Weirdest catch

[kc]

Having fished almost a lifetime and thinking I had caught and seen just about everything along comes a fish which just blows you away. Looking back at my unusual captures they include Australian Salmon where I grew up in the Pumicstone passage. 2 in one session in fact. Also a large mouth nannygai/saddle tail sea perch off the donnybrook jetty. In later years in the Whitsundays I have caught Coral trout 3 miles up a creek, 2 sand crabs (blue swimmers) on a fly rod...caught not jagged. A fly caught Giant herring in a fresh water stream, and now this. A fish to top the lot . Setting the scene. Thursday morning. 2 am. 55 meters of water over a pinnacle I get nannies on. 10/0 hook, 1/2 a squid, 60 lb trace, 80 lb braid and a 5 ounce dropper lead. Meassured 80 cm and guessed it about 4kgs. An unbelievable ball of solid muscle. Especially weird is that just a few days ago I booked a trip in July to Kiribati fly fishing to tick one off the bucket list. Missus tells me now I don't have to go. Seeing this thing in the flesh only makes me keener. Behold a Great Barrier Reef/Whitsunday Bonefish.

[tunaticer]

55m of water is surprising, thought these things were definitely shallow water critters.

[chris69]

No they catch them in 80mts wide of fraser island on squid,the bigger go deeper, the smaller fish stay in the shallows.

[kc]

Had heard that they were occasionally caught in deep water, just never at night, never in the Whitsundays and never by me. Some talk in the local tackle shop of a 4 kg fish being caught on the reef flats near Cape Gloster on a gold bomber recently. Maybe it's all a sign of global warming =)

[shaungonemad]

My weirdest catch was a match box car of the Hervey bay pier.

[Noelm]

I once caught a Navy bomb in Jervis Bay, near pooped my pants...

[Noelm]

Something pretty lucky or damn lucky? I was live baiting for Kingfish, and fishing for bait at the same time, caught the Yakka that I had a hook through on my live bait rod! fair and square in the mouth.

[alleycat]

My weirdest catch was around 1978 in the Macleay River , fishing from the bank with a prawn bait I pulled in a fish to find that my line went into the mouth of a flathead around 35 cm long, the line then went out through the gills and a bream was on the hook at the end of the line, don't know how it happened but it happened..

[airlock]

I hooked a Yakka off sunshine beach and let it twist in the wind for a while as i sorted out another fish. By the time i pulled it up there was a pretty good table sized squid latched onto the yakka. The squid came home for tea while the Yakka went down with a couple of 6/0 hooks.

[scottar]

Good Bone. Catching one on the long wand won't hold the same mystique now. Have seen some weird stuff - one of my biggest Dollies fell to a bottom bashing rig with a pound of lead about 4 boat lengths off Boat Rock, once managed a very solid whiting under a gold coast bridge - with a bonus sandcrab hanging on to the swivel and witnessed my old man somehow manage to get his hook stuck in the neck of an empty stubbie down the Pin - pity the full ones don't bite just as well

[Camhawk88]

An arse hooked long tom off Cossack when I was a kid springs to mind. Cleanly hooked in the clacker. Jumped a bit too.

[joffo81]

A coulple of years ago I caught an undersize sand whiting in 55meters of water whilst hand-lining for flathead. During the same session, the flathead I was pulling up suddenly became heavy but I kept it coming to the boat. When it was close enough to see, I first thought it was a massive cobia and then realised it was a mako! It didn't even know it was hooked. I cut the line, dropped a whole pillie on some gangs with a trace and held on! The speed and aerial show was amazing to say the least.

[xpaladoshous]

An undersize winter whiting in 30+m on a 6o hook and aome squid..

Not me but my niece somehow caught a dead mullet!! In moreton bay...

A 55cm jack on a 10lb kids set up with a small whiting hook and a servo prawn... its the biggest one ive caught..lol..

[PROS]

Caught a nice size longtail tuna last year that was gut full of flathead.

[stevo]

We fishing at Fingal and saw a hand reel come by, so picked it up and first on it was a seagul, which I released then proceeded to pull in and was a 32cm Whitting which after going through that I released too. But I got to keep a hand reel.

[littlejim]

I was a bit surprised to get a QLD school mackeral near the naval college in Jervis Bay. Friend of Nemo?

[ShaneC]

I have one that if someone told it to me I would call bullshit.

Luckily I had my mate Lance with me because if I was by myself I wouldn't be able to share it for fear of being labelled a bullshitter....

Ok, we were deep dropping off DI and there was a bit of run so we were using 6 lb sinkers, my standard practice is to stick the sinker in the side pocket of the boat and wind the swivel to the rod tip of a very heavy bent butt rod. So the top three baits were hanging above the water off the rod tip, with the rest inside the boat attached to the sinker thats in the sidepocket.

Going back up onto a drift we saw a couple of big dollies checking the boat out and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. Turns out Dolly #1 was that hungry he had a crack at the top rig (at least 1m above the water) and was hanging off the rod with an 18/0 stainless hook hanging out of his lips. So we swung him into the eaky and banged the lid shut because he was a tad cranky, Lance hooked Dolly #2, and nekkminit we have nearly 40kg of dollies in the box by absolute fluke.

So a dolly caught on a stainless circle hook, 1m above the water on a mullet fillet.... for the record they go bonkers in the boat when caught like this but it doesnt take long to land them....

[scottar]

I have one that if someone told it to me I would call bullshit.

Luckily I had my mate Lance with me because if I was by myself I wouldn't be able to share it for fear of being labelled a bullshitter....

Ok, we were deep dropping off DI and there was a bit of run so we were using 6 lb sinkers, my standard practice is to stick the sinker in the side pocket of the boat and wind the swivel to the rod tip of a very heavy bent butt rod. So the top three baits were hanging above the water off the rod tip, with the rest inside the boat attached to the sinker thats in the sidepocket.

Going back up onto a drift we saw a couple of big dollies checking the boat out and all of a sudden all hell breaks loose. Turns out Dolly #1 was that hungry he had a crack at the top rig (at least 1m above the water) and was hanging off the rod with an 18/0 stainless hook hanging out of his lips. So we swung him into the eaky and banged the lid shut because he was a tad cranky, Lance hooked Dolly #2, and nekkminit we have nearly 40kg of dollies in the box by absolute fluke.

So a dolly caught on a stainless circle hook, 1m above the water on a mullet fillet.... for the record they go bonkers in the boat when caught like this but it doesnt take long to land them....

Wouldn't call BS at all Shane. Have had a similar occurrence (on somewhat lighter gear with thankfully a much smaller fish). One should never leave a plastic frog dangling from a rod tip when messing about with dollies - as entertaining as it can be. Of course handling one strapped to a deep drop rig takes it to a whole new level of LOOK OUT.

[scrotty]

Barra fishing from Maningrida and hooked up on a log about two foot above the water line and the lure was hanging. After a few jerks of the rod to try to break it free an 83cm Barra leaped from the water and grabbed the lure and hung there for me to rescue and release.

[kc]

Lucky Barra. I would have rescued it right into the frying pan =)

[kc]

We catch them in Weipa a lot (by virtue of a dud cast) and have coined the phrase "tea-bagging" them. Cast over a branch and just "tea bag" bounce the lure on the water. Usually results in a lost lure but the "visuals" are awesome.