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Your most memorable catch


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Evening gents, Just wondering what is everyones most memorable catch?
It can be saltwater, freshwater, big or small

Mine would be a few years back now when I caught my first eagle ray, I'd gone out camping with a friend to fitzgerald bay just above whyalla and we spent the morning catching a few yellowfin whiting and a nice flathead off a spot right infront of our campsite then went spearfishing and collected quite a few scallops and razorfish, that night we put a few more lines out only to end up catching a few shitties so we went back to the camp site and started to have tea, I ended up casting a line in from the campsite about 20m back from the sea and sat it in a rod holder near the fire. We started to cook tea and were chatting about the days fishing just about to start eating when I saw out of the corner of my eye a slight tap on my rod, before I could manage to get up to see what it was having a go my reel started screaming so I jumped up and struck sinking the hooks in and after 30 minutes I managed to land the eagle ray, Weighed in at a nice 10kgs and wasn't a bad effort as I knocked it over on my whiting rod on a tiny piece of squid tentacle with about a 12lb hook trace, area was quite rocky further out and there was a large razorfish just beyond so I'm still surprised I managed to keep it connected. Since then I've landed a larger eagle ray at 20.5kgs as well as a smooth ray weighing in at roughly 80-90kgs (And I can tell you I won't be doing that again in a hurry) but still to this day that remains as one of my favourite fishing trips.
Heres a photo of the ray after we landed it 

eag.jpg

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Well mine would have to be my first salmon as a kid me n my dad would alwwys head down to innes national park browns beach, I was always abit to little to pull one in on the surf rod at the young age. We hadn made the treck down there in a coyple years and I always wanted to catch an actual salmon so with my 13th birthday approaching I organised with dad my best mate to come along aswell. The night before the journey I didnt so muchas blink never mind sleep I was that pumped when we started waliing down tthehill then beach I had quickly regreted that choice haha anyway we got the spot of the lil entrance to the lagoon and as we were setting up our gear there was a big boat dropping his long net a couple hundred metres off the outside of the lagoon and he covered alot of ground. After about an hour of fishing we hadnt had a bite and I was really starting to curse that damm boat. All of a sudden like dominoes my rod my best mates rod and my dads rod went ballistic all doubled over at once it was hear the moment I had been waiting for had arrived I was onto a solid salmon in the surf after a quick battle I had done it I had the fish in my hands and was nearly crying in joy :,) we each landed about 3 or 4 fish before the other 30 odd people started getting into them it was on all night and we ended up getting about 30 salmon between us that was my most memorable catch and I reckon always will be cause I finally landed something I had wanted to get and shared the great past time with my father. But still to this day I wonder how thick the school was and how many we would have caught if it wasnt for that damm netting boat

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Similarly too, would have to be my first Aussie salmon back in my teens too. Some 20+ years ago, chasing KGs with the ol' man & uncle in his tinnie inside Boston Bay.

 

Cant remember but probably a few KGs, tommies and squid but the fun started as we approached the Axel Stenrose Ramp.

 

Birds were working the surface. Could still clearly remember reading Blue Fin by one of my then fave childhood autors, Colin Thiele, but knew it wasnt the SBTs!

 

Salmon were working a school of bait fish up against the shore. My uncle (the fisho) set me up on one of my crappy slices on equally crappy glass rod, reel and maybe 10lb mono?  Powered the tinny towards the school, cutting the engine as we difted near and past.

 

It was pure madness, there was a big school of around 1kg fish in a feeding frenzy! With zero experience lure fishing, I was getting smashed a fish a cast, complete with text book acrobatics and thrown hooks. I was landing them nearly faster than my uncle could bleed them!

 

Being the KG obsessive he asked what i indended on doing with them, after only landed a few (in his eyes, salmon were and still are crap eating). I promptly said id happily clean and fillet & eat them. Must have landed nearly 20 fish after 3 or 4 passes before the school started moving off and uncle decided it was time to take the boat out.

 

Took around 10 fish and I cleand & filleted them all. The best tasting salmon ive had!

 

My first taste of salmon on a serious bite.....now easily my favorite fish to catch on the super light gear.

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Loving the replies so far guys, keep them coming



 

Similarly too, would have to be my first Aussie salmon back in my teens too. Some 20+ years ago, chasing KGs with the ol' man & uncle in his tinnie inside Boston Bay.

 

Cant remember but probably a few KGs, tommies and squid but the fun started as we approached the Axel Stenrose Ramp.

 

Birds were working the surface. Could still clearly remember reading Blue Fin by one of my then fave childhood autors, Colin Thiele, but knew it wasnt the SBTs!

 

Salmon were working a school of bait fish up against the shore. My uncle (the fisho) set me up on one of my crappy slices on equally crappy glass rod, reel and maybe 10lb mono?  Powered the tinny towards the school, cutting the engine as we difted near and past.

 

It was pure madness, there was a big school of around 1kg fish in a feeding frenzy! With zero experience lure fishing, I was getting smashed a fish a cast, complete with text book acrobatics and thrown hooks. I was landing them nearly faster than my uncle could bleed them!

 

Being the KG obsessive he asked what i indended on doing with them, after only landed a few (in his eyes, salmon were and still are crap eating). I promptly said id happily clean and fillet & eat them. Must have landed nearly 20 fish after 3 or 4 passes before the school started moving off and uncle decided it was time to take the boat out.

 

Took around 10 fish and I cleand & filleted them all. The best tasting salmon ive had!

 

My first taste of salmon on a serious bite.....now easily my favorite fish to catch on the super light gear.

Gotta love the feeling of a salmon school, my first time catching ST's was at fitzgerald bay near whyalla me and the old man went out and waded and cast towards the weed line, had some berley in the water and wasn't getting any bites then I was reeling in and felt my lure stop dead as if Id snagged the weed, struck to see if i could get it out the weed and suddenly started running. The school followed us the whole way back into shore and we ended up being about 4 fish off bagging out with me my old man and my brother. Certainly a memorable session, that was when I was about 15 or 16

 

 

spending a week on the Whyalla rocks chasing snapper. Ended up getting 1 legal one after camping there for a week.
Having rocknev and Jason come and keep me company for periods, had to get that damn fish!

Nothing like catching a snapper off the rocks, its enjoyable to catch a snapper from a boat but when you get one off the rocks after sitting out there all night in the cold weather it all pays off, even if you catch one undersize it still brings a smile to your face bigger then catching a decent size fish off the boat

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My most memorable catch would be my first Murray Cod.

I was 18 and fishing with some mates at Blanchetown, doing an overnighter, which was ironic as after a few drinks everyone started crashing out in their cars or tents by about midnight.

By about 2am I was getting sleepy, but I was still catching carp on worms and callop on shrimp, as well as heaps of yabbies from the nets in a nearby backwater.

I decided to pin a small yabby through the tail and cast it out, then sat down to enjoy my last beer.

Next thing I know, the rod was bending over slowly, then suddenly going ape5hit in the rod holder.

I grabbed it, backed off the drag, and let it run, slowly trying to regain line when I could. It didn't fight like a carp, and the headshakes were different to the callop I had been catching.

After about 10 minutes of gentle coaxing, I got the fish near the bank, then realized the landing net was still leaning against the car where I left it 30m away.

I grabbed my dolphin torch which I then shone into the water to see a big mouth and a greyish patterned back which I knew straight away was a Cod, and I didn't hesitate to go into the water to get it, even though it was cold.

It wasn't a huge Cod by any means, but at a guess I would have said 55-60cm.

I then spent the next ten minutes trying to wake my mates up to see if anyone had a camera, back then we didn't have mobile phones yet, let alone phones with cameras.

The Cod had been out of the water for way too long, and I had to get back into the water and hold it upright, while trying to shine the torch on it.

It took about 5 minutes to get it happy again, but when I released it, it didn't dart off, but slowly and gracefully swished her tail and cruised back to the depths.

I stayed up the rest of the night throwing yabby baits out, but getting another Cod just wasn't to be.

Murray Cod to me has always been my favourite fish, and the night I caught my first will always be one of my best fishing memories.

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13.4 kg red emporer is one that sticks out!

 

14ft hammer head shark was a bit of fun for a while. skipper didn't want me to bring it on board but with a bit of help up she came.

 

hooked a whale once,

 

but when I was young hooked something massive, crystal clear water and about 20m to go 3 big sharks start to circle my rankin cod.

BANG damn sharks!

got the head and only a little bit of body and it weighed 14.4kg! imagine what it would be for a whole fish!

 

these were all caught in coral bay WA when I used to work on charter boats and commercial fishing boats.

 

more recently and in SA 5.8kg salmon from locks well on duel adagio lure.

49.5cm king george. I'll crack the 50cm soon hopefully!

first ever mulloway - 82cm

 

lines tight!

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20kg Butterfish off Noarlunga Beach at the south end of the reef. Was over 10 yrs ago but still my biggest one yet.

Caught around this time of year, just after low tide around midnight on a mangey old salted pilchard.

Just looked at the google sattelite image of the spot.

It looks to me like you can a school of salmon swimming around the end of the reef

in the image but not enough res to be sure. [  here;   -35.157687, 138.466847  ]

Where that dark patch is would be exactly

where my grapnel sinker was give or take a few yards.

Might have another crack tomorrow night if I can catch some fresh squid first,

the tides look about the same.     Cheers

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I have a few memorable catches.

 

My first legal snapper with UHF and BigRed out metro. Landed three of these beauties. Everyone caught a few nice reds that session.

 

adelaide-metro-snapper.jpg

 

An epic battle off of the Port Noarlunga Jetty and finally landing what has been said to be a pretty decent strongy.

 

StrongFish01.jpg

 

My first Onkaparinga River Mully.

 

first-onk-jew-berkley-prawn.jpg

 

I also have great memories of finally catching a legal snapper from Port Noarlunga / Christies Beach area after sooooo many attempts. Another decent Salmon session down at Southport with mum and dad, was great to see even mum getting in on the action and landing a couple.

 

I have to thank the bream that jumped onto my hook way back in November 2011 I think it was. Using my BigW $20 rod n reel combo, I used worms dug up from the back yard and pulled in an average Onk sized fish but this got me hooked in a big way and paved the way for all other fishing adventures I've been on since.

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I have two that stand out...

 

This was my first bream on plastics... 35cm from memory, Felt great to finally get one and pop my virginity!!

 

17553_242664480372_4421262_n.jpg

 

But my most memorable was the 51cm rainbow i got... saw him hanging around the shallows but wouldn't take anything so i cast a gold TT vibe past his nose for almost an hour non stop till it finally snapped and smashed it... my heart was in my throat for the next 5mins watching it jump 2ft clear of the water trying to spit the hooks!!! Finally landed it with the help of Scotty... as Del ran off sulking after seeing the  size of it!!!!  :lol:

 

26568_382184905372_2771176_n.jpg

 

Also a 67cm LB snapper.. but didn't put up much fight... decent fish just no real "angling" to it!

 

8329_166645795372_7358768_n.jpg

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I have a few memorable catches.

 

My first legal snapper with UHF and BigRed out metro. Landed three of these beauties. Everyone caught a few nice reds that session.

 

attachicon.gifadelaide-metro-snapper.jpg

 

An epic battle off of the Port Noarlunga Jetty and finally landing what has been said to be a pretty decent strongy.

 

attachicon.gifStrongFish01.jpg

 

My first Onkaparinga River Mully.

 

attachicon.giffirst-onk-jew-berkley-prawn.jpg

 

I also have great memories of finally catching a legal snapper from Port Noarlunga / Christies Beach area after sooooo many attempts. Another decent Salmon session down at Southport with mum and dad, was great to see even mum getting in on the action and landing a couple.

 

I have to thank the bream that jumped onto my hook way back in November 2011 I think it was. Using my BigW $20 rod n reel combo, I used worms dug up from the back yard and pulled in an average Onk sized fish but this got me hooked in a big way and paved the way for all other fishing adventures I've been on since.

That strongy is a bloody beauty mate, when I go spearfishing I normally catch a few for berley and what not and my biggest has been about 3kg even with a metre long spear stuck fast in the side of the head theres no way in the world it will staystill long enough for me to get a grip on it, the raw power alone those things generate is amazing

 

 

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My most memorable catch after my first ever fish (A bream from the Onk) is my first ever lure caught fish.

 

It was a scorching hot day over Summer in 2011 down at Portland in Vic and after bombing out on the snapper charter, my attention turned to the trip home. As we were passing through Nelson on the way home I asked dad if we could stop and have one last fish. We stopped at an information guide and I found a little brochure for a tour of the Glenelg by boat and the name on the brochure was that of an angler I knew from the TV. After pestering dad for a while, he rang the number and surprise, the guy offered not only guided tours of the river but also fishing guide tours at an affordable price. So dad was forced to then book us in for a night in the Nelson caravan park and the next day we headed out on the Glenelg.

 

Having never tried plastics before, nor having a suitable rod and reel, it certainly was a learning experience. I fished the day using a Jarvis Walker Redbone with 15lb mono and dad did the same so we weren't really using the correct gear at all. But somehow I managed to hit this EP on the head in a snag and pull it out for landing.

 

EP 39cm.jpg

 

My first ever lure caught fish and I was hooked. Throughout the day I also landed three bream of legal size and dad also caught his first lure caught fish being a 36cm bream. From that day ever since, my lure fishing technique has been developing and come a long way. If not for that day, I'm pretty sure I wouldn't be as addicted to fishing as I am now. It's also my only Estuary Perch and is the reason why I really want to head down to that special place again.

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My most memorable catch would have to be my first Mulloway. After putting in excess of 50 hours fishing for these illusive silver ghosts it was a truly unforgettable experience catching my first. i decided to head to the onk one day after school and second cast i managed to hookup and land a solid 55cm Mulloway! to top this off i landed 2 more in the next 15 minutes making this even more memorable. from that day i have landed countless Mulloway in the onk and it all started from that one moment. 

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