queensland Cairns Beaches - The Salmon Are Back

[tiotony]

So after about 8 months of fish drought on the beach (brought on by relentless SE winds, which makes it shark city),  finally the wind swung to the NE this week.

Knew my local beach would fire, and after work didn't want to waste fishing time castnetting so grabbed some fresh yellowtail I saw advertised at a fish shop on the way home.

First cast with a yellowtail fillet was smashed as I was putting the rod in the holder. Saw two mates down there who had only got sharks on live mullet, so was pleased with the result on the flesh bait - blue salmon no.1

Second cast the bait got smashed before I even got the bail arm over; resulting in blue salmon no.2.

Third cast hit within a few minutes and resulted in a substantially bigger no.3 salmon.

More than enough for me; salmon don't release well (I think because they fight to the death on 6 pound braid), so time to go home.

Have noted the salmon have been very keen on the flesh baits the last couple of years, so grabbed some more yellowtail for another crack over the weekend.

Now that they've hit the beach, history over the last 25+ years fishing the same spot tells me they'll be a sure thing for the next few months. Soft flesh so I bake whole, pick the meat off and use in pasta bake, fish cakes, and fried rice - which will be on the menu weekly for the next few months until the barra and king salmon show up on the beach. Good fishing times ahead!

 

 

 

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi tiotony

That is an awesome session, especially for a quick after-work one! Good job on the salmon.

They must put up a great fight on 6lb. I have never caught blue salmon (only threadfin). I know they don't get as big, but how big do you know/think they get?

Cheers Hamish

[tiotony]

mid 80's is the biggest blues I've caught. Average is around 55-60. 

[GregOug]

I didn’t actually know they’d gone anywhere but good to hear they’re back

[samsteele115]

Nice!! Great sesh. They look a tiny bit like tailor in some ways. Do they taste similar? 

[kmcrosby78]

Great session there and sounds like plenty more to come, fun times  

[jon]

Good session mate gotta love fighting the salmon on the light line!

[benno573]

12 hours ago, samsteele115 said:

Nice!! Great sesh. They look a tiny bit like tailor in some ways. Do they taste similar? 

Not at all like tailor mate. Not dissimilar to threadfin it bled and looked after as @tiotony has done. Not great if frozen. Used to be a staple diet when I lived in Gladstone.

[samsteele115]

Good to know! Would love to catch one.

[Drop Bear]

How much water do you catch them in? I mean how deep is it there? 

[Drop Bear]

Nice fish by the way.

 

[tiotony]

3 hours ago, Drop Bear said:

How much water do you catch them in? I mean how deep is it there? 

About waist-chest deep

[Drop Bear]

13 hours ago, tiotony said:

About waist-chest deep

Thanks. Great to see you catching them. 

So the king and barra come into the beaches in summer? Nice way to do it. 

[ggg]

Awesome session Tony. Is that the place you told me about? I made the mistake surveying that particular spot when the swell was up and it was 20 knots. I sort of wrote it off due to the horrible weather. I fished the Barron mouth yesterday with little luck. I filleted one of the mullet I caught and had it hammered soon after casting out. Unfortunately the circle hook couldn’t find its mark and the fish stripped the bait off. A few livies went MIA after a some light taps as well. I will have to try that spot if I am not fishing the headlands. The flat weather will create an excellent session off the rocks hopefully. 

[tiotony]

On 16/08/2020 at 3:10 PM, Jaz44 said:

Awesome session Tony. Is that the place you told me about? I made the mistake surveying that particular spot when the swell was up and it was 20 knots. I sort of wrote it off due to the horrible weather. I fished the Barron mouth yesterday with little luck. I filleted one of the mullet I caught and had it hammered soon after casting out. Unfortunately the circle hook couldn’t find its mark and the fish stripped the bait off. A few livies went MIA after a some light taps as well. I will have to try that spot if I am not fishing the headlands. The flat weather will create an excellent session off the rocks hopefully. 

Yeah mate thats southern end of Holloways. SE winds are back now so will be only sharks again.