Well, I finally got out for another tilt at the sambos over the past weekend. Unfortunately, my fishing time (and ability - not that I have much anyway) particualrly on Saturday was significantly curtailed by an injury I sustained on the way to Perth on Thursday
Just got no bloody luck lately. I did manage to fish a bit more on the Sunday though which was fun. All of that said though, I still much enjoyed just being able to get out notwithstanding that we were fishing in quite awful conditions. I think the wind must have been 20-30 knots and the swell at least 3 metres or more.
I went out on Saturday with Rob Ciotucha and some of his mates and on Sunday, with Steven Ng and his friends who had all come over from Sydney.
The sambos were not really on at all on the weekend but we still had a a few fish come on board each day. A nice fish was landed on the first day but an old chap who had never been jigging before. The fish would have been 40-45kg and it broke him physically. Straight after the fish was landed, he leant over the side and threw up! He did not fish again until right at the end of the day when they decided to stop at a reef on the way home to catch some pinkies (snapper). He compains he is snagged on the bottom so the deckie goes to help him. The deckie tells him he thinks it is a fish. Anyone, the old fellow takes about fifteen minutes or more to reel the fish up and it is a big samson of around 35-40kgs! Quite an achievement on an Alvey reef reel but that fish simply did not seem to fight at all!
I had been told that sambos eat anything and any old jig will do but what I found was that sambos have expensive taste when they are not really biting. They seemed to have an affinity in particular to Jig's Ace jigs which I got most of my strikes on.
I have one experience worth regaling - just before we finished up and headed back on Sunday afternoon, I told the guys that I had decided it was time for me to catch a huge sambo so I was putting on my biggest and most expensive jig which I had out there, that I was going to rip in up as fast as I could and a 60kg sambo was going to latch onto it. In other words, I was talking shit - thrash talking. The problem with thrash talking is you need to back it up.
Anyway, I drop down this massive Jig's Ace jig down and after it hits the bottom, I looked at all the guys with a big smile on my face and then I started ripping it up. Within about three seconds, I was thinking "@#$!@#, why did I use such a heavy jig!" Anyway, barely a couple of seconds later, the jig gets hit. It didn't feel like a big fish so I was fairly lacksadaisical in getting the rod into the gimbal. I then give the fish a bit of a whack and in return, it gives me a massive whack back which slams my rod against the rails and busts me off! If I was going to put this into boxing parlance, I gave the fish a short jab and it got me back with a massive haymaker to my glass jaw! I then turn and look at the guys with this stunned look on my face and utter the word "wow".
The worst part about all of this is that Steven Ng filmed it. This gave everyone on the boat great amusement and I think he must have replayed it fifty times that day! Thankfully, he didn't film the part about me talking shit otherwise this would become a youtube legend.
We went out with Fishing Charters WA which is an operation run by Craig Warne. Craig is a hell of a nice chap and his guys really showed they knew what they were doing on Sunday when we had another established charter almost sitting right next to us but we caught fish and they didn't. They also fed us better than any day charter I have ever been on - breakfast, morning tea, lunch and afternoon tea on the way back! If any of you are interested, you can get in touch with Craig on
[email protected] or phone 0427280770.
Any keen jigging enthusiast has to get out for samsons at least once. I personally do not think they go as hard as kings or AJs but as I found out, don't take them too easily!
I'll be back next year to try again. I'll post a few photos after I download them.
