Is anyone catching fish

We have a folding crayfish, lobster, pot. It about 2' square/cube when opened and 2" square and 6" 'thick when folded. Its heavy, 20kg, to stop it moving in the seas. Made from reinforcing steel. We set in rock with a 10m line. We bait it with the barracouta for which we troll. The barracuda are inedible, being full of fine bones - and they have teeth that will rip the flesh off your fingers.

I doubt anyone goes so fast to outstrip tuna nor kingfish. We can average 10 knots and catch both. Other catches are small sword fish, spanish mackerel and mahi mahi (aka dolphins fish). Catches tend to be 2-3 kg - catch one and you have enough for a couple of days. We also catch Atlantic salmon and trout, that have escaped the fish farms. In the Gordon River, and near its mouth, freshwater eel (delicious and boneless - excepting spine)

We troll in the Tasman but simply drop a line in Pittwater where we might catch Trevally, bream, Kingfish (in the summer). When we troll we use lures (they look sort of like fish) or (what I might call a spoon lure) - look like a spoon with a hook 'bolted' on

Crayfish caught around Tasmania - it is possible to catch so many you soon, after a week become tired of the monotony :( ! We do need a licence to catch them, which we religiously update.

If you spend a long time away from marinas and supermarkets - fishing is the easiest way to stock with fresh 'meat'.

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
We have a folding crayfish, lobster, pot. It about 2' square/cube when opened and 2" square and 6" 'thick when folded. Its heavy, 20kg, to stop it moving in the seas. Made from reinforcing steel. We set in rock with a 10m line. We bait it with the barracouta for which we troll. The barracuda are inedible, being full of fine bones - and they have teeth that will rip the flesh off your fingers.

I doubt anyone goes so fast to outstrip tuna nor kingfish. We can average 10 knots and catch both. Other catches are small sword fish, spanish mackerel and mahi mahi (aka dolphins fish). Catches tend to be 2-3 kg - catch one and you have enough for a couple of days. We also catch Atlantic salmon and trout, that have escaped the fish farms. In the Gordon River, and near its mouth, freshwater eel (delicious and boneless - excepting spine)

We troll in the Tasman but simply drop a line in Pittwater where we might catch Trevally, bream, Kingfish (in the summer). When we troll we use lures (they look sort of like fish) or (what I might call a spoon lure) - look like a spoon with a hook 'bolted' on

Crayfish caught around Tasmania - it is possible to catch so many you soon, after a week become tired of the monotony :( ! We do need a licence to catch them, which we religiously update.

If you spend a long time away from marinas and supermarkets - fishing is the easiest way to stock with fresh 'meat'.

Jonathan
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I'm green with envy. Fishing in the Aegean is very much hit and miss and it's rare to get a really good catch.
 
There was no intent to engender envy.

I do understand that the Aegean, or whole Med, is slowly becoming fished out.

But a 'funny' story:

On one occasion we deployer our craypot. We leave it overnight. We need to watch the weather as we deploy from a 10' dinghy with a 2hp motor, exposed to the Southern Ocean and swell, chosen location against steep cliffs (of a small island, cat anchored behind island) means care. Anyway - retrieved pot, 13 legal sized crays (catch limit is 5 in hand and 5 in 'store', fridge or catch net etc.), Deliver excess to neighbouring yachts. Next day catch 11! Its amazing how quickly one tires of crayfish - and demands something mundane like a lamb chop.

Big tuna or kingfish become a similar issue. it impossible to handle 'extra' fish as 'our' (your and ours) fridge/deep freeze capacity is usually spoken for (its full, unless its the end of the passage) and they don't keep. We have learnt to be imaginative with cooking - but the lack of storage means catch one only.

Our limitations on living in splendid isolation is determined by how much vegetable and fresh fruit we can keep and then our stomach's ability to savour preserved alternative, tinned, dried or frozen. Worrying about protein is not an issue.

Jonathan
 
Yep, I love it. We caught two tuna - one on the Biscay crossing (at the edge of the shelf) and one between Ibiza and Mallorca. We also caught a couple in the Med when sailing with friends from Sardinia to Cartagena. Also plenty of mackerel in the Atlantic and bream caught at anchor in the Balearics - if you know the technique and you've got the around your boat, it's pretty much bream on demand. Only sad thing was we didn't have a barbecue last year!

Dick Mclarry's site has all the info I've ever used.
 
I'm looking at one of those cheapie 'lobster pots' which are folding nets from eBay.
Has anyone used one similar? Its mostly for the kids interest rather than feeding everyone!
 
Fish in the med... I have seen whales and Dolphins.

While in Greece, back in the '80s, I enjoyed squid. Chatting to some well connected Greeks at a social event, I asked why they were all about the same size.. Living in Portugal, they came in a big range of lengths.
The reply was.. That they were all imported from New Zealand, as Greece was fished out...
 
SV Kittiwake said:
Yep, I love it. We caught two tuna - one on the Biscay crossing (at the edge of the shelf) and one between Ibiza and Mallorca. We also caught a couple in the Med when sailing with friends from Sardinia to Cartagena. Also plenty of mackerel in the Atlantic and bream caught at anchor in the Balearics - if you know the technique and you've got the around your boat, it's pretty much bream on demand. Only sad thing was we didn't have a barbecue last year!

Dick Mclarry's site has all the info I've ever used.
Click to expand...

I would love to know the technique please.
 
shan said:
Thank you. I'll go look.
Click to expand...

We've actually taken to using lettuce rather than bread, the bread we found just dissolved and came off the hook. Whereas with a lettuce leaf, you can hide the hook in the thicker bit near the stem of the lettuce. A small hook on a thin line works well, we don't even use a rod, the line is just wrapped around a bit of wood, unreel a couple of metres and chuck the baited hook in once the bream are in a frenzy from the other little bits of lettuce you've been chucking in. Once you've caught one, they seem to get a bit freaked out though so best to wait a bit before catching your second... Except for once when Elena plucked 4 out in quick succession.
 
Taking 7 year old grandson fishing in Wellington Harbour later today.


I will rig to catch slimy makerel, sprats or herring-the Southern Hemisphere variety-with small Sabiki feathers and if we get some put out a bait for Kahawai or Yellowtail Kingfish.


The Kingfish can grow to 2 metres, but one half that size really pulls your string!


Too early for Snapper, but a legal size blue cod would be very acceptable in the pan...…………………….


I will report later on our results-or lack!
 
We always fished off our boat using two rods with different coloured swimming lures different fish take different colours, for example approaching Gibraltar we had a red and white lure and a blue and yellow lure all the mackerel went for the blue and yellow. In different areas we caught different types of fish, for example, Dorado over the Atlantic, which we like, and Tuna in the Seychelles which we don't like but still eat.
 
Due to wind direction we fished from our boat while still in the dock-makes a nice safe platform-but only caught 3 small fish, a type of Wrasse known locally as Spotties.

The attention span of 7 year olds is of short duration!

First mate and I are booked on a charter from Coramandel Town in January. We had a superb afternoons sport on the same boat last year.
 
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