First Footballer Trout

[Mick]

Went diving with devocean on Saturday. Had an absolutely shocking trip. Anything that could of went wrong did go wrong...., for me not him. Broke rubbers, gun misfired bruising my leg, missed an estimated 20kg Spanish mackerel (I am being very generous with the weight - it was a monster) and a nice sized bluey around 5-6 kg, got tortured by about a zillion jelly fish, kept getting harassed by some big bronze whalers - that kept turning up just before I wanted to shoot something..... ra ra ra....., you get the picture...., I am going for a beer now couldn't be stuffed writing anymore.
If I didn't land this one I was nearly going to sell all my dive gear and upgrade my fishing gear and just sit on top of the water for the rest of my days.......

[wewak1111]

Good on ya Mick, you get days like that...next time you'll probably have a bewdy!

[Mick]

Thanks mate, hope so!

[bugman]

Mick,

Saw a big painted cray in the fish shop down here on the weekend. They wanted $115 for it. It was a nice big size but not overly massive.

Puts a good feed of cray in perspective doesn't it.

Brett

[finding_time]

At least you had nice weather!!! :D
Ian

[scuttlebutt]

Nothing really to complain about there - fantastic conditions and I know the water temp at the moment is beautiful. Nice fish too

cheers,

steve

[Mick]

Brett, I think the average price for a painted cray up here is about $70 / kg. I saw a Crayfish seafood basket meal, on a menu at ___________ restraunt for $199. Feeds 2 adults only. Amazing prices hey?

[fritzy]

Mate, that fish is gorgeous.
Are they as good to eat as coral trout?
They almost look like they are a toxic species with those bright yellows and big black patches.
Cheers Fritzy
PS. Bummer about the big spanish - but thats fishing (or spearfishing as the case may be!!) May your luck turn next time.

[nonibbles]

They almost look like they are a toxic species with those bright yellows and big black patches.

Are you describing Mick's dive suit? Nice belt :-* ;D

[cyclone]

Hey Mick don't mean to be a party pooper but did you know footballer trout have a size range restriction now of 50-80 cms. The fish looks ok to me 50 plus just in case you didn't know. I agree spearing this time of the year can be a pain plenty of sharks and jellies and few fish. Andrew.

[Mick]

52cm on the dot. I saw this fish about 10 times before I shot it. It just kept hanging around me and I was unsure whether it was over 50cm or not. After a while of comparing it to other smaller trout, I went back and shot it. I took it off the spear and passed it to my mate in the boat for a measure. I was too scared to do it in fear it was under. My mate looked back with a smile and said "53cm you lucky (lots of bad words)"!
A second check revealed it be 52cm. Good enough!

Hey fritzy, after the trip i filleted about 5 blue spot trout, 3 leopard trout, a range of bombie trout (island trouts) and the footballer. As people who have fillted trout before will know, trout is just about the easiest thing to whack a couple of sides off. The footballer had an even whiter meat then the normal blue spots and the fillet was held together perfectly. The fillet just peels off the fish like it was ment to be. It's a fish fit for a god!

Pauly, next time I will just wear the weight belt in the photo. I will have to get a longer and wider belt thou.

[devocean]

Mick I thought that dive belt was your flasher, nice fish though I would have loved to put a few holes in those bloody maori wrasse that followed me around everywhere.

Saw several smaller footballers myself and got a good underwater piccy of one sitting next to an undersized red. Next time tell those spanish to come over and see me.

[devocean]

Heres a few I got with the new gun

[nonibbles]

Pauly, next time I will just wear the weight belt in the photo. I will have to get a longer and wider belt thou.


Aaargh! ooh! Um... Err... the visual on that one was not good ('speshly being a kids show and all).

[Mick]

Geeze dan, they look icey! [smiley=sick2.gif]

[Badone]

Mick, you did well getting 5 blue spot trout and your footballer all between 50cm and 80cm. I have dived the Bunkers for years and would be lucky to see one that fits the size range per day. Good catch.

[devocean]

Yeah I had them under the 5 bronze whalers I got

[Mick]

Mick, you did well getting 5 blue spot trout and your footballer all between 50cm and 80cm. I have dived the Bunkers for years and would be lucky to see one that fits the size range per day. Good catch.

90% of blue spot trout and footballers that I see are not in legal size range and most are over sized. Take into concideration human error or misjudging the size and the range shortens again. So realisticaly, someone that respects the law (like me) only shoot b spot and f ballers between 55cm and 75cm - just to be on the safe side. This theory worked for in the above picture. I passed up shooting the footballer countless times even though I did know it was around the 50cm mark. Alot of other spearos would of just shot it and worried about the size later.

By the way, it is not illegal to shoot an undersized or oversized fish. It is illegal to keep an undersized or oversized fish in your possession. In saying this, most spearo's these days are smart enough not abuse this power. Spearfisherman I know get quite upset if they misjudge the size of a fish or if fish gets off the spear but is so badly wounded that it is not going live much longer. its quite a disturbing feeling inside when you get it wrong.

Sorry, went off the subject there a bit.

Kind regards,

Mick

[Fishin_Dan]

Good to see everyone being responsible about it though Mick!

You'll have to show me how easy these buggers are to fillet though soon... I'm just trying to organise that Mackay/Airlie trip again! ;)

[Badone]

I agree 100% Mick. Sometimes it is hard to judge the size of a fish underwater. I figure that if you have to think about whether a fish is legal or not then let it go. I was not questioning the legality of your fish, just making the point that it would be a rare day to catch 5 blue spots and a footballer all between 50 and 80cm.