Salmon and Tailor at Palmy

[Kaktis]

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!

[spizza]

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!

Well done mate, surf fishing is a beautiful way of life .

Cheers,

Spizza

[Spanker]

Great report mate. You got out into the elements, you hung out with the old man and you connected with some great species - brilliant!

[Mr.KingSpooled]

Nicely done matey, you are the hunter !! Awesome feeling bringing home fish for a feed that you've strived to catch. Espeacially with your old man is priceless !!

Keep it up lads and hope you get many more sessions like this !!

Cheers,

jez

[wannabefisho]

+1 for spizza response- surf fishing is the ducks nuts IMHO- Ive fished surf beaches for over 20years and I stoll do so - often with great rewards!

Well done mate nice catch you got there