Fishing tips

Water is warming up now.

Anyone got any catches to report ?

It's all about buildup barra for me Blowin.

just got back from a little sesh.

water 22 (guess)

My little theory is always in the month leading up to Xmas when the first warm water shows up there is always a run of chopper tailor, with some really big fish mixed in.

These fish are returns from the Fraser spawning. Both yearlings and big breeders.
They are skinny, and very hungry.
They smash poppers very aggressively.

I got one of these fish on a popper and a nice dart.

I found the best method is a few bloops near a bommie to wake them up, then long pauses.
They tend to hit on the pause.
it makes them angry.

You lucky bastard !

It's a trade off though, I haven't had a surf since early July.

That sounds like good fun FR. Greenbacks on poppers.

Word is there’s some horse tailor around here at the moment too.

Solid theory.

might be total BS but now I chase tailor on poppers more and I've got my biggest tailor Dec/Jan.

only problem is fcuking GT's also love poppers thrown near bommies.

that doesn't end well on 15lb braid.

I wouldn’t have thought to chase them this time of year. A GT would be a fun sideline though. Do they get worms here ?

The GT's?

not really.

I release almost all of them if I can.

I'll eat the Golden trevally.

these are mostly juvenile fish.....but more and more of them every year.

5-6kg is a solid one.

I've hooked bigger.

20kms west of Denmark WA. Happily flicking prawns on light gear off rocks onto sand picking up King George whiting. Another flanno clad fisho rocks up and starts casting from the side of me over my line, repeatedly. I pack up to go round the corner to a more windier spot. I spot some white sand amongst the reef and weed off a high granite outcrop. I cast out into the sand and wait. lose a few baits from good bites, all part of the game. Then a beauty of a bite and the rod bends over.
Knowing whatever this is im undergunned i adjust the drag and play it out.
A while later it feel like a bit of a dead weight so i start reeling it in. When it surfaces its old man snapper with the full bumpy head. I winch it onto a rock platform 10 metres below me and wonder how to get it up. I start walking backwards skull dragging it to keep from shortening the line any further. 2m from the top it kicks and the line breaks
Im shattered until i see it landed on the lower rock platform. I start to lower myself down the granite rock. I lose traction and am now out of control sliding down the granite. Before i can stop myself i collide with old man snapper and accidently kick him off the bottom rock back to freedom. I am now stuck at the bottom, slightly battered and furious with my feeble attempt at landing a prize catch.

Epic location. Epic fish ( lost ) . Epic story.

Cheers

gunna go peg a few poppers now.

nice arvo for it.

Great idea.

I’m rooted from reno work . Think I’ll have a beer and watch this on the big screen.....

Good luck though cobber. Let us know how you went. Dropping barometer. Death cloud heading our way. Fingers crossed no hail.

I went through a period for a few years when poppers were my favourite way to fish. Crazy watching Spaniards hit them .

Go to 16:45 for some epic footage

3 fat greenbacks in about 15 mins.
good fishing.

Good fishing .

Great way to spend a few valuable minutes of your life.

Awesome free range , organic , wild caught tucker for your family.

Went out Wednesday for a couple hours got a few snapper/pinkies not huge but good eating size, one 43cm other two in the 30's. (we can only keep 2 over 40cm in Vic, which is a good thing) Pic already scaled and gutted.

Actually got one on a whiting rod & rig which made it even more fun, only fishing in 6 metres too with little lead.

Threw back quite a few undersized pinkies, few undersized flatties and a few tommy ruff, so the action was pretty consistent.

Also went out the other day for some whiting but no luck just garbage fish, but got a nice Calamari maybe 25cm hood, was a good feed and head and tentacles good bait.

I didn't know GT's got worms, never had any issues with them having worms in Indo catch a few and buy a few from the market.

I dont mind them for eating and they put on a good fight, not a fan of tailor though, lived at Fraser Island for a few years, fished a few times a week, but mostly for Whiting and dart (Dart not great eating, but good fight fir their size, use to make fish cakes with them)

PS. Epic story MidWestMonger

Never realised GTs of any size made it into NSW. Maybe the 22 water temp is a bit of a cut off for how far they continue down the coast, I don’t think it quite reaches that inshore on the Mid North even in late summer.

they are in plague proportions here over summer.

Quality feed there Indo. Nice one.

Yeah fishing been red hot here the last few weeks with the water warming up, seeing lots of reports/pics on social media of guys getting some real solid snapper in the 70 to 90cm range and quite a few big gummy sharks and lots of King George whiting about not as big as what they get in SA, but still getting them into the 40cm + range, probably the best time of year now down herefor fishing.

For me, the big ones are your breeders and deserve to be returned to the water, and besides, the smaller ones taste way better anyway.

100% these days after a pic id release the big ones for those exact reasons, i also stopped fishing the other day more because i thought this is all i really need, in the past id just keep fishing until i have to go home or until i get my legal limit which ever comes first.

Plus not much of a fan of snapper to eat and they dont freeze as well as other fish, but they are fun to catch.

Ate one fresh that night and the rest got made into fish cakes for the next night and freezer. (freeze better that way)

Indo, try steaming your snapper whole with a bit of soy, ginger, garlic, chili, coriander and maybe some rice wine. Few things taste better!

P.s., I'm very jealous.

interesting fact...steamed snapper with ginger was allan ginsberg's favourite dish.

i'm hoping to get some of those whiting that are in the harbour.

snappers a grade eating fish.

Try snapper as sashimi with soy and a little wasabi or soy and a little grated ginger.

slice it super thin till almost translucent and just a light dip into the soy, don't soak it.

lovely.

ps- gotta be fresh caught.

almost all fish are a grade eating except for those shark attracting vermin Aussie salmon.
thats cray bait.

I'd add rock cale to the exceptions list FR...
Always used to wonder why the dopey buggers just sat there staring at you when you see them while spearing until I decided to try one... turns out tasting sh*t is a good enough defense mechanism (at least on a species scale).

Zen, I'll have to try that!
Any particular part of the fish best for using for sashimi?

after a couple of weeks of camping and eating unrefrigerated cheese on stale tortillas, even an aussie salmon can taste pretty good. but man, if it's not absolutely fresh and bleed, it's just disgusting.

love a a good fresh mullet. it's fun being a at south west rocks for the easter run. it's a real gathering of the mullet lovers.

what are people's thoughts on hand lines? i have a bad habit of walking off and leaving my rod behind. i've been using a hand line for a bit. not catching a lot. but then i never did catch much with a rod either.

freeride here's some tips for what you consider cray bait. When you catch an Australian Salmon snap it's neck the minute you take the hook out it's mouth so it bleeds out. Fillet it, skin it and use an extremely sharp knife to shave off all the "blood meat" - the red shit that goes brown when you cook it. If it's a big salmon butterfly the thick fillets. Next dip in egg, then in flour/bread crumb/salt/pepper/allspice mix and shallow fry it. Go on give it a crack!!! Oh and make sure it's eaten the day you caught it otherwise it's craybait. Next up my Australian Salmon fishcakes recipe if you're interested ...........!!!

Give us the recipe Gary

Here's another tip for the fish you see below which I used to call a Bastard Fish for obvious reasons. If you're game enough to risk a hospital trip by filleting one of these suckers then you will taste one of the best fish fillets going around.

Chook, I'm most certainly a fishing kook, but I've had plenty of luck using handlines off boats before...
Best few hours fishing I've ever had was using a handline (off a boat just a few metres past the takeoff spot at Lohis).

Pops. Steam your Australian Salmon fillets. The add them to the same weight/volume of mash potato - make sure ingredients are cool before you mix them. Then bung in a chopped sprig of european parsley and a finely chopped onion. Make patties whatever size floats your boat, roll in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and shallow fry. Dip in sweet chilli sauce. Good luck!!

Sounds good

lohis....a long left and good fishing!

Pops I'll never forget my first visit to Lohis. The Dhoni driver was chugging up to Cokes the one day steering the dhoni with one foot, a handline and lure connceted to the big toe of his other foot and his old fella out having a piss over the side.

Sounds familiar Gary!

Those fish cakes sound nice Gary.

Pops, getting back to you- any part of the fillet but I like the meat towards the tail.

Sashimi more or less complements a meal and is not the meal itself. So if you get a nice fish freshly caught, whack the fillets off and square them up. Use the offcuts as a lovely sashimi appetiser. Also, use some of the frame and belly fat in miso soup too for extra flavour. Boil fish frames, water, dried bonito flakes, mirepoix and seasoning to make a lovely fish stock too.

Ya making me hungry Zen - that sounds delicious.

@Pops

Yeah i generally do a recipe similar to that for Snapper, an Indo type paste that has all those ingredients and some more (but not the rice wine) then put a few slits in the flesh, loosely wrap in banana leave or foil, even cooked one the other day it in the webber to give a BBQ flavour flesh was perfectly cooked nice and moist, but still dont rate it that highly, this time i even ensured i did everything perfectly pre cooking too, as soon as i caught went on Ice (was totally submerged) gutted as soon as i got to the ramp, back in the ice for trip home, then smothered in the paste and into the fridge until cooked that arvo, so only a few hours in the fridge.

I much prefer fresh whiting or flattie or even gummy shark down here in Vic.

" Steam your Australian Salmon fillets. The add them to the same weight/volume of mash potato - make sure ingredients are cool before you mix them. Then bung in a chopped sprig of european parsley and a finely chopped onion. Make patties whatever size floats your boat, roll in flour, then egg, then bread crumbs and shallow fry. Dip in sweet chilli sauce. Good luck!!"

I do one similar but more a Thai type fish cake.

Steam or bake the fish, pull out the flesh from bones & skin.

Mix with: mashed potato, chopped coriander, shallots, diced onion, and a depending on how much mix few teaspoons of some red or green Thai curry paste and an egg or two mixed in to help hold it together before shallow frying.

Then yeah goes good with sweet chill sauce.

did you iki Jima the fish before icing?

ikejime?

thats the one Zen.

Had a fish with a mate during the week each got a few snapper around 40cm and a few King George whiting around 38cm (I only kept my whiting)

I also got this bigger one, forget to measure it as released it, but looked a lot bigger in the flesh real chunky maybe 70+ cm

That woulda been fun Indo.

Back to your snapper recipe... What goes in the paste? Sambal kind of thing, or something else?

I get what you're saying with whiting and flatties over snapper too... both also bloody delicious.

Nice one , Indo.