Hey, I'm sure I've seen that one before!

At the beginning of July, my friend Simon and I went fishing near Esperance.  Simon had never caught a Salmon before, so we were keen to hook a nice one to get him on the score board. 

Conditions were perfect, with an incoming tide and a fresh offshore breeze.  We berleyed up the beach, and soon there were many baitfish visible in the breakers, and about six or seven salmon darting about 10 meters behind them in the gutter.  I cast a Z Man Grass KickerZ on a 1/2oz jighead in front of one, and was on before the lure hit the bottom! I could tell it was a good fish, so handed the rod to Simon to land it- which he managed successfully.  It was evident that the fish was missing a pectoral fin, and that the wound was pretty recent too.  Check out the first pic, also note the small piece missing from the top of the tail fin and the prominent deeper web behind the third ray of the dorsal fin.  Also note the lure still stuck in his gob!  Anyhow, we managed three more salmon from the same hole, and were pretty happy bunnies for our effort....

Fast forward two weeks:  Simon and three friends were fishing the same hole, when Simon hooked onto another good fish, this time on a Paternoster rig with half a Mulie on a 1/0 hook.  Being all chivalrous and all, he handed the rod to Claire- so she could get into her fist salmon as well.  It took Claire about five minutes to beach the fish.  Pictures show Claire fighting the fish, then both Claire and Simon posing with Claire's catch.  Simon thought it may have been the same fish he caught two weekends before- I thought he was full of BS and asked him to forward the pics for me to have a look.

Lo and behold, the pectoral fin has healed now, but the nick off the tail fin and the prominent web in the dorsal fin is still there.  It IS the same fish!!

That's a pretty amazing thing to happen- I'm sure the fish is using the stretch of beach to recuperate from it's injuries.  I'll be back next weekend, and see if it is still there....

 

Warm regards to all

Bushy

 

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Callum24's picture

Posts: 1015

Date Joined: 24/06/12

 mad that hey looks like the

Tue, 2013-07-16 14:34

 mad that hey looks like the same salmon good onya for getting the misses in on the action solid fish

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