gut content of fish

[shut_up_and_fish]

cobia - small flathead, sand crabs

mate and i fished usual inside bay spot for snapper - no ledges, reefs just rubble and sand and a fair current........burleyed and burleyed and got three snapper.....left spot due to roughers and came back next morning on turn of the tide - same spot and straight away hooked up on live squied to another big snapper (8KG) and about 2 hrs later another around 7kg.........both these morning fish had our burley in their gut.....some questions arose about this
a) had the snapper followed the trail all the way up from their haunt noting that there had been a change in tide which we thought would have sent the bait back to the spot. b)had the snapper been hanging around since the nite before waiting for more burley (i reckon in 25m of water the burley would have hit bottom more than 100m away) so why did we get it in the first five minutes and when would it have eaten the burley? we dont know why these fish are there with no cover or haunts for at least 500m away???? why did the fish from the nite before not have the burley? will we ever know?

[Fixation]

Yeah I always check the guts of the fish only if I can feel that there's something in there and only after i've got the fillets off. Don't want that slimy stuff going all over the fillets. Anyway I thought i'd share a a little story that happened once when we were on a fishing holiday up north.

We'd gone out on a 8 day fishing adventure on an old converted type trawler fishing out off lizard island and the ribbon reefs and one particular night the chef on the boat cooked up this massive roast. We all gorged ourselves on it and there was heaps of left overs. Anyway everyone was feeling pretty sleepy after eating so much but I couldn't help myself and had to go out the back and have a fish. First 3 drops got 3 massive spangles and then a big jack then a cod. Then the old man came out and we started really getting into them. They all were vomiting up roast onions and potatoes that the chef had thrown over the side. Apparently fish don't mind a bit of home cookin either....

[Gorilla_in_Manila]

Hi Blaze,
Make sure you check the guts of the next remora you catch.

Yes I'm a gut checker. If tailor spew up tiny whitebait, I found it a good idea to use a smaller spinner or feather to match what they have been eating. If I open up a bream and find it has been scavaging on weed, I give the fillets to my granparents coz they are going to taste like weed.

Also, if you open up a fishes guts on the night of a full moon, face north and wave the head of a dead chicken over the top, it will tell you next weeks lotto numbers.

Cheers
Jeff

[revs57]

ahhh so that's how to do a wave offering Jeff...thought there must be a catch

Rhys

[matt20]

I once caught a flathead of about 65cm and it had inside a small mudcrab whole that went about 5 inches wide- that was pretty interesting.
Also once caught a tailor with a set of gang hooks in its stomach.
On a different note, i was sea sick over the side of a boat at cook island and all the fish came up to feast on my breakfast. I wonder if anyone caught some of those fish and examined there stomach and saw coco pops hehe.
Cheers.

[roz]

Really good point Blaze,

I always check when I am fishing/catching snapper to see if they are eating the burley I am using..... .

Roz