Yon Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Lost Despite the fact that I fish pretty often for a variety of fish, I'm still a pretty inconsistent fisho. I can catch 20kg of salmon off the rocks one day and nothing for 4 weeks later. So when my wife put "Fish - Daddy to catch" on our weekly meal plan, the pressure was on. I figured I'd give myself a buffer and head down the day before, so that if indeed I didn't catch anything, I could try again the day of... At any rate, there was a lot of green cabbage on the rocks and a fair bit of wash, so I was pretty confident that I'd at least get some Luderick for dinner. Unfortunately after about an hour trying and the time to get to work quickly approaching, I was still staring down a big donut as the wind started blowing in. So I figured that on the way back to the car I'd walk around the headland and try the leeward side, with the wind behind me. There's a spot I know where even on small days the waves hit the cabbage laden rocks and create some wash above a relatively deep drop off, so there's usually fish holding there. With 20 minutes before my parking ran out, I dropped a float sitting on top of 12lb fluorocarbon and a big chunk of weed sitting on a #6 red JW Octopus hook. It wasn't 10 seconds in the water before my float shot down and my drag started to peel off! Now I usually fish a short leader so in no time I was staring at the biggest bloody drummer I have ever caught, easily 3kg! Got him up on the rocks, went down 2m to water level and got him up onto the high rocks. I had to flip over my bail arm to give myself enough line to get to him with a 10ft rod in my hands (I don't like laying it down on the rocks as it scratches the rod pretty badly). The second I flipped the bail arm over and the tension in the line relaxed, he started flopping around and flopped back down onto the lower rock, with my hook lying next to me! So I ran down to grab him but saw a wave coming in and had to skitter back up (I've got kids, not taking any chances) to avoid the wash. The last I saw of him was him swimming sideways off the rock platform and back into his cave ☹️ while I was left on the rocks with my hands shaking. Needless to say I didn't bring home dinner that night or the night after and copped a lot of crap from the wife and kids about my fishing abilities... Won I fished 4 mornings straight after that day, but didn't catch a thing. Tried all over the eastern suburbs from Waverley down to the Malabar headland with nothing to show for it. On the fifth day of my dry spell I was just out there before work to get some sunshine. Working from home has meant I'm outdoors less, so I need all the Vitamin D I can get. I figured I'd drop some cabbage into the water anyway, just in case. My rig wasn't in the water for more than 3 seconds before the float popped down and I yanked a decent drummer onto the rocks. It wasn't huge, 41cm, big enough to feed myself and the missus. I figured I'd be good with that but had about 30 min left on my parking, so popped the float back in with a large chunk of cabbage on it, hoping to catch his big brother... 10 more seconds, the float shoots down again and a serious battle ensues. I was positive that it was another drummer because Luderick just never take drag, yet I could see white flashes in the water and it lunged, which I thought was strange. When I finally got it up onto the rocks, I was staring at a 47cm long, fat Luderick! I had no idea they grew that big! The photo doesn't do it justice, so you'll have to take my word for it . So between the two fish I fried up the luderick with some chips for the kids and the wife put the Drummer on the the griddle, under a weight, salt and peppered and lightly dusted with flour. I'm not lying when I say that this was the most delicious fish I have ever eaten. Tasted like lobster! It ended up being too much food for us, so we fed the neighbours on either side too. So there you go - made up for losing my PB Drummer with a decent catch and a fantastic meal. You win some and you lose some. Seems to be what this is all about sometimes. 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yon Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 40 minutes ago, motiondave said: well done ,and yes, Ive reeled in a well over 45cm luderick a while back, but tossed it back Why’d you throw it back? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazatherfisherman Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Excellent fish Yon- did the Luderick have any roe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
little fisho Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 4 hours ago, wazatherfisherman said: Excellent fish Yon- did the Luderick have any roe? there were plenty of legal luderick around pylons in the harbour yesterday, stuffed full of roe. had some good fun on light gear and bread before the damn scuba divers came in and chased every school away, leaving none to be found for the rest of the day Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Nice pair of fish, shows that if you keep at it, you will succeed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burger Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 47’s a damn fine Blackfish! Well done 👍 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Great report. Well done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted October 4, 2020 Share Posted October 4, 2020 Fine feed there and great write up. Patience + persistence + practice = fish on the menu cheers Zoran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yon Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 11 hours ago, wazatherfisherman said: Excellent fish Yon- did the Luderick have any roe? None that I saw. How would you cook them if it did? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yon Posted October 4, 2020 Author Share Posted October 4, 2020 1 hour ago, motiondave said: I dont keep everything I catch, besides, I already had dinner cooked for that night waiting Fair enough! I don’t catch enough to do that hahahahah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazatherfisherman Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 3 hours ago, Yon said: None that I saw. How would you cook them if it did? You just flour them and quickly pan fry- they cook in about a minute. Both male and female roe are strong flavoured and an acquired taste I reckon as really "rich" flavour. Just wondered if they had spawned yet Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazatherfisherman Posted October 5, 2020 Share Posted October 5, 2020 9 hours ago, little fisho said: there were plenty of legal luderick around pylons in the harbour yesterday, stuffed full of roe. had some good fun on light gear and bread before the damn scuba divers came in and chased every school away, leaving none to be found for the rest of the day That's always been my experience with divers and Luderick also, if they turn up, the fish are gone or at least no longer on the bite Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yon Posted October 5, 2020 Author Share Posted October 5, 2020 16 hours ago, wazatherfisherman said: You just flour them and quickly pan fry- they cook in about a minute. Both male and female roe are strong flavoured and an acquired taste I reckon as really "rich" flavour. Just wondered if they had spawned yet I don’t think so. Usually when they’re spawning the males have a bit of sticky white stuff coming out of them when you pick them up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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