Fish Stories

[fishwife]

Originally Posted by troymclure

Will post after dinner if i do manage to catch any

If you are anywhere near a pile, or the shore, look for the small shrimp like creatures, I know them as 'sea lice' but you could have a different name. turn over some rocks. Those fish in the vid look like a mullet species and they just love those small sea insects/arthropds. Or dig for clams at or just abovethe low water mark.

P.

[troymclure]

Howdy all, well good news!

Caught two fish, thanks fishwife! Using lightest line i've got, a handreel small hook and the tuna + flour and it's working great... only problem is.

YouTube - Video 21

What are these fish and can I eat them? I think they are silver/white trevally and there is no size limit for them in Queensland but i don't want to kill them unless they're a catch fish. Feeling bad enough about killing them for tea anyways.

Though the fact that they're currently makinga racket and alot of splash eating the baitfish around kinda makes it ok.

Again much thanks all

Er hopefully these are edible.

[hummingway]

Something died so you could eat today.

You're not doing them any favours keeping them in a plastic bowl. Smack them on the top of the head with something hard so they die quickly and humanely and then honour them by enjoying eating them.

[Vasco]

We try not to waste anything on the fish we catch. Our favourite is Mahi Mahi and the smaller ones are easier to manage, both landing them and using everything. We make a chowder or stew from the carcass. It's a shame to discard it as it usually has a lot of meat still on it. The secret is to bring the water to boil very, very slowly, take the meat off, lots of vegetables including hot peppers in the stock and then a couple of tots of rum and put the meat back in just before serving. Excellent!

[Curmudgeon]

There are lots of ways to make fish stew. The basic way is in my post above. You can also make it Portuguese style with chorizo and black pepper, Italian style ("cioppino") in a spicy tomato-based sauce with red wine, garlic, basil and plenty of crushed red pepper, or french style ("boulliabase") with saffron, bay leaf and white wine. You need at least one can of tomatoes (crushed peeled or stewed) for all of these recipes.

I will definitely try some rum next time, or maybe tequila or even some grand marnier if I have some.

But I stay away from Mahi Mahi, which has more bad cholesterol than marbled beef. Almost any other fish is healthier to eat.

[fishwife]

Well done with the catch and using a method new to you, to such good effect White trevally is certainly edible and a quick search for recipes showed up lots of them.

click here: Google

P.

[troymclure]

Well, update: And sorry hummingway but I decided to let them go. Well ok one of them jumped out of the bucket but just as i went to kill the other one I decided to do a last species check, they could have been white trevally (which is apparently listed on the No take from aus seafood sustainibiity guides due to overfishing) or they could have been juvenile kingfish trevally or another species whose name i cna't remember.

Figured on account of that too let the last one go. Apparently i'm a wuss about killing things.

However, i'll be crossing the wide bay bar tommorrow and have read that my next anchorage (gary's) has good whiting, flathead and sand crab fishing. All of those species are easily identifiable and are listed as good choice in sustainibility guides so I'll hopefully be using the new techniques and practise i got yesterday to catch a fish dinner.

Thanks again all.


ps:- In the spirit of sharing recipes I'll just point out something which is unfortuatnely kinda specific to those cruising in queensland or planning to cruise in queensland but there are vast numbers of Razor clams at moreton bay. They dont seem to be the same razor clams which people get in the northern hemisphere but they are confirmed edible (had them a few times myself while in moreton bay). There are are probably hundreds of them at the sandhills anchorage (near the little hill) and thousands of them at the blue hole anchorage. The taste is kinda a scallop/prawn combination.

Cook as you would a normal scallop, ie pan fry them with butter and a bit of garlic, serve with carbohydrate of choice (ie i used polenta).

[hummingway]

Originally Posted by troymclure

Figured on account of that too let the last one go. Apparently i'm a wuss about killing things.

I understand. In someways understanding that when you do the killing yourself, instead of having someone else do it, you can be sure it is done humanely. You can do as you're doing and be careful of species selection. If you are going to release a fish you should do it as quickly as possible with as little handling as possible. Consider using a glove on the hand that removes them from the hook and using barbless hooks. Just a thought - it may mean they survive the experience. Some fish are more sensitive then others.

[troymclure]

Aye good points, probalby a better death if i do it right then what they'll face getting picked up in a net or eaten by some other fish and I will definatly try to get some barbless hooks.

I've got a pair of gloves I use to handle the fish but the hooks sounds like a good idea in case i get the wrong species.

Cheers

[fishwife]

If you can't find barbless hooks, use a pair of fine nosed pliers to flatten the barb (often it will break off). The pliers can also be useful when you need to remove the hook from something that has serious teeth.

The razor clams sound good, I know of a place not far from where we are anchored that has good razor clams, I think I've found my mission for today

P.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by fishwife

If you can't find barbless hooks, use a pair of fine nosed pliers to flatten the barb (often it will break off). The pliers can also be useful when you need to remove the hook from something that has serious teeth.

The razor clams sound good, I know of a place not far from where we are anchored that has good razor clams, I think I've found my mission for today

P.

Also consider circle hooks:
Mustad Ultra Point Demon Circle Hook

Though these are certainly barbed, they reduce gut-hooked fish, making release easier. They also are better for lines that may be left unattended, since the fish tends to stay hooked. These are common on trot lines and long-liners for these reasons.

[troymclure]

Awesome, thanks agian all some wonderful advice for the fishingly challenged in here .

Will try the pliers trick with current hooks and actually i think i have a few of the circle hooks aboard.

ps:- I'm not the only one who noticed the fish swimming under my boat. Had a pod of dolphins spend nearly an hour chasing fish around the boat tonight. Stars were out, and made for a nice evening .

[fishwife]

I've got the clams enough for the three of us to have a main meal. Is it mandatory to have carbs?
I think we'll just have the clams and a bottle of wine.

[troymclure]

Wine is a suitable replacement for all food groups

[hummingway]

Yesterday I was looking at fabulous bed of oysters. The fact that it existed in a visible location made me think that the area probably was under what the dept of fisheries calls a "sanitary closure". Here in Canada they do a great job of keeping an eye on PSP (paralytic shellfish poisoning) as well as sanitary conditions.

How do you assure the saftey of the shellfish in your area? Have you ever harvested areas where there is no information? How did you or would you deal with it there?

Sanitary is usually fairly easy to guess at but PSP not so. Sanitary I assure by not harvesting where there is a chance of outfall.

Here on the coast of BC, if I didn't have info provided by the DFO, things I might go by are: oysters flush PSP through very fast - about two months - and red tides (the source) tend to occur during summer. If I know there hasn't been one or it is mid winter I will feel safe with them. At the other end of the spectrum is the Butter Clam which holds it for two years. Most of the danger of psp is in the organs and large clams can be cleaned so I would either clean them or avoid them. I believe this was part of the strategy employed in the years before PSP testing on the coast.

As an aside, I clean crabs before cooking. This does two things. One, it means I kill them quickly and don't boil them alive, and two it gets rid of the hepopancreatic tissue (not sure I got that right but it's the organs) where toxins can live. A modern scourge, dioxins, can gather in that tissue where as the muscle tissue is safe.