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No Kings but still got man handled!


Ribs

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Myself and regular fishing buddy Greg (Marlin II) hit the water yesterday from Grays Pt before first light to try and nail our usual targets... squid, kings and Flatties ! First stop just out in the drop off from the fisheries to grab some green eyes for bait.....we flicked jigs around for a whole 10 mins before we both decided bugger the live squid (we had plenty of freshly snap frozen squid) lets get out there.....so we cruised out of the hacking and into some pretty decent rollers which was knocking Gregs 2100 Tournament around a bit.....visibility was about 50 metres and we could not see the bombie or the cliffs, so we slowly motored down to one of our usual spots about 2 miles sth of Jibbon.....we call it the "fallen rock Spot".......about 20m of water, then pushing up into 8m, and approx 50 metres from the shoreline.....as you can imagine its quite bumby however once we work out our drift, the cliffs protect us from the sth westerly .....so down goes 2 big squid baits on the big dogs and i started to chuck around a rooster popper which has had its fair share of kingy beatings...but nothing, only 1 touch but didnt get to see what it was.......no luck on the bait for an hour except for a couple of rockies, small flathead, and a massive puffer fish....at 8am Greg was a bit 50/50 as he consumed more than his usual quota of friday night beers.....so last roll of the dice....i had a huge squid head from a 1.8kg green eye i got a couple of weeks ago....still frozen i managed to thread it onto my home made double snell using a 7/0"live" and 6/0 "cirlcle" hooks .....the bait went down like a lead ballon....it was not pretty........but just when we had fallen off the drop off my rig snagged the bottom and pulled some drag.....i thought another lost rig however.....pulse pulse.......lifted rod, 2 winds and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........Greg said "wtf is that"....i said "#### knows........im just gonna lock it", and glad i did as the first thing this fella wanted to do is head back into his cave....luckily for me i turned his head way early in the fight and got him about 5 metres off the rocky bottom.......released some drag as thinking big sleepy King and didnt wanted to get pulled out of the boat, but then to our amazement this beauty swirled up to the surface not fighting until it was in the net......the "live" Gamaguttsu hook got him in the side of the mouth and the cirlcle was pinned in those big fat mick jagger lips ! He was not going anywhere.....We have caught smaller ones at this same spot, but they were females and we released them.......but having a SriLankan old man who loves fish head curry, i thought it will not go to waste so i decided to keep him.....I smoked 2 big chunks last night for the neighbours , the rest including head, wings and cutlets go to mum. To me this is a once in a life time "eating" fish, they are tooooooo pretty to eat i reckon and an absolute task to clean...the scales were like 20cent coins....but i wanted to do it justice and spent hours yeasterday arvo prepping and cooking.....and drinking.....but it was worth it....very pungent fish taste...1 of a kind.

Eastern Blue Groper Male

71cm 5.8kg cleaned

Rod Salina III 24kg 5'7

Reel Gladiator Titan 8000

55lb Daiwa Braid with 50lb Flouro

Rig Dble Snell with green tubing between hooks for abrasion

Depth 18 metres Water Temp 19.2

Keys in mouth to be considered for COTM please....

A Fish like this is why i fish......u just never know!

Cheers

Craig

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Thanks stew and cream.... Trophy fish for me!

Bloodknot.... How do u usually cook groper? I found the flesh meaty and creamy however a unique flavour which my wife and myself didn't really like ....and I eat anything from the sea....

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Blood Knot, on 26 Oct 2014 - 5:03 PM, said:

Ribs, on 26 Oct 2014 - 7:47 PM, said:

Thanks stew and cream.... Trophy fish for me!

Bloodknot.... How do u usually cook groper? I found the flesh meaty and creamy however a unique flavour which my wife and myself didn't really like ....and I eat anything from the sea....

Groper crumbed - Had a mate at a caravan park that always cooked em up with bread crumbs and lemon, was awesome. Sorry cant help too much with the technique he used, as I am no longer in touch. Unfortunately my expertise is around eating and matching with beer rather than cooking.

Cheers Blood Knot

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Thanks bloodknot, andy and teflon...Weighing 6kg it was not easy to fillet, i had to use a hacksaw to take its head off and cut cutlets without damaging the soft flesh ..(im not used to cleaning fish that big) hence why I didn't crumb or batter, however IF I am lucky enough to jag a smaller model I will give it a shot! Cheers

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