samson - Fly Angler Australia

The first sight of a big samson can have you picking yourself up off the deck,and the thought, ‘Am I supposed to land that on fly gear?’ crosses your mind.samsonsIn Western Australia in particular, samson fishrepresent perhaps the best opportunity forAustralian fly fishers to consistently tangle withseriously big, hard fighting fish (outside the billfishfamily of course). What one fly fisher calls biganother might call ‘bait’, but with samsons there’sno confusing exactly what ‘big’ is. When firstconfronted by the sight of a pack of samsons evena seasoned fly fisher will go ‘wow!’, let alone thereaction from those who’ve never seen fish thissize before. The first sight of a big samson canhave you picking yourself up off the deck, and thethought, ‘Am I supposed to land that on fly gear?’crosses your mind. That had certainly been myreaction a few years ago whenCraig ‘Noddy’ Radford firstbought one to the surface on jigtackle off metropolitan Perth.Samson fish (Seriola hippos)are members of the trevally tribe– carangids for the scientists.Their closest relations are theother Seriolas - amberjacks andyellowtail kingfish are kissingcousins. Few fish families carrya more fearsome, thuggish,fighting reputation than this gang.They can be a kilometre long and forty metersdeep. Jig fishers have exploited this fisheryover the last few years and it is unquestionablythe major tackle testing ground for heavy dutyspin gear in the world – it is brutal, with someexperienced and hardened jig fishers landing(and releasing) over 30 fish a day with an averageweight somewhere around 24 kilos.Shattered rods and seized reels litter the decks ofcharter boats. For a fly fisher to exploit this deepfishery requires good weather, heavy tackle, andtechniques that are just a little outside IFGA rules,but sometimes you do what you have to do.Not quite wthin IGFA rules...Unconventional tactics wereneeded to drop flies 100 metresdown into the feeding zone.Books will tell you samsonshave a known upper weightlimit of 57 kilos but fish largerthan 60 kilos have beenregularly recorded, particularlyfrom Perth’s offshore summerspawning aggregationsin recent years.This aggregation is trulymassive. The size of theschools of mature fish thatcongregate in several placesoff the coast, in particular westof Rottnest Island, is almostincomprehensible.issue oneaug-oct 06