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New Pb Jew!


Stippy

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Well Raiders,

After running up a number of doughnuts I’d started to think that perhaps beach fishing wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be, so with this in mind I went down to Austinmer to collect weed in order to give blackfishing a try. Along with the weed I stumbled upon a number of large washed up cuttlefish and despite having sworn off beachfishing in the immediate future I couldn’t help but grab a couple for bait, already anticipating the cold nights without so much as a kelpfish to keep me on my toes. With all the rain and wind, the seas around Thirroul have been fairly choppy of late, and having exhausted my supply of surf sinkers I didn’t have an opportunity to test my new bait until I sourced some more.

Well last night (Wednesday) it all came together. Barely a breath of wind, not a cloud in the sky, just enough swell and a nice deep gutter right at my feet. I arrived around 9:30pm to find another bloke leaving. He told me he’d caught some salmon and a few small sharks so I was hopeful. After an hour in the one spot without any action I feared I’d missed out on the fun around the turn of the tide, but I wasn’t cold and so I decided to try another spot along the beach with more rocks. The cuttlefish strip was barely in the water 5 minutes before I notice my rod tip dancing, still I’m prone to confusing the ebb of the waves for a fish so I wasn’t expecting much when I ‘set the hook’... only this time I was on!

I could immediately tell I had a good sized fish pinned with my 7/0 mustad, I gained some 10kg lo-stretch before the fish realised he was hooked and decided to go for a run to the rocks. Finally I’ve experienced the thrill of a screaming reel under strong drag for myself! At this point I still had no idea what it was, half expecting a shark after speaking to the fisho earlier. The battle lasted maybe 4 minutes, with some heart-stopping moments as I got the fish into shallower water and it made a break for the submerged pipes. For once my 11ft Spinfisher didn’t feel like overkill. When it washed ashore I couldn’t have been happier - a nice jewie, much bigger than my last effort!

After letting the 50cm model go earlier this Winter, I decided this unlucky Spring jew will make a nice meal for the family on Saturday - I’ve never tasted mulloway before so I’m curious to see how it goes down. Perhaps inevitably I’m hooked on beach fishing again, next time I’ll drag a mate out so I can get some happy snaps with the angler. Apologies for the crappy point and shoot picture quality and the epic post but I had to tell someone. Getting closer to that magic metre mark!

Adam.

post-13033-028441400 1284021969_thumb.jpg

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Congrats on the P.B! :thumbup:

An 80cm Jew is nothing to sneeze at. It would be 6-7kg at that size. It looks in good condition as well.

The best way to prepare it is to fillet & then skin it. Cut the blood line out & de-bone.

As George said they are top eating at that size.

Well done again.

Cheers,

Grant.

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Thanks everyone, still pretty stoked.

I decided I couldn't wait till Saturday so we cooked the fish up tonight. I let the chef (Mum) know that everyone was advising to fillet it but she steadfastly refused to 'ruin' it and preferred to bbq him whole. So jewie was left stew in his own juices wrapped in foil with all the assorted herbs, spices, lemon slices and olive oil. I have to give Mum credit, the meat just fell off the bone, was beautifully flavoured, very moist and we had plenty to feed the whole family plus a couple of extras (they must have heard mulloway was on the menu :biggrin2:)

Pleasantly surprised how few bones the fish had. I wouldn't keep a fish any larger than this one though, it would be a shame to waste that lovely meat.

Can't wait to get out and tussle with another,

Adam.

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