Melbourne Metro Region, VIC

[Paulv]

Yes i see some massive leather jackets at mordi bigger than i'd ever seen in other popular places. and they are the awesome colorful ones, (theres meant to be over 60 types).. I see plenty of small baby size ones but the bigger ones are generally a bit closer in, past the shopping tolleys if u know what i mean and past the little green box on the pier. they are genrally inbetween 2 ledges that are close together, like a little channel. some would be around the 50cm mark.



The red mullet are at the far tip of the reef close to the pier, they sit under the ledges usually with a couple of zebra type fish. There blue vein head sticks out, and they dont usually shoot off. The yare a good find, but pretty perishable if not kept frsh, when they lose the red colour i wouldnt eat em.



By the way your sick red mullet suffers from mordialloc creek water disease. Its not a good thing.



Can u give me a few clues on the snapper, i have been out countless times at mordi but never seen them, how far out do u go? is it reef or sand?



Paul, i'm gonna try the butter fish again.

[peejaypee]

paul, my mullet was not a red. it was a yellow eye. i thought it may have had something to do with the creek, but why would it only be the 1 fish that gets sick?

pj

[Paulv]

interesting eh.? Mullet do have a thick jelly eyelid known as adipose. maybe it had worn off..but more probable is that the colour of a mullets eye adjust to its location. Maybe this mullet was living mainly around a reef. anyway they are just a few ideas.

Paul

[peejaypee]

yes but why would it be swimming by itself on the seafloor, when mullet normally school mid-water?

pj

[Paulv]

Its really strange. mullet are a very fatty fish, could it be related? obesity?

What do u think the orange gunk was? was it fluid or solid?

Paul

[peejaypee]

looking back, i think it may have been roe or something which leads me to my next point that the fish may have been pregnant and was looking for somewhere to lay her eggs. the stuff was a bright orange colour and most of it was in a thin sack or membrane. gunk is the only way to describe it. it was like a thick disgusting liquid but it wasnt just smooth it was textured sort of. im sorry if i am just confusing you, but its hard to describe.

pj

[Paulv]

Okay if it was pregnant how does that explain the eye colour? could it have adapted to the reed?

I got a little story to tell ya about mordi, i found a ledge and the first time i dived under i founda red mullet which i bagged. and as i kept diving there a round shaped stripy fish about 25cm long kept coming out and moving away. but every time i went back to the ledge it was there again. after about 60 000 dives at the ledge i decided that he had called it home. The next week i went back to the same ledge and he was still there. it just shows that some fish do have a memory of things that are important to them. I suppose i could net it and sell it to mentone aquarium for a good 50 bucks but that does nothing for the fisheries.

Paul

[peejaypee]

i dont know paul what was wrong with the mullet but it makes no difference. its going to be bait not food so that is that! great idea on the spearfishing comp if no1 wants to 'sponser' it or judge and stuff we could just get a group of mates together and all put it $5 and the person with the most centimetres of fish by the end of the day takes all.

pj

[Paulv]

Yeah true, we dont official judges, we can measure up. I could probly get a group of 5, I bloke named shamousrouge spears at mordi and i would say he could get a group. Hopefully your very popular 2.

Ok make it easy, most cms of fish wins.

Paul

[peejaypee]

yeah sounds good but by the look of the weather, we'll have to wait a while... maybe 6 months <img src='http://www.squidfish.net/forums/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif' class='bbc_emoticon' alt='' />

idealy there should be about 5 days of good weather before we go because then the water will be clear as a bell.

pj

[Paulv]

what makes a bell so clear?

[peejaypee]

i don't know its just a saying!

[Paulv]

When you use a float and hang fish off it, do u get heaps of fish come up to take a look?

[peejaypee]

well no, but to tell you the truth i havent really had fish on my float much.

i used to always forget to bring it and thats when we'd catch fish and then when i did bring and put fish on it, i lost it. any anyway fish looking at ur float gives you an easy target, unless they are sharks or rays or other pests. what my mate does is shoots a leatherjacket and then pulls it apart so theres guts everywhere and then he just drops it somewhere and comes back to it in like 5-10mins time. there are normally fish everywhere. although i we hav never done this in victoria as there arnt as many fish here.

pj