trigunner54 Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 School tests over, number one thing u do... fish. Arrived at Brighton in the early morning (5am) to fish to outgoing tide with a mate using nippers we had pumped the day before. Tide was still high and couldn't really fish the spot we wanted to. First cast in, yabby falls off. Second cast and the yabby managed to stay on. A few minutes later, i couldn't resist the urge to check if the bait was still there, pulling it in, i thought i got snagged as there was a huge dead weight on it. As i stopped pulling, i realised that my drag was still getting pulled, omg a big fish i thought. A few minutes later, and the fish was near getting beached, thinking it was a large flathead at first, i was disappointed to see a catfish, which i had never caught before. Released it at 50cm. A couple hours of messing about, as my friend left something and had to go home quick before returning, i decided to fish seriously. Being able to reach the normal fishing spot, we headed there. Splashes were everywhere and there were about 50 birds all diving in the water about 20m from us, which we reckoned a huge schools of tailor was there. Every cast he did with a plastic had a run but most of times, they busted him off using 4 pound line. He ended up getting a couple all over 30cm. Using a float rig with a live yabby drifting, i produced a few but they were all undersized :/ . Suddenly he was hooked onto something again, and requested me to net the fish as it seemed bigger then the ones before. A 37cm silver trevally, which he kept for berley (he hates the taste for some reason). After getting busted of a few times on my float rig by the trevally that were around, i changed to a simple running sinker rig that went down to hook, to make re rigging up faster. 3 more trevally at 30-35cm were hooked like this. A flatty estimated at 60cm was also hooked, but lifting the head above the water for just 2 seconds, resulted in him spitting the hook and it swam away . Too keep it short: 6 trevally were bagged with 1 at 30cm, and other 5 between 34-40 3 flatheads bagged all between 45-50cm A couple tailor over 30cm Just a photo of some the catch and the weird catfish Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kingie chaser Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Nice work off the sand mate Never seen or caught a catfish in the bay before Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigunner54 Posted April 7, 2017 Author Share Posted April 7, 2017 honestly, i didn't think any species of catfish were saltwater haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackfish Posted April 7, 2017 Share Posted April 7, 2017 Nice catch Trigunner54. The Catfish is a Estuary Catfish/Cobbler Cnidoglanis macrocephalous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 That's a pretty good LB session. I have never caught a catfish in the bay and hopefully I don't. Trevally are a good eating fish IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trigunner54 Posted April 9, 2017 Author Share Posted April 9, 2017 apparently the catfish js supposed to taste nice after doing some research on the species, but it doesnt seem appealing haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveBM Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 I'm from WA (where cobbler are much more common) and I can assure you they're great eating. Flesh can be a little soft on smaller ones, but with a larger model you can just cut them crosswise into cutlets and they're flaky and delicious. Mind the poisonous spines though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wellzy94 Posted April 9, 2017 Share Posted April 9, 2017 Gotta be careful of those saltwater catties, they've got a nasty retractable spike just behind their head that causes a lot of pain. Nice mixed bag! Cheers, Wellzy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xanthos Posted April 11, 2017 Share Posted April 11, 2017 A few years ago my boy hooked one off dolls point/sandringham that went close to 70cm. If i knew they were eatable, we would of kept it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mojo4fishin Posted April 20, 2017 Share Posted April 20, 2017 i hooked up a catfish from the rocks in Brighton going back about 9 months ago... i also thought what the hell is a catfish doing here?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pafisho08 Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Hi I caught a few at night and a few eels also when fishing for jew under the C C bridge . They would take a live Yakka no problem . Bob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveBM Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Dunno about NSW, but they get pretty big in WA. I've caught some pushing 1m, by which time they're pretty thick too - maybe 3-4kg. If caught in cleanish water, definitely try eating one. Further upstream they'll taste muddy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveBM Posted April 21, 2017 Share Posted April 21, 2017 Also, the spines stay poisonous long after death, so clip them off if you're taking one home! I got jabbed in my hand through many layers of newspaper as a kid and it sucked big time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
papafish Posted April 22, 2017 Share Posted April 22, 2017 nice one champ! i was there one day fishing from 4.30 to 6pm. got not 1 single bite. i was fishing on the beach pass the where all the shops are. the 1st rocky structure.... is that where you fished? maybe times not right when i went Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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