mitchie18092 Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 (edited) Day off work yesterday so managed a pretty decent session! Didn't have a car available all morning so walked down to Double Bay wharf to flick some plastics around. Another old Italian guy down there who wasn't catching much and other than a few tiny hits that i'm assuming were little pinkies i didn't have too much luck either. I did however catch what i think is probably a raider record pufferfish? This thing was literally the size of a basketball, very funny experience. After i put him back he slowly deflated himself letting out these strange sounds, much to the amusement of two American tourists waiting for the ferry. Have a video of it but not sure how to upload? Anyway was able to take the car later in the afternoon so headed down to my spot near the Nielsen Park jump for the best part of the run out. Was armed with some bread for burley and king prawns. Started off a little slow, caught about 1203129489u14901240x sweep but no yellowtail which was annoying as i took my livie rod with me too. Finally the burley started to do its magic and i caught trev after trev ranging from about 20-35cm. All released to fight another day. Caught a few jackets too, including one beautiful (if you can call it that) fan belly? Also caught another pretty little fish which i'm not sure of the name of, perhaps someone can help me out on that? Eventually ran out of bait and it was such a nice afternoon i thought i'd stick around for an extra half hour throwing some plastics around. Got a few hits, and then on about my 10th cast felt some weight, struck, and i was on! Certainly feel like i'm getting used to them. After a short battle ensued up comes this cracking flattie - estimate around 50-55cm, hard to tell with it still in the water. Unfortunately due to the earlier trevs running me under the oyster lease and chaffing my leader, and no net, i lost him trying to carry him up onto the platform. Only 6lb leader so was bound to happen i guess. Still nice to know that plastics actually work! A few pictures. Edited October 31, 2014 by mitchie18092 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Good report mate. And good to see you have some luck with SP's. The photo of the puffer looks like he's laughing at you! Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no one Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 You caught a soccer ball? Bro... I bet that was a dead weight to reel in! What a fish! I'm not really sure on how to measure it to see if it's the Longest but certainly submit it and we'll discuss. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sydneyfisher12 Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Great work nice catch bad luck on the flatty though The record for the puffer fish on bait is 54cm did you measure it? Cheers sydneyfisher12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchie18092 Posted October 31, 2014 Author Share Posted October 31, 2014 (edited) You caught a soccer ball? Bro... I bet that was a dead weight to reel in! What a fish! I'm not really sure on how to measure it to see if it's the Longest but certainly submit it and we'll discuss. Haha, Thought i hit a snag, only 3lb line so i was trying to gently ease it out and all of a sudden line just started slowly peeling off, tired out pretty quickly and came in shortly after though he did take one more little dive under the jetty to no avail. P.S. And Sydneyfisher12 - he was taken on a 100mm bloodworm wriggler believe it or not - so would fall under the lure category! didn't measure him as i didnt have a ruler on me and didnt really bother as i was putting him back, but you can certainly judge somewhat in comparison in to the Italian mans shoe - not lying when i said he was the size of a basketball! was massive! and i must say - i didnt realise how firm they are when they blow themselves up, really really solid. ha edit: no one know what that last fish is? had some size to him as well! Edited October 31, 2014 by mitchie18092 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no one Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Female Blue Groper is my guess? I cant really see the eye properly but looks similar to google images Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adamski Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 (edited) Great job man, especially on the getting some fish on SPs! It's amazing the crazy stuff you can get off that wharf at Double Bay. What plastics/jighead/retrieve did you use? Colouring under the eye in the last fish makes me think some kind of weird hybrid gunther's wrasse? Edited October 31, 2014 by adamski Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mitchie18092 Posted October 31, 2014 Author Share Posted October 31, 2014 think tef1on is right actually! nice guess. Female Blue Groper. It's odd Adam, always thought it was a fairly lifeless little bit of the harbour, though when i was a lot younger i would go down and fish waiting for my mum to get home on the ferry during winter and their would be about 1000 pike swarming underneath the lights every night. would eat anything you threw at them. Would have it's days though im sure. Puffer fish as i mentioned was a 100mm wriggler - thought it was bloodworm but it's not i just checked, more of an orangey colour. will have a look when im home, and the flatty was taken on 2.5" zman grub. bloodworm i think. getting my colours all mixed up :S both using TT 1/8 jighead with a double hop, 5-10 second pause and repeat. 6lb leader too. Im heading up to scotland island this weekend so hopefully will have a bit more to report on! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 31, 2014 Share Posted October 31, 2014 Brown Groper. Blue groper are a really blue colour, brown groper can have some light blue colour on them. Mitchie, after you catch a few fish, especially trevally and bream that like to swim under rocks or around pilons, or toothy critters like flatties or tailor, check the line near the hook. If it looks a bit suspect/chaffed/frayed, re-tie the hook to reduce the line breaking. Fan tail, or fan bellied jackets are good eating. The puffer looks like it belongs in a Star Wars movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBCB Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Don't know if it was a female groper but certainly a juvenile one. It is really hard to tell the sex as younger males look exactly the same as females, only dominants are wearing the "warrior blue" jacket, by the look of bluish strips on his snout I would say it could be a young boy. Some say only one big boy wears the electric blue and fights the other cocky younger trying to be blue, that is loads of shit too I've witness 3 big 10+ hanging next to each other ice blue colour and haven't seen such thing as a fight, seen 4 kg fish all blue hanging around big 12+ a few times too . Lots of rubbish is talked by people about gropers, don't listen, take your goggles and go for a snorkel, you'll have a good idea of what's going on! As per pufferfish / boxfish and all the shitters composing the family, there are tons of different species and subspecies, it is unlikely to be a record at all, but certainly a cool creature of Poseidon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no one Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Google image a "female blue groper" the fish in the image is the fish that comes up. You can tell by the eyes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VBCB Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Thanks for pushing me to do a bit of research Tef1on, there is a good little link http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/375880/Eastern-Blue-Groper.pdf It says that gropers are hermaphrodites and youngsters are females who turn to male when they reach 50 or so cm! Interesting stuff.?? That means that baby groper on the pic was a girl indeed, as any baby groper! FYI google image is not a reference, it is even worse than Wikipedia, just a good starting point, be careful about what people post, never take for granted! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest no one Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Agree about google image, however I did follow the links through [emoji2]. Amazing about their growth habits... Really love learning more about all sea life! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andysinmexico Posted November 4, 2014 Share Posted November 4, 2014 Yep he's on the money, this is a female eastern blue groper which is in the process of changing sex to be a male, groper and most other members of the wrasse family do this which is the opposite opposite of most other fish ie flatties which start off male or female and then all end up female after a certain size. Groper have a different tactic being that in an ideal situation you have one large male (blue) who will have a "hareem" of females (red/brown) to breed with, if the big fella dies/gets eaten then the dominant female will change sex and take charge of the clan. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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