Spinning Out Hooks Salmon

Newcastle Herald

Friday July 18, 2008

Fishing, Simon Walker

SALMON, that great southern Australian sports fish, are thick off beaches at this time of year, and a recent encounter underlines the importance of always being prepared in the tacklebox department.

We were up at Hawks Nest last week and encountered a number of schools mere metres off the beach.

It's an impressive sight big shadows, 50 metres long, of salmon chasing the whitebait and dolphins and sharks chasing the salmon and one guaranteed to get the blood of most fishing-minded people bubbling.

Johnny "Comp" Liet, his sister Esther "Dr E" Liet and myself headed down to the beach intending to throw a few prawns in the water with the kids, BB and GG, and maybe hook a bream.

Next thing, another angler shouted out that a school of salmon was on its way and advised us to hook up metal spinners.

Now it was probably the surf splashing around our feet but, metaphorically, our fishing party collectively wet themselves.

"What metal spinners?" we asked as we frantically raided the Jarvis Walker tacklebox.

All we could find were suicide hooks, rusty swivels and an assortment of gigantic freshwater lures.

It didn't help when old mate who'd made the announcement was sighted up to his thighs dragging in a five-kilogram salmon after one cast.

With no other option, we rigged up poppers and a couple of sinkers to Silstar kiddie rods and proceeded to rain down merry hell, hoping to jag something or knock it unconscious.

Not the most scientific approach.

All thoughts for fashion and safety went out the window. The wallet had to be thrown to the kids and the mobile quickly followed.

Shoes were soon discarded in the tideline and jeans rolled up, and pretty soon discarded, too, as we chased these slow-moving fishcakes into the water and up to Yacaaba Headland.

In retrospect, we should have grabbed the fish knife and engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

They were that close and that thick the fish, that is.

We got nothing except a mild case of chafe as we walked the kilometre back to our base in wet clothes, regretting our lack of appropriate gear.

The salmon we had been chasing were feeding on whitebait.

We'd need to have had a small metal spinner in the kit to have any chance, according to Charlestown Anglers Club weighmaster Ray Stenhouse.

"You'll only get salmon to bite on lures that mimic what they are eating," Ray said yesterday.

"And then you get the problem, when you fish from the beach, that small lures are hard to cast out to the schools.

'You're best bet under those circumstances is to rig up a trusty old pilchard with a sinker. "They'll take it in on the way down or get it off the bottom."

Point taken, Ray, you live and learn; but it certainly was a buzz.

"Salmon are the great southern Australian sports fish the blue collar workers' game fish, if you like," Ray said.

"There's great abundance of them, they're easy to access off beaches and headlands and, pound for pound, they're one of the great fighting sports fish."

If you can catch them, and if you have the right gear.

New club is hooked

CHARLESTOWN Anglers Club held its inaugural presentation night last Saturday at Charlestown Golf Club.

More than 130 people attended to celebrate the club's first birthday, and the feeling is there will be many more to come.

Ray said the club has taken off the training wheels after a boom first year of existence and is ready to become a force in local and state fishing.

The first step has been to affiliate with the Newcastle District Anglers Association.

"We hope to field strong teams in the NDAA estuary, offshore, rock and beach comps as they come up next season [which starts in August].

"We plan to join up with the state association, too.

"And we're in the process of developing a website, which we hope to unveil in the not-too-distant future.

"If we're not the biggest angling club in Newcastle already, we soon will be."

More than $5000 was distributed in awards and prizes at the presentation night.

Ray offered a special vote of thanks to the angling club committee, whose unwavering efforts have built the platform for a very successful year.

Snapping to it

CHARLESTOWN held its monthly competition last Saturday.

Ray, Robert Irons, Gavin Dial and Steve Marsh caught some handy snapper off Broughton Island, with fish up to four kilograms.

At Lake Macquarie, anglers reported catching some handy bream and substantial snapper.

Charlestown's next outing will be at Forster-Tuncurry from August 8 to 10.

Contact Ray on 0427 278 049 for details.

Mulloway are jumping

LAKE Macquarie is fishing well for mulloway, according to "Jumpin" Johnnie Frith, from Fishermans Warehouse.

"Rob Irons, who won the local ABT bream comp recently, got one 10.8 kilograms on 6lb braid, which is not a bad effort," Johnnie said yesterday. "Another angler got one 12.5 kilograms.

"There's plenty of flathead in the channel, in around Salts Bay up to the RSL, but they're just laying around sunning themselves, not biting.

"The whiting are the same, you can see plenty but they're pretty shy.

"Better to try them in the lake itself, around Wangi.

"There's been plenty of reddies taken down south off Norah Head in the 40-fathom line and, out wider, anglers report a few yellowfin about.

"There's forty million salmon on the beaches and heaps of leatherjackets, particularly off Newcastle.

"If the jackets plague you, guys have found that if they pull up lines for 20 minutes and wait, the jackets are patchy and won't hang around."

fishing@theherald.com.au

© 2008 Newcastle Herald

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