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rlac

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rlac last won the day on August 12 2022

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    St George, Sydney

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  1. Thanks for the tips @noelm, wasn't really thinking about how the diameter of the leader would affect bites 🤔 Considering that I'll go with 15 pounds fluorocarbon instead of 20, I've found one that seems to be quite strong and abrasion resistant and it isn't too thick. Related to your point about snelled hooks, I might use a single hook for a couple of sessions and see how it goes. To be fair, had two incidents with the double hooks that made me reconsider them: 1. One of the times my leader snapped it broke right next to the closer hook (the fish went away with the other). I'm not sure if this happened because the fish bit the line right there or because the knot in that hook created extra strain in the line and it snapped. 2. The salmon was gut hooked on the further away hook, and while I was handling it the other hook went into its eye and the fish started moving like crazy for a while. Anyways, I suppose during this time I have to try many things and stick with what works for me.
  2. Thanks for the tip @saltrix My wife overcooked it a little bit for lunch and it tasted to nothing. After reading your comment I cooked it lightly for dinner and this time it was much better.
  3. After catching my first legal fish I continued giving a go to beach fishing. Had a couple of unsuccessful attempts, always catching one crab and one undersized flatty. During those trips a couple of "funny" things happened, like the top half of my rod going into the water while casting (which made evident that I had to work on my casting technique), and also some dogs peeing on my insulated bag and also on the rod holder 🤨. The main issues I identified were: - My casting weight needed to be very light because my rod casting rating was only 7-21g. - Baiting was hard as I had to keep my bait in my bucket that for some reason was always at least 30m away from me. - Since I had a bucket plus insulated bag and tools on the sand, it made it a little bit cumbersome moving from one spot to another. It also forced me to keep an eye on those dogs. So, I decided to upgrade my rod from (10'6", 3-5kg, 7-21g) to (12', 5-10kg, 28-130g), still using the same reel with 10 pounds braid. On the other front, to stay mobile I got rid of the bucket and insulated bag (who needs ice when you aren't catching any fish 😅) and got a wading bag and a bait belt. It's a totally different fishing experience now, much easier! With the new setup I had my last unsuccessful trip. That's the context for today's trip. Headed to Greenhills beach and had my first casting at 6:00am. No bites for almost two hours. Then something starting pulling line. I tried not to despair and played the fish bringing it to the shore. It was a flatty, and seemed to be quite big. I was a bit hesitant because one of the undersized flatties I caught previously stung me while handling it, so I wasn't sure if I really wanted to handle this big one. Anyways, tried to wash it using a wave, but it wasn't big enough so pulled the hooks. I was both sad and relieved at the same time 🥲. No more bites for another hour and a half. At around 9:20am something big bit and started pulling line. It bit me off. Something similar happened during my previous trip down there, so that pissed me off. I tried again and... fish on! It started pulling line, and after a while I saw a big Australian salmon close to the shore. I tried to wait for the right waves and there you go, it was mine! It was a 62cm Australian Salmon. Super happy with it! It took me a lot of time to dispatch it and and be ready to cast again. Had a cast and in about one minute fish on again. I got to it with the same intensity I handled the big salmon, and before I realised there was a 30cm bream on the sand. Casted again and after a couple of minutes fish on. For the way it pulled line it seemed to be the biggest of the morning. It ran a lot and after a while bit me off. I didn't like it but I already had two fish so wasn't too upset about it. I was surprised because people usually tell you to go fishing early in the morning, but today all the action was packed at around 9:30 with the last hour of the run in tide. Anyways, after today I'm planning to upgrade my leader from 5kg to 10kg, because I've noticed that it isn't strong enough even though I'm snelling 2 hooks as @Larkin suggested in a comment to my previous post. And here at the pictures:
  4. Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, didn't expect this many comments. Thanks for all the advice as well, it's very well received. I hope I don't catch any sharks nor rays for now, it would get a little bit scary
  5. A couple of weeks ago I decided to get fishing a go, and went to buy my fishing equipment. The guy from the shop asked me what type of fishing I would be doing, and I answered: I will be finishing from the rocks. The setup he suggested (and I accepted) was: - Rod: SHIMANO SAKANA SENTIRE SERIES II Coastline: 10'6" 3-5kg line, 7-21g Lure weight - Reel: Shimano Sedona 4000 XG - Line: 15 pounds braid (he said it was actually 10 pounds) - Leader: 10 pounds fluorocarbon I noticed that the rod was insanely long, but I assumed he knew what he was doing. Anyways, after I got home I googled "rock fishing" and then I realised what was going on. When I said "rock fishing", I actually meant fishing from land (which is usually rocky), as opposed to fishing from a boat. Little did I know that rock fishing was about being down there, right next to the waves. I was kind of disappointed, had bought the wrong setup, but the good news is that that same setup works well for beach fishing, which didn't sound crazy to me. So here I'm, trying to learn how to fish, and more specifically, learning how to fish from the beach, by myself. I watched all the YouTube videos I found, but none of them said anything about putting your bucket in a very safe place, otherwise the wind would turn it over and you would loose all your bait and your measuring rule 🙂 I learned that on my very first trip, when trying to fish from a jetty. Actually that was the second trip, in the first one I learned that if you want to learn how to cast, you have to try when the sun is up. I went to a close by beach at sunset, and I couldn't see where my sinker was going at all after casting. So, I watched even more YouTube videos, bought more gear (knife, cap, etc...), and went to my first official beach fishing trip. Destination: Greenhills Beach - South Sydney Time: 6:30 am Bait: Pilchards Result: Got 1 crab. Didn't know you could get one of these. That was last week. The beach was super quiet, almost no waves and low tide. This time I learned that you should leave your bait exposed to the birds 😕 I looked at the weather forecast and today seemed like a good day to try again: wind from my back and high tide at 7:30 am. So, I prepared myself again: watched more videos about beach reading, read more about how to use circle hooks properly, and convinced my wife to give me her old backpack to put my fishing gear. Got at Greenhills beach today at 6 am. The beach had nothing to do with the ones from the videos in YouTube, it was a total mess. The waves were insane and were breaking all over the place, couldn't identify gutters at all. Decided to go to a spot that seemed less chaotic than the rest. Put my rod holder on the sand, setup my tackle, and my bait was frozen to death. I couldn't believe it, all that preparation to get there in time and now I can't fish because my bait is too hard. Tried with a couple of frozen prawns but they broke easily. After some attempts decided to put some pilchards to defrost in water, and then started with that. Got a crab, again. People laughed last time when I told them I only caught one crab, they would laugh even harder if that happened again. My honor was at stake. It has been more than two hours, my wife texted my to ask how everything was going, not a lot of hope in my side. It was clearer now, so I went up again to take another look at the beach, this time I could see some gutters, the spot where I was wasn't one of them. I moved. And then it happened, I felt some bites, I tried to not pull too hard so that the circle hooks could do its job. I felt its pressure, the fish was on. I started reeling it in, and then suddenly didn't feel anything. Did I just lost it? No, it was the waves, the fish was just moving towards me so I couldn't feel it. And after some seconds there he was, an all handsome Australian salmon. Hold it in my hand, took a video and sent it to my wife. Then put it on the sand to iki jime it. Stabbed it on the brain, also did the cut to bleed it, and when tried to put in the water the fish started to move like crazy again. It seems I missed the brain 😧 I stabbed it like 3 more times, hoping that one of them would get to the brain. None of them worked :frustrated:. But after some seconds bleeding it it stopped moving, so I assume it died. Putting it in a bucket with ice and go back to work. After 20 minutes got a flathead that was around 35 cm - didn't actually measured it, but didn't look big enough to take it home so returned it to the water. Headed home, filleted it, cut the bloodline and my wife cooked it. It was quite nice actually, I was a little worried because of all the negative comments salmon receives, but it didn't disappoint me. Maybe it being quite small helped. In case you want to meet him, here is it:
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