Sunshine coast hairtails.

[004dam]

Wondering what's bringing in all the hairtails into mooloolah river? We caught one on Wednesday night, one Friday arv and two today, not to mention the other couple we saw following our lures and a guy trolling said it's all he has caught.

[Marlin_Mike]

Nothing wrong with a feed of hairtail

Mike

[004dam]

Nothing wrong with a feed of hairtail

Mike


Mate of mine took one home to give it a whirl apparently very nice on the lips. My main concern is them pestering me with there toothy antics :P.

[sleepygreg]

Dont know if anyone has done a study on them yet, but they are one of those fish that are very mysterious in their lifecycle, breeding habits, migratory patterns etc. They arent a commercially viable species, are only targetted in very small specific areas by rec anglers (the deeper areas of the lower Hawkesbury River system, Clifton Gardens in Sydney Harbour.....and a few areas I am not at liberty to disclose). They do however turn up at a number of areas up and down the coast on very sporadic occassions.....usually (but not always) in areas that have very deep holes nearby. Parts of Lake Macquarie, Nambucca Heads, Lake Hope, etc.

Maybe if Ben Diggles, or Julian Pepperill is reading this they could let us know if any PHD student is doing, or has done, a paper on these fish.

I have not tried eating the smaller ones that you guys seem to be catching, but spent many cold winter nights chasing the 'chrome bumper bars' in smiths creek and jerusalem bay in my younger years.....the ones we always kept were around the 1.2 to 1.8 metre mark. Never caught one trolling, almost always on live yakkas or ganged pillies....with a 1 metre single strand wire trace with a 1 inch split ring threaded through the swivel above the rig......and a slab of hardwood with a hardwood donger to pacify them when they were brought into the boat (some of the mates had 4 inch nails in the donger - a bit like an ancient mace - to pin their heads to the hardwood slab). The feed made it all worthwhile.....along with the all night 'bonding' sessions with accompanying rum/scotch to keep you warm (some of even had gas heaters that we set up in the boats to keep us warm)............ahhhhhhhh the memories.

[rabbi]

The old man an myself got a couple fishing with nippers in the Richmond river at ballina late one arvo about six years back.
Both were over a metre.
Have not caught them before and have not got any since.

steve.