For more than a century as a fixture at the end of historic Kerferd Road pier, there has been plenty of diversity among the membership of the Albert Park Yachting and Angling Club.
“We’ve had everyone from Supreme Court judges, to wharfies and truckies,” says president, lawyer Peter Nevile.
But when he was elected to head up the much-loved institution 18 months ago, Mr Nevile identified a problem he’d like to fix: “It was a bit too blokey” – a common situation at traditional fishing clubs, until recently.
The Albert Park Angling Club has been rejuvenated by encouraging women to join. Boathouse captain Lee Spyrou sits on top of the club leaderboard for a 7 kilogram snapper. CREDIT:JASON SOUTH
Fishing, says Michelle Matthews, one of three women Mr Nevile helped elevate to committee level, “has been a male thing: that’s all you’ve really seen”.
“You just don’t see images [of women in fishing] other than gratuitous, bikini-clad women, probably not even real fisher-people … we just don’t have a visual library of what it means to be a fisher person [and female].”
Of her own, beloved club, she says, “I don’t know if its even deliberately been a male club, but most places of this nature really repelled women – it wasn’t relevant to them.”
Boathouse captain Lee Spyrou with her super-sized catch.
A bit over a year since the club’s push to attract and elevate more women, the inaugural female Boathouse Captain, Lee Spyrou, is being saluted for the super-ship shape way she is managing the largest collection of wooden clinker boats in Australia.
She has also blown the men out of the water size-wise this season, topping the leaderboard with a 7.2 kilogram snapper, caught with “a secret supply of barracuda from New Zealand that a friend gets in, and gave me a box for my birthday”.
“I grew up fishing with my father [at Yarrawonga and later Western Port Bay] from the moment I could,” said Ms Spyrou, an ambassador for Fisheries Victoria’s Women in Recreational Fishing network, which has grown to 3000 members.
The male fishermen at the club are very supportive of the competitive women, “though I think they’ll all be trying to beat me – that’s the nature of the competition”.
Skye Kirne, an active member of the re-invigorated Albert Park Yachting and Angling Club, used a paddle board to catch this snapper when boating was banned during lockdowns,
Member Skye Kirne also grew up fishing with her brothers near their home on the Murray River and is working hard to introduce other women to going out on the water and the joy of “hunter-gathering” and eating your catch.
Club secretary Chantal Meehan with two prize catches.
“We all know once you get on the water and around the water your mental state just relaxes and your body changes,” she says.
“I just rejuvenate all over as soon as I’m on that water. You forget about everything going on in the world, there’s’s nothing better than being in a boat hooting along the bay with the fresh wind in your hair … you enjoy it even if you don’t catch a fish.”
When boating was banned during lockdowns, Ms Kirne bought a stand-up paddleboard and a handline – on which she caught a snapper so large she could not get it back to shore.
She “kissed and released it”, but returned to the same spot after lockdown and is certain the fish she landed by boat was the same one.
It was a tiddler compared to her personal best catch, a marlin weighing more than 150 kilograms that she fought for a couple of hours off Port Stephens, and which was so powerful, “I did have couple of vomits while reeling it in; fighting something for two hours is exhausting.”
Club secretary Chantal Meehan promotes responsible fishing as a leader in the Women in Recreational Fishing network and says she has seen a demographic shift in the pastime in recent years. The group’s Facebook page has a very inclusive tone, she says, “unlike some of the aggressive messages you see on other pages – (men) saying to each other ‘That’s a lie!’ or ‘That photo’s been doctored!’.”
“We’re definitely seeing more women at the club, and involved and happy to be there. I love the camaraderie … the older boys have a lot of information to share.”
Women’s involvement is growing to the point where the club’s “ladies charter”, run by member Olga Harradine, is booked out almost immediately. “I’m on a mission to get them fishing,” says Ms Harradine, the first woman to be voted onto its angling committee (her largest catch is a mere 4.5 kilograms).
“I push very hard on competition days for women to put their catch the board – if somebody’s caught a fish over 1 kilogram you get onto the fishing board. I want to see women’s names up there, not the same old blokes!“
Those same old blokes don’t mind the encroachment, says Peter Nevile: “The women are do-ers, they get in get things done – I don’t think the old boys thought that would happen!”
