Ian Degilio - Marine Fishers Association Inc.Marine Fishers Association Inc.

My father and his father were both fishermen and I always wanted to fish. My son fishes with me and my grandson says he wants to be a fisher.

My father and his father were both fishermen and I always wanted to fish. In 1896, my grandfather arrived in Australia from Italy. He first landed on Kangaroo Island and then moved to Adelaide. My family was one of the first to fish in the Gulf of St Vincent. I used to fish off of Kangaroo Island and the Gulf of St Vincent, now just in the Gulf. My son fishes with me and my grandson says he wants to be a fisher.

I love fishing and the fishing lifestyle. We fish every day that’s fine. In Winter we fish for garfish, whiting, and calamari and in Spring tommy ruff (Australian Herring) and snook. The fish are smarter than I am! We fish by the bottom; the weed type, and the lay of the land. In Summer we fish just around daylight and in Winter at low tide. At the end of each fishing day, we set up the boat for the next day.

Our fishing day starts around 2:30am, 2 hours before we set sail, and finishes by around 11:00am. By then our fish are on the way to market. We fish with nets from trailer boats. We put the nets in the water if we think there’s going to be fish; the fish swim in schools so the catch becomes very species specific. The size of the net spacing varies with what we’re fishing, for instance, targeting gar we use 3.2 with a 3.6 pocket fish netting. I do a lot of repairing of nets.

Over time there have been big improvements in the equipment we use. When I started out, it was with small boat engines and I used to have to row a lot. Netting was all done by hand. Now it’s all mechanised.

Our family has a long-established relationship with SAFCOL and most of our catch is sent there to be auctioned. The buyers then process the fish for sale to the public. The SAFCOL week runs Monday through Friday and we’re paid for the previous week’s catch on Mondays.

Over time, the Gulf coastline has changed, for example, 5-Mile Beach used to be all sand. Now it’s mangroves. There seem to be mangroves springing up all along the coastline. Maybe it’s due to warmer water temperatures? I don’t know if more mangroves mean more fish; where there are mangroves, there are still the same numbers of fish.

My favourite fishing story is, years ago, when I was 18 or 19, weekends my mates would be at home and I would have to go fishing. One weekend, we had our best catch ever – my mates went partying but we made some money!