queensland Wall to wall salmon

[tiotony]

Got extra conscientious this morning as the north easters came in today - left home at 445 to hit the beach at 5.

Arrived to bustups everywhere; one quick castnet right at my feet had my net looking like a Christmas tree decorated with baitfish. We get huge schools of these hitting the beach in north easters - kind of look like 20cm long anchovies and the predators are always right behind them.

A very busy session followed on blue salmon in the 50's hitting the bait within minutes of casting out, also a couple of undersize king salmon - lost count of how many as it was like fishing a tailor school down south. Kept 5 for a feed.

Also dropped two large king salmon but meh, 5 blues are plenty for me. 

A guy 100m down from me was chucking all manner of hardbodies and plastics and didn't see him get a single hit - have observed over the years that for some reason lures do not do well at the beach I normally fish. 

[ellicat]

Sounds a bit hectic. That is a good thing sometimes.

[kmcrosby78]

Now that would have been one very fun session - well done Tony!!

[tiotony]

King salmon injury from this morning. Cast out 15-20cm anchovy thing on a 6/0 and leave 2m of slack with reel in gear and your finger on the line to feel the take. Nek minnit metre plus king salmon jumps in front of you and peels line off at 100mph.....across your finger.

[kmcrosby78]

Just thank yourself lucky it didn’t manage to wrap around your finger ....

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

Hi Tony

That’s incredible! Those are some great fish. It must be so much fun to catch them.

Those baitfish are called frogmouth pilchards. A half frogmouth pilchard is one of my favourite salmon baits. When they are dead they are very mushy though, and they don’t stay alive well after going through the net.

Merry Christmas,

Hamish 

[tiotony]

4 hours ago, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Hi Tony

That’s incredible! Those are some great fish. It must be so much fun to catch them.

Those baitfish are called frogmouth pilchards. A half frogmouth pilchard is one of my favourite salmon baits. When they are dead they are very mushy though, and they don’t stay alive well after going through the net.

Merry Christmas,

Hamish 

I thought they might be too, but they're very white colour rather than blue/green like frogmouth pilchards. Maybe lighter just because they are on the beach rather than estuary.

Use a whole one instead of half

  

[benno573]

On 25/12/2021 at 11:27 AM, AUS-BNE-FISHO said:

Those baitfish are called frogmouth pilchards.

Sorry Hamish, they are anchovies, also locally known as yorkies in parts of CQ. Great bait for many things, excellent dead bait on the reefs too. 

Frogmouth pilchards don’t grow as big and are much more stout - the anchovies are very skinny.

[AUS-BNE-FISHO]

3 minutes ago, benno573 said:

Sorry Hamish, they are anchovies, also locally known as yorkies in parts of CQ. Great bait for many things, excellent dead bait on the reefs too. 

Frogmouth pilchards don’t grow as big and are much more stout - the anchovies are very skinny.

Thanks for the clarification Benno. I never knew. I had many people tell me they were frogmouth pilchards.

Cheers Hamish