Xtra News Community 2

http://<embed width="320" height="240" src="http://www.spike.com/efp" quality="high" bgcolor="000000" name="efp" align="middle" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" pluginspage="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" flashvars="flvbaseclip=2910103" allowfullscreen="true"> </embed> <div style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:12px; background-color: #000; width: 448px; padding: 3px 0; color: #fff;"><a href="http://www.spike.com/video/how-real-men-catch/2910103" style="color: #ffcc35; margin-left: 5px;">How Real Men Catch Fish</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/channel/viralvideo" style="color: #ffcc35">Viral</a> | <a href="http://www.spike.com/" style="color: #ffcc35">SPIKE.com</a></div>

http://www.spike.com/video/how-real-men-catch/2910103

jeez man one would not want to skinny dip over there as they seen to try and swallow any wiggling appendage.(https://cdn.smfboards.com/Smileys/smf/2funny.gif)

Far out - that looks exactly like a Star Gazer / Monk Fish / Toe Biter!

But it looks like freshwater?
 :)

catfish

Wouldn't mind finding out if they are related... probably are... long long ago...

Most of you know Star Gazer / Monk Fish / Toe Biter as that "crab meat" you get from the supermarket.

Oo Dazzy .. stargazer/monk fish should never be eaten ... ah ah noooooooo.
Never seen it in a fish shop.

It was a catfish .. sactly like the ones in OZ.  Honest to god Ive seen a skull of one of them on the Norman River bank - I could not get my arms around the head .. the fish would have been 4 times bigger than that one.

The best fish in Oz to catch are the fresh water bass, and potato cod, both are massive .. the bass fights, but gives up easy and the cod just hangs on and come to the surface.

And the catfish wouldnt be related to the stargazer - sorry  :whme

My stepdad caught an Atlantic Wreck Fish in the Pacific Ocean on a commercial long line in the 60s.  We had to get a dude up from the museum in Auckland to identify it and he took it back for stuffing and display - I saw it a few years later, I guess its hidden in the bowels of the museum now.

It was shaped like a sun fish and bout 4 foot high and 6 foot long, tiny little mouth.

(http://2ni2.com/emoticon/animal/pez.gif)

Nar - they don't sell them whole.
We used to target them just south of Cape Campbell - big buggers they were/are too!

And they looked just the same.

Mostly they are sold as processed fish disguised as something else.


Good money in Monk Fish!
They do ya back in thou - heavy to clean and ice - and slimey to handle, with spikes just above their Gills.

I'm not sure if the 'Toe Biters' found in the shallow waters are the same fish - they are much smaller, but they could just be the youngins.


 :)

I didnt mean whole - and Id be prepared to put a cooked foiled fish out as a bet  :nu - that monkfish and/or stargazer are not sold in the North Island in fish and chip shops - I cant speak for what Southerners will eat  :bgrn

Heres pics of catfish
http://images.google.co.nz/images?hl=en&q=catfish&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

Heres monkfish - similar .. yeh
http://images.google.co.nz/images?hl=en&q=Monk+Fish&btnG=Search+Images&gbv=2

Stargazer/monkfish
http://images.google.co.nz/images?gbv=2&hl=en&safe=off&q=stargazer+fish&btnG=Search+Images

Nar - not in the fish-n-chip shop you wont find them (I don't think), but in any supermarket you will.

They rename them to 'crab meat' and add some colour to them.
In blue packets I think.



Yep - that's a pic of a small one:

(http://www.fishingkites.co.nz/newsletters/images/96e.jpg)

Wish we could create standards for the names of fish.... they change depending on where you are!

The catfish are totally different beast... I shoulda gone and googled them myself.
(http://i703.photobucket.com/albums/ww32/XtraNewsCommunity2/MSN%20emoticons/08emembarrassed.gif)


My bed time - catch ya tomorrow! :slpg

Murray cod are really good eating. We used to catch them between a metre and one and a half in my school days. Called variously peelii peelii  Murray cod, cod, greenfish and goodoo, and perch amongst others it is not a true cod but of the perch family and are very long lived. They are a voracious predator and where they still exist in protected areas of the murrat darling river system have kept the introduced carp ( a plauge on freshwater fish and streams ) under control
It is believed to have been one of the worlds largest freshwater fish but habitat change and over fishing has almost driven them to extinction.
 Believe me they were really great fishing and eating and needed at least bailing twine to catch as they would snap a hand line like cotton.

Actually if you drop a line in port phillip bay victoria aus you will get as many flatheads (star gazaer) as hooks they are so prolific, some a goodly size. they are excellent eating being a sweet fish that goes well on the table, I would reccomend that if you do go fishing you go to eastern side of the bay well away from toens as the harbour is slowly becomming very polluted with sewerage and chem runoff and out beyond the 11 fathom line is far less polluted. there are still some enormous schnapper out there I regurly caught 10 to 20 pounders and 4 to 5 is not uncommon. best bait is sand worms found in the shore sand just tip a bucket up side down in the wet sand near the water line and jump on it and they pop up you have to be quick though as the dissapear very quickly. they are also found under rocks but be careful they have vicious nipper in mouth. Another very good bait is kunji a sort of redmeat sea anemone found on the rocks below high tide line bothe the worms and kunji stay on the hooh and the fisk really go ape for them.

I have a real problem with starg and monk being caught commercially .. they live in the mud and it means the habitat is destroyed with bottom trawling .. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Contrary to what you may have heard, trawls travel just above the sea floor with the 'ground-rope' just touching the bottom every now and again - they aren't like the big bulldozers or vacuum cleaners some make them out to be.

If/when the ground-rope digs in then that's called 'coming-fast' - which is something you try to avoid doing at all costs because it ruins the gear, rips the belly of the net and is dangerous - especially if the weathers a bit shitty. Not only that but you cant catch fish if the boat isn't moving!

It's dredging which you are thinking of I think love - like oyster/scalloping. They are the true bulldozers which plow the sea floor.

Bottom trawling generally isn't as harmful to the seafloor as most believe because a trawl net is designed to herd the fish and the net itself is actually very delicate - dragging one along the bottom like you imply (digging fish out of the mud) isn't something which isn't done.. not on purpose anyway.

The Doors (the things that spread the wings of the net) should touch the bottom more than the net - but their foot print is normally no more than a few inch's and they make a lot of noise - anything in their way has time and warning to move before they get there.


 :)


In the defence of oyster/scalloping - most of the bed's worked in NZ now re-seeded via funds provided directly by the fishermen, and the areas where oyster/scallops grow best are muddy bottoms where not much else lives....


 :)

you have to say that .. yer a fisherman :P

Monk fish is sold in fillets down here.  It only started appearing about a year ago and is a very white meat.

(http://i40.tinypic.com/qx777o.jpg)

This is Wally the giant maori rass, hes tame, lives on the Great Barrier Reef.

Big eh?

Dynamite fishermen accidentally kill diver

Police arrested four fishermen who accidentally killed a diver with explosives.

Police officials in the Phu Cu District in the central province of Binh Dinh told CDNN the Coast Guard heard an explosion and caught the fishermen who tried to escape.

The fishermen told police they saw bubbles and movement under the surface and thought it was a large fish.

One of the fishermen tossed dynamite into the water and after it exploded the group jumped into the water but instead of finding a fish, they found the body of the dead diver.

Dynamite fishing, which severely damages coral reefs, is illegal in Vietnam but a common practice.

Nguyen Ngoc Liem, head of the Phu Cu District police department, said the fishermen would be charged with killing the diver and destroying aquatic resources with the illegal use of explosives.

http://www.cdnn.info/news/safety/s090324.html

Lol... you could say that.

Or you could just say that I know what I'm talking about and I have no reasion to bullshit anyone....

 :pk

Now THAT is a destructive form of fishing.
That should be banned everywhere - period.

 :cf

This gallery is well worth a look through.

http://tools.cairns.com.au/photo_gallery/photo_gallery_popup.php?category_id=1371&offset=0

(http://i40.tinypic.com/xmu914.jpg)

That story about the dynamite fishing reminded me of the dead guy they found after a forest fire in California. He was amongst the burnt trees and wearing snorkelling gear.
It seems a helicopter with a monsoon bucket had scooped him up out of the sea and dumped him on the fire along with the water.