Spearfishing Photos

[Shadowkiller]

The Mulloway (or Jewfish) we get from Victoria up to Queensland is called Argyrosomus japonicus.

Hololepidotus is endemic to Madagascar.

WSB, Mulloway, Black Jew, Meagre etc all belong to the Sciaenidae family and are distributed throughout the worlds oceans.

I've seen pics of them from the UK, Spain, Italy, USA, Mexico, Australia, South Africa and Madagascar.

Obviously their niche evolution has differed. In Oz the Mulloway is a cave and dirty water feeder, in the states they seem to prefer the kelp beds.

Meh, japonicus or regius (Mediterranean) all good to eat!!

Did I mention I'm going back to Uni to do Marine Science...

 

[ivan]

hi

Shadow Ill do Marine science with ya

cheers

 

[fuzz]

Photo of deftofthecrown

Photo of deftofthecrown:

1st striper & a tautog...

 

[poacher]

Gday again guys
Shadow those scientific names I posted for the jewie- Mulloway came from Steve Starlings Australian Fishing Book which is a few years old now , has the name changed or did he just get it wrong ?
I know every now and then scientists discover that Hey that aus fish is actually the same as the one in Japan or whatever, and then have to give it the same name because it is only a very slight variation of the same species and not different enough to qualify as a seperate species. Thats a nice couple of fish that deftofthecrown has there as well.
The striped Bass look interesting they live in fresh and salt water ,migrating to spawn similar to salmon is that right?
the Tautag looks a lot like a Brown groper that we get here in Aus , we can catch 2 per day by line but No spearing allowed -in my state anyway. good eating though.
See ya guys
Peter:naughty

 

[ivan]

hi

Now there is another reson why queensland is the best state. QEUEENSLANDER !!!.

 

[poacher]

didnt you read the post about state of origin in Spearfishing.com.au Ivan, calling All Queenslanders.
Even if I hate footy I dont mind giving QLD some stick.
Although I lived there a couple of times once near Warwick and once at the ISA and I loved it but Lake Moondarra at ISA was crap for diving I did a couple of freedives there to help net some fish for the GUYS STOCKING THE DAM AND TO retrieve an anchor and a few lures and a rod and reel.
Regards Peter

 

[ivan]

hi

Yeah Peter I released my frustration after the game with a couple of posts on that thread but man seriously we are a better team . We Queenslanders take footy WAY to seriously up here though. All I can say is game 2 mate game 2.

cheers

 

[Shadowkiller]

Originally posted by poacher
Shadow those scientific names I posted for the jewie- Mulloway came from Steve Starlings Australian Fishing Book which is a few years old now , has the name changed or did he just get it wrong ?

Not sure where Starling gets his info but both the Australian Museum and Fishbase list japonicus as the aussie version of the common meagre.

The Australian Fish Guide (AFN) also lists it as hololepidotus too.. Looks like the line fishos got confused..

Then again the "Sea Fishes of Southern Australia" by Hutchins and Swainston has the holole species name..

Can't go wrong with the Aussie Museum. They are the final arbitrators..
http://www.amonline.net.au/fishes/fishfacts/fish/ajaponicus.htm

 

[defofthecrown]

Poacher, your right on w/ the striped bass. The striped bass, Morone saxatilis, is native to the East Coast of the US and ranges between Nova Scotia to Florida and has been recorded in the upper portions of the Gulf of Mexico as well (as well as succseful introduction to the US west coast in the early 1800's and numerous bodies of fresh water). They are an anadramous species mostly living in sea water ~32ppm salinty but return to fresh/ brakish water annually to reproduce. The reason why they return to fresh water to reproduce is b/c their eggs are dependant on a very narrow range of salinty to stay suspended/plantonic. They are osmoconformers which allows for their tolerance to a large discrepency in salinies.

The three main 'nurseries' here are the Hudson river in New York, Oregon Inlet in North Carolina, and The Chesapeake Bay in Maryland/ Virgnia.

Chesapeake stripers bascially stay in the bay for their first three years (male) to five years (female). After that period they migrate north towards Long Island and Canada in the summer and return to the Bay in Early Spring to reproduce.

 

[Wishbone]

Just for comparison,

Here's a nice example of the European equivlent of the sea bass -Dicentrarchus labrax (Morone labrax). One of the best game species for the whole western coast of Europe, the Med, Black Sea, and NW coasts of Africa.

For any fish reference Ithink the best source is
Fishbase.org .

Cheers,

Ivan

 

[Murat]

Nice fish wishbone, How big was it?

 

[Wishbone]

Thanks but unfortunately the guy on the picture is not me, but my friend Ilian!

The "Levrek", as I think you Turks call this species, was ~6-7 kilos.

I've managed to get a bigger one only once. The common size here is between 1.5 and 4 kilos...

Ivan

 

[Murat]

Yes you are right we call them levrek but anyway its a kind of see bass. Is this specie hard to aproach there? Previous sesion i found one and stalked it very closely but my reel got stuck so i miss the fish. It was well over 2-2.5 kg:waterwork . But this time they can run but can not hide

 

[Murat]

By the way 6-7 kg is huge, if you guys want to convert it US standart to know how rare to see that big just multiply it by 10.

 

[Wishbone]

Ummm,

Well it's a very cautious fish. The only applicable technique is the ambush/stalking. But unfortunately the levrek is a territorial fish. Once you learn where its "home" is, you just have to dive the same spot and it will follow the route for sure. The other way is to find the real home, or the cave where you'll see sometimes 5-10 fish standing one above the other like a wall.. Very strange! If you manage to find such cave, you may easily wipe the whole population of seabass in an aquatory of 3-4 km. So get the big fish an leave the "garden" alone for the season.
However, the Black Sea bass is the same species as the one in the Med, but the Med sea bass tastes MUCH better. This is something I don't really have an explaination for...

The best season for seabass here is the spring (April-may).

Here's another one of my teammate Vladimir Stankov:

 

[ivan]

hi

Check out the size of his loading pad on the wettie :duh

cheers

 

[Murat]

Yeah these sea-basses taste pretty good but its not hold for mullet.They have grey flesh Aren't they similar species?

 

[ivan]

hi

Ivan did your mate shoot those fish in the Med, if not where abouts ??

cheers

 

[Dogmatrix]

Ivan.... just on the jew subject we do get them up this way... I have caught 3 all up... caught them all in the one system however (estury)... (weird) and I havent seen anyone else catch any. You also get them in weipa... so I would guess they are up in cairns.. just rare.


Rob

 

[Wishbone]

Hi guys,

Ivan, both photos are from the Black Sea, which is quite different than the Med, even though almost all species from the BS can be found in the Med too, but the MD has also Atlantic species that cannot survive the lower salinity of the Black Sea.

The loaded stringer - the little island in the upper left corner is called the Snake island so it's the cove of Arcutino. The size of the loading pad - he added it to the suit himself.

Murat, the BS seabass and the Med seabass are the same species, yes Dicentrarchus Labrax, but the taste is different. Maybe its the salinity of the water once again or the food. You cannot compare the taste of the mullets (filtering the mud) and the sea bass (pure predator). Check the price in the restaurant and judge for yourself.