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View Full Version : Fish species not where their supposed to be



jman2016
15-11-2007, 11:01 PM
G'day,

An article I recently read jogged a memory. a bloke in Cairns has caught hairtail! Now that is unusual.

I remember as a kid my dad catching an australian salmon off CQ. He knew what it was because he used to work (and fish) in Sydney.

I've caught a mackeral in a tidal causeway and have seen a marlin in an estuary.

I'm wondering what everyone else has caught that was not supposed to be there at the time!

loophole
15-11-2007, 11:03 PM
marlin in a esturay

wow where was that ?

Cammy
15-11-2007, 11:09 PM
i havent caught anything like that before but have heard about barra being caught at bribie passage and in logan.

marlin aye hmmm

cam

loophole
15-11-2007, 11:14 PM
marlin lanbased in a estuary wow

wouldnt it be nice

Flattie Assassin
16-11-2007, 05:12 AM
When i was younger i seen a massive knobby caught off the Woody Point Jetty. Thats' uncommon.

MitchCalcutt
16-11-2007, 06:22 AM
It wasn't uncommon to catch black marlin inside Sydney heads in the 40s and 50s. I have some photos of huge marlin and sharks being landed where the SHB is.
There have been Blacks hooked and landed inside the southport seaway.

basskid
16-11-2007, 07:01 AM
yer mate i caught a 73cm broad bar mackeral in a very small estuary system on a plastic man it was great

Flattie Assassin
16-11-2007, 07:43 AM
There is an excellent read in the latest fishing world mag, about an old local who caught a metre long wild barra in the Noosa river.

Goes something like this.

I launched Life's Good at dawn and headed upstream. The morning was still and overcast, so I selected my one and only tilsan barra lure and was casting at the snags by 5.15am on a rising tide. With no breeze i had a perfect drift, and my casting was "on song" as i fired cast after cast into the zone.

My first reward came at about 6am when a solid Jack slammed my lure and headed for the timber. The jack found refuge on a downstream snag and locked me up. I kept the pressure on and engaged the electric, motored over the snag, and the jack swam free and was soon in the net. At 420mm, Not a bad start.

Inspired, i continued casting. The forecast southeast change began to blow upstream as the tide approached it's peak. I guessed I had another 15 min of run in and decided to call it quits at 7.30am. When the winds would be against the tide and the winds unfavourable. A perfect cast put my lure into a likely looking pocket in the snags, a few cranks on the handle of my calcutta and all hell broke loose, the water erupted and the 20 pd braid screamed off the reel.

I caught a glimpse of a silver flank as the fish flashed towards open water. "it's a barra and it's a big bastard". I leaned back and manouvered to the middle of the river. The barra broke the surface again, head shaking and gills flared. I loosened the drag a little, I knew I needed to tire the fish. Momentarily the line went slack and i thought it was all over. But she was swimming towards me. I quickly took up the slack and after a few more short runs she was at the side of the boat.

Somehow i had managed to juggle her into my landing net. I was absolutely stunned by her sheer size. 1m of gleaming silver. As i lifted her from the net the lure had separated , no doubt t\due th the crushed barbs. After admiring the fish and getting a photo taken by a passing boat owner, I swam her for several minutes using the electric outboard until she bit down on my thumb and swam away. I hope her future Noosa River mornings are a little less traumatic.

Now that is an fish of a lifetime.

FA

Noelm
16-11-2007, 07:44 AM
I have caught and have seen a few Spangled Emperor at Shellharbour and a 'wait for it" a Coral Trout at Port Kembla positively identified, about 20 years ago, now that fish was lost.

nuggstar
16-11-2007, 07:48 AM
cool assassin you rock

Sandman
16-11-2007, 08:28 AM
This is second hand info however a friend told me he hooked a small black near the 4 beacons one year although it was dropped apparently he had 3 witnesses to this ?

blaze
16-11-2007, 09:56 AM
dolphin fish, south east tasmania and I believe sighted by our member Bugman
cheers
blaze

choppa
16-11-2007, 11:31 AM
stalk eyed swimmers in bribie passage,,,, barra in both the passage and maroochy rivers,,,, barra caught and confirmed in the logan,,,,

and the list goes on,,,, this year especially in pumicestone has seen an unusual amount of blue swimmers that have hung around ALL year,,,, heaps of pelagics about and albeit this is not uncommon,, the amount of them certainly is,,,

water temp is certainly a factor in this as well,,,,,,,,, for those of you who subscribe to sunfish,,,, marlin have been spotted and confirmed from BEGA in nsw southern regions in both off shore and bay areas,,,

choppa

the gecko
16-11-2007, 02:00 PM
Marlin spotted in Tallebudgera Creek in the 80s by my missus. She pointed and told her friends who were with her at the time, and nobody believed her. 10 mins later, some guys in a tinnie hook onto it, and it jumps up doing aerials for all to see!! It towed the tinnie around for 10-15 mins before it broke free. Andrew

ffejsmada
16-11-2007, 04:09 PM
White Pointer in Tallebudgera Creek as well back in '80's or so.

manchild
16-11-2007, 06:26 PM
Deepsea toads in the southern bay by plague propotion but only for a day.
George

imnotoriginal
16-11-2007, 06:46 PM
Pikey bream at the sunshine coast...I thought these fellas were much further north than here.
Joel

lifestyle
16-11-2007, 09:18 PM
Don't know if it is true. But a marlin of the jetty in cabbage tree creek at sandgate. Have a look in the fish and chip shop wall accross from the jetty. I think there was a articale on it.

Cammy
16-11-2007, 09:57 PM
hmm i dont beleive that marlin at the jetty, i fish there and i dont beleive that would happen.IMO. but it gets quit deep there, but with all the boats goin in and out and the people, i dunno.

cam

artesian
17-11-2007, 12:26 AM
there are heaps of barrier reef type fish such as lion fish in syd harbour up until about July when the temp drops fast to 13C
Believe they travel south as larvae in the current

Kayak1
17-11-2007, 03:05 PM
Confirmed catch of a 600mm mackeral three weeks ago above a tidal causeway in the Calliope River 22klm from the mouth. It takes a 3.6m tide before it runs over upstream of the old causeway.

Steve.

littlejim
17-11-2007, 03:15 PM
My best, about 3 years ago, a Queensland school mackeral near Cresswell in Jervis Bay. A guess we'd had big glob of warm water come down the coast just beforehand.

jigsnreels
17-11-2007, 08:51 PM
My neighbour has the bill of a 1000lb black he hauled aboard in a bay in SE Tas:o:o

Cammy
17-11-2007, 09:25 PM
whoa how long is it? width?
thats amazing.

cam

tunaticer
17-11-2007, 09:36 PM
Hairtail in Trinity Inlet are a fairly regular event, I caught 3 in one evening there about 12 yrs ago and i know guys who actively target them and get sporadic results in Townsville areas. I have caught school mackeral in Eurimbula Creek about a km upstream of the bar on several occasions. My best mate caught a barra in Bullocks Creek near Donnybrook a dozen or more yrs ago.

The oddest thing i have ever heard of is Pearl Perch being caught in the Tweed River tho......that is very hard to understand a deepwater fish in a shallow river.

Jack.

loophole
17-11-2007, 10:32 PM
Hairtail in Trinity Inlet are a fairly regular event, I caught 3 in one evening there about 12 yrs ago and i know guys who actively target them and get sporadic results in Townsville areas. I have caught school mackeral in Eurimbula Creek about a km upstream of the bar on several occasions. My best mate caught a barra in Bullocks Creek near Donnybrook a dozen or more yrs ago.

The oddest thing i have ever heard of is Pearl Perch being caught in the Tweed River tho......that is very hard to understand a deepwater fish in a shallow river.

Jack.

yesss that peral perch i saw the pic and i cant understand????:-/

dogsbody
18-11-2007, 06:45 AM
I caught crabs off some bird once. ;D Sorry couldn't help myself. True tho.


Dave.

MitchCalcutt
18-11-2007, 07:15 AM
I caught crabs off some bird once. ;D Sorry couldn't help myself. True tho.


Dave.
Hi Dave, I sure hope you didn't eat them.
Mitch

IRMC000
18-11-2007, 07:48 AM
Giant Herring in Lake Macquarrie NSW.

dogsbody
18-11-2007, 08:25 AM
No Mitch but gee they sure are mean son's of bitches.


Dave.

FNQCairns
18-11-2007, 08:35 AM
The number of hairtail (actually any) caught in FNQ sure surprised me, I caught a small fingermark of the salamander jetty at Port Stephens 7 years ago.

cheers fnq

NAGG
18-11-2007, 12:47 PM
An Atlantic Salmon off Broken bay Sydney ( my guess an escapee from Tasmania

A bone fish was caught in Port Hacking ( Syd) a few years back .... & verified by Fisheries .... Nagg

Keechie
18-11-2007, 01:16 PM
hi
i don't think there would be a marlin caught off the jetty at cabbage tree creek but i have caught a 30cm parrot fish fishing for bream off the jetty at the watermark resort along bulcock beach.

regards,
keechie

bballfisho
18-11-2007, 03:38 PM
i think threadfin salmon in the upper reaches of the brisbane river are unusual because what fish would want to live in the river especially around the oxley sewage plant where we caught one yesterday.

jman2016
19-11-2007, 08:18 PM
marlin in a esturay

wow where was that ?

Corio bay Central Queensland - chasing bait schools

websquid
20-11-2007, 07:11 AM
About 8 years ago, whilst getting the tinnie back on the trailer at fisherman's island boat ramp, a guy in a larger boat opened his esky to show me a rather large red emperor. He wouldn't say where he hooked it but I certainly wouldn't have taken his boat out the south passage.

bugman
20-11-2007, 02:55 PM
Yep,

A 6kg cow Mahi Mahi caught off the shelf south of Pirates Bay (close to Port Arthur) last year. I saw it on the weigh stand and apparently was swimming with another.

Just to put that in perspective - the water temp usually hovers around 15 degrees and I've dived there in the area (closer to shore) where it has been as low as 12.5.

They were the most lost fish I have ever heard of.

Brett

Andrew Susani
20-11-2007, 07:03 PM
I caught a lot of hairtail in Townsville harbour near the restaurant overhanging the water in front of the casino carpark. For a while it was a fish every cast. This happened for 5 or 6 nights in a row in July 2004 while on holiday, and talking to other people who have lived there for a while, it's not that uncommon.

This was the biggest one (see pic below). All were caught on gold bombers on dusk. Not much paint left on the lures once the hairtail army had finished with them. :-/

http://i123.photobucket.com/albums/o301/andrewsusani/DSC00850FNQhairtail.jpg

I also got a 3kg and a 4kg blue salmon off these rocks one afternoon, just chucking gold bombers around.

Other oddities include a baby GT which I caught up a creek near Fairy Meadow, Wollongong, several years back; I have heard of many tropical species including trevally and barracuda being caught in the hot water outlet in Port Kembla harbour; and wahoo out near the shelf at Eden many years ago.

But strangest of all was a fully grown samba deer stag which was found swimming across Twofold Bay in Eden by some guys participating in the annual fishing comp in the late 90's. They dragged it aboard their boat but it was so tired it died of exhaustion on the way into shore. They guessed that wild dogs had chased it into the water somewhere off South Head. From memory it weighed something in the vicinity of 700lb. The local paper took a photo of it hanging from the Eden Fishing Club's gamefish scales! :-*

B_E_N
21-11-2007, 08:52 AM
now there was a photot of a guy with a marlin tied up on baxters jetty at shorncliffe at the shelley inn across the road, dont remember what the article said but ive never seen a boat tie up there just to get a pic with a marlin on the jetty so it does raise questions.
also ive caught small queenfish, fingemark, tailor right up in the creek, mackeral and moses perch in cabbagfe tree creek

kingtin
21-11-2007, 10:10 AM
Hi Dave, I sure hope you didn't eat them.
Mitch

Dunno but he's been walking sideways ever since. ;D

kev

BrandonH
21-11-2007, 10:14 AM
I know that the marlin was caught from Baxter's Jetty Cabbage tree creek many years ago.. About 15 years ago I use to fish the jetty quite often and had lots of discussions with the locals about this fish!! The guy that got it was fighting it for over half an hour and it was apparently hooked shortly after a trawler entered the creek.

Attached

Pic 1 Magpie caught on Scarborough reef, was sooo tired it landed on my mates rod while his plastic was out!! We ended up walking it to shore where it sat for a good 20mins b4 flying towards land:)

Pic 2 Spotted or Red scat, I have caught 2 of these in my life both in a cast net both around the 2-3lb mark. Fishing Noosa had a pic of one a quite a few months ago stating that they were a very rare catch. They are also worth a fortune in the aquarium trade!!

Pic 3 Paddle tailed grunter or something??? All i can remember is that I posted this fish on the site a few months ago and was told whats it doing in the North Pine river?

Cheers
Brandon...

kingtin
21-11-2007, 10:17 AM
About 8 years ago, whilst getting the tinnie back on the trailer at fisherman's island boat ramp, a guy in a larger boat opened his esky to show me a rather large red emperor. He wouldn't say where he hooked it but I certainly wouldn't have taken his boat out the south passage.

We caught 8 juvenile reds on yakka jigs tipped with squid in less than 20 minutes at the E3 beacon last year.

Also caught a giant herring right up past the paper mill in the Pine River.........they go off! ;D

6 Giant Toadies to 4 kilo at the pin.............they were biting clean through ganged 4/0's

kev

http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b182/bidkev/toady.jpg

Covertfly
21-11-2007, 10:59 AM
Attached

Pic 1 Magpie caught on Scarborough reef, was sooo tired it landed on my mates rod while his plastic was out!! We ended up walking it to shore where it sat for a good 20mins b4 flying towards land:)


Brandon,

That bird looks more like a Butcher bird to me??? still a little wayward and at least he was ok after a little rest

Craig

Obi _ Wan
21-11-2007, 10:01 PM
I caught a pretty reasonable Mangrove Jack (about 3lb) around 30 years ago in Sydney Harbour whilst fishing for bream.

And, yes there was a Marlin caught off Baxters Jetty some years ago, can remember reading about it and seeing a photo in the local paper. Found it hard to believe at the time, we thought that it must have been a bit crook or was coming in to delouse itself, who knows?

Cheers,
Obi_Wan

basskid
22-11-2007, 06:26 AM
BrandonH,
That is an awsome pic of the bird hahaha it made me laugh and think wow thats special. I have never seen a wild bird that brave, thanks for sharing that mate,
cheers

Covertfly
22-11-2007, 08:17 AM
Basskid,

i have had a similar experience to Brandon but with a small Azure Kingfisher. Didn't have the camera out so missed the opportunity. It landed on my spare rod while i was bass fishing in a small creek out of a kayak. when i went to get the camera out he flew off. But the experience has stayed with me since, next time if it happens again i will be more prepared.

Have also witnessed a very bold Sea Eagle that will almost take a fish out of your hand if you wave it about above your head. I reckoned that if we had a bag of pillies we could have got some great shots of her swooping in for one.
Reminder to self, Take small bag of WA pillies to that spot next time!!

Craig

BrandonH
22-11-2007, 09:05 AM
Craig, your right mate butcher bird lol.. been a bloody long week:-/

I have also had a White breasted sea eagle swoop down about 3 meters away from me!! He decided the Dart i had caught and just thrown back was too good to let swim away! I love how close you get to nature when fishing:)

Cheers
Brandon...

Covertfly
22-11-2007, 11:07 AM
Thats why we do what we do

Craig

littlejim
22-11-2007, 03:18 PM
Covert,
Don't know if your sea eagle was at JB, where we saw a sea eagle do the same to its own fish, not one of ours. I liked my mate's comment - 'did you see that? He didn't even get his ankles wet!'
Another time one of the Steamer's seals put on a show, that lasted about two minutes, of sidestroke, backstroke, tail waving etc. just behind the boat, before pinching the undersize snapper I caught. He also swam up and waved it around in front of us before buzzing off.

mattooty
24-11-2007, 09:56 PM
Accidnetally posted this same thing in the "strangest fish" thread but was meant to come in here.
250kg queensland groper found floating dead down the clarence a few days ago (northern nsw). There have been hundreds caught around the bridges between 200-400kg but fishing for them has been non existant for 30 years so its a real eye opener looking at a fish that has a mouth you could sit in. they reckon that it either died of old age or from being hooked on a shark setline. It had its stomach coming out its mouth, so i dunno if that means its eaten something is shouldnt have or what. Ive got the paper but no scanner so ill try and get it up here when i get home from schoolies.
cya guys

B_E_N
30-11-2007, 03:39 PM
that marlin that was apparently caught off baxters jetty at shorncliffe wasnt caught.
talking to my father last night, a boat had gone out and caught it and it had died on them so they didnt know what to do with, came it couldnt put it anywhere so let it off in the creek, that guy saw it, ran home got a rod and grabbed it, put a hook thru it and sent it back out again, wait for it drift out then made a comotion about hooking something big when all he was doing was pulling in a dead weight, then up comes this dead marlin and claims he caught it

cuzzamundi
30-11-2007, 06:19 PM
definitely true about the marlin - common knowledge around the area - havent heard that version ben, but it wouldn't surpirse me!

cuzza

barkers creek
03-12-2007, 12:29 PM
Corio bay Central Queensland - chasing bait schools

ild believe that ,,that gets incredibly deep there near the point left to fishinmans creek

breamnut
03-12-2007, 02:35 PM
i caught a pearl perch on plastic in tweed river in 2ft of water

jackson4300
03-12-2007, 11:20 PM
i was just thinking, with the marlin caught off jetties, i know from experience that marlin have just a little pulling power right?
if i was fishing off a jetty the heaviest rig i would use would be to target jew when i am feeling extremly lucky.
I can believe the part about a marlin being that close inside but not about them catching it, hooking it maybe but not bringing it in.

Last year got a smallish marlin just behind the waves breaking just outside the seaway.

Another is, a friend purchased a new lure while at the pin and decided to test it out, went just outside the bar, meaning just behind it (on the outside) and caught a black around 80kg within 20 minutes of trolling and its taken me how many years to get one...

jackson4300
04-12-2007, 12:42 AM
I was just having a think about this when i realised, i had caught a certain species out of their comfort zone

i have caught catfish that werent in the brissy river :o ::)

reidy
16-01-2008, 12:51 PM
Good day all,
Heard of a 50lb Yellowfin in the mouth of the Brid River (Bridport Bass Straight Tassie)about 15 years ago. Around the same time several strippy tuna were netted at Port Sorrell river mouth around 70k further west.
Warm current must have swung into the strait from the east coast bringing these dudes with it.
Cheers
Reidy

Little grey men
16-01-2008, 02:08 PM
Didn't actually catch this fish, but it was definitlely not where it was supposed to be........

One early morning many years ago I walked down to the Skateboard bowl from my unit which used to be just above scotts point at Redcliffe. It was a twin concrete bowl setup sunk into the ground, a small bowl about twelve ft wide and three ft deep and a large bowl about twenty ft wide and about eight ft deep conected by a narrow keyway....anyway, I positioned the tail of my skateboard over the lip of the small bowl and dropped in, through the keyway I went, picking up a lot of speed to go flying into the larger bowl to execute some groovy bone jarring trick.
As I reached the entrance of the large bowl going very rapidly I started down the steep side of the huge concrete hole in the ground, laying in the bottom of the heavily graffitied bowl was a very large shark ( most likely placed there by some bored commercial fishermen with a sense of humour )
It had the desired effect, in the nanosecond it took me to reach the bottom of the bowl containing this big evil killing machine from the deep, I felt my hair stand on end and my world just stopped. I can't possibly describe the noise I made, but I'm sure that it would have scared the devil himself.
As I was travelling toward the beast I tried to jump from my board but as I was already heading down a very steep downhill slope and going very fast, gravity was not my friend. I remember landing on top of the toothy monster with my knees pads, and just as quickly I was jumping through the air out of the eight ft deep bowl fueled by pure adrenalin.
I'm sure the fright I got could only be equalled by me being confronted by a werewolf or some other nightmarish creature.
That fish was really not supposed to be there.:(

reelemin1974
20-01-2008, 07:02 AM
LGM, that s funny!!! I bet you turned around in a flash to see if anyone saw you!

Willow1
20-01-2008, 08:52 PM
Hairtail caught off beach just south of Townsville at night. Couldnt believe it when daughter walked up off the beach and dropped it onto the veranda. Cheers Shane

blueblackstripedmarl
22-01-2008, 08:24 PM
hi all The banks off jervis bay south coast nsw gets its share of visitors. I got a nice pearl perch last year but going back ive got wahoo and rainbow runner

reidy
02-04-2008, 09:51 AM
Good day all,
This ones a ripper.
Have started a thread re species.
Mate of mine (Paul Snare) lost(at the boat whilst deciding what to do with it(thought it was a juvi stripped marlin with a missing bill) a small 20-30kg SHORT BILLED SPEARFISH off Tassies East coast last week-end.These little beasties are rear enough in there home waters let alone off Tassie so i believe.
Picked it up on a small pusher.
Some crazy critters are coming down on the East Aust. Current these days eg Dolphin fish last year
Cheers
Reidy