Catch and Cook in an Incredible Cave

So, my live heads have just got eaten and we are on far out. Alright, I'm all set, got the rope in, got a backpack full of fishing gear, camping gear. The lot, we're going to abseil down to this awesome cave down there and get set up, get a line in the water and whatever we catch is going to be dinner tonight, camping out for the night. So, let's get down there and get stuck into it. We have arrived. Just going to quickly place a cam here somewhere for my bag. That's set there. Alright, in the cave. It is very moist at the moment, there's moisture everywhere which kind of sucks a bit. Anyway, I'm going to get set up and start fishing very soon. I do have someone with me. You might have noticed a couple of extra camera angles. We've got company. He'll be on his way down soon. He'll probably mostly be out of the video but he might join me for dinner or something. Anyway, he'll be down soon and then we'll get a line in the water. Just going to set the burly. So, we've even got a bit of firewood ready. Throw that over there. So, this is just a block of pilchards which is the local bait fish. That's what I pretty much always use as burly whether it be a full block or some minced up scrap of it or something like that. Oily, smelly fish that all the other fish love to eat and we tie that on, throw it in the drink and it brings everything else in. And I'll just shorten that up a little bit now. Alright, so I'm all rigged up ready to go. Burly's in the water, hopefully bringing some fish in and I've just brought down the heavy set up which is a 20kg Daiwa Saltiga. Forget if I have 80lb or 100lb Taz line on the reel, one or the other and probably a 170lb or 200lb leader, whatever I tied on last fishing trip. On an Ocean's Legacy Genesis PE8 rod, 1.5oz jig head there and a nice big catch fishing jerk shad. And then I also brought a lighter set up which is a 4K Surtate. We've got 20lb Taz line on that. I forget what leader it has on there at the moment, probably 30lb and that is paired up on an Ocean's Legacy, what is it? A Dreamcast PE2 rod and a much smaller jig head, probably 3 quarters of an ounce, something like that, doesn't actually say it on it. And we'll hopefully pick up a break sea cod or a harlequin fish on that and if not I can catch some herring which are the local bait fish and use them to rig up a bait rig and throw out something on the big set up and catch something bigger with that. Fish on, yep, little fish, that's a little tucker, might be a herring, oh no, it's bait though, we got bait, snook him. There we go, first fish, he's not dinner but I'll turn that into some bait, that is a snook. Fish on, oh, pulled hooks, that was a bit better on the bottom, oh, that grabbed it again, alright, come on, eat it, eat the damn thing, there we go, oh oh, I could be in trouble here, I'm going to have to come over that way, it's not what I wanted to hook on the PE2 set up, I don't know how this is going to end, he's under a ledge, see if he swims out, yeah, he's gone under a ledge, oh, I might have to start casting the bigger set up after this, let's see if he comes out, come on out, I just keep feeding him line, he keeps taking it, I reckon he's gone under something and it's like the direction is now just straight down and he's probably swimming that way, I'm surprised it hasn't popped, I'm just waiting for that line, if I give it slack to maybe flick off by some miracle, I'm just going to try and pull it through, nah, gone, alright, I'm going on the heavy, I'm tying up a bait rig, got a few hits on the heavy set up and I got smoked on the light set up, so there's definitely some fish down there and I'm keen to throw a bait in so I've just got a circle hook there, goes to a three way swivel and then a longer section here down to a snapper lead and then I can just, with these access swivels, I can just unclip the lure, clip the bait rig straight on and if I want to switch, I just switch it, just simple as. Alright, cut some fillets off, two baits and a third bait there, there's plenty more herring in the ocean if we need more bait as well, fish on, not too big, hopefully a breaksie cod, yes, lovely, there we go, nice little breaksie cod, probably one of the best eating things that you can catch on the south coast down here, they do get a bit bigger but that is big enough and I'll pick your jimmy, the lead and put it to the side, even returned my bait, yep fish, there we go, what have we got here, hey, that's more of a breaksie cod, that's a good breaksie off the rocks, mate, dinner is sorted, oh that's a shark I reckon, or a stingray or something massive, it's huge whatever it is, I'll see if I can get a look at whatever it is, far out, there's a lot of pressure in there, it's either a stingray, yeah, big black ray, something came to look at it just then, might have been a shark, got him, there he goes, well I got my leader back, that's always good, must have popped on the knot on the swivel, I'll repline and have another cast I guess, hopefully not hook another one of them, it's hard work, try a couple more baits and then, I don't know, then maybe go get some firewood or something, alright I got the bag full of some firewood ready to go, just going to abseil back down, alright I've just re-rigged the light setup which I got smoked on earlier this morning, I've got a plastic on at the moment, I'll have a cast or two and then I'll probably just put on a metal or something and catch some bait, see if anything else is around, and then yeah, we'll just chill out, get a fire going, cook up some dinner soon, just put some fresh burley in, that is the last lot of burley as well, so when that is done, burley is done, alright I think it's time for some bait collection, just going to take this one off, oh, oh sandbo, sandbo, there's a sandbo there, so we'll just cut that off, I'm just going to tie this on, who knows if he's going to even come back, but we'll give it a go, so I'm going to go back to bait collecting and then lay a bait down, one, one, we have a hezzer, more commonly known as a herring, Tommy Ruff, that's quite a small one that one is, predominant bait fish around here, not too bad to eat, but this guy is just going to be bait because we've got breaksie cod for dinner, that's a better one, alright, sending this one, oh, it just went slack, I reckon that's a sandbo, so my live hezzer just got eaten, and we are on, I'm calling sandbo, oh far out, I don't like him near that burley line, now for the fun part, I got him, so now I just like to back my drag right off, so if he does come off, I don't lose my rod, and I wind in the slack as I go, barely have him, but I have him, decent sized Samson fish right there, actually would be considered a small Samson fish as far as I go, might be about 10 kilos this one, I'm going to Ikijime anyway, bleed, and put it to the side, we'll have a bit of that with dinner, probably a mixture of Samson fish and breaksie cod, alright sweetos, we're going to get this fire going, and then going to get the fish filleted, come on, there we go, alright, I'm just going to knock the fillets off the sandbo, or the Samson fish, and then the breaksie cod, we'll have a bit of this and a bit of breaksie cod for dinner tonight, nice chunk of meat right there, just going to section it up so it actually fits in the bag, alright so fish is all filleted, I'm just going to bag up the bigger breaksie cod in there, we'll take that one home, we've got a chunk of Samson fish there, the rest of it's bagged up, I'm going to skin that and skin the little breaksie cod and throw it in some panko breadcrumbs, just removing those pin bones that line the rib cage, so we're going to chuck the chunks of Samson fish into the panko breadcrumbs, and all the breaksie cod, give that a good shake, and voila, it's not the best crumbing job but it does the job when you're out in the field anyway, alright so we've got a bit of sandbo, chuck that in, bit more sandbo, plenty of Samson fish, bit of breaksie cod, another one, bit of a green salad mix there, I'm going to put kewpie on it right now because I think it's going to blow away if I don't, we've got a bit of tomato, slice that up and chuck that on, and then we'll throw some fish on there, let's just check it, that's the Samson fish, beautiful, more Samson, oh no that's breaksie, more sandbo there, and there's breaksie, and I didn't season it before so we'll do that now, bit of salt and pepper, we even have a bit of avocado this time courtesy of Salty, the cameraman, I'm going to pick that piece out and eat it, I think it was sandbo and it was actually really good, there we go, that is a bit on the crispy side but look at that, beautiful, I'm pretty sure that's sandbo right there, I ate a bit of sandbo straight away and there was nothing wrong with it, I know people stick their nose up at it, but fresh fish, pretty much always good, how good is a good proper meal at the end of a long day like this eh, successful day, delicious fresh fish cooked over the fire, even the Samson fish tastes pretty damn good I reckon, I'm going to put a second batch on for the cameraman actually, Salty needs to be fed, and then I'm going to string up my hammock and settle in for the night, with like the most epic view ever, I'm just going to throw my hammock up now, now I've got an underquilt that I'll clip to the underside of it, which is essentially your mattress, keeps you warm, there we go, and the mozzie net all set up, bit of luxury, it's like surprise I ate all the breaksy cod, you only have sandbo yeah you're like oh the sandbo is really good if it's all breaksy, got a stitch up, alright this is me set, ready to hide from the mozzies that are non-existent which is very good, alright good morning, it is a beautiful morning and we do not have mozzies, so I can do this without fearing for my life which is very nice, sometimes the mozzies are shocking in these caves and you just, I was like sleeping paranoid all night trying to stuff my shirt and extra stuff behind my shoulder and so I don't wake up getting absolutely mauled through the hammock where I don't have the underquilt in place because it shuffles and moves out of the way but yeah, no mozzies, beautiful morning, salty didn't get washed away in the night which is always good, I didn't walk off the edge, didn't walk off the edge either, there's not a place to be a sleepwalker, that's why you keep your harness on anyway, probably have a cast or two but not much and then we need to pack up and get going, we both have places to be later this afternoon, scrape, scrape, scrape, yeah all the way out, bloody roof, fish, woah, woah, did not expect that, don't smoke me again, oh dear me, I could be in trouble here, I thought it was just going to be a break sea cod and then what the heck is this, I'd love to see what it is at least, I don't know how I'm going to go landing it, we'll get that cliff gaff, could be a clean snapper, is this a normal snapper, it's a pinky, a pinky here, this is a first snapper here, there we go on very light line, yeah, sorry, yeah we'll try, can you do an overhand knot in the end of that there, yeah and I'm just going to clip it onto this, with as much length, yeah, alright, this is not ideal, have I got him, I think I have him, I've got him, I'm stoked on that, I did not expect that this morning, that's a nice surprise, oh, wow, stoked on that, beautiful pink snapper this morning, on the lure light set up, 20lb Taz line, catch fishing soft plastic, barely gave me a run around, Sophie's on his way out and I'm going to cast a little bit more, I'm going to meet him up there shortly, anyway, we'll get casting again, alright one more cast and then I'm going to start packing up and filleting my fish, that'll do, I've got heaps of fish to take with me, alright I am all set, I have got my bag there that I'm going to drag up after, got my rods in my hand, I'm going to clip them to my harness somewhere and that way they don't like get broken on the way up essentially, they're with me, I can control it, alright mission accomplished, we're at the top of the cliff, just finishing putting ropes away and stuff like that, yeah, very good mission, caught a couple of quality fish, ate well, slept pretty well and views for days, anyway, I'm going to wrap it up at that, we've just got to hike back to the car now, thank you to Salty for coming along and filming and he's working on a little project himself that will be a little while off yet, but I'll let you know about it when it comes out, anyway, cheers for that man, and thank you for watching, see you on the next one.