The night of Australia Day, when most of us were having a drink or reflecting on the day's festivities, Sam Fitz-Roy was fighting to catch a big Jewfish.
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“My grandmother has lived in the area for 39 years, I was visiting her and decided to go down and put a line in off the V-Wall, Sam said.
“It is a fairly well-fished spot, so it was surprising to hook one, let alone a Jewfish, they are not very common, especially around here.”
The fight took place over several tense minutes as Sam wondered if he would land the fish or it would drag him down with it.
“I knew from the speed and power it was pulling that it was either a shark or a Jewfish. I quickly figured it out though, after I hooked him he started to shake his head, that’s something sharks don’t do,” he said.
“I was very lucky it went in the right direction for me, the fight to land him got very dicey at points, it lasted about 15 mins, when it was all over it was a scramble to get down the rocks and collect him.”
The catch was of a respectable size, Jewfish can reportedly grow up to two metres, and Sams haul was well on its way.
“He was a bit over a metre, and weighed around 10kg; he was a big boy,” he said.
“After I got him, I spoke to a few locals, they were surprised, they were saying most fishers dream of catching one, some have to wait years until they catch a Jewfish, I may never catch one again.”
After their contest, one of the combatants had given their all and was no longer able to move under his own power.
“They fight to the end, by the time I got the fish he was pretty much dead, there was no way he would survive in the wild anymore, so I couldn't let him go, it wasn’t wasted though,” Sam said.
“I ended up taking him to feed my family, and several of my friends' families, it tasted bloody beautiful.”
This isn't the first rare fish that has been caught in the region recently, a few weeks ago a three-tailed fish was caught in the Nambucca river by another young fisherman.
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