jewfish

[Ken Gargett]

I remember being woken up abut 3am one day when we were living at Indooroopilly when i was at Uni and there being a monster jewfish in the doorway. the old man had caught one down the spit and brought it back. Thought I would appreciate seeing it before he filleted it (which I did, to be honest). Could hardly see dad behind it but it was not this big. Not close. This is a monster! Apparently caught in south Africa. Did not even realise they had jewies over there.

[Drguano]

Ahem...

[Ken Gargett]

5 minutes ago, Drguano said:

Ahem...

not sure i follow?

actually, pretty certain i don't. have i missed something? 

[Drguano]

1 minute ago, Ken Gargett said:

not sure i follow?

actually, pretty certain i don't. have i missed something? 

Oy vey...?

[Drguano]

It is easier to say than Argyrosomus japonicus. 

[Ken Gargett]

2 minutes ago, Drguano said:

Oy vey...?

ah, if i follow now, it seems there might be some reservations as to the name of the fish?

not too much i can do about that. that is the name they have (it gets shortened to jewies by fishermen). https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/fisheries/species-identification/inshore-estuarine-species/jewfish

there would not be a fisherman in australia who didn't know exactly what one meant if one talked about a jewfish or a jewie. and not one would equate it in any way with any religion. other than perhaps for a lot of thanking of your preferred divinity if you catch a big one. 

 

 

[Ken Gargett]

4 minutes ago, Drguano said:

It is easier to say than Argyrosomus japonicus. 

you've clearly never met an aussie fisherman.

[Drguano]

 l should have included a smiley face with my original comment.

Whem you say I've never met am Aussie fisherman, that a dig at Rob's prowess with the rod?

 

[Bartolomeo]

2 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

I remember being woken up abut 3am one day when we were living at Indooroopilly when i was at Uni and there being a monster jewfish in the doorway. the old man had caught one down the spit and brought it back. Thought I would appreciate seeing it before he filleted it (which I did, to be honest). Could hardly see dad behind it but it was not this big. Not close. This is a monster! Apparently caught in south Africa. Did not even realise they had jewies over there.

 

That's impressive, love spearing these when I can but obviously never this big

 

Here in the States, jewfish=grouper, grouper=jewfish....same thing

 

thanks for posting Ken

[westg]

Impressive ..I hope he released that fish. Would not have thought one of that size very good to eat. Here in WA we call them mulloway Ken, have seen some very big examples caught , nothing like that though.

[jwr0201]

Goliath Grouper.  Catch 'em here along the jetties during summer as juveniles.   A 35 to 50 pounder is a baby!   Ours look quite different from yours.  Nice fish!  I assume you have to catch & release too.

[Bill Hayes]

The name jewfish refers to the large earstones, which are prized as "jewels" by some fishers.

[Ken Gargett]

1 hour ago, Bartolomeo said:

That's impressive, love spearing these when I can but obviously never this big

 

Here in the States, jewfish=grouper, grouper=jewfish....same thing

 

thanks for posting Ken

hopefully covering several responses at once here. 

i must say that the thought of spearing one of these horrifies me - and yes, i know that the end outcome for the fish is no different if someone catches and keeps one. i know it makes no sense but i can't quite get past it. 

we have grouper/groper here. i think that it is illegal to catch them now. but they are a very different fish. to compare with american fish, think of a large, more cumbersome bluefish. they do school but not to the same extent and they are not as voracious but they are similar in looks. small ones here are sometimes mistaken for tailor (what we call bluefish - our bluefish/tailor don't get as big as yours, but the advantage is that ours don't get worms). 

there may be something similar in the states but this fish (i did some checking) is restricted to the coastal waters surrounding Australia, Africa, India, Pakistan, China, Korea and Japan. 

 

 

10 minutes ago, jwr0201 said:

Goliath Grouper.  Catch 'em here along the jetties during summer as juveniles.   A 35 to 50 pounder is a baby!   Ours look quite different from yours.  Nice fish!  I assume you have to catch & release too.

i'm puzzled by this one (unless the original photos are giving the wrong impression). definitely not a goliath grouper. very different fish. your goliath grouper very similar to some of our very large groper/groupers - always the chance of different names in different locales but our jewfish/mulloway is not like the goliath. of course, that might be why they look different. 

but as i mentioned, this was not caught here. caught in south africa. i've never seen an aussie one that big but there are stories of them up to six feet. often caught in holes along the shoreline by beach fishermen or off the rocks. pillies or worms good bait. 

42 minutes ago, westg said:

Impressive ..I hope he released that fish. Would not have thought one of that size very good to eat. Here in WA we call them mulloway Ken, have seen some very big examples caught , nothing like that though.

westie, i agree. i hope it was released. that said, a fish that size after the battle that would have been needed to bring it in, would have been absolutely exhausted. you'd have to wonder how it would have fared if it was released, especially with the large great whites in those waters. 

agree - not great to eat when they get big. often get worms. the smaller ones are good.

and yes, mulloway another name used here. dusty kob in south africa. i thought that the process of standardising names, a decade or two ago, had ruled that they should all be called jewfish, but from what i am now seeing, that might have subsequently changed or i might have been wrong in the first place. 

[Ken Gargett]

2 hours ago, Drguano said:

 l should have included a smiley face with my original comment.

Whem you say I've never met am Aussie fisherman, that a dig at Rob's prowess with the rod?

 

i didn't think you were really having a go at me, but i wasn't quite sure. as for rob, you may think that but i couldn't possibly comment!

[Fosgate]

Saw this yesterday and thought the thread might enjoy after reading. 

 

 

[Ken Gargett]

7 minutes ago, Fosgate said:

Saw this yesterday and thought the thread might enjoy after reading. 

 

 

they are serious fish. there is a burst of blood at one stage. not sure if that was the speared fish or the bloke being dragged into the wreck. 

[Drguano]

1 hour ago, Ken Gargett said:

i didn't think you were really having a go at me, but i wasn't quite sure. as for rob, you may think that but i couldn't possibly comment!

If "having a go" means I was seriously protesting or challenging your character, that isn't me. If it means taking the piss, that would be me.

Rob's the only Aussie fisherman I know so I can safely say, to my knowledge, I've never met a finer angler.

Cheers Ken!

 

[Ken Gargett]

1 minute ago, Drguano said:

If "having a go" means I was seriously protesting or challenging your character, that isn't me. If it means taking the piss, that would be me.

Rob's the only Aussie fisherman I know so I can safely say, to my knowledge, I've never met a finer angler.

Cheers Ken!

 

as i said, i really didn't think that. and while you might say you have never met a finer one, by the same logic, you've never met a worse one either.

hope he is having fun in china and not checking the forum! 

[Drguano]

3 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

as i said, i really didn't think that. and while you might say you have never met a finer one, by the same logic, you've never met a worse one either.

hope he is having fun in china and not checking the forum! 

Exactly!

[Merovius]

11 hours ago, Fosgate said:

Saw this yesterday and thought the thread might enjoy after reading. 

 

 

What a spazz! That guy needs to relax and have a cigar. 

[Fosgate]

My thought was is why the hell would you spearfish around giant groupers in the first place. While I don't live or have visited coastal waters, from what I have seen in documentaries and shows is the behavior of a mellow Blue Gill. Blue Gills are ravenous little shits that thank god they don't have anything serious for teeth. They investigate anything new in their environment and attack anything in sight that appears to be struggling as food or anything that might be a threat. I think they only have the three F's for capable thought. Food, F$ck or Fight is their motto.

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[jwr0201]

Was at Mote Marine here in Sarasota and while watching the predators in their large tank, saw a young adult Goliath quickly inhale and eat a 4+ foot sand tiger shark.  Just happened to have been looking that direction when it occurred.  Would have otherwise missed it.  

[Ken Gargett]

we have the queensland groper (sometimes grouper) also known as the giant groper. can grow to near 3 metres and up to 400 kgs! similar to the goliath, i suspect. 

many years ago, one of my best mates decided it would be fun to swim the shark pool at seaworld. alcohol might have been involved. when he started to realise that perhaps it was not his cleverest idea (although given many of them, it was not far short of it), he tried to get out. by now, security had arrived with their dogs and the dogs would not let him out. he got a bit frantic. they dragged the dogs away and he clambered out. they told him that it was unlikely the sharks would have attacked him as they were well fed and reasonably used to swimmers. but he was incredibly lucky the giant groper did not come up and grab him to take him down to work out what he was. apparently, they are extremely curious fish. 

the icing on top was that he did it because a mate offered him $20 (these days, he has more dosh than god but back then, a quid is a quid). he was really pissed when he found out that other mates had been trying to get people to do it for $200. 

[Bill Hayes]

Jewfish are sought after by spearfishes and fisherman alike for their good eating. I hear they congregate under ledges and in the shadows in gutters and bommies and generally hunt at night from memory. They are very powerful and make a grunting/grinding sound. Groper are not targeted in Australia, neither are potato cod. Both can be massive and usually dominate a reef system with their only true competitor being a tiger shark but even they won't mess with them. I have seen quite a few about while diving and they have a tendency to steal your catch from the spear. That just comes with the territory. I remember doing a scuba trip to the coral sea (no spearing on scuba) and back then they were allowed to do a shark feed. I have a video from the trip that I purchased afterwards. I remember seeing a distinct pecking order which was confirmed when watching the video. The Potato Cod was about the size of a VW beetle but it didn't have the capacity to tear chunks off the tuna heads that were lowered down so it just got in there amongst the silver tip whaler sharks and swallowed chunks that were being torn off. Next in order were the black fringe whaler sharks then the white tip reef sharks then Giant Trevally and barracuda and then a circle of smaller species. It was like planets revolving around the sun in one great frenzy. Great experience that got me hooked into diving. But now that I look at it, it was pretty irresponsible feeding sharks in a frenzy for a tourist dollar. It virtually teaches the sharks to recognise boat engines as a dinner bell and disrupts the natural order IMHO.

[canadianbeaver]

Don't care what you call it but that is the biggest mf fish I have ever seen a guy stand and hold on a beach! Hope it was a fun day of fishing and a whole crowd enjoyed eating it. WOW!