Fishing for Sambos

I feel a few words of introduction to my friend Chevin are necessary.

Chevin was born in the North of England yet spent most of his formative years in Hertfordshire. He has known personally and fished with many of England’s most famous anglers. Today he lives close to Perth in Western Australia, having emigrated there in the 1970s. Today, Chevin considers himself a dinkum Aussie.

He chooses not to use his real name at the moment but all will be revealed when his Biography of Richard Walker is published.

Fishing for Samson Fish, better known as Sambos

Chevin battling with a sambo

A few miles off the western end of Rottnest Island are some lumps that are thought to be containers that have been swept off container ships approaching Fremantle harbour and those containers, which are in about 75 fathoms, are what attracts the sambos.

The tackle provided by the charter boats is a powerful rod, a large fixed spool reel loaded with 80lb b/s braid and the 300g jigs necessary to get down to the fish. The jigging techniques employed vary and some of them appear to be some kind of ritual or perhaps a severe muscular affliction in the upper body! Personally I prefer the more traditional style of long lift, dropping the rod tip and then quickly reeling in. However, whatever style is used it normally isn’t long before the user’s rod tip slams down into the ocean – and the fight is on!

I had my first day on the sambo marks on Boxing Day and while I had caught them before this really was a new experience to me. I have caught a lot of big hard fighting fish in my time and these sambos on jigs were certainly matching anything else I have caught size for size. Not only did I fear for the tackle I was using on several occasions but I was also concerned that I might be pulled over board by a fish when it was hell bent on getting back to the bottom!

Table fish

Thankfully, long before the fishing has been fully exploited, the charter boat owners have realised that it can only be exploited as long as there are fish there to catch and so the welfare of the sambos is of primary importance. The boat I was on has a large marlin board and all of the time we were fishing there was a deckie on that. Each fish hooked was negotiated to the marlin board and the deckie slid it on to the board. If a photo was required, the captor sat in a chair and the fish was placed in his arms. The photo was taken, the fish was taken off the captor and quickly returned to the ocean. Those needing a bit of help had a large hose stuffed into their mouth so that water ran through their gills. Their eyes were also sheltered from the sun. Some were also helped to the bottom and recompression by the use of a large lead and a barbless hook on the end of a light rope.

Chomped by a mako shark

Quite early on in the day a friend was fighting a sambo when the fight suddenly stopped though there was still something on his hook. On recovering his tackle he discovered that he had less than 75% of a fish that would have weighed around 50lbs left! There was just one clean bite and I wanted to get a photo of that but the remaining part of the body had been chucked back before I was able to get one. I was informed that the shark responsible was a mako and it must have been a pretty big one. Perhaps there is another attraction there for other anglers! I have never caught a mako and I would like to do so, but it would not be possible on a sambo trip – the fishing time is too short to allow anyone to spend time fighting big sharks.

To stay with the shoals of fish, it is necessary to drift over the marks and to reduce the chances of huge tangles only four anglers are allowed to fish on each drift. It is a good method; each angler is likely to hook at least one fish on each drift and providing nothing goes wrong he will land one. After landing one, I was more than happy to sit out a couple of drifts before it was my turn again.

I don’t know just how big Samson fish grow, but a friend of mine had one of around 60kgs a few years ago. I can’t imagine just how they must feel on the end of a line. My fish were around 50lbs and they pulled almost as hard my Staffy – which weighs in at about the same – when he is on a lead!

Resuscitation with a hosepipe

A sambo trip really should be a must for any UK anglers visiting the Perth area. It costs AU$150.00 (about 65 quid) and everything is provided; rods, reels, jigs, lunch, cool drinks and, unfortunately, a radio playing all day. I think that the latter is simply for the deckies’ benefit because none of the other anglers I spoke to about it were particularly impressed by it; the banalities of a local radio station hardly enhance a nice day out at sea.

The boat I went out on was the Blue Juice; it is a fast, well-equipped boat and I will most certainly go out on it again at some time in the future – despite the dammed radio!

One thing that visiting anglers must bear in mind is that the Samson fish are summer fish and a summer day out from here can be hot even for us locals! On Boxing Day the shade temperature was 38C and it is considerably hotter than that in the sun on a metal boat. It is imperative to keep up one’s fluid intake during the course of the day and alcoholic drinks are not a good idea. It is a good idea to have a bottle of one of the energy/hydration drinks like Powerade or Gatorade with you as both of them replace electrolytes that are lost with perspiration.

If any of you guys want further information on the set up, I will be pleased to help where I can.