Thread: Dunedin harbour

Hi guys was out fishing today in Dunedin harbour was chasing a school of fish for a hour or so hooked a few lost a couple of lures on light gear never landed any fingered they must have kawai ? Or salmon ?

How light was your gear? Take a big kahawai to break even 4kg as long as you didn't lift it out of the water. Good knots for trace and lure? or did the mainline snap? Running a trace at all? Braid or mono? How old is the mono mainline if not braid?

Salmon run was generally a bit earlier from what I remember kind of 20 odd years ago when I last lived in Dunners. I think you've hooked into a school of ocean going kahawhai - which are pretty good fun too and if bled are awesome split in two and smoked.

Soft baits or pretty much anything with action will encourage the bite. Lots of fun on light tackle.

I figered out what they where today wind dropped rite off so took the kids for a spin round the heads had a albatross land by the boat id never seen one before was pretty cool much bigger than the mollyhawks though that didn't stop them from getting in front! tried a bit of fishing out there but bugger all around only shark few red cod so went to the mole kids cought a few small cod / kelpies & a good sized jock stewart then we headed for home on the way I spotted fish jumping same as the day before big schools of them so put a couple of wedges on & bingo ...kuda ! lost 3 lures catching them but good fun was using 35lb tracer & 80lb braid lost most of the fish on that setup had 65lb mono on the other.
heaps of krill in the harbour was cool to see that.. also I didn't realise how shallow it can be at LT in there almost got stuck twice !

Couta, oh no!!!!

100,s of them ....I filleted 6 big ones & surprisingly 2 of them had no worms or at least not many so im going to eat them

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

100,s of them ....I filleted 6 big ones & surprisingly 2 of them had no worms or at least not many so im going to eat them

Iv never seen any with not much worm to be game to try it but the south africans and aussies rav about it!
let us know what you think.

Will do ...if you don't hear from me by tomorrow night youl no not to eat them !

Well im still kicking !...had a feed of the dreaded "couta" tonight I had plans...big plans on how I was going to cook it but didn't happen in the end I tossed it in a hot pan rolled in flour , salt , pepper,lots of butter & I can say it was good id liken it to a texture similar to a jock stuart which are good eating & for those that haven't tried a jock,y you don't no what ur missing very similar in taste to a cod.
for a long time when im chopping up bate sized bits of couta for a hook iv often wondered what it would be like to eat I mean it looks great nice long fillets worms put ya off a bit but lately iv been thinking im getting to fussy on what im eather using for bait or tossing back a few weeks ago I filleted a couple of spiny dog fish much to the disgust of the boys but I cooked it up with some cod as a bit of an ontrey & surprise that was good to pretty soft but defiantly edible I think from now on im going to make more of an effort to cook whats deemed the non target species actually speaking of the non edibles a couple of years ago I was baiting the clutha and around 30 litre,s later of smelt & letting them go I started wondering what they would be like to eat in a patty they smell a bit but .
Next couta I get im going to get it on ice quicker & have a go at smoking it.

You guys must be hard up for species down there......

Yea not a huge variety on the south coast though that does depend on how far you go out but I generally only go 4-6 k,s off shore sometimes go to ruapuke cod & trumpeter is what we catch, grouper are out there but further off shore iv never caught 1 out there
But hey we have oysters ! suc on that

Originally Posted by Boaraxa

Yea not a huge variety on the south coast though that does depend on how far you go out but I generally only go 4-6 k,s off shore sometimes go to ruapuke cod & trumpeter is what we catch, grouper are out there but further off shore iv never caught 1 out there
But hey we have oysters ! suc on that

And BIG tuna and Tahr, Cham and Wap and less people and and and yes you may not have great selection for table fish but plenty of other stuff