West Aussie Adventures 6: Mulloway

[Shufoy]

My compatriot Mattyoga's effort this week, congratulations mate!

After a 35min tussle, he landed this beauty!!







120cm and 16kg of Mulloway, very similar to your White Sea Bass. A sensational fish taken from the Swan River, on the doorstep of Perth.


Love ya work mate!


Matt's take on the capture:

Originally Posted by Matt Checksfield

Every couple of months I'll give a 5 day course of Ayurvedic treatments (google ayurveda if you want to know what it is ) and this week is one of those weeks. I'd scheduled to be doing treatments most evenings from 5 to 8pm which put a spanner in the works for a night time fish. Tuesday was looking good and I managed to get the treatment brought forward to 3:30pm. At 6:30pm I was out the door and called Brett, who was already at the launch spot. He was happy to wait so I toed it over to him and very quickly setup my woefully arranged (read not really unpacked from the last trip) gear.
A 16kt wind was forecast though the swan was almost glassing off - we headed out and did a recky of the area looking for ground and fish before choosing our spots. I chucked out a halco trembler as the sunset but had no response. Also chucked out a mulie on a paternoster rig on the 15kg boat outfit while I was prospecting with the lure, then when the light faded, took the lure off and stuck another mulie out on the 10kg spinning outfit.
time went by, and big schools of something (small fish?) were passing by underneath, though could not be coaxed by blue or whitebaits on a gang of hooks, or little morsels on a sabiki. Brett wasn't getting any action either. Nearby dolphins were splashing around. time went by... (as it does when fishing for mulloway!) As I cast and retrieved the bluebait I saw my new crystal blue rod's tip give one quick short, but firm nod. I put the light outfit down and as I went to pick the crystal up, it lunged and began to let out line. I let it run with moderate drag – it ran for ages, taking ~150m of line.
By now Brett had made his way over to see what all the commotion was about and was alongside offering moral support. Was it a shark? he asked what I called it for and I said, 'might be a mulloway', but I thought these things gave one or two good dashes then were spent. "maybe its a bull shark' I said as it seemed to have pretty good stamina. By now 20 mins had passed and the lactic acid was building in the arm, I had to straighten it every now and then to free the cramping. I was gaining line 20cm at a time and then loosing 50cm then gaining 50cm it was a long slow drawn out battle - but finally I got to the leader.

Brett offered to net it, though I wanted to try myself until I finally got my first sight :shock: , yep this thing was golden and croaking and was no bull shark and nope, don't think I can net it myself. and nope, neither can Brett and nope don't think the lip grips are the go either. time for the glove - Brett donned a glove and took a firm hold of the gills and expertly hoiked it aboard - it croaked in protest though was on board at last. There was no transferring of this fish from yak to yak, so Brett headed for the launch site and I quickly followed in a bit of a daze from it all. Brett had the thing occupying his whole cockpit and could only do short peddles so suffered some leg burn in the process. Back at the beach I got my first feel of the monster, seated in the yak while Brett took the pics. It was bloody heavy - I was lost for words and found it all a bit surreal.
The fish measure wasnt long enough so I got a tape measure and confirmed the 120cm accurate guess that Brett had made. My scales only go to 7KG so were no use. Took a good hour or so to clean and fillet it - It came up 16Kgs on the bathroom scales and gave 6.5Kg of fillets - the head alone weighed a couple of kgs :shock: Fish was a male, heavily loaded with roe so much so that it jizzed all over Brett's beloved Shufoy in the landing process - sorry mate :roll: Didn't have anything in its stomach.
So a big big thankyou to my fishing buddy Brett - as always a fantastic buddy and expert fishing buddy at that. Guess what I'll be eating for the next few days! ( and Brett too )

[bellcon]

aussie um
awesome
thanks fer sharing yer adventures!!

[kurt]

Well, now we know where the White Sea Bass go to. Congrats on a sweet fish.

[bajadog]

Nice toad....

[Matt]

Dayum nice fishin!

[steveooo]

I didn't understand a word you just said, but awesome fish!!!

[Handymansd]

Great ...now that it's posted here...next week there will be 20,000 powerboats from LaJolla in your spot! Just kidding! Nice Post!

Great catch and great story! Gotta Love those (Mulloway?) It looks a lot like our WSB. I am guessing it tastes the same?

Congrats!!

[MalibuJohnny]

Is this one of those Sea Bass?

[lamb]

Beautiful fish!

I don't think they make big enough nets for that kind of fish - the gaff is in order!

[Handymansd]

Originally Posted by MalibuJohnny

Is this one of those Sea Bass?

Nope... that is one of those elusive Calico Hoochie ass... I mean Bass.

[Siebler]

Awesome fish.

Looks more like an Orange Mouth Corvina than a WSB to me

[Iceman]

Looks more like an Orange Mouth Corvina than a WSB to me

I thought so too......they have more of a bronze tone, I have seen WSB with the mouth that color. wonder if the tail is straight or triangular.......can't tell. definitely looks like the tail is triangular in this pic of one.

http://lh6.ggpht.com/_sBKNLMmO1Tw/Rh...umburu+049.jpg



Helluva fish to pull out of the darkness!

[Shufoy]

Thanks Guys.

The golden colour is typical of river caught Mulloway, when they come out of the ocean they are very silver in colour.

Scientific name is "Argyrosomus Hololepidotus". We also have Northern Mulloway, which are very similar except for a narrower back. Both have a large "paddle" shaped tail, and grow up to 30+kg. Western Australian record for a Mulloway is over 40kg.

[MalibuJohnny]

Originally Posted by Handymansd

Nope... that is one of those elusive Calico Hoochie ass... I mean Bass.

I bit the yellow one and it bit back...so its stilll swimming free around 32D 50.00'N. x 117D 17.50'W

[Grego]

Originally Posted by Shufoy

Thanks Guys.

The golden colour is typical of river caught Mulloway, when they come out of the ocean they are very silver in colour.

cool...live in both waters...like our Striped Bass. Does it taste better coming from salt or fresh? Another fish up in norhern cal called a Sturgeon is my all time favorite sashimi....2-3 days out of salt into the fresh and that meat was like candy.

[Shufoy]

Yeah definatley, the ocean fish have a much sweeter taste, are less "stringy".

Once they get over a certain size , they become a little tougher too, with less flavour.

[Dan]

killer fish! In the dark is how our Sepo WSB play too.

[Dane101]

Found a link that shows all the croaker family .Click on the different fish names - then scroll down to Google image at the bottom........ http://genomics.senescence.info/species/browser.php?type=4&name=Sciaenidae

[Dane101]

Check this -http://http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summary/speciessummary.php?genusname=Menticirrhus&speciesname=undulatus

[roosta]

That looks like a "kob" or "kabeljou" that we catch back in South Africa. The South African record is 73.5kg or 161lbs. We catch them from the beach or from boats. They frequent our estuaries too. I always think about fishing for them from the kayak when I go home for vacations, but the increase in white shark population keeps me out of the water... haha!