24-03-2006, 09:39 PM
thanks rohan. now lets move on shall we...
went to mordy again today and picked my shots very very carfully indeed! i was there for the whole day (but wasnt just spearing the whole time). i did 3 seperate spearing sessions of about 45mins and of those i only got 2 fish. the biggest mullet ive ever seen! it was close to 40cm. and weighed nearly 1kg cleaned. i also got a 32cm bream. there are millions of bream! its so good to see such a wide variety of fish in our bay. today i saw bream, leatherjacket, snapper, mullet, salmon, garfish, banjo shark and whiting. i saw so much but only speared two. i found a reef swarming with snapper but as i felt so bad from the previous trip i was too cautious as to which ones would be big enough. i didnt end up shooting any.
back to the mullet. it was swimming slowly, by itself on the sandy seafloor. for a start it was on the bottom when it should be about mid water. i'd already seen a school of mullet pass by and i thought it was just a straggler. i could see it was quite big and darker than any other mullet i'd seen and as i swam towards it, it continued to swim slowly. i got within two metres of it and it saw me and tried to get away. so i shot it. out of instinct more than anything. as soon as i got this fish i headed in. my mates had already gone in i thought it was a good excuse for a break. while i was swimming with it on my spear i noticed there was something wrong with it. its eyes were kind of green when they should have been yellow. they were also indented, as if they had been pushed inwards. it didnt really struggle at all until i was out of the water and then it went nuts. i cleaned my bream and then proceeded on cleaning the mullet. it skin was very tough and when i finally cut it open it was full of orange gunk. there were two big finger-like things inside it. (they looked similar to the claspers on the bottom of male sharks). also there was something in it that looked like an eyeball. it was an off white colour and was connected by red matter. cutting it open it was very much like an onion. fairly tough, with layers. i think this fish will end up as bait rather than food unfortunately. there was definately something wrong with it. even if it is ok to eat, i'd rather not take the chance. have any of you guys encountered mullet like this?
pj
went to mordy again today and picked my shots very very carfully indeed! i was there for the whole day (but wasnt just spearing the whole time). i did 3 seperate spearing sessions of about 45mins and of those i only got 2 fish. the biggest mullet ive ever seen! it was close to 40cm. and weighed nearly 1kg cleaned. i also got a 32cm bream. there are millions of bream! its so good to see such a wide variety of fish in our bay. today i saw bream, leatherjacket, snapper, mullet, salmon, garfish, banjo shark and whiting. i saw so much but only speared two. i found a reef swarming with snapper but as i felt so bad from the previous trip i was too cautious as to which ones would be big enough. i didnt end up shooting any.
back to the mullet. it was swimming slowly, by itself on the sandy seafloor. for a start it was on the bottom when it should be about mid water. i'd already seen a school of mullet pass by and i thought it was just a straggler. i could see it was quite big and darker than any other mullet i'd seen and as i swam towards it, it continued to swim slowly. i got within two metres of it and it saw me and tried to get away. so i shot it. out of instinct more than anything. as soon as i got this fish i headed in. my mates had already gone in i thought it was a good excuse for a break. while i was swimming with it on my spear i noticed there was something wrong with it. its eyes were kind of green when they should have been yellow. they were also indented, as if they had been pushed inwards. it didnt really struggle at all until i was out of the water and then it went nuts. i cleaned my bream and then proceeded on cleaning the mullet. it skin was very tough and when i finally cut it open it was full of orange gunk. there were two big finger-like things inside it. (they looked similar to the claspers on the bottom of male sharks). also there was something in it that looked like an eyeball. it was an off white colour and was connected by red matter. cutting it open it was very much like an onion. fairly tough, with layers. i think this fish will end up as bait rather than food unfortunately. there was definately something wrong with it. even if it is ok to eat, i'd rather not take the chance. have any of you guys encountered mullet like this?
pj
happy fishing,
pj
pj