospital.
The Boat Contact List was included with the newsletter but again due to the continuing economic uncertainty in the country no prices had been quoted on the document. The average however was circa £6 per person which was the same as the previous year.
Members who ordered emblems were asked to add 5p to their order to assist with the growing postal charges.
A trophy claim had been overlooked the previous year which Brian apologised for. It was the Leslie Andrews Light Tackle Trophy which had been won by Mr. R J Smith of Ryde, Isle of Wight with a Porbeagle of 206lbs caught on 45lb breaking strain line. All future claimants for this trophy were asked to supply a sample of the line used.
Tag 89, a shark tagged by Robin Vinnicombe of Falmouth in 1972 had been recaptured by Kyung Sang Nam Do, a Korean tuna long-liner from Hwang Man Soo, Republic of Korea on the 3rd December 1974 when he was fishing in the central Atlantic 2000 miles from Falmouth and almost exactly midway between Europe and America.
The introduction of VAT meant that entranced fees had to be increased to £2.25 for full members and £1.25 for associate members. Weigh in costs at Looe for non-members increased to 35p whilst it remained free for members.
An account of an unusual event by Barry Payne of Hornchurch Essex
On the 4th July I was fishing aboard the M V Talisman out of Mousehole, skippered by the Wallis brothers. I was fishing a cork float in the forward position of four with my line spring-clipped to the bow. There were the usual seven or eight in the boat besides two boatmen. It was mid-afternoon and we had perhaps 10 sharks on board; I cant remember that clearly. I recall we finished with fourteen. Suddenly my float went under and the line jerked out of its clip. I began playing the shark which at first didn’t seem very big; then suddenly it seemed to improve its fighting qualities and I felt I may have a decent catch. Suddenly the pressure eased and we had the shark a small Blue, alongside in short order. It lay quiet in the water, which is odd but not until we had it on board did we discover the reason.
It had been disembowelled; there was a hole in its underside larger than my two hands, with teeth marks round it and what was left of the organs protruding. Now the boatmen assure me, and I believe it, that no shark would take bait in that condition, so obviously it must have been attacked by something bigger whilst on the hook. I would like to say that we saw the monster responsible, but no such luck!
After this incident the catch fell off to practically nothing and we generally agreed that the reason could only be that the big fellow was cruising around in the outfield and putting others off their feed. It was obviously useless fishing for the big one; he would hardly be interested in our bait of mackerel fillet, but as an amateur I believe firmly that had we been dead baiting with a small shark we might have had a really good fish, although at the apparent size I doubt we could have boated him unaided.