Is this barramundi??

[NQCairns]

Hi, I bought some fish (something I dont usually do) from the local supermarket that was tagged as barra, although right next to it was fillets of redthroat (so they say) that looked exactly the same only sliced thinner ???.
There is 1 kg of the fillets in the pic below. Hope someone has seen enough barra fillets to comment. I ate one piece, nice tasting but not great.
Thanks. nq

[mackmauler]

sure dont look like the red throat i just ate 8)

[Lundy]

No evidence to say it's not Barra and it looks the same as the stuff I've filleted.
Should have got the sweet lip, much better tasting.
Cheers
Steve

[dynamicspot]

well looks like you got a nice piece of shark can almost garantee that ime sure worked in fish and chip shop for many years

[goanna1]

must have been a bloody big barra. looks more like jew fillets have been cut from one much larger

[devocean]

Probably be king salmon, the gold ones. Know a few pros up the gulf that sell King Salmon as barra. Very common occurance

[Daintreeboy]

I'll make a big call and say that it is. If it didn't taste what you'd hoped could mean it was a farmed fish, not always the best. May also have been imported or not looked after the best somewhere down the line until it ended up in your hands. Saltwater Barra should be extremely nice eating.
Cheers, Mark.
PS how did you go the other WE? I only managed to head down late Sun arvo even with th efowl weather. Mick nailed one 59 cm Barra.

[NQCairns]

Ok thanks for the replys, we blessed it and called it Barra anyway although after the shark suggestion I did smell it and it did remind me of shark a bit.
Those white sinue lines were quite tough to cut with a knife untill cooked, might have been a big Barra? I am not experienced enough up here to know these fish very well.

Dainteree Boy, yes we got up there but on the Monday, we got wet and blown away but had a good time checking out the place, the GPS said we did almost 60km of exploring, lost one barra trolling a lure near the end of the day, and took a couple of muddies home, didnt get even one bite on bait.
There are some pretty cool creeks upstream that feed into the river and turn fresh, we followed one as far as the boat could float. Very pretty jungle type environment.
Got a look from a long distance at the mouth and consider it a bit tricky! near low tide seems like it may be unpassable due to depth if the weather turns on an outgoing tide, the conditions were too shity to bother investigateing closer.
Nice catch, was it on live bait or lures?

[beefaman]

There is a lot of "imported barra" being sold in supermarkets, might be that

[rando]

I was a chef for twentyfive years( until I woke-up to myself), it looks like barra to me and Ive cooked tons of the stuff. Having said that, Its almost impossable to tell the difference between barra & Nile perch, so I will call it Barra. If you didnt like it when you ate it call it NP and keep the mystique alive
Rando

[Manjilad]

NQCairns - I'm shocked!
You bought what? Why? <grin>

But nice to see you supporting the local retailers.
But as an ex-sea food retailer he are some thots:
1. at 2003 60% of all table fish sold in Oz was IMPORTED.
2. All IMPORTED fish is frozen (can be good or bad).
3. Supermarkets only (majority) resell imported "defrosted for your convenience" filletts
4. Naming of imported species - if they are honestly labelled then you will find
i) NONE are exaclty the same as local caught species
ii) MANY are of the same species type (hence similar texture, colour and sometimes at best a weaker version of the local flavour) but NOT exactly the same
iii) Many retailers copy local fish names to boost sales but rarely is it the exactly the same as the local fish (if you go by the scientific name).
5. Most imported species are "farmed" - especially the bara. Imported comes from all over asia including PNG etc. They can be huge (3-4x your picture size). The PNG ones even tasted ok, had the uncooked "grey" bara look and texture (which is VERY different to Nile Perch in look, taste and texture-although "some" hotels try to pass off Nile Perch as Bara)
6. Imported fish is about half price of the local stuff - yes that's right - guess why supermarkets sell fish!!

My view:Fresh Local fish ALWAYS tastes, feels and cooks best - but costs twice as much. Imported fish is Excellent value, may NOT be genuine and probably reared in very "unhygenic" conditions!!!! (which reminds me to raise a topic on local Cigautera, poison in Nile Perch etc etc)
"All fish is to be enjoyed ..... but bthe best one is the one you catch"!
Cheers