Fishing tips

Don’t know seaslug , was hoping someone could explain if it was a disease or something .

A really good bait for trigger fish is any exposed digits on the human body.

I had one try to take off the middle toe of my right foot as I paddled across a lagoon in Indo a few days ago. Felt this CLAMP! sensation and assumed it was a little reef shark had a go at me. Rolled off my board, opened my eyes and saw a trigger fish coming back for another hit. Threw an underwater punch at it and it fell back. Got on my board and paddled with my feet in the air and my fingers bunched. Little bastard left a nice cut past the first joint on the toe.

Talked to a local fisho about it and he reckons there’s a few trigger fish live on the main reef in the lagoon and are known to take chunks out of surfers who transgress into their territory.

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water!

Supafreak wrote:

Check the eyes on this dogtooth speared off nusa penida , the caption on facebook said blind dogtooth.

Easiest spear ever!

I like the way they advertise to come fight the down currents. Reading up on them it’s apparently best to just go with it and swim sideways and it will eventually back off , this is when free diving though, when using oxygen it would be different experience.

Thanks gg1412.
Will have a crack at frying the next ones.

Pulled in a monster stingray last night. Big fight. Thing was huge, probably 60cm across with a big noggin and beady eyes that were giving me lots of stink as I tried to get the hook out. Ended up cutting the line as it was swishing that tail around a lot. Didn’t know if it had a barb or not but I wasn’t game to find out.
Eventually got him back into the waves and he swam off.

Pulled in a few smaller ones too. Anyone eating them?

Also, having zero luck with lures. Just running worms and pilchards and getting a few.

You're lucky to still have that toe SJL, I've seen those things bite through some serious hooks. They are basically swimming bolt cutters.

SF, re the eye thing,
looks like exophthalmia (popeye disease, a result of fluid build-up in the eye socket) to me. Fairly common in aquariums, ponds and aquaculture due to poor water quality, overcrowding etc, not so much in the wild, but does occur. If it's just the one eye then it's probably an injury from bumping into rock/reef, or from one it's prey, or something that has attempted to prey on it.

@tubeshooter , thanks for the explanation, looks nasty, if I caught one on line I would’ve be questioning if it was ok to eat .

Sane with those oceanic toadfish- gnarly bolt cutter teeth.

ETarip, don't want to burst your bubble but 60cm is not a bit stingray mate- try 2m across, or bigger for cowtails.

Haha, fair enough FR. I just looked at the photos again next to my grom and I undersold it.
It’s probably closer to a metre across. I’ll try and post the photo. Still not in the range you’re talking. I’ve seen some massive ones round the boat ramps here.

To answer your question, I have eaten them.
Pain in the arse to skin the flaps but it is doable.
You'd have to be pretty keen to go through the process.

Shovelnose sharks (rays) are much better eating.

Generally speaking I release all sharks and rays these days- too much hassle.

Thanks. Will keep chucking them back.

A young local with his pole and line didn’t take long to hook half a dozen fish . The reef seems pretty healthy here and we have been trolling and getting mainly school mackerel. All fish so far are hitting a pink skirt and there are some big GTs about but unfortunately one of the guys didn’t land it . Plenty of lobster about and we had a big feed of them last night . Swells dropped so hopefully going for a troll tomorrow as high tide first thing.

The Brazilian crew just got back from spear fishing.

Supafreak wrote:

The Brazilian crew just got back from spear fishing.

Supafreak. Good stuff.

Hunters, gatherers and surfers.

That’s life right in front of you. Enjoy. AW

Shot the big wrasse? How’s that going to taste? Pretty shit eating aren’t they?

goofyfoot wrote:

Shot the big wrasse? How’s that going to taste? Pretty shit eating aren’t they?

Parrot fish I think , taste pretty good

&SJY , some news you might like ,

View this post on Instagram

Got the fucker!

Classic

That’s exactly how it bit me. They must turn side on to strike at the surface because the teeth are rotated upwards / downwards in their mouth but the bites are off axis 90 degrees.

Angry, angry fish.

Cheers Supa.

Supafreak wrote:

goofyfoot wrote:

Shot the big wrasse? How’s that going to taste? Pretty shit eating aren’t they?

Parrot fish I think , taste pretty good

@goofyfooter , I DuckDuckGo parrot fish and there are many varied opinions , specifically on should we eat them . I’ve only ever eaten them on Lembongan and know that the reefs in that area don’t have what fish eat to get the toxin ciguatera . However the mentawai reefs do have it so I will caution the lads about eating it as another friend has had a bad experience with it and when he realised he told the Indonesian crew to get rid of the fish and of course they ate it and became extremely sick . https://www.chefsresource.com/are-parrot-fish-good-eating/ There’s a lot of information on internet.

I've never tried one supa, but when mates have caught them they've always said they taste pretty average.
I'm sure cooked the right way with plenty of Sambal and Kecap Manis and after a few binnies they'd be unreal!
I think Parrot fish are a sub-species of wrasse, could be wrong on that though.
Having a good trip? How's the forecast looking?

Forecast is small next few days then a good swell on 29th and pumping on 5th may , it’s actually nice to have some days off as my muscles are aching. Everyone here has some type of injury hahaha , the old boys 72 & 76 are fine , fark me , everything changes quickly once over 60 .

It’s inspiring stuff supa.
That Larry guy who spends months each year at G-land and is mid 70’s and still catches bombs at Speedies blows me away.
Massive inspiration