Kaktis

They also account for about 70% of answers to the question: 'what kind of fish is this?' Whenever you can't tell what it is, it's probably a grinner!

Agreed, Gamakatsu all the way. The eyes are a bit more malleable than Mustad's, so you may want to just keep an eye on them during, or in between sessions to make sure they're not opening up. (That said, I've not had this happen once since using them) The benefit being, they're easier to close up once ganged, and I would assume less prone to breaking at the eye.

Ah, hehe, well done little man! I have a boy the same age, thought taking him fishing would be a bit 'optimistic'.. you've changed my mind on the subject!

Read about this story from another crew member out that day, the dude with the cactus reel handle... unbelievable stuff!! It is indeed a pity yours got away, but big high 5 for the team effort bringing in the one on busted gear. You'll get yours in time, no doubt.

Hey good job buddy! Must be doing it right to get hits on SPs! Just learning myself too (with varying degrees of success)

.. and that's why you're my new best friend!! haha.. just kidding

Ah, well done to the little man! What an awesome fish for a first, no wonder he was a happy camper!

What these guys said is on the money davido If you're using ganged hooks I wouldn't bother with a wire trace at all either.. current/wind allowing I just use 15lb mono - swivel - 5/0 gammies ganged. I just add a star sinker on a short leader from a crossline if current or wind are up. Off the beach I've been finding them at any tide, casting at the edges of white water, bordering deeper sections of water, using the above rig. Also as someone else mentioned, they're not true salmon, and unless you cut out all the blood line & bleed em immediately upon capture, they're supposedly inedible. Good luck with em man, they are great fun to catch, put on a damn good show!

How come? Too many hopefuls, or conditions no good? Didn't get a single tick when I went a while back, and that was in prime tick season!

Holy moly, that is an absolute corker, well done!!! 50 bucks says you named it! I would've!

That was definitely my first thought too, but I'm pretty sure at least one run was in the opposite direction to current, the others were perpendicular(-ish) to it.

Heya, Had a crack at the entrance channel to narrabeen lakes on saturday night.. Was using small gulp prawns and jerk shads on nitro jig heads on the outgoing tide, and on 3 occasions, something hit with a 'surge' rather than a 'smack'... made a short run of varying speeds and then just became total dead weight. I was fishing pretty light, 6lb braid and fluoro leader on 2-4kg, and 9lb mono on a 3-5kg.. was just after tailor, salmon, bream and flatties, and I could not budge this thing once it stopped. Bent 2 hooks, and busted a good knot on this thing... I didn't want to catch it after the first time, it just kept going for my offerings. Just wondering what you guys reckon it might have been... my guess is a ray of some description, but I'm a bit confused as it would have to be fairly big to be impossible to budge, however light my gear.. too big to bother going for 2-4 inch plastics surely? Any other ideas?

Rockfisherman, this one's for you. (The 6 that will follow it are for my demons. hehe)

Great info here Adam! Sure a lot of folks are going to hang on to this for future reference, myself included.

That could have been the ultimate catch... literally!! Well done on cheating death!!!

Nicely done buddy, that's a doozy, and the smallest?! Hot damn!! Just got back from Palmy myself... was tossing up between there and Narrabeen prior... regretting my choice now somewhat. Big. Fat. Zero. Were you fishing light on both rigs?

Howdy y’all, first post! I’m relatively new to fishing, (this time round, i.e. as an adult), so I’ve been reading all I can on this forum for a little while to build up some knowledge. I’m a northern beaches native, and a couple of weeks ago bought a 12’ surf spinning outfit as my old man had insisted I wouldn’t have half as much fun fishing Pittwater, which I’d done a bit of as of late, as I would on the surf-side of the northern beaches. So chucked sickie, as you do, & headed down to North Palmy, just to get a feel for the new setup with no-one around to witness what a tit casting a big rod can make of the uninitiated. Actually that’s not true, as a kid, my dad would take me beach &/or rock fishing every so often, but there’s not a great deal a 4’ kid can do with a 12’ beach rod, and an Alvey that weighs as much as I did... just keeping the pointy bits out of my fingers & picking up the stick was hard enough, let alone trying to launch a whole pillie into the Tasman, so I do in fact have experience with big gear, just very little I can actually draw from. Just took with me a single spoon to test my casting with, as this was pretty much the sole point. May as well chuck it somewhere there’s a faint hope of catching something I thought, so scoped out a likely gutter from the carpark, and took a most pleasant stroll up the beach to it. Call it beginners luck at beach reading, (used to rely on the old man’s wiles, though I did listen to his rationale), but there in the section of water I’d chosen when the whitewater cleared, and in the wave faces as they stood up, were countless numbers of HUGE australian salmon! I lobbed that chrome about 50 times before calling my old man to come down with pillies, (on the advice of a friendly passerby), hoping we’d get a to have a crack at them together... He was out, but my saint of a mum picked some up for me and brought them down. They live in Palmy, so she was there in no time. Only managed a single dart, beautiful fish... would’ve let him go, being a tad on the small side, but gang hooked him in the mouth and again through the gill and he pretty much bled out while I was de-hooking him, so kept him for the cats... and he was all I got. I was so disappointed, I decided to go back later that night, whereupon I got my first tailor!!... he went about 47cm, and was a whole bunch of fun to bring in! Took him on 3 x 5/0 ganghook with wire trace and whole, however decrepit, pilchard. Was ecstatic! Even convinced dad to come down with me the following night. He chose a gutter further south down the beach, and I continued on to where I’d been the night before. Though even further north up the beach in the fading light I thought I could see airborne fish, so I wandered further to this spot and could immediately see how ‘fishy’ it looked upon closer inspection, with a deep, narrow V shaped gutter running parallel to the beach. They were definitely fish flying through the air, though what species I could not tell. After about half an hour I was on, with rod bent nicely, and brand new drag zzzzzzzzz-ing away most satisfactorily, I was wishing there was still some light so I could see where this fish was, and what it was doing. After a fairly brief stoush, I dragged him up the beach and he was a good size too, bigger than last night’s effort definitely, and in the low light of our torches, & being covered in sand, this thing had us both fooled into thinking it was indeed another tailor.. it definitely put up a similar fight to the previous nights’ fish. It wasn’t until I got him home to decent light to clean it that I realised it was an aussie salmon! He went 57cm... and is my biggest fish to date! My old man, who has had zero luck (for near zero effort) over the last 10 years or so had some fun too with his 51cm tailor he brought in minutes after my catch. Headed home after that, as we’d run out of pillies (my fault... even longer story..) So there you go, a whole bunch of words for what is really just 3 fish, but had a ripping time & just wanted to share it with yas! So, turns out dad was on the money... surf fishing’s the goods! P.S - Both tailor and salmon were pretty damn good eating too. Had my reservations based on what others have said, but my woman is a stellar cook, so they were both pretty damn fine!