Robina catfishin' Dec 14

[onionpants]

Got off work early so decided to head down the motorway to the Robina lakes/canals because I had a taste for my favorite fish: eel-tailed catfish (tandanus tandanus). Fished about 2 1/2 hours and had a good time chatting with the locals out for walks while catching the two specimens pictured below plus an eel that I threw back. Better than sitting at home watching TV.

[land_based]

Well done mate. I love catching these suckers in the south pine on earth worms.

[DICER]

you threw the eel back! oh well the eel tails are pretty tasty too. nice

[onionpants]

Hey Rob!

Know of any good spots in particular for catching them in the South Pine? I fished there once and caught only one catfish along with a heap of turtles. And there were too many weeds where I was fishing (was near Albany Creek Rd.).

As for the eels, I keep the bigger ones for my dog but this one was only small. I've talked to a few Asian people while fishing who target them and swear that they are good eating. One gentleman told me that they are excellent steamed "with Chinese herbs".

Chris

[Argle]

Imagine the first person to catch one of those thinking - gee this looks tasty??? Lets eat it and see what it tastes like :o

[fishingnottake]

whereabouts were ya fishing mate?? like was it the canal's walkway between the train station and the shopping centre? or somewhere else? what bait were ya using?
ash

[onionpants]

Argle,

Well I'm American, and if you've ever been to the USA you'd see catfish in every supermarket, in restaurants, just about everywhere. It's farm raised and it's probably the most popular food fish there. You find it whole, fillets marinated in cajun spice, catfish nuggets, etc. Nothing wrong with our taste buds over there, it's sort of like vegemite. You grow up on it and you enjoy it.

If you do a Yahoo or Google search on catfishing you'll see that there are millions of people in the USA who target them thinking "Gee, this looks tasty", so I'm far from the first.

Cheers,

Chris

[onionpants]

ash,

If you have a refidex it was on a bridge over a canal on a street called Beauty Point. It's a quiet residential nieghborhood. I can pull my car up right next to the bridge, hop out, and fish. There's alot of weeds along either side of the canal. The advantage of fishing the bridge is that you can cast out into the middle of the channel and avoid them. I use peeled prawns as bait.

Chris

[Franco]

Any bass there mate?? There are some big-uns in those waters but not sure about that particular spot.

[szopen]

Well done Onionpants.

You finaly got into them.

You might try next time a bit later as they get most active around sunset and later in the night.

Try also using fish for bait this should reduce the turtle catch.

[land_based]

Hey onion pants. HEad towards albany creek along albany creek road form aspley and turn right jsut past the crematorium bronson road??? icant remember. Follow that road till you hit a bridge and there is a park either side. Jump out walk down the park and search around. I havent fished there for a year or so, but there was no weed, plenty of bass, catties mullet and eels!!!

[onionpants]

Rob,

Checked my refidex, saw the crematorium and Bronson Rd. but it didn't show any bridges. But I see the general area and I think I will go take a look. Thanks for the info!

[Louis]

Well done Onionpants.

Glad to see you finally caught some.

Have you given any more thought to the Fork-Tailed Catfish yet?



Louis

[onionpants]

Hey Louis and szopen,


Not really "finally", I've been catching eel-tailed catfish regularly in the Robina Lakes for some time. I posted a message before asking if anyone knew of any other places to fish for them because as of yet Robina is the only place where I've had success in catching them.

I'd try the forktail catfish again. The reason I like the eel-tailed variety better though is because they have a much better meat yield. The fillet starts right behind the head and runs down to the end of the tail. Forktail catfish seem to have bone running down their body, and the fillet starts way back; and you have to catch a really huge one in order to get some decent sized fillets. Or maybe I've been cleaning them wrong.

Anyhow, thanks and Happy Holidays!

[NIZ]

I've caught heaps of those around the robina lakes area. They grow pretty big too around there. There are also some pretty sizeable bream swimming around the edges so if u ever feel the need for something different give them ago.