Caught my first legal fish

[rlac]

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:

Edited August 11, 2022 by rlac
Image was the wrong format

[DerekD]

Hi Rlac.

I enjoyed the report and welcome to Fishraider. Got a lot of respect for you giving it a go and taking the time to work things out for yourself.

Looking forward to hearing more of your adventures.

Regards,

Derek

[Bluebenbomb]

Welcome to fishraider @rlac!  I can't describe the feeling of catching my first legal fish - It's a memory that stays with you for your whole life.

 Can't believe you caught 2 crabs before the salmon. Good luck on your next fishing endeavours - researching and persistence definitely does help.

Edited August 11, 2022 by Bluebenbomb

[Restyle]

congrats mate, plenty more to come now you've jumped a hurdle. Salmon is pretty decent on the plate until you throw it into the freezer. best eaten the day you catch it as it dosnt freeze to well. Looking forward to seeing what you pull out now, maybe some tailor to add to the species list 

The reason why the fish was probably still moving like crazy when braining it is the nervous system still fires causing muscle to twitch. even after the fish is dead. I sometimes cut the head off and it dose stop them twitching around 

Edited August 11, 2022 by Little_Flatty

[Isaac Ct]

Great stuff mate, keep at it and that salmon will be the first of many. Welcome aboard.

 

[Little_Flatty]

 @rlac and congratulations on your salmon! Always good when a plan comes together. Beach fishing is truly addictive, whether you catch fish or not.

There's an excellent website on ikijime for fish, which covers many Australian species, including salmon: Australian salmon - Ikijime:

 

As @Restyle says, the fish can involuntarily jitter after performing ijkijime. This is often a sign that it has worked and it stops eventually.

With salmon and tailor, most people quickly cut the fish's throat and bend its head backwards, which has a same effect of ikijime, and bleeds the fish at the same time for better eating qualities. This can also be quicker and easier.

[jenno64]

Congrats, it's all fun from here!

[bessell1955]

A very extensive report.  Congratulations on your success .

[AlbertW]

Congrats on the fish and welcome aboard @rlac if you want to you could consider break wall fishing which is usually pretty safe if you wear appropriate clothing- shoes with good grip. You can also fish from the rockpools next to the actual rocks which usually have calmer waves for example the avoca beach rocks have a big rockpool next to it and I've seen a lad land a decent salmon or tailor (I forgot as it was a couple years ago) I recommend you to do some research on fishing on break walls as its basically a toned down version of rock fishing. It was pretty rewarding for me as I caught 2 legal 40 ish bream and a 40ish cm snapper just on pillies at a breakwall. If you would like to know more pm me.

[masterfisho7]

Well done top fish wish you many more 

[Rebel]

Welcome to the Forum.

Super report.

Well done.

Many trips ahead of you.

Cheers.

[Larkin]

Nice report, and congratulations on your first legal fish. 👍

Greenhills is a good spot. Can catch salmon, tailor, flathead, jewfish, whiting, bream, dart, shovelnose, bronze whalers, rays.

Early morning is best for bream & whiting - especially in summer.
Last hour before sunset is best for the larger critters. If you start fishing 2 hours before sunset, you’ll get a solid 2-3 hours of fishing. 
I’ll snell 2 hooks close together to prevent being bitten off when I fish that area.

[Squidless]

Great report! Part of the joy of fishing is the journey and the adventure. Your report definitely highlighted that.

Catching crabs on your first go isn't bad at all. The first time I took my wife fishing we went to a wharf in the hacking. She was using a handline and felt something heavy...turns out it was a dinner size plate!

[Yowie]

Good work on your first effort, and welcome to Fishraider.

It is not a large salmon, however, I have found that around that size they are better eating than the larger sizes. When you hook a salmon around the 50 to 60 cm mark, then you will realise how hard they fight.

[Pickles]

Welcome to the forum @rlac, I love to catch salmon - fight hard, jump and shake their heads, a real good tussle. My wife makes a green Thai curry with salmon and it is great. You did the right thing bleeding straight away. Well done mate.

[rlac]

Thanks everyone for the warm welcome, didn't expect this many comments. 

Thanks for all the advice as well, it's very well received. 

Quote

Greenhills is a good spot. Can catch salmon, tailor, flathead, jewfish, whiting, bream, dart, shovelnose, bronze whalers, rays.

I hope I don't catch any sharks nor rays for now, it would get a little bit scary  

 

[Rob81]

Congrats on your first legal.

Another advice would be, if you want to keep your bucket clean from blood, you can always dig a hole in the sand and stick it down head first, helps with removing blood. You want to do this where the water still reaches, but now too low that the waves can rip it back out again. The water helps flush it and keeps it fresh (also out of the sun). From there you can continue fishing.

[ginko]

rlac,

You've done well to get two fish at this time of year.  The fishing warms up as summer approaches. 

 

Enjoy the fishing journey, and send in a few updates with your next catches. 

 

 

 

 

[slothparade]

Congrats, you always rember your first fish 🙂