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Snowys Lures

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SnowE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 06 Feb 2024 at 10:05pm
Sounds like another good trip Martin! Did you get any photos of the SnowE lure after it got roughed up? Send it back to me and I will rebuild it if you like.
Glad you got a few fish, pity about the lure loses though.
Cheers,

SnowE
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2024 at 8:45am
It’s the rear hook hanger with how chewed up it got. I’ve got to go to Brisbane within the next week. Once I know the details I can drop it off to you.. I was thinking of cutting a small end off the tail and RE drilling and RE gluing in the hook hanger.

We had the gaff in it’s mouth to keep it open. Without that it would have chowed down on the lure more 


Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Ducks Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2024 at 8:58am
Just hang it on the wall! Don't put it through anymore torment...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote SnowE Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2024 at 10:43am
Maybe you should just retire it.
Cheers,

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Rivoli Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 07 Feb 2024 at 3:02pm
Thats got 20 more fish in it for sure haha. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Feb 2024 at 12:17pm
Originally posted by SnowE SnowE wrote:

Maybe you should just retire it.

HMMMM … maybe I should. I’ve retired a First Strike lure after it’s first swim after it got mauled by a 2 metre + barracuda.

Here’s some of my retired lures. You’ll see a lot of broken bibs or nose tow lures with broken bibs there. Reef fish like to hit the head of lures so the bibs are one of the weakest points.


Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote p.j. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Feb 2024 at 10:33pm
I see a perfect preserved 60mm. Banana with broken Bib. Next time I send you Lures I can send spare Bibs, so it can come out fish again 

  Knaek & Break 
          Per

Originally posted by horrorhead horrorhead wrote:

Originally posted by SnowE SnowE wrote:

Maybe you should just retire it.

HMMMM … maybe I should. I’ve retired a First Strike lure after it’s first swim after it got mauled by a 2 metre + barracuda.

Here’s some of my retired lures. You’ll see a lot of broken bibs or nose tow lures with broken bibs there. Reef fish like to hit the head of lures so the bibs are one of the weakest points.


P.J. LURES
SO SMOKING HOT
EVEN CUSTOM DOGS LIKE THEM
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Feb 2024 at 1:41am
Well spotted Per. Yes that was a big coral trout that broke the bib on that one.
Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Feb 2024 at 5:17am
Hang that one up too mate. It looks great all chewed up!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 10 Mar 2024 at 9:21pm

This is what it's like at the moment. I was itching to get back to Cooktown after attending personal business in Brisbane. I was only to find more bad weather. Just when it looked like we were able to get to a cattle station to chase barra only for the weather to get bad again.

I have a few new lures to try out and I'm itching to get things done.


Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 Mar 2024 at 6:36pm
We have a tropical low in the Northern Territory heading towards Cape York and another further south near Townsville, both could turn into cyclones. But at the moment we have a few days of god wind’s coming up. Boat is all ready for a reef trip tomorrow. Good weather over the weekend means plenty of boats out but I may still go out. Monday is still looking pretty good.


Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote puglee62 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2024 at 9:23am
get into it mate just keep a little closer to shore and head in if you see any whispy stormy looking fronts coming in
that's no how ye make porridge!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2024 at 8:48pm

So this morning my niece, her boyfriend and I had come off the plane and started trolling along a reef edge. There was plenty of bait showing on the sounder so our hopes were high on landing a spanish mackerel or two. Niece Tiffany was using an orange Ganesy lure and I was using a big saltwater trolling lure from Kuttafurra. Pretty soon Tiffany had hooked up, then just as quickly the line came up loose. She hadn’t been using a wire trace. I circled the boat around and found the lure floating. Crimped points on the hooks assists the fish in throwing a lure once the pressure comes off.

With a wire trace tied on we started trolling again, Tiffany opting to fish the orange Ganesy lure again. She was hit a few more times but the fish would not stay connected. I ended up setting the hooks of my Kuttafurra into a solid spanish mackerel and it jumped all over the place. After it’s final jump in came in relatively easy – it’s tail had been bitten off by a shark with tooth marks all up one side, one wasted fish.

We started a troll to the next reef making sure we didn’t stray into the nearby green zone. Tiffany hooks up again and spends 10 minutes fighting kin a rather large bonito. Boyfriend Shannon bleeds the fish over the side with thoughts of sushi, or crab bait, only to drop it overboard. Now, I’m not going to say that Shannon was given hell over this, but let’s just say that … OK OK OK, we gave him bucket loads of crap and he will cop it for a while yet to come. Somebody else will have to mess up to alleviate the verbal diarrhoea that will be thrown at him until that time.

At the next reef we tried our hardest. I was hit by an undersized coral trout that attacked my Bullship lure on the surface. Shannon managed a little queenfish on a DJR proto lure then he lands a just undersized spangled emperor. This was pretty poor going for this reef. The tides didn’t really help with only a 10 cm difference between low tide and high tide. As the old saying goes – no run no fun. I did loose a brand new First Strike lure on it's first run to something big that took it under a bommie though.

We decided on a troll back to the first reef but I took us over a little bommie that rises from 29 metres to 12 metres on the way. The bait was stacked on this reef and we pulled in a few big scad to use as bait off the wharf. The sounder showed a few big fish hanging around this bait so we trolled around this bommie. Shannon hooked onto a 108 cm spanish mackerel caught on a Kuttafurra Scud, one of Aaron’s timber models (not bad for a yellowbelly lure). A little while later Tiffany hooks onto something B.I.G. using that orange Ganesy. Our first thoughts were of a mega sized spanish mackerek with the first blistering run. But after 15 minutes the fight changed from a span mack fight into xsomething else. I was hoping for a huge coral trout with the slug fest that was happening (wishful thinking) but knew it had to be – a shark. At over 2 metres long and a near 30 minute fight Tiffany did well to bring this shark to the surface. Shannon was able to see just the tip of the bib protruding from the shark’s mouth so it was obvious that this lure was not coming back.

So once the line was cut Tiffany then put on a DJR Jack Hammer and was soon hooked onto a spanisk mackerel. This one stayed connected and now, after 2 previous good fights was into another fight. Little girl- big fight, she was hurting with tired muscles but this fish came on board at 104 cm. This was the fish she really wanted and is her biggest lure caught fish. With 2 big mackerel in an esky that couldn’t close because of tails hanging out we called it a day as we didn’t want these fish to spoil.

A slow day on the reef fish but a good day overall.

Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2024 at 8:54pm
Fish on DJR lures










One of the big scads caught on the Fugly lure




The spanish mackerel on Kuttafurra lures




Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote p.j. Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 15 Mar 2024 at 11:34pm
Not many fish compared to what you usually catch
But I'm sure Tiffany in particular will remember this trip for a while Big smile

    Knaek & break
            Per
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 16 Mar 2024 at 2:02am
Martin ! seems you & your team had exciting day, on the reef with adrenaline running very high with some good hits and catches of legal size.  Saw the video posted on your Facebook,  there was excitement onboard and the hits and catches tells the whole story.   

Thanks for sharing details story on your todays trip, look forward see more.

Regards, Raghubir
Its takes years of hard work, commitment and passion to give a life to a piece of raw timber !!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Mar 2024 at 7:19pm

With dingoes howling from the north shore in the early morning pre dawn I cast my lure out again. I had just launched my boat and was waiting for my crew to arrive when I saw a big barra roll on the surface less then a metre from the boat ramp pontoon. Not wanting to miss an opportunity, I starting casting my moulded Kuttafurra Scud – Aaron’s lastest lure he started to mould instead of making them from timber.On the third cast, the barra of around 80 cm followed my lure, saw my ugly face and quickly turned away refusing to come aback again. I must have really scared it.

Just as this happened my nieces boyfriend turned up, minus my nephew. So Shannon and myself set off. We trolled for a bit as I wanted to find some structure that years ago anchored one of the marker bouys for the channel. Shannon and my niece found it the previous day when they trolled up a couple of school mackerel.

This structure was quickly found using his trolling marks that he was using on Grassy Hill ined up with a section of beach near Indian Head. Shannon hooked a wolf herring (no photo) on a DJR Creak Freak and I hooked a small barracuda on a Fugly trolling lure. With this marked on my slunder / GPS unit, we powered ou to our chosen reef. This is the reef where I had my spanish mackerel from the previous trip bitten in half. As we approached the reef Shannon hooks a bonito on a DJR proto lure.

Trolling further around the reef we both had a couple of missed hook ups. I made sure we trolled over a deep section hole that drops dramatically from the reef. Shannon hooks and lands a 104 cm spanish mackerel on a First Strike lure. On the second pass I landed a nice 112 cm spanish mack using the Fugly trolling lure. Now my fish really gave md some stick and as per the photo, you can see how fat and healthy it was.

With our boat limit od spanish mackerel on board we started flicking the shallow reef. This was the reef section directly on the windward side of the reef we caught very little. I had previously proven to myself that the reef fish prefer the lee side of the reef. So we motored over to the other side of the reef and we were entertained by a constant stream of fish.

Only one of these fish was a keeper and normally I would have put back a coral trout of this size. But as my niece loves a feed of coral trout we kept this just legal fish at 40 cm. I normally don’t like keeping them under 46 cm but today’s lack of bigger fish was the exception.

During our reef foray I kept a close eye on the weather. The various forecasts I use all said north / north easterly winds dropping down to zro kilometres per hour. The actual winds were south easterly and didn’t drop under 15 kilometrs per hour. Rain hit us but no lightning so we were not worried at all. I just don’t like having my vision impaired by rain drops on my glasses. Once again we called an early stop to fishing to make sure the mackerel were still in optimal eating condition.

Another fun trip. Now early tomorrow morning, I’ll see if that big barra is still around that pontoon.

Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Mar 2024 at 7:38pm
Shannon's spanish mackerel on the First Strike lure




DJR lure photos now. The first photo is Shannon diving for a snagged lure - he wasn't going to loose 5 in a day. I made sure he took the extra long nosed, long handled fishing pliers with him












Fish on the Fugly trolling lure






Fish on Kuttafurra Scud lures. Shannon's Scud is a timber lure, mine are Aaron's new moulded Scud lures.














Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote puglee62 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Mar 2024 at 6:36am
good to see you getting into a few at last Martin,thats a nice Mac you got on the mickey mangrove lure!
that's no how ye make porridge!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 19 Mar 2024 at 8:49pm
Mickey Mangrove- I’ll have to remember that.

Was it was a good fish and a great fight. Love catching Spanish mackerel and one of my favourite fish to eat.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2024 at 5:47am
Great to see you out on the water doing what you love. 
I love the photos showing the reef in the background of the fish - looks amazing.
Shannon diving under the water to retrieve a lure brought back bad memories for me Wink Glad he had pliers Hee hee
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 20 Mar 2024 at 2:22pm
Hi ! Shane

Good morning, if u don’t mind sharing your bad exp of diving for the benefit of others who have inclination of trying to save their lures.

Martin, good catches specially king mackerel with detailed story .

Thanks for sharing.

Regards, Raghubir


Its takes years of hard work, commitment and passion to give a life to a piece of raw timber !!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 Mar 2024 at 8:13pm
Since I he last trip we have had 250 mm (10 inches) of rain and some high winds that were not predicted as severe. But I may be able to get out again on Sunday or Monday. Keeping a close eye on the weather apps.

Raghubir - thanks for the encouragement. I do enjoy relating my experience so others can learn or take them into account.

Shane- I’m always worried about someone diving for a snagged lure. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Chep Buxley Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Mar 2024 at 5:26am
This is why I don't swim for lures anymore............

I was about 15, fishing alone in my parent's farm dam. I got a lure snagged and decided to swim out and get it. With my head above water, stretching my arm as far as i could, I could just touch the clip holding the lure on. 
I really wanted my lure back so I put my head underwater and grabbed the lure. As I tried to rip the lure free I got a hook in my finger. I immediately panicked and struggled, knowing this was a really bad situation. 
Remember, I was fishing alone. As much as it hurt to rip the hook out, I needed air. 
I swam back to shore, snapped the line and walked home shaking.

Anyway......I was very lucky and my advice is don't swim for lures. Fin.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Mar 2024 at 3:03pm
Originally posted by Chep Buxley Chep Buxley wrote:

This is why I don't swim for lures anymore............

I was about 15, fishing alone in my parent's farm dam. I got a lure snagged and decided to swim out and get it. With my head above water, stretching my arm as far as i could, I could just touch the clip holding the lure on. 
I really wanted my lure back so I put my head underwater and grabbed the lure. As I tried to rip the lure free I got a hook in my finger. I immediately panicked and struggled, knowing this was a really bad situation. 
Remember, I was fishing alone. As much as it hurt to rip the hook out, I needed air. 
I swam back to shore, snapped the line and walked home shaking.

Anyway......I was very lucky and my advice is don't swim for lures. Fin.

Shane, that was very very scary incident, i can visualize what was going through your mind when u got hook in your finger. Hope it does not happen with anyone neither one should try. One should never  go alone for fishing even though you have all the safety equipment's and always have a buddy. 

Thanks for sharing, regards Raghubir


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar 2024 at 5:03pm

Chasing spanish mackerel back out on the reef. The rain we had after our last trip saw dirty water extend out to the first line of reefs, including the one where we had most of our spanish mackerel hits for the last couple of trips. Because lof this we powered out to this “hump”in the middle of nowhere. This is that hump that rises up more then 20 metres to come within, at one point about 12 metres deep.

Ifrom a distance another boat and judging by their bearing and my GPS I figured that they were fishing MY hump. I had only seen one other boat fish this. As we got closer my nephew recognised the 10 metre boat belonging to a friend of his. Along side they told us that they got some good nannygai and coral trout overnight. We trolled past them after our chat and the bottom was alive with bait with some big fish underneath them.

We didn’t go for another troll here leaving these people to bait fish the bottom there. So we powered further out to another reef that I have only fished a couple of times before. Fishing was tough but Shannon managed a nice coral trout at about 52 cm long. We saw a lot of bakit schools so we started casting around these. Now nephew Andrew got 5 hits from giant trevally landing 2 that went a total overall length on 90 cm each (fork length on one was 76cm and the other 77 cm).

Shannon was hit quite a few times by big fish. He lost 2 giant trvally and a couple of big coral trout. His problem was that his rod was too light. The fish were able to put on a burst of power, bend that rod right ovr which gave them that extra distance to find cover. I suggested that he buys a fast taper rod, something with a bit of power in the middle. I didn’t manage to rise a strike from a giant trevally. No I didn’t spit the dummy but I cried a little (a lot) inside.

We trolled a bit on the way home. I scored a 77 cm bludger trevally and a nice green jobfish. Shannon had the hooks pull on a big spanish mackerel boat side. All up Shannon was broken off by fish and the reef 4 times, but the lure floated up and was retrieve twice. Andrew had his 2 busted off lures float back up twice and both were retrieved For once I didn’t loose a lure. Probably because most of the time I was operating the boat trying to keep us on a good drift.

Tomorrow is looking good – Hey Mickey Rat, what are you doing?

Martin-

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 25 Mar 2024 at 5:18pm
Flood debris, look at the size of this log




DJR lure



First Strike lure



Fugly Mickey Mangrove lure




Ganesy lure






SnowE lure






Kuttafurra Scud




Nomad popper




Unidentified plastic popper


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2024 at 4:37pm

Once Mickey Rat and I had exited the protection of the mountains and hills to the south of Cooktown we found tha the winds were stronger then predicted. A little further out the surface swell had become choppy. I didn’t feel like getting bashed around so I slowed down and we set out a couple of troll lines.

W e soon reached the first reef where we (as a collective of miscreants on previous trips) had quite a few hits off spanish mackerel before (the same reef where my big mackerel got sharked recently). Michael soon had a screaming run and a bent over rod. Head shakes during the fight suggested  a big spanish mackerel. Unfortunately during the fight the fish managed to free itself.

That was our only encounter with what we believed to have been with a span mack. We headed out to the hump that also, with the same said miscreants, we had good successes on the span mack. On the way to there we had a couple of hits and Michael landed a nice mack tuna (what he corrected me on the fish that I often mislabel as a bonito). I aned a nice 70 cm plus spotted mackerel.

The hump didn’t produce and the bait there yesterday was noticeably thinned out. Trolling back to the first reef I trolled out a small bibless Bullship lure. Another spotted mackerel at 67 cm and a mack tuna falls victim o this lure. Michael changed his lure over from a large trolling (Yozuri I think) lure to a smaller trolling lure (if not another Yozuri then one very similar), both we beach found lures. Michael soon lands another mack tuna which we put down to the smaller profile.

While on this troll I saw a few boats heading out.  This gave me hope that the weather was not going to deteriorate as  they would have got a later weather report than what I had seen this morning. Later the winds and surface chop dropped dramatically and we decided to try to lure up coral trout on one of the first line of reefs. Our chosen reef was not our original destination but it was on the way home.

Flicking this reef I had quickly landed a stripey snapper on a molded Kuttafurra Scud. Soon afterwards I had a battle on my hands in 2 metres of water. This fish didn’t look for cover amongst the small patches of coral but swam over the top of them. I had originally thought it was a big spangled emperor as we were in the perfect territory for them.  What ended up running circles around the boat was a big, but sub 1 metre, giant trevally. Michael tailed the fish and I was elated. I was going through GT withdrawals and this fish was the DOPE for that.

Try as we might, the only other fish to come to the  boat were the little reef longfin cods. We thought we were wasting our time so we powered back home on an almost totally flat sea. Not a real exciting day but Michael went home with a small tuna for bait and the 2 spotted mackerel. I gave my nephew the other 2 mack tuna, but I got my GT fix.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2024 at 4:47pm
The photos of one of Michael's mack tuna didn't turn out. I think it's because I went over 1,000 photos taken on my phone and it reset the numerals back to 1. Here is a photo of the mack tuna caught on his smaller lure.




Fish on the bibless Bullship lure.






The spotted mackerel on the Fugly Mickey Mangrove.





Fish on the molded Kuttafurra Scud





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote horrorhead Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 26 Mar 2024 at 4:55pm
OK just checked the identification of the mackerel as they are both quite different looking fish. The bluish coloured one with lots of spots is a full school mackerel. Schoolies have 2 dorsal fins as well whereas spotted only have one dorsal fin. 

The other mackerel is more of the colouration and spots as a spotted mackerel but if you look closely, it too has 2 dorsal fins - the front one as in the school mackerel is folded down.

Up here we see a lot of cross breeding of school and spotted mackerel giving us a mongrel breed. I believe I caught one of these today.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote sudanraghu2210 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: Yesterday at 1:50am
Originally posted by horrorhead horrorhead wrote:

OK just checked the identification of the mackerel as they are both quite different looking fish. The bluish coloured one with lots of spots is a full school mackerel. Schoolies have 2 dorsal fins as well whereas spotted only have one dorsal fin. 

The other mackerel is more of the colouration and spots as a spotted mackerel but if you look closely, it too has 2 dorsal fins - the front one as in the school mackerel is folded down.

Up here we see a lot of cross breeding of school and spotted mackerel giving us a mongrel breed. I believe I caught one of these today.

Thanks Martin for sharing micro level identification of mackerels. The second type of mackerel is only seen in gulf region know by king mackerel & consider to be a price catch in this part of the world. Not come across spots type in this region.

Regards, Raghubir 
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