The Hairtail Plague

[004dam]

As many sunny coasters would know the hairtail are here in plague proportions.
Me and a mate went out for around 2 hours tonight and ended up with about 15 hairtails.


My mate phil took a couple home for stir fry :\ no thanks.

[Axl]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

I cant say ive ever heard of them before are they edible? Are they some sort of eel?They look like they would be a bit of fun on light rods.

[004dam]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

I cant say ive ever heard of them before are they edible? Are they some sort of eel?They look like they would be a bit of fun on light rods.

There ment to be good eating but I'm not keen on trying. They go alright sometimes they just come straight in though.

[Muddy Toes]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

I cant say ive ever heard of them before are they edible? Are they some sort of eel?They look like they would be a bit of fun on light rods.

The jury will be split on the edibility of them......most will say yes but some will say no but i think the look of them will most likely put people off. The trick to cooking them is to get rid of the "chromeiness' off the skin.... some people rub them with a hessian bag or the likes.It gets rid of a lot of the fishiness.Once cooked they pull apart like fish fingers.I know a few people who aren't big on eating fish but will happily eat hairtail.As for the fight they 'walk' upright in a backwards direction if you can imagine it.

[Axl]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Thanks guys im off to Maroochydore next week for some R&R and I plan on taking an assortment of lures to flick arounf the mouth of the Maroochy river so I may get to see my first live Hairtail.

[BLOOEY]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

This is bizzare, never heard of so many hairtail getting caught before. Getting them in the seaway too! Maybe all the rain, or some other factor?
Look like a bit of fun anyway 004dam. Ben

[murf]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

they are only small hairtail though, so would be hard to get a feed off

cheers Murf

[captain red beard]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Hairtail = awesome bait.
I go for hairtail missions purely to keep for bait.

[BLOOEY]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Look as though they would be a good spaniard bait captain redbeard! Ben

[gavsgonefishing]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Blooey, we will find out tomorrow morn, the hairtail are wearing all the right jewelry tomorrow, just looking for mrs spaniard to wear it!!! (they are seriously big baits)

Gav

[BLOOEY]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Good stuff gav. Very keen to see how you went! Ben

[salty holty]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

what is the seaway fishing like at the moment

[425reelmate]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Yeh caught in the Hawksberry river NSW some twenty years ago with my father. We used to go for a all nighter. We would us e full pillies on gang's to catch these monsters. There found in deep holes usally. We would only ever catch hairtail in one particular location in the colder months only.

The longest was over 6 foot. Comming home with over 20- 30 hairtail. The old man used to cut them into steaks and cook on bbq. Might have to do a sunshine run one night the put up a pretty good fight.

Well done there looks like a good size hairtail you nailed. How long?

[425reelmate]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Just one other thing, they have BIG BLOODY TEETH be careful. Use a mallet or something to whack over the head as they will just slither around otherwise if your in your boat.

[theangryangler]

Re: The Hairtail Plague

Put the dead ones in a part filled bath tub and Scrub the silver stuff off the side with a light scourer B4 eating then taste much much better