ALL it used to take to spot a Hobsons Bay Sport and Game Fishing Club member was a peek inside their garage.
If a marquee, fish scales or a barbecue poked out from among the obligatory rods and reels, the garage owner was most likely a member.
But club secretary George Calleja said since the new clubhouse had opened, garage space had freed up and the group was now placed better than ever to host fishing competitions.
The new clubhouse, on the Seaholme foreshore, officially opened last month and is shared with the Australian Volunteer Coastguard.
“It means we have everything in the same place instead of scattered around four or five homes,” Mr Calleja said.
“We can round gear up much faster when we need to, which means fishing competitions will be a lot easier to organise.”
Mr Calleja said this year’s Snapper Challenge would be the first one at which competitors could weigh their fish in the clubrooms, instead of in a foreshore park.
And the modern, new club is also attracting the eye of avid fishermen looking for a new home, with membership numbers jumping in recent months.
“People vote with their feet and if they are not comfortable in that club they will join us,” Mr Calleja said.
“Our new clubhouse is of the highest standard and we have long promoted that we are a family club that welcomes females and juniors.”
The group’s battle to build the clubhouse was at times as hard as trying to wrestle a 10-metre shark into a tinny because of community objection and several false starts.
“We would have tried reeling in a shark if that might have helped speed things up,” Mr Calleja said.
The club approached Hobsons Bay City Council in 1997 for support to get its own premises, and after a false start in 1998, submitted a planning application to the council in 2001 seeking to build a facility with the coastguard at W.G. Cresser Reserve.
But the application ran aground, suffering several setbacks before getting the green light in April 2002.
Residents appealed the decision and the case went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in October 2002, with VCAT upholding the original decision.
“It was an important development considering the sea and maritime leisure activities are very important to us in this area,” Mr Calleja said.
“And members are already enjoying going back there of an evening to socialise and keep tabs on each other.”
