Fishing With A Local school holiday program with Figtree High out of school care group. Photo: Supplied.
When George Newcombe talks about fishing, it’s about more than catching a meal.
For this UK-born adventurer turned Illawarra and Shoalhaven fishing guide, each line cast is an opportunity to connect with nature, teach valuable skills, and potentially improve mental health.
George said his father taught him and his brother how to fish and surf while growing up in Cornwall, despite the weather not always being ideal for it in the UK.
“I realised if I went somewhere where the weather was better, I could do it more,” he said.
“I started going on holidays to Southern Europe and then travelling for six months at a time, working in the summer in the UK and travelling down to Europe in the winter.
“I got offered the opportunity to sail around the world with guys who were surfing, fishing and spear fishing, so I did that for a few years.”
It was a remarkable journey that saw him sail from Portugal through the Caribbean, Panama, Galapagos, French Polynesia, and New Zealand, finally flying to Australia to visit family.
“I thought, I’ve come all this way and it’s pretty good, I think I’ll stay,” he said.
Now settled at Shoalhaven Heads, he amassed strong knowledge of Illawarra fishing spots, launching his business Fishing With A Local just four weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It was pretty hard to get through COVID due to shutdowns, because leisure and tourism wasn’t essential,” he said.
“Once that was over and I could do it full time, then we went through that period where we had those big floods. It was too dangerous to do fishing, even in the estuaries.
“Now we’re in a cost-of-living crisis, but I’m still going,” he said, laughing.
Operating between Shoalhaven Heads and Shellharbour, George offers morning, sunset or night fishing experiences targeting “bread and butter” species like sand whiting, flathead, bream and mulloway from beaches and estuaries.
He’s also caught everything from trevallies to Australian salmon despite the experience being land based, with the occasional “weird and wonderful catch that blows your mind, like a freshwater fish on the beach”.
Projects like Healthy Cities Illawarra’s Active In-Betweens program, schools and after school care groups can take him as far north as Wollongong, with his immersive learning trips including bait gathering, fish cleaning, environmental awareness, best fishing practices – and even cooking the fish.
His clientele are mostly holidaymakers looking for outdoor activities, or experienced fishermen in winter wanting to level up their fishing game or learn a new discipline.
However, his passion extends beyond simply teaching fishing techniques.
He said fishing benefited people’s lives in many ways, including improving mental wellbeing in children and adults. He is now looking to partner with a mental health expert to deliver a dedicated mental health program through fishing for varying age groups.
“I think that getting outdoors in the fresh air, hearing the white noise of the waves, walking barefoot on the sand, getting some vitamin D, maybe eating a little bit healthier if you’ve harvested food and taken it home, I think from a mental health perspective, that’s awesome,” he said.
George said the benefit of fishing in the Illawarra and Shoalhaven was having access to “world-class fisheries”.
“With the low population down here and the low population in Australia as a whole, the fisheries have been managed much better than they have in most first-world countries,” he said.
“For international travellers that come to Australia and come out with me, their minds are blown.
“They come out of it saying, ‘Oh, we didn’t think we’d catch anything.’”
He said while fishing management wasn’t perfect in Australia, it was still pretty good.
“Where else in the world can you regularly go and catch up a 10-30 kg mulloway off the beach or off the bank of an estuary?” he said.
“If this was France, England, Spain or Portugal – places that really love their fishing – there’d be a thousand people on the beach every night.
“Whereas when I take customers to the beach, sometimes we can be the only ones there.”
Learn more about Fishing With A Local.
