Where did this toadfish come from?

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Hey,

This probably sounds a bit stupid because im talking about a toadfish but the other day was odd and interesting, because ive been fishing in my canal and around the nerang river for the past 10 years and have caught many species of fish, crabs, eels and PESTS! (eg. Toadfish) although the other day i had a line in and caught a toadfish looking thing that ive never seen before and took a photo and chopped the thing off. Then the next day i also caught another 2 (all about 25cm), they were leaping out of the water to grab our poppers? , the question im asking is, WHERE HAS THIS FISH BEEN FOR THE PAST 10 YEARS??? Can someone tell me if they've caught this species of toadfish before! And should i kill them or just let them live to keep annoying me? Photos attached.(Not great but hopefully you can recognise it)

Oh Yeah, one last thing, ive caught all the usual toadfish species before but this one just seemed different. It was very yellow and had brown stripes on it???
Thanks!

[Cammy]

No reason to kill a fish because its doing what it natually does.

i have caught similar species of toads, but i cant really say i have caught the same species as that, as i would have to have a closer look, but its probably some kind of banded puffer in the estuaries.

Cammo

[kingtin]

Mate, they can be quite prolific in certain areas of the Southern Bay, particularly down the pin. They grow a lot bigger than yours and lose the stripes as they grow older. The bigger ones can bite clean through a size 4..........no bull.

kev

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Thanks for that,

that is definetly the one, just about 3 times bigger. I hope they stay up there around the Pin and dont start building up in the nerang river, I still find it unusual to catch 3 now for the first time in 10 years. Is there something in the water/weather/moon or something that could of triggered there down here? They must be a bit more of a predator then other types of toadfish trying to grab our poppers?

[Kleyny]

You get big toads like the one Kev has in my winter whiting spot.
the funny thing is you get one little nibble than nothing.
ten minutes later you start to think no bites whats going on.
Reel in and low and behold the hook has been cleanly bitten in half.
Upgraded my hook one day to see what was doing this and it was a toad the same size as Kevs.

neil

[Keechie]

hi i saw my mate(tailorboi99) bring in 1 at nudgee beach about 25cm and i got one out a bit further from the mouth of nudgee in our friends boat it bit my whiting about 25cm whiting behind the head leaving it breathing and a toadfish holding it wit massive teeth. p.s the toady was about 30cm.

regards,
keechie

[Outsider1]

It is know as a Green Toadfish or Sea Toad, a real pest in offshore waters at times. They can be in huge schools and just bite off all lines that come near them.

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/sho...d.php?t=105831

http://www.ausfish.com.au/vforum/showthread.php?t=95504

Cheers

Dave

[LIVE_2_FiSH]

yeh green sea toad, weve caught them to round 60-80cm, put up quite a fight at that size actually.

[nufin_flash]

we've caught heaps like that around tin can bay and south end of fraser near the bluff. first time i caught one i though i was landing me a monster cod , then the sheer dissapointment when you see a giant toadie, this thing was a few kilos and broke our landing net, we must of hit a school of them cause after that they were around the boat. we lost a few snapper sinkers from em as well

[Reel Nauti]

I don't know how they go around this neck of the woods, but up around the Narrows (Gladstone) they are good crab pot bait.

Cheers

Dave

[lippa]

yeah green sea toads, or bastards as i like to call
caught them on cd18's and mac baits trolling pancake ck before.

[Dirtysanchez]

Last time I went crabbing with my mate up at Hervey Bay we were getting them in the crab pots, but they would go in to eat the bait, and when they found they couldn't get out easily they would tear a hole in the side of the pots.

I am glad to hear they are good crab bait, thats a solid idea for next time

Cheers

[the gecko]

Hard to tell from the photo, but I caught one similar in the Broadwater, but mine had a more parrot like beak....is that what you guys have got? Mine was 40cm, yellowish with brown/black bands, similar to Kevs, but more beaky mouth.

There was an article in the GC Sun paper a month ago about one caught near Coombabah, also first time in memory for a lot of fishos. CSIRO website had it listed as NT and FNQ only, and never seen below Gladstone.

I reckon its the La Nina weather pattern thats brought the warm currents down this way. There are a few species showing up where they havent done so before. La Nina made for a good jack season anyway.

cheers
Andrew

[FISHAWN]

the lil pricks were chomping down all my SP's on the weekend in the Nerang river as well. They also did this strange thing where they puffed up to double its size.

[Breambuster33]

i have started to catch them quite often recently