Rous Channel Tuesday

[MulletMan]

Magic conditions but a plague of grinners made it real hard to get much. Had to work hard to even get these guys and not a great deal of quality amongst them either. Lots of other boats out enjoying the dead calm weather but very few fish about. Not a sign of mackeral though a few small schools of mac tuna on the eastern sided of the channel.

[MulletMan]

Had to wrench these two reasonable size guys from the jaws of the grinners. They were onto everything that even moved. Big fellas well over 40 cms each - quite surprised they could handle a 25 cm whiting whole. At one stage I had a 3-fish hook up i.e. a small Grassie half swallowed by a Grinner who in turn was also down the hatch of aother Grinner! You can see the teeth marks on both of 'em!

[Scott15]

nice fish commodore.

Scott

[JB]

Bloody grinners KILL EM ALL!! no grinner should go bak alive!

[MulletMan]

I always release my Grinners after I catch 'em!
Granted, they are somewhat slow after I slash their guts open but I have seen a big flatty over in the Rous take one whole so I reckon I am doing my bit for the food chain!

[aido]

i've found grinners to be a top bait.
commodore, where in the rouse would be
a good spot for whiting? i won't tell too many people.
cheers.

[jeffo]

always wondered- is there a special way to fillet little diver whiting? or is a long slow fiddly process? they are tasty little buggers but i have never been bothered to keep them.

[MulletMan]

Yeh Jeffo, those in the pic are Summer whiting being a bit bigger at around the 9-10 inch mark than than the smaller divers but I have a good sink setup on my pontoon at Raby Bay and just plod away scaling/filleting/deboning them one by one. I think that is why the cost of their fillets is so high - up to $28.00 a kilo - as it is very labour intensive even for the pros.
I leave them to "stiffen" in a sink of salt water for an hour or so and then attack them. After filleting them the wrong way from the tail up, I leave them in the water for another hour. This makes the fillets quite firm and then I whip out the old rip cage and the bones along the centre of the fillet. Secret is making them stiff being easier to handle, good razor sharp knife, cupple tinnies and slavering thoughts of the little buggers done in egg and breadcrumbs with a dash of lemon and salt! Worth the effort!

[MEGA'bite]

I never chuck back grinners they are top crab bait but a bit smelly.

[MulletMan]

I'll PM you a couple of good spots in the Rous Aido.

[jeffo]

did you take the photos once they were scaled? they look like divers in the photo is all.

[MulletMan]

Hey Jeffo, very astute! I descaled 'em before the pic. There may have been a couple of little divers on the end.............