Strange Seaway Bycatch

[WildFisHbOy]

G'day all,

Went out the other night to have a crack at some jewies at the GC Seaway. Caught some mullet in the nerang and went straight to the seaway. Had 3 rods out. All with the mullet but one had a wire trace just in case a few sharks showed up.

There was lots of big clumping weed about and everytime it stuck to the line the drags would start to peel so when a fish started a slow peel of the drag I called it for another weed fish (had no doubt). All the way to the boat it felt like just a clump of weed and when I sighted it I thought 'bugger its worse than weed its a stingray... no wait its got no tail..oh man someones cut its tail off...wait up whats this?'

So I netted it and sat it on the floor. My mate said it might be some type of shark and something about it shocking people. He really wasn't too sure either. So I thought I'd better not touch this thing just in case (we joked that we didn't want to get shocked lol). Cut the line as it swallowed the whole live bait and eased it back into the water using the net.

After a bit of research, turns out it was a Numb Fish or Numb ray. An incredibly ugly fish. It had little leeches on it (I've never seen this on a fish). Turns out this fish can shock people, up to 200 volts of electricity in fact. Check out the pic I took.

I can only wonder how things would have ended up if I tried handling it and digging for my hooks lol

Should add that the wind picked up and conditions were ordinary but we did get one nice jew run that I absolutely bombed. How you can pull a whole fish with 2 hooks in, completely out of the jewies mouth without hooking anything..

Anyways thought it was pretty interesting.

Cheers

[Chuckmeister]

I've never seen anything like it. It'll be something you can talk about for a while.

[lunatic]

Geez, that is one ugly sucker!

Cheers,
Lunatic

[RAT-KING]

Thats f*&%en uuuuuugly!!

[dreemon]

Yeah , looks like a ray with no tail... mutated, but very fugly ,

[FNQCairns]

numray?, looks like it although a little solid looking, been a while since i have dealt with one.

cheers fnq

[Fisher4life]

Yeah seen one of them before.... accidently speared one once while living down in Coffs HArbour.... we learnt that it was a electric ray very quickly as it knocked me on my butt twice, and my mate over once as we attempted to remove the spear from it's flap....

Good thing you didn't touch it...

[FNQCairns]

Oops I should have read the full article before posting, sorry. Funny storys abound over dealing with these fish.

Safest fish in the ocean and for good reason

cheers fnq

[tunaticer]

did you pat him much?? heheh

[danryan75]

i dont think i would have been able to resist the temptation to touch it after i have heard it can shock

[Outsider1]

Australian Numbfish or Coffin ray

Hypnos monopterygius

http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/Spec...ry.php?id=8724

Cheers

Dave

[Bear001]

That is definately disgusting!!!!

Rule in our boat - if u dont know what it is- dont touch.

Good call on the 'hands-off' & thanks for showing us.

[nigelr]

Excellent pic and post wildfishboy.
Better luck next time with those jewies!
Cheers.

[Dirtysanchez]

I keep telling my mother in law not to swim in the seaway..

Sigh, now I am going to have to go visit (again) to pull the hooks out of her mouth

Oh misery life

[the gecko]

Youd be amazed at whats down under the seaway, especially the range of rays and skates. For a bit of a look, go to
http://www.divingthegoldcoast.com.au/

this guy Ian Banks has some top dive photography, and its a must for anyone who fishes the seaway.

Id say you pulled the hooks from something with a bony head. Ive had big pike eels do that. They feel like a big fish in current, especially if the weed got on the line.

cheers
ANdrew