Show Me Your Most Memorable Catch and Tell me WHY?

[Scratchie]

G’day raiders, 

I know a lot of you are in lockdown and are busting to get out there fishing. Whilst for most that’s not feasible at the moment, it can’t stop us talking about fishing. 
So in the meantime, I’d love you to show me and hear about your most memorable catch! 
Doesn’t have to be a giant fish but something that you’ll never ever forget and explain why! 
 

I’ll  start.........

For me, you’ll all be thinking snapper. Yes there has been some very special catches that I will never forget. Although, the fish that remains my most memorable was the first fish I caught in Narrabeen lakes when I was 11 yo. I was casting a handline with prawn as bait and after about 5 minutes of fishing I got a bite that changed my world. This fish hit it hard and took me up and down the lake at will. After a good 10 minute battle on the handline, I managed to land this fish. A bream of 46cm which is still a personal best to this date! The hook was not only set in this fish but also in a little boy called scratchie that changed his life forever! 
 

That’s my story, what’s yours???? 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[nal]

5 minutes ago, Scratchie said:

G’day raiders, 

I know a lot of you are in lockdown and are busting to get out there fishing. Whilst for most that’s not feasible at the moment, it can’t stop us talking about fishing. 
So in the meantime, I’d love you to show me and hear about your most memorable catch! 
Doesn’t have to be a giant fish but something that you’ll never ever forget and explain why! 
 

It’ll start.........

For me, you’ll all be thinking snapper. Yes there has been some very special catches that I will never forget. Although, the fish that remains my most memorable was the first fish I caught in Narrabeen lakes when I was 11 yo. I was casting a handline with prawn as bait and after about 5 minutes of fishing I got a bite that changed my world. This fish hit it hard and took me up and down the lake at will. After a good 10 minute battle on the handline, I managed to land this fish. A bream of 46cm which is still a personal best to this date! The hook was not only set in this fish but also in a little boy called scratchie that changed his life forever! 
 

That’s my story, what’s yours???? 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

Awesome story, what an experience that would have been.

For me my most memorable moment  fishing was when me and my mate were fishing at our go to local spot, which sometimes provides and sometimes not, after a rather uneventful day with only a bream in the low 30s to show for it a small school of bonitos came up to us right at the bottom of our pontoon. In the matter of 10mins I had caught three bonitos, each with an extremely good fight on light gear and I was over the moon, only a few mins after that I hooked onto a monster fish that wouldn’t stop running for about 3mins until it snapped me off on the light gear, I was both disappointed and excited at the opportunity to fight such a fish. 
 

A close second would have to be when me and my dad were spinning 7g metals into small bust ups down near the upper reaches of middle harbour in our tinny and we managed to pull in a 46cm and 57cm salmon which were both firsts for me.

[dirvin21]

first time I heard of a jungle perch I was 10 and saw a picture in a fishing book I was given for Christmas, they were the coolest looking fish I'd ever seen and were the first "bucket list" fish I had. Many times over the years I watched fishing shows and read articles with people catching JP's always hoping one day I'd get my turn and finally almost 27 years later on my first trip to FNQ I got my JP, a fish I'll never forget.

 

[wazatherfisherman]

Hi Scratchie my most memorable is definitely a Kingfish that I foul hooked at the Peak off Sydney. We hadn't planned on going there, but after catching a nice box of Flathead and because it was just a magic flat day we decided to troll out towards the Peak from where we'd been fishing off Dover Heights, with the plan to get some Striped Tuna for bait for the next trip. You could almost always pick up some Stripey's trolling either side of the Peak.

We ended up trolling all the way out and when we got there, every boat there was hooked up to Kingfish. Only one jig in the tackle box and it was only 4oz- not heavy enough to get down out there. I did drop it over, but it wasn't heavy enough.

We then watched a commercial guy with a tiller steer and heavy handlines, pull fish after fish, not one under 20lb and plenty over 30lb, he was absolutely awesome to watch. 

Desperate to try to get the jig down, I put a really big ball sinker straight on top of the jig and dropped again, down it went and about the tenth up-stroke I hooked up. After hanging onto it for about 15 minutes, I called it for an absolute monster, and after 30 minutes my wrist was getting really sore from holding the locked up rod- no bucket, harness or anything with us as we'd only planned to get some Flatties.

After 50 minutes we'd drifted almost out of sight of all the boats at the Peak and I could hold the rod in my usual left hand, but wasn't able to pump the fish up unless I swapped to my right. Took about 10 minutes of these awkward pumps to get it up and it finally stopped fighting as it came to the boat.

By this stage I was leaning back against the bait board and not looking over the side. As it got close, my mate Ross was ready to gaff it and he said "go easy go easy" and I eased off a bit, then the bend was gone in the rod and I thought the fish was lost, not so, Ross had gaffed it, but the jig had come off the fish. It had been hooked about 1 inch from it's anal vent and there was a strip of the underside skin pulled down but still connected, but it left a "hole" as big as a tennis ball where one point of the treble had been.

I finally had it after an hour long, full on physical battle and it went 27lb and caught on 25lb mono. That was the end of my day as I was too exhausted to have another go and my left wrist was wrecked for a couple of weeks.

Just as memorable as catching that fish was watching the commercial guy, who was really slightly built, catch really great sized Kings with relative ease and he pulled them in one after another with the boat moving quite quickly in a tight circle. After catching "rat" sized Kings the same way plenty of times, 40 years on I'm still in awe of how he could pull such large fish with such ease

[Little_Flatty]

It really wasn't anything special, but getting a tailor on Fraser Island is the one that sticks in my mind as the most satisfying and memorable fish.

Being a family holiday and staying on the western side of the island (amazing fishing in its own right), I hadn't yet had the chance to fish the surf beach. But it had always been on my bucket list to catch a tailor off the beach on Fraser Island.

On our final day of our stay I got my chance. My daughter wanted to have a play in one of the creeks on the beach so I got a rod out and had a cast with a whole pilly. Eventually my wife and daughter joined me and while we were waiting, we got to watch a massive stringray surfing about in the waves, which was incredible in itself.

Then I hooked up. I knew it was a reasonable fish straight away and after a few nervous moments on my travel rod, a 53cm tailor washed up on the beach, to the sound of passing 4WDs tooting their horns. It couldn't have come a moment later - after that it was time to drive back to the ferry and head back to the mainland. The fish wasn't in good shape so we kept it for lunch the next day.

For me, that fish was more special than others because since the age of five, I pored over library books with pictures of the Alvey brigade crowding alongside a gutter, all hooked up to tailor. I dreamed of going there one day and more than 30 years later, I was finally there, doing what they were doing!

Edited July 9, 2021 by Little_Flatty

[Green Hornet]

Flashback to 15th January 1983 and for 12 months prior I'd been busting my guts catching and carrying live baits into many of the deep water platforms around the Beecroft Peninsula in hope of catching something big for nil result until this day.

The nor'easter had come in hard,our yakkas were being blown in to rockshelf and we'd decided to call it a day. While packing the spin gear away, still rigged with a bait in the water, my Penn International started to slowly spew line at a slow pace. Checking things out I could still see my bobby cork heading south along the surface in close to the rocks and thinking my bait had been grabbed by a cuttlefish or something similar, I slid the lever up, struck hard and all hell broke loose.

The water turned to foam before a marlin stuck its thrashing head above the surface trying to shed the hook before motoring off seawards spending more time out of the water than in. After settling down, it swam in a large arc right up into a ravine just to the north and luckily, with a bit of fancy rod work and freespooling, I managed to turn the fish and lead it back out the front.

After a bit of to and froing I had it in close enough for a gaff shot where my mate had a couple of goes before getting to hook to stick. Lifting it up the rockface the fish managed to free itself and fell back into the water. Luckily I had backed the drag off and it wasn't long before it was back in range for another gaff shot, better this time and we had the fish on the rocks at our feet. 

Staring at the marlin, I had mixed the emotions of euphoria having caught such a beast to the sadness and guilt of watching the lit up colours fade as the fish slowly died. It ended up weighing in at 28kg.

Either way, no fish I've ever caught before or since has left me shaking with adrenaline like that one did.

Needless to say, four days later I backed the marlin up with a 14.7kg king and the rest is history.

 

[Rebel]

I was camping with my Dad at Narooma. Dad had this Tinnie so I was out on my own fishing with a cork hand line with the old gut on it. Caught a few whiting, then all of a sudden I was nearly dragged out of the boat. Fifteen minutes later I landed a huge Snapper. ( same as in the photo ) Well to me it was huge. Not as big as the one's you catch @Scratchie .

Cheers.

[Isaac Ct]

When I was 7 I headed up to Queensland to my friends house. They live on the estuaries of the Gold Coast. One arvo I was fishing with dough of their jetty and something huge almost pulled me in as I was holding onto the rod with one hand and standing on the edge of the jetty. My friend pulled my back as I reeled up the fish.... It was a 50cm Blackfish! At the time I thought it was a drummer but about 3 weeks ago I looked at the picture again and realised what it really was! Thanks for bringing back some awesome memories scratchie!

[noelm]

Probably three "memorable" catches would be a 71KG Yellowfin, on 12lb Snapper gear, on my own, in the dark, had to get the other line in, start the boat, pull the anchor and chase it, then gaff it and drag it over the side. Then back in the days a Kingfish Jigging, using a 499 Mitchel hooked a decent Marlin on one of my home made jigs, chased it for ages, ended up being 105kg Black. Last one when fishing right in the wash for Bream at Bass Point from the boat, using about 6LB line, in around 2m of water, got a 6KG Snapper, luckily it ran out to sea about 50m, then back under the boat, then along the shore and it was done, just slowly lead it back to the waiting net.