Spanish Mac's Gold Coast

[dazzwa]

Trolled up a couple of Spanish macs on Sat Morning, using halco lazor pro.
Has there been any reports of CIGUATERA. There was a lot of that in em last year I heard. They weigh 8.5kg, what size do you usually worry about it.:D

[sambos]

I Would Eat Them At That Size For Sure
I,d Be Suspicious Of Anything Over 20 Kg But Apparently Were Safe South Of Harvey Bay .I Was At The Ramp At 1770 Recently And Spoke To An Old Mackerel Pro Who Was Offloading His Catch .Now Thats not Far By Water From Harvey Bay . He Was Off Loading Fish To At Least 15kg For Obvious Sale To Public. These Fish Are Pelagics Who Roam The Ocean In Search T Of Food . Why Wouldn,t TheY Travel A Hundred Or So Klms ? I Read AnOTHER Thread About A Manrove Jack Travelling 200+ .

I, D Still Be Confident With School Fish Off This Size DAzzwa. Hook In And Good Chewin.;D

[JB]

Feed a good portion to the neighbours cat... :-X ;D

Under 15kg i wouldnt blink an eyelid mate, just eat it.

[sambos]

Havent Seen To Many Spanish 4kg Or Under If So Probably Undersize

[sambos]

Did You Eat Em Yet Dazzwa? Hope They Tasted Great.haven,t Started Feelin Itchy Hey. Only Joking ;D ;D

[Spaniard_King]

Eat some either way you will know in under 24hours.. my dose only took 6 hrs for a 16kg fish... forget the cat stuff..it's a myth. Definately dont eat any if you are addicted to alcohol and cant go without a beer for 3 mo0nths...:P

Garry

[trueblue]

Up in Townsville we used to eat them up to about 15 kg, but you can never tell. I know guys that got sick with 5 kg fish, and others that ate 30 kg fish without any trouble. Go figure...

Its a judgment call you have to make on your own. The other thing they used to tell us in TSV was to have no more then a 200gram portion of potential Ciguatera carrying fish in a one week period to reduce the chance of a big dose.

Cheers

Mick

[Chalkandcheese]

no worries, its the big ones that cause problems. 8 kilo no dramas

[dazzwa]

Cooked em up on the barbie wrapped in foil, sweet as. Tasted good to, wasnt sure if id like the strong taste. My mate ate the other and he's fine. Told Me Bro that i found some Spaniards so we went back Sunday. Lost 2 lures, so put longer trace on(about 400mm of 18pound) manage to get a 10kg Hoo. Cheers for the input fella's.:)

[cervelo]

Well done Dazzwa

I caught a 7.6kg spanyard in the Bay last weekend, ate the last of it last night - egg and bread crumbed, lime and lemon, and still standing, it tasted fantastic and is vastly superior to spottie.

I wouldn't be throwing anything back under about 12 kg (although a 12 kg would be a lot of fun on the rig I use, the fish would probably do the deciding)

Cheers
Glenn

[sambos]

strong taste is eliminated if you take the skin of dazzwa

[Burley_Boy]

Garry would know if Cig happens south of Harvey Bay so your pro is operating on his knowledge rather than fact. lol

That there was a lot of Cig around last year is new to me, anyone with any facts or figures?
Nice fish anyway.

[barneyII]

Ciguatera occurs wherever you find coral reef fish. It is caused by a microscopic organism called a dinoflagellate. This dinoflagelate lives in close proximity to the brown algae found in areas like Hervey Bay (where there is a heap of it), small fish eat it along with the dinoflagellate and predatory fish like coral trout, red emporer and Spanish mackeral eat them.

Not all fish get ciguatera, is like playing lotto - but losing. The risk certainly increases from eating larger fish. Before red bass were put on the protected fish list in Qld, there was about 2 tonne sold each week from Cairns to the fresh fish fillet market. There were never any large outbreaks of ciguatera because recreational fishers threw these fish back scared that they were full of ciguatera. Truth be told be more likely to get ciguatera from a larger trout then a red bass.

Sopanish and ciguatera and Hervey Bay. Spanish mackeral are a epi-pelagic species, they roam around but might reside around a reef for a while. Yes fish from the highly risky Hervey Bay area can be found all up and down the coast. I catch and keep Spanish from Bundaberg, northern end of Hevey Bay. My family probably have eaten a couple of tonnes of spanish over the years, including big fish like a 27 KG fish I caught last year without a prob. Haven't been many big fish around this season yet, water has been too cool but caught a 13 kg model last weekend. Hopefully next moon.

Back to the answer, yes can get ciguatera from legal sized spanish as well as larger fish -it is a risk. but so is eating any other larger predatory fish such as coral trout. Anyone been getting any larger spanish this season.

[pennsenator]

im going up next weekend to hervey bay to go for a troll has there been much caught lately??

[barneyII]

Comparatively quite up here for this time of year, water temperature is still peaking now, which ia about 6 weeks later then normal.