The first spearfishing competition and Jach Egan with the first Trophy awarded to a Spearfisher. – Mel Brown
Underwater fisherman Jack Egan, of Potts Point, yesterday speared a six-foot tiger shark in 10 feet of water at La Perouse beach.
Dick Charles Trophy
The Underwater Fishermans Assoc of NSW
For the best fish of the day 17 Oct 1948
won by Jack Egan
Egan was one of a party of 20 members of the Underwater Spearfishermen’s Association of N.S.W. which had dived into the sea of the rocks at the northern end of La Perouse Bay in search of prey.
All the fishermen wore swimming trunks and carried sling spearguns.
Two hundred yards from the rocks Egan submerged and swam slowly above the sea bed. “Through the water, I saw the tiger cruising along the bottom,” he said later.
“He was a nasty brute.”
Egan aimed his gun at the shark and fired. The spear , with a line attached, pierced the
shark behind the gills.
Egan swam to the surface and called to two other speannen who were swimming nearby. One of them, Les Gleeson, swam over to Egan and helped him pull the shark towards the shore.
“The tiger was threshing the water as we got close to the rocks,” said Gleeson.
“We hauled him up on the rocks and finished him off.”
Gleeson, a committee member of the association, said a cup was to be awarded for the largest game speared during the day.
“Jack Egan will certainly get that cup,” he said. “He is the first member of the association to spear a shark.”
From: News report Sunday 21“ November 1948
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