Pine - Thursday Arvo

[Lapras]

I had to cancel plans for a pre-dawn fishing trip with a mate as my daughter had a cold and my wife had to work so I got the minding duties. My lovely wife however flexed early so I did get out in the afternoon by myself.

Left Dohles Rocks ramp just after the high tide. Water as expected had a lot of fresh so decided to drop the pots outside the mouth and head over to Otter Rock. Fished for a few hours with barely a hit. At one stage I snuck between the rocks closer the shore and although there was heaps of bait and what looked like tailor working the surface, couldn't get a hookup (tried plastics and hard bodies).

Decided to head back and picked up the pots - no crabs but my second wobbegong shark! Fished the old bridge pilongs for a while and there was very little activity but did manage this good flatty (46 cm) which will become Friday's dinner.

Good luck if you venture out over the weekend,

Dave

[FISHAWN]

HAHA second bloody shark in your pots ! What are they like to eat ?

[BrandonH]

Nice Flathead Dave!! I headed out Wednesday night for a fish around the highway bridge and found quite a few Bream biting just off the channel.

fishawn, wobbegong's are protected in this state (not sure about the rest of OZ) so I hope no Queenslander will answer your question!! lol.

cheers
Brandon...

[Lapras]

Fishawn: As BrandonH said, they are protected. I'm still to try a shark I've caught, not 100% on the preparation (blooding etc)

BrandonH: Any decent bream, I was getting some nice ones a while back but since then they have been much smaller.

Dave

[Freeeedom]

fishawn, wobbegong's are protected in this state (not sure about the rest of OZ) so I hope no Queenslander will answer your question!! lol.

cheers
Brandon...

Are you sure they are protected Brandon? Here's the list of the 'Protected and No-take species from the DPI's web site

• female mud and blue swimmer crabs
• egg-bearing spanner crabs, slipper lobsters, and tar-spot tropical spiny rock lobsters
• great white sharks and grey nurse sharks
• whales, porpoises, dugong, turtles and dolphins
• clams in the family Tradacnidae, helmet shells and trumpet shells
• black teatfish.

And the no-take salt water species

• Barramundi cod
• Chinaman fish
• Hump-headed Maori wrasse
• Paddletail
• Potato cod
• Queensland grouper
• Red bass

The only shark's listed are the great white and the grey nurse. I've never bothered to try eating a wobbegong, (or any other shark for that matter), but I know a few others who have. Are there some new regulations that haven't made it to the DPI site yet?

Cheers Freeeedom

[Lapras]

Freeeedom: I couldn't find anything stating they were protected but did find a WA forum discussing their taste (varied from great to crap).

Also found this which is somewhat disturbing after I untangled both catches from the pots by lifting them out by the tail !!!!!

Characteristics - Wobbegong sharks can become aggressive if disturbed, and are able to reach back and bite a hand holding their tail.

[BrandonH]

Good point John.... I have always been under the impression that they were protected and thought I had read it somewhere, maybe I am just going off what someone had told me I should have probablly double checked on that before posting sorry all

Cheers
Brandon...

[kingtin]

When I first started fishing in Oz, roughly 11 yrs ago, I actually caught one on shorncliffe pier just as some volunteer fishery officers arrived (nice looking girls) :-)

They told me that wobbegongs were a protected species so I put it back. On getting home, I looked 'em up and there was no mention of them being protected although they were protected in NSW. Since then, they have been removed from the NSW list, and as far as I can see, they aren't protected anywhere. They are rather prolific in the bay. I'm guessing that they may have been protected at some time, or else the cockroaches brought the theory here, as it is widely thought by Qld'ers that they are protected.

You know me..............I'll eat anything..................but the one I did try, tasted bloody awful and the flesh went to mush on cooking. Nothing at all like flake.

kev

[nigelr]

Hi Lampras.
Just FYI, as far as NSW is concerned, wobbegong are a no-take on line or spear.
Personally I'm unhappy, wobbies are great eating IMHO. When nothing else is around, they provide a great feed. Well, used to.
I beg to differ with your opinion on their table qualities, Kingtin.
Preparation is definitely a real pain in the ar$e as they have to be skinned, but any fish between say 4 and 10kg, skinned, trimmed and cut into 'fish cocktail' size pieces, is superb when coated in a beer batter and shallow fried, and served with sea salt, lemon, sweet chilli or your choice of dipping sauce.
Second only to mulloway IMHO for cooking this way.
Mind you, your flatty is a beaut eating fish too, way under-rated as a fine table fish IMHO.
Cheers.
PS - Wobbegongs can move suprisingly quickly and have strong, dagger-like backward facing teeth, they are very strong and I would hate to be bitten by one. Sort of the pit-bull of sharks, maybe.

[kingtin]

Nigel,

How did you find out that wobbegong are protected in NSW? I couldn't find anything under listed and protected species in the rec fishing handbook but found out via a commercial fishing document that it again became a recreational no-take species in Sept 2007. The irony is that commercial fishers are allowed "6 carcases"

http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/ass...ong-Sharks.pdf

Just great eh? It's either endangered or it isn't so if reccos are banned, how come pros can take 6?

The fact that pros can take 6 must mean that its commercially viable (palatability wise) and would support your statement that they ain't bad eating. The fact that the flesh on the one I ate was rather mushy may mean that I simply got a sickly one?

kev

[Lapras]

Nigel,

Thanks for the info and I'll be handling them with more care next time.

Have to take your word on the taste, I can't see myself eating a wobbegong, although I do want to try one of the smaller bull or shovel noses that I regularly get - just not looking forward to gutting it!

As for the flatty, I agree completely with you on the eating quality. They are a great fish to stirfry as the flesh doesn't break down - had a Thai chilli last night.

Dave

[nigelr]

Hi kingtin.
Mate, sorry can't for the life of me recall how exactly, tho' I'm sure the ban is still current in NSW, much to my chagrin.
Yeah, the old wobby is a bit of a staple for the inshore trap fishers down our way at least, a couple of grades are available at our local co-op as 'flake'.
It's very good value for the price, really comes into its' own when shallow fried in batter as although it is a brilliant white, it doesn't have a lot of flavour.
A bit of salt and fresh lemon does wonders for it, tho.
Yes Lampras, those flatties go well in a curry for the exact same reason, they hold together very well. And those wobbies do take a lot of 'subdueing'.
They will appear docile, then lash out in full fury, nasty beasts!
Cheers.