1897 – 1990

Fishing champion and volunteer

Jess Sams (née Millard) was born in Milton but went to Sydney to work as a seamstress and milliner. In 1926 she married Captain Archie Sams and later moved back to Milton Ulladulla.

Jess was an active member of the Ulladulla Ambulance Service, the CWA and the Milton Hospital Ladies’ Auxiliary.

On 27 February 1938 she took part in a nationwide fishing contest as part of Australia’s 150th celebrations, sailing in a 30ft double-ended carvel fishing launch the Tory, with two brothers, Michael and Salvatore Puglisi. (Her husband’s boat had been leased to another contestant).

Over 580 anglers (including international entries) entered the competition to win a series of valuable trophies. Jess and the Puglisi brothers were hoping to win the £500 trophy for the heaviest catch. Using an underhand reel, a split cane rod and only 300 yards of 130lb linen line, by 9am off Brush Island, Jess found herself doing battle with an enormous striped marlin.

After a long fight, where the boat was pulled far out to sea, they finally got the marlin back to Ulladulla wharf. But when they hoisted it up onto the Ulladulla gantry, they were told that there was no provision in the rules for women anglers to win the competition’s major trophy. It hadn’t even been considered as a possibility. Officials in Sydney were notified and fortunately found a way to work around the rules, no doubt expecting a lot of angry phone calls from Ulladulla locals. Jess went home to bed, exhausted.

However, she then found out there was potentially another problem. Some discussion had been overheard that Ulladulla’s scales were not classified as ‘official’ implying that the weight record lodged would be disqualified, as it had not been weighed on the official scales at Jervis Bay. Jess had a late-night phone call.

Jess said later in 1981:

“I was so steaming mad I got my husband out of bed, went to Ulladulla, collected the fish in the middle of the night, put it on the roof of the car and drove to Jervis Bay 70km away to have it officially weighed”

Jess arrived at 4am and the fish weighed in at an astounding 330 lbs (150kg). This record catch still stands today as the Australian 130lb line class women’s record for a striped marlin, (and it had probably lost some of its weight during the transfer).

Jess was awarded the prize money and the large wooden trophy, topped with a gold fishing boat – which of course had two male anglers on it, as who would have thought a woman would win?

As a supporter of game fishing, Jess had hoped for a fishing museum at Ulladulla but as this was unlikely to happen, she donated her trophy to the Australian Fishing Museum. Today the annual Game Fishing Tournament is held at Ulladulla and named in Jess’s honour (although marlin are now tagged and released).