MOST fishing stories have an element of exaggeration to them, but this one from the weekend is true, we promise.
Local Chris Power was out with a mate on the Nambucca River near Macksville, when he caught something strange, a fish with three tails.
“I’d never seen anything like it, we had no idea what it was at first, we had a few guesses, but we had to get onto some of our friends about it and they identified him as a triple tail,” he said.
The triple tail is a tropical sports fish, caught mainly on lures and flies. They are known to be as very elusive and few fishers have managed to land one, let alone in Macksville.
“He must have gotten a bit lost, they are more of an ocean fish, found out in tropical Queensland,” Chris told the Nambucca Guardian.
The battle to land the beast was nearly over before it began, when the life-long fisherman first felt that tug on the line. He had no idea what was on the other end.
“When I first hooked him I thought it was a stingray; I had little interest in landing it at that point. My mate said to hold onto the line and see what I’d gotten.”
“It was a hefty fight on 6lb braid with an 8-pound leader; there was bricking on the oysters at least three times. When he surfaced, I knew it was something special, and after several netting attempts, we got him.”
The rare catch weighed in at 2kg and the keen fisherman credits one piece of equipment as the key to landing the visiting monster.
“I used a ‘Screw Loose Tackle’ Marty diver in red line. They are local boys and they sell good quality Australian lures,” he said.
While the fish is almost unheard of for the area, rather than hold onto the triple tail, he took a few quick snaps and sent the lost fish on its way.
“We just took a few photos and let him go; we didn't know what it was at the time.”
“I found out later it is a good table fish, so maybe next time if I happen to land one I might put it to the test. The odds of landing another around here are virtually non-existent, that's not going to stop me from trying though.”
Check out more of Chris and his fishing adventures on the “Our Fishing Addiction” Facebook page.
