Fish are biting!

EDManual · 30-03-2006, 11:52 PM

Went out for a fish at Barwon Heads, came across some nice Salmon. Great fun on 6 pound line! Biggest 2kg casting laser lures. Drag goes zooooooooooooom!!!

Its quite amazing to have the boat floating and have acres of fish surrounding you!

What I am really after are king george whiting. Hard to find in the bay sadly this year, the last few years have been fantastic. Dam BRACKS again stuffs everything up. Blowing up the rip so more ships can go through.....

about 15 Years ago there was dredging all through port phillip bay. Fishing was terrible, just the last few years it had been getting better and better, now they are doing it again. And we have to pay for a fishing licence so our fishing interests will be "looked after". I am starting to really hate lots of things about Victoria.

Anyone else been out fishing for some whiting or whatever?

rodderz · 30-03-2006, 11:57 PM

Some nice sized salmon there, Salmon are a great fish to get when on the bite as they are always in numbers when you get a line in their area. Great fighters too on light tackle especially on lures such as the lasers or wonder wobblers. Havent been in Port Philip for a while but down gippsland is not too bad at the right times

The King George are great too but as you said they along with more snapper were just starting to come back in bigger numbers and they are scraping the bay again for the sake of more ship traffic. makes you wonder why you pay for a fishing license for the bay doesnt it

NC 5ltr · 31-03-2006, 01:35 AM

Some nice salmon there,but i hope your not going to eat them as they taste like S$^(. to me anyways

Went out about 4 weeks ago chasing frigit mackeral and bonito up me local breakwall with my bream spinning outfit 6'6rod 1000series reel and 6 pound line.

caught a few frigs abd 1 boni and it was great fun esp the boni going on deep runs.

ED if you want to catch some BIG sambos head up this way and youll pick up some big 4-5 kg specimums as well as the odd 3-4kg taylor and they go even harder than the equivalant sized sambo.

XRated · 31-03-2006, 01:36 AM

Yum, I love salmon. I haven't been fishing in years.

NC 5ltr · 31-03-2006, 01:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by XRated

Yum, I love salmon. I haven't been fishing in years.

What Australian salmon?..............

DOC · 31-03-2006, 02:12 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by NC 5ltr

Some nice salmon there,but i hope your not going to eat them as they taste like S$^(. to me anyways
.

Smoked up they are great, looks like some good fishing for the day was had.

bprint xr8 · 31-03-2006, 10:11 AM

Looks like a great catch and would have been a good fight on light tackle.

Went to Wilson's Prom over the long weekend and caught some fish to bring home, a couple of whiting and some flathead. The crew that I go fishing with are pretty choosy with what we keep, most of the fish are catch and release.

Must say that it was quieter than previous years though.

Off to Darwin on Thursday to chase some Barra for a week. Hopefully will be good fun.

muppet · 31-03-2006, 10:29 AM

Australian salmon are great fun to catch. There is something very exciting about fish that jump when you catch them. As for eating quality well they arent the greatest fish in the sea but they are not bad if eaten fresh and cooked right. I have never had one smoked(which sounds very nice ) but we used to fillet them crumb them and shallow fry them. I used to go fishing for taylor with a mate . The first time we whent I was telling him how nice they were but you had to crumb and fry them . He took them home and his misses wraped them in foil and cooked them. The next day he was telling me how horrible they where so from then on I got all the taylor we caught lucky me.

EDManual · 31-03-2006, 11:38 AM

Salmon arent as good as some fish to eat, thats true, but if you bleed them straight away, and when you fillet them later, you also take the skin off, and the red meat from the white meat, it is actually not that bad at all! It is the red meat that tastes bad, not the white meat. And when they jump they sure are exciting!!

See here, the red meat in the fillet is mainly against the skin, and along the lateral bones, so its no trouble to fillet the nice meat off the fillet you have already done. Then you end up with long sausage like fillets. They go nice in a sauce like cream dill and white wine or something. Never heard a bad word said about them prepared like this, in fact the opposite, everyone loves it.

I find tailor nicer to eat though, but must be bled straight away and eaten fresh. If you freeze them, the meat goes a bit mushy.

JPFS1 · 31-03-2006, 12:02 PM

awesome work ED Manual.

You are totally right about preparing the Salmon. They are perfectly fine to eat when prepared the way you described and that's exactly what we do too. Cooked staight away with the above preparation and they are just fine.

I was recently in Lakes Entrance on a GTP/XR8 test cruise, we took our fishing gear and hooked into some really nice sized salmon.

Mallacoota is one of my favorite spots, get into the big flatties and some great Salmon/Taylor on the surf. Can also go for Bream up in the top lake system.

F6 UTE · 31-03-2006, 06:34 PM

We're heading down to Augusta for Easter chasing Salmon... Should be good.

Bonito are another nice catch, long runs on light tackle.. but horrid to eat.. We tried everything, soaking them in milk etc...

rodderz · 31-03-2006, 10:21 PM

Australian Salmon aint bad to eat, especially the way described, tailor I found were the nasty ones the only time I tried them. Very "fishy" taste to them

Whiting and flathead are beautiful to eat along with bream and snapper, even garfish are nice too but not much of them!

Mark351 · 31-03-2006, 10:28 PM

I'm just about to get back into fishing now that I've settled down this way. Spent many years in my youth fishing with my grandfather on the central coast, anywhere between Swansea and up past Newcastle....

I'm not very familiar with the Barwon area and what the Corio bay area offers. I plan to get some tackle together again (inherited my grandfathers monster beach rod after he passed away, so that's a good start...) as well as getting a bit of gear for Max (age 8) as he is keen to dangle a line as well, at least until he gets bored (I give him 5, maybe 10 mins...)

Any suggestions on good spots, bait, setups for land based fishing etc would be appreciated. I picked up a small book on the Port Phillip/Corio bays which lists a few spots between the Lagoon near the grammar school, and the rocks past Eastern beach, but more advice is always handy. What are the better shops for gear/bait around here too?

Bucknaked · 31-03-2006, 10:44 PM

I am so glad I don't eat seafood. The fish markets are hard on the nose. Those pics arn't much better

BA Bakes · 31-03-2006, 11:10 PM

I've just start getting back into fish as well, all tho there's not much of a choice of good spots around wagga. Heading down to Merimbula in a week for a fishin trip with the old man, can't wait!!

XRated · 01-04-2006, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bucknaked

I am so glad I don't eat seafood. The fish markets are hard on the nose. Those pics arn't much better

You don't know what you're missing.

I never used to really like prawns, scallops etc. But now try and stop me