Samsonfish at Mandurah
I recently relocated the family from Kalgoorlie to Perth and after ten weeks of FIFO eventually took up my new position in the Perth office. After being spoiled with the white Esperance beaches and the fishing at 10 and 11 mile beach, Point Culver, Poison Creek, Roses etc. I had to explore the new waters of Perth and the surrounds. After many hours of consultation with Google Earth I finally found a spot that looked promising.
With my first weekend of being home I took the family out to a beach south of Mandurah on the last weekend of June 2012. We arrived just before high tide and after catching the first Herring, swum it out as a live bait. About an hour later the Daiwa 50SLH started screaming with my wife following in unison. I was targeting Whiting in the shallows and shouted for her to grab the rod and hang on. I anticipated a shark or skate and was keen to see her wrestle with a fish nearly her own weight. She is a well-seasoned fresh water angler and has put many men to shame back in our league angling days in South Africa. She has however not caught any noteworthy saltwater fish and I was keen to get her "hooked" on this discipline of angling. After a fight of about 20 minutes she landed a lovely Samson fish. I was gutted as I had never caught one of these species and to rub salt in the now "very open wound" a large specimen at the same time. We took the snaps and did the high-fives (reluctantly) before releasing the fish.
A little later I swam another Herring on the outgoing tide without much anticipation. Half an hour later the rod was pulled from the rod holder and on its way to the ocean. Once again frantic screams from the missus had me sprinting down the beach towards my beloved rod, this time for the added reason of not allowing her access to the rod. When I set the Gamakatsu circle hook I lost all but about 20m of the 35kg line before applying line-breaking pressure to turn the fish. After a series of runs I managed to land the second (and slightly bigger) Samson fish for the day with a crowd of on-lookers "wowing" me along. With my chest in full bloom we took the customary pics and to a groaning crowd (who pleaded for the fish) released this prized specimen to fight another day.
I have been told that I would be wasting my time trying to land anything decent from the shores of the Perth Metropolis and surrounds and I hope to continue proving critics wrong. Australia rocks and so does the fishing.
Fisheagle Ed
Buz
Posts: 1555
Date Joined: 28/08/07
Nice Sambos there Fisheagle.
Nice Sambos there Fisheagle. Bet you and your missus were over the moon with them. Did you get them on the live herring on the inside of the reef or did you get the livey out past the reef?
Out of interest you dont know who owns that 4x4 Unimog looking camper on beach at the point in the back ground of your third pic? Looks like a beast of a machine :)
Buz
Posts: 1555
Date Joined: 28/08/07
Ah found the guy with the
Ah found the guy with the Unimog :)
http://greataussieadventure.com.au/
Fisheagle
Posts: 349
Date Joined: 04/02/12
Buz - caught in the inside of
Buz - caught in the inside of the reef. Not sure who the Unimog belongs to, second time I have seen it here.
Fisheagle Ed
https://www.youtube.com/user/fisheagleed/videos
Buz
Posts: 1555
Date Joined: 28/08/07
Man thats impressive as to
Man thats impressive as to get a fish that size lurking around on the inside of the reef. I have been there a few times diving after crays but wouldnt have thought anything big like that would come on the sheltered inside. Well done again to you and your missus mate :)
Great pics you got of them too!
scottland
Posts: 3036
Date Joined: 10/05/10
Well done
Kudos on the release
i support two teams eagles and whoever is playing the dockers
pricey10
Posts: 486
Date Joined: 07/01/12
Great catches! nice photos to
Great catches! nice photos to
Karratha. WA
Knot Big Enuff
Posts: 395
Date Joined: 17/05/11
Love the report and photos
Love the report and photos .... well done there
Cheers,
Hesh
PGFC Member
meglodon
Posts: 5981
Date Joined: 17/06/10
great to hear of the release
great to see they were released to fight another day
cudbfishn
Posts: 1311
Date Joined: 06/04/09
Thats a worthy potm contender
Thats a worthy potm contender there. Great pics and report. Well done.
Rick
Posts: 1111
Date Joined: 22/12/06
Well done
That is a couple of great fish off the beach Well done
PGFC Member
chrisp
Posts: 1217
Date Joined: 24/05/08
Awesome
Work there guys,great landbased capture for sure!
championruby
Posts: 459
Date Joined: 20/01/11
Nice work and great pics
Nice work and great pics mate!
fishon
Posts: 75
Date Joined: 28/04/12
top quality mate
Was that at tims thicket by any chance ??
SABRE
Posts: 404
Date Joined: 17/05/12
Looks like tims thicket
Looks like tims thicket because that unimog has been there every time i've been there
If fishing is a sport I,m an elite athlete
fishon
Posts: 75
Date Joined: 28/04/12
Same here for the last few
Same here for the last few months he must live there
dkonig82
Posts: 2091
Date Joined: 06/07/10
Great work. Sambo must have
Great work. Sambo must have been a killer across a rod of that length!
When asked by a non-fisherman 'how many fishing rods do you really need?' the correct answer is either:
n+1 (where n is the number of fishing rods you currently own); or
n-1 (where n is the number of fishing rods which would cause your significant other to dump you.
Fisheagle
Posts: 349
Date Joined: 04/02/12
Hi Koos, judging by your name
Hi Koos, judging by your name you are probably an ex South African so you may appreciate the rod being a South African built Purglass CQPX 400 16ft graphite. These rods have the backbone to pull most gamefish from the beach.
Fisheagle Ed
https://www.youtube.com/user/fisheagleed/videos
milsey
Posts: 1462
Date Joined: 22/08/07
Thats sic so close to metro,
Thats sic so close to metro, Well done mate.
Bodie
Posts: 3758
Date Joined: 05/11/07
well done, yep looks like
well done, yep looks like tims thicket looking at that reef
mucsavage
Posts: 166
Date Joined: 10/05/12
Well done, Great catch from
Well done, Great catch from the sand.!! Keep up the good work.. :)
mrbishi
Posts: 29
Date Joined: 28/04/12
Fantastic stuff guys! Horse
Fantastic stuff guys! Horse Sambos for shore!
crasny1
Posts: 6990
Date Joined: 16/10/08
Awesome capture
It is Tims for sure. My home beach for many years for Herring, whiting and the odd tailor. But this is a first as far as I can remember, I have never heard off a sambo landed from there, let alone 2.
Just a great capture for both.
Neels
"I would like to die on Mars. Just not on impact!!" _ Elon Musk
thebrett
Posts: 190
Date Joined: 14/01/12
great landbased catch,
great landbased catch, sambos and snaper from the shore is what ill be targetting soon, well done
Sharktale
Posts: 88
Date Joined: 13/07/11
Vrystaaaaaaat!
Nice one Fisheagle!
"I FISH, 'CAUSE THE VOICES TELLS ME TO...."
meersy
Posts: 278
Date Joined: 20/04/10
Top effort there guys
Top effort there guys
Troy Summers
Posts: 408
Date Joined: 14/08/11
Awesome fish's mate!! and an
Awesome fish's mate!! and an even bigger high 5 to ya missus for gettting it... yep I reckon that unimog lives down there(would love to hear his story)... Ive really struggled from that exact spot.. caught a 55cm tailor first trip.. on the last mulie of the block(only me fishing).. went and caught nothing on my anniversary(yeh the wife loves beach fishing..and alone time).. ended up nude fishing with a headlamp.. lost the bloody headlamp dammit... and got spooled by a monster on one of my underpowered combos(I was just trying to get a tailor). every other time Ive got there its been blowing a gail and couldnt get a bait to stay still long enough!! I'll give it one more go.. maybe not so impulsively next time!!
Troy
fishon
Posts: 75
Date Joined: 28/04/12
Wouldn't be a bad lifestyle
Wouldn't be a bad lifestyle would it must be better spots than tims tho hes bin there every time I've bin in the last few months I haven't had much luck their either been spooled once thought it was a big ray or that's Wat I was telling myself and only had a coupler tailor, plenty of sand whiting and herring tho but can catch them at my local beach ,
bitten
Posts: 803
Date Joined: 07/04/10
awesome looking bit of water
awesome looking bit of water though