Rebekah David, her three-year-old daughter Annalyse and mother Tracey were down at the Mummaga Lake entrance at Dalmeny on Wednesday having a swim when they noticed a big fish in the shallows.

“We saw it come past and saw its mouth was still moving so we knew it was alive,” Rebekah said. “We gave it a couple of pokes, it moved and we freaked out and then it started swimming up into the lake.”

The family then gave chase as it swam under the bridge and further into the lake. At one point it ended up in the reeds at the side of the lake.

Eventually, the three of them were able to use the plastic bag they use for their beach towels to capture the big salmon and Rebekah gave a big thumbs up, she was that excited.

“I had the fish in the bag and I held it up in the air and felt like Bear Grylls,” she said.

The family thought it was kingfish at first, because even though a passing fishermen told them it was a salmon, its white flesh didn’t seem right for what they knew at Atlantic salmon they were more familiar with.

The salmon measured around 75cm and had an old hook in its mouth, which may have been why it was struggling up in the shallows. But despite its injuries, it seemed in really good condition.

Rebekah, Annalyse and Tracey brought the trophy home, filleted it and had it for dinner. And despite the common perception that the local beach salmon are no good to eat, they said it was delicious with really sweet flesh.

Rebekah even kept the head in her freezer as a trophy from the big day, but they are not sure whether they are now going to take up fishing with a rod or maybe just keep hand fishing and looking for that elusive kingfish in the shallows.

Keen fisherman may have seen the show ‘Hillbilly Handfishin’’ on television, well this was no American freshwater catfish but a much faster Australian salmon!

This is not the first sickly or injured fish to swim into the shallows of Mummaga Lake as the Narooma News reported on a mako shark trailing fishing line that swam under the bridge at the lake entrance back in 2014. Click here for the mako story