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Catch_22

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  1. @HackingsOG - I think it's been saved thankfully .... according to the site news section.
  2. Hi All Had my super light fishing gear (Two DrunkMonkies 1-2kg rod / 5lb braid / no leader) having a bit of a play down at Cabarita hoping for a bream or tailor. I was using a Daiwa Slippery Dog surface lure and casting around the structure without much luck. Last cast of the day (which was about my 4th or 5th last cast) there was a massive surface blowup and line started pulling off my reel faster than I could manage. The rod was buckled over and I was cradling the spool trying to give it some support. The fish went on a few solid runs and I just let him run with it otherwise I would have busted off - no idea what it was. Every so often it would leap out of the water and try to throw the lure, but unbelievably the gear held tight. At one point I said to the Mrs, it might be a jewfish, at which she innocently replied "Is it a religious fish ?", sometimes its hard to tell if she's being serious or taking the piss. After some time, I managed to work him into shore and couldn't believe it, it was a big Aussie Salmon .... would never have dreamt catching one so far up Parramatta River. I had to scramble down a 70 degree rock face to get to the water and got him close enough to try and get the hooks out and let him go, but I lost him right at the waters edge and he swam off. I was worried about taking too much time to bring him in ... was wondering what do you do when you are grossly over-matched .... do you deliberately bust off or just stick with it and try and get it over with as quickly as possible ?
  3. Hi All Have you managed to "pull a Homer" .... if you're not up with the Simpsons, this is an episode where Homer stops a nuclear meltdown by guessing which button to push. Yesterday was my turn. I had 30 mins to do some power fishing .... pulled out my four piece travel rod and rigged up a 2.5" Zman Slim Swimz in Greasy Prawn. After catch and releasing a nice flatty, I was casting out around some bridge pylons and letting the incoming tide drift it along with the current. Towards the end of the session I cast out, felt something strange, looked down and three of the four pieces of the rod are missing !!! I hadn't checked the rod joins and one must have loosened up. I started reeling in slowly and was relieved to see the missing section of the rod appear through the murky water. Then I feel it ... tap tap tap ... nooo ... tap tap tap .... the rod section starts disappearing below the water again. As I start reeling in .... the fish is on .... the rod section is gone below the water again as the drag starts pulling out. Started reeling again and slowly I started winning the tug of war .... I managed to grab the rod section and put it all back together. It was another flatty, around 25cm, and released it. Not sure if it would be good to have captured this on camera or not. That was the end of the session - needed to get back on the road. So what's your craziest catch story ?
  4. Hi All New member .... long time reader of all the amazing posts here .... Happy New Year. After a couple of sessions yesterday I started looking into the barbed vs unbarbed hooks and an extension of this was whether to swap out trebles on hard bodied lures for singles. One interesting article I read was this one which echoed my own feelings after last night ... but in addition to being better for the fish it also highlighted increased safety for the angler as well : http://www.saltstrong.com/articles/how-to-replace-treble-hooks/ The reason for me doing this was in the morning I caught a nice size flathead in Iron Cove (around 30cm) who got all three hooks of the rear set of trebles embedded solidly in his mouth - one in the top and two in the bottom. It took some time to be able to remove them even with a reasonable set of pliers - he was released and swam away (I like to think happily ... but probably not ). Then in the evening after a good session with bream/whiting/flathead and a couple of tailor my last cast at a blowup close to shore landed me another tailor (less than 20cm). Well the little fella smashed and inhaled my Sugarpen ... there was just the nose sticking out and both sets of trebles were way inside. I tried hard to get them out but in the end the best thing to do was to put him out of his misery. I know some people will say that it's acceptable collateral damage (a small percentage of fish will die during capture or release) or if I can't handle killing fish I shouldn't be fishing .. but I just want to ensure I'm doing as much as I can to minimize stress and harm to the fish. I'm just a catch and release fisherman and value the fish's well-being and clean release highly. The only two times I've not released a fish I caught was the first (and only) kingfish I ever caught, which I gave to the guy who helped me land it at Botany Bay (he thought I was crazy), The other was a flathead I caught recently which I gave to a guy who was down on his luck and needed a feed. Alas I don't have the hands of a surgeon so I do the best I can. I've watched countless Youtube clips on catching and releasing fish but putting it in practice always seems much harder. So I guess I'm looking for advice on three things : (1). Do many people crush the barbs on their hooks whether that's singles or trebles, and from your experience does it make much difference ? (2). Do many people change out trebles for singles on their hard bodies ? (3). Does anyone have any tips for simplifying release of fish ? Whether it's tools you use or techniques ? Thanks is advance for reading this.
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