Fishing tips

Today had flathead written all over it.
took me a couple of goes to find the spot but eventually found a few really nice fish.
Kept 2 for the table.

Last spot hooked something with a bit more grunt and was surprised to see this red dog show up.
Could have kept it but they are considered a catch and release fish around here so let it go.

action shots .......good work

Whats the bottom fish?

Fantastic FR76 brought back memories, my dearly departed mum loved flatties

Mangrove Jack Indo, same fish as the one Ben's boy caught.

Normally caught fishing at night in summer, and very coveted sports fish.

They are a species of Lutjanid, which contains many tropical reef species.

Made fish tacos for dinner last night with flatty fillets. So good!

I just had to settle with a spanish mackerel fillet for tonights dinner

I had Japanese specialty for lunch- mixed fry.

Basically several seafoods crumbed and deep-fried. Today was Aji (Horse Mackerel), large prawn, large oyster and large scallop with the roe on, plus slice of capsicum and slice of pumpkin. Swerved the pumpkin, farking worst veg in the world after parsnip. Served with rice, miso, salad , little tuna side dish and pickles.

Change from a tenner. Lovely.

Btw- coupla smoking Jacks above. Well done chaps on the catch and release.

Sounds good Zen. I guess you would have enjoyed the cup of pumpkin soup I had for lunch then hehe

I love soup Sea, as long as there are no traces of pumpkin.

Aji ? Never eaten a yakka myself but I've heard good things if done properly. I did a couple of charters several years ago with all Japanese punters. They wanted nothing to do with chasing anything else and all came equipped with their own specialist gear.
I'll never forget how stoked they were with every fish landed , and also how seriously they seemed to take it .

I have a few times served with freshly grated ginger if I remember correctly, yummy

As you could probably predict, the Japanese take their fish pretty seriously.

I can watch this guy for hours- great knife skills and really knows his seafood. Also, a little insight into how the Jappies like to eat. Not much goes to waste.

https://youtube.com/c/%E3%81%8B%E3%81%AD%E3%81%93

Thanks Zen, I'll look at it in the morning

Is a horse mackerel slightly different to a yakka?

I thought they were.

Gosh, I'm not sure- all I know is they're called Aji here and the english translation is horse mackerel. Or maybe I'm getting it confused with 'Saba' which is another little mackerel type fish and is a bit oilier with darker flesh but still delicious.

I will check.

edit: quick check- Aji comes us as Horse Mackerel and Saba simply as Mackerel, so I'm guessing a Yakka is pretty close to an Aji.

Or, I could be entirely wrong. Sorry I couldn't clear that up. Maybe Arcadia knows?

freeride76 wrote:

Mangrove Jack Indo, same fish as the one Ben's boy caught.

Normally caught fishing at night in summer, and very coveted sports fish.

They are a species of Lutjanid, which contains many tropical reef species.

Argh off course just didn't even cross my mind.

Bens in Sydney area yeah...fark i thought there range didnt go that far south i though where you are was pushing it.

I think Ben is around the Tweed area Indo.

Oh okay

Some nice Jacks there fellas.

Have had some comical experiences with Japanese on charters. They are so much fun and their passion for fishing and seafood is amazing. One of my favourites is when they land a nice 8-10kg spanish or sharky mackeral and then turn around to see the deckie rigging it up as a skip bait. The look on their face is priceless.

I didn't know, but Yakka (yellowtail horse mackerel) came up as mateaji.

bit of research here shows the horse mackerel to be a very close relative to the yakka.

almost identical but grows a bit bigger and only found in the northern hemisphere.

Anyhow, anyone tried eating common herring, the type caught on bait jigs in estuaries?

I tried but they were very boney and fiddly.

Yakka are prone to the parasite Cymothoa exigua which first eats and then replaces the tongue of the host fish. The parasite does not otherwise harm the fish and has no effect on humans. The parasite should however be removed before consumption.

serious?
thats crazy.

perfect tides this arvo for a flathead fish.

Sunday research project courtesy of Dr Google.

Horse mackeral are basically a cowanyoung, or those slimey mac/yakka looking hybrids, "slakkas".

Never eaten those little herring either but I knew a Vietnamese guy who used to mince them up , pretty much whole , and made some sort of fish cakes out of them.
I have eaten fresh pillies and slimy mackeral before though . By fresh pillies though I mean caught that day and ice slurried on the beach immediately .
But my favourite baitfish would have to be the humble whitebait ,or 'shirasu' in Nihongo I believe. Small ones ,,just rolled in flour and deep fried , awesome ..A couple of other good recipes I tried with them were all Japanese recipes . I have to get over there one day.

they're not the whitebait we have here which are sold for bait though are they?

huge bait schools of froggies out here at the moment.

they are anchovies of some kind I think.

probably taste alright on a pizza.

My wife does Shirasu dry fried in a pan with finely chopped fresh green chili and Miso. Makes for a killer rice topping and also good for a filling for onigiri.

Edit: Fiee, Shirasu are really tiny, very white with tiny black eyes. Quite sweet in flavour.

same ones they get in NZ?

My wife cooks up those tiny little dried fish too, they look like white bait but not sure if they are, they aren't bad with a bit of rice and sambal.

She also cooks up dried small fish that look like pilchards, not into those though.

I think the NZ ones are bigger and they do them over there as fritters.

I'm just gonna head down the supermarket now so if I remember we might buy some or I'll grab a photo.

Yeah same ones .The whitebait I consumed were all caught while I was beach hauling on the east coast , and yes most of them went to Tweed Bait. Smaller amounts were sold to other consumers for human consumption though, same with the pillies. Usually the first lot to be hauled go to human consumption because it spends less time getting rolled in the net and losing scales etc, not to mention getting 'tenderised' in the shorey for a while.
I think shirasu is a really small grade of whitebait tho , but I'm pretty sure it's all the same still.

This is Shirasu.

I often walk the beach after the beach haulers have been netting whitebait with bags collecting what is left on the beach for bait.
might try eating some.

Wow that is small. Google tells me they are the larvae of about 3 Japanese Anchovy species which are similar to pillies.. You learn something everyday. Thx zenagain.
These ones here are more like the ones I cooked up...

Nah the nz ones are smaller and pretty much transparent I think.

Delicious if done properly

cheers eat-your-vegies ..I didn't realise there were so many versions of whitebait around the world.
Here's what I learnt today about NZ whitebait as well....
They are the fry of a fish in the 'galaxiid' species which is generally caught {the fry} in rivers ,, after hatching in the estuaries they are swept out to sea for a few months,. As adults they live in fresh water. Nothing like an anchovy or sardine.
So yeah , again, a totally different thing.

freeride76 wrote:

I often walk the beach after the beach haulers have been netting whitebait with bags collecting what is left on the beach for bait.
might try eating some.

FR ate white bait (fried some how) at one of the Freo festivals was really crunchy but quite good (heads and all).

Italian version of fish and chips is very lightly battered anchovies and small occys etc.......white bait would work as with any small fish i would imagine........so good.....

Yuuum!

Yummy to all of the above

couple more nice flatties today.
This has been the magic placcy for me this season.
4 inch oil flash UV with a 3/8oz 2/0 jighead.
I like fishing hard tidal flow next to rockwalls and this gets down quick.

I'll downsize to the 2.5inch version once all the big breeding females show up.

Bait junkie Steve? They're very good quality. Current is key for me with flatties, no run no fun. I've been loving the savage gear 3" paddle tails. BCF usually have good package deals on them. There's a purplely Gold fleck one that is dynamite.

yeah Bait Junkie.
I actually caught all my fish this season on a single plastic, that I only lost to a snag right at the end.

it was beat up but still catching fish.

I like that little "wrist" in the tail, gives it heaps of action.

actually caught a really solid blackfish (luderick) on one today too.
released, I don't eat weed eating fish.

Yeah that wrist, and very flat paddle tail give them heaps of action and body roll, even at slow speeds.

zenagain wrote:

This is Shirasu.

Wow those are tiny.

These are the ones my wife cooks.

We have those too Indo. People use them in stock or other dishes and sometimes just as a beer snack.

Are they Ikan Teri or Ikan Bilis ID?