What are the chances?

[Red Bull]

G'day Ausfishers,

A couple of weeks ago my brother and I made several afternoon trips to Jumpinpin to try and catch a flathead or 2.

On the Saturday arvo, my brother nailed a beautiful fat lizard of 76cm on an Atomic rubber prawn (pic can be seen below with his little son). This fish was lurking in a gutter that ran in along the beach at what we guessed was about the bottom of the tide. It was his best lure caught flattie to date. As Qld law would have it, this fish was released in very good nick, and powered off into the green depths from which it had been extracted.

Then the next day on the low tide, we went again to the same spot, and fished the same techniques, that is, casting Atomic rubber prawns around the same gutters and flats as the day before. When I got to the precise gutter that my brother had pulled his fish out of the previous day, I also hooked up and subsequently landed another well conditioned (and probably egg-laden) flathead which turned out to be exactly 76cm in length. See photos below. This fish was also happily (for my and the fish) released.

Would there be much chance that these 2 fish were actually the same individual specimen that was holed up in the bar entrance to breed? If so, it speaks volumes for releasing these big breeders, as they are such great fish to catch and admire, and too valuable to only catch once. Make no mistake, i love a good feed of flathead, but keeping only the smaller ones for food is a great idea I think.

As it turned out, we caught another half dozen small flatties (most around the 40-50cm range) over those couple of days, which we kept, and found when cleaning them that every one was a breeding female. :-/

Anyway, comments welcome.

Cheers
Red Bull

[Dirtysanchez]

Beautiful fish there Red Bull, good effort. Nice to hear you got a feed too.
Unfortunately apart from the over sized specimens there's no real way to tell if they are female or male, so thats the risk you take I guess

[bennykenny]

i know ive found this in the river where i fish i have caught the same flathead 5 times, i know this cause apart from being the same length it also has a piece missing from its tail, and that has been over a twelve month period and it always sits in pretty much the same spot, although everytime i catch him, he doesnt seem to fight as hard, maybe he knows im going to let him go

[Peter4]

i know ive found this in the river where i fish i have caught the same flathead 5 times, i know this cause apart from being the same length it also has a piece missing from its tail, and that has been over a twelve month period and it always sits in pretty much the same spot, although everytime i catch him, he doesnt seem to fight as hard, maybe he knows im going to let him go

Don't know if that flattie is extremely smart or outrageously stupid!;)

[Cammy]

mate those are some ripper fish ya got, good effort!

cam

[BLOOEY]

Did you check her to see if she had a hole in her lip from the previous day.I've caught the same bream twice on consecutive days and the hole in the lip was the giveaway. Ben

[kingtin]

What better way to teach your kids. I reckon the little feller seeing that lizard slip away, will stay in his memory for a long time. Good on yer mate.

kev

[Flattie Assassin]

Yeah good report. Nice lizzies.

[Freeeedom]

Every chance it was the same fish. I once hooked the same tailor three times in one night. I know because when I finally landed it on the third hit it had the two hooks from the previous cut-offs still in its jaw
Cheers Freeeedom

[baitwaster]

I'd say she is the same fish, nice work getting her out, and putting her back. You may have to instruct your brother on the finer points of holding a fish as close to the camera as possible for photo sessions though. LOL.

[stonecold]

mate theres a chance she was the same fish, I was flicking placcies in some gutters on the beach at Ballina a few months back. Caught a wriggler that had at some stage had its tail removed at the wrist. Nothing left but a stub. Released the fish back in to the gutter. Returned the next week and pulled the same fish! Different gutter but no more that 100m apart.

[Red Bull]

Thanks for all the comments fellas:) Thanks for sharing your experiences regarding recapturing fish......it seems to me that there was a high chance it was the same fish.
I just don't know enough about lizards to know if breeding fish are sendentary, or whether they move around a lot?


Did you check her to see if she had a hole in her lip from the previous day.I've caught the same bream twice on consecutive days and the hole in the lip was the giveaway. Ben

The first fish inhaled the rubber prawn right down into it's cavernous mouth, and with some delicate work with the long nose pliers, we removed the lure with no dramas, however it meant that when I caught my fish the next afternoon, there were no outward signs of hook injury. So that method of identification was not really available to us.:-/

m8eeee, yeah you are right about the photography mate ;) My brother and I discussed the fact his fish didn't look as big, and we agreed afterwards that the angler must hold his fish closer towards the camera. Then when I caught my fish the next arvo, I knew what the best way to get the pic taken would be, so I was the direct beneficiary of our little dicussion. :) Very fortuitous!

Thanks lads
Red Bull