Thread: Fishing tomorrow!

Seem to be high numbers of Tope around Cloudy Bay Area this year. Not sure why the numbers are up. One of my sons caught 8 one day in late January in the general area of Raukawa Rock.

Before we had found out how many were around, I had put a long line in - what a mistake that turned out to be!

Do people eat tope down south?

Originally Posted by MB

Do people eat tope down south?

Well, yesterdays shark fishing mission was pretty good. Few people told me wrong time of year to catch tope, esp around here but you never know until you try.
Yesterdays weather was mint.










Great day out, first few fish were spiky dogs, prob caught 8 over a hour and a half then they disappeared. Then caught a big red cod,
used that for burly to see if can get a shark in.
Seemed to work well, not long after my 850ss penn was losing line and could tell had a far bigger fish on.
Soild hookup, surfaced and saw i had a sevengill hooked up.
Wasnt the school sharks i was after but any shark was on the list and this was one of them. Reasonable fight but wasnt that big so didnt take long on the 9kg line.



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Decided i keep this one as not too big and see what its like to eat. was pleasantly surprised, no smell at all, even the next day out of the fridge(like rig)
Meat looked real good and got heaps.
Tried some just panned in butter and oils, was real good. not strong, fact was very mild in taste. Will be very good in batter or breadcrumbs, maybe some spice so if you into rig, you love this.

Met a guy who was also fishing down there that just happened to be the guy posting all these good size Topes online.
He was a good bugger and fished quite a way down from us. Saw him catch a couple of stake then straight after my sevengill shark he hooked something big.

was watching him fight this fish for like over 20 minutes, thought i better go over and give him a hand when he gets it in.
Had lighter gear, took the wrong bait lol but he had a real good tope on.
Managed to tail it for him and it was a good one, well over 20kilos...was a good day and Tope can be caught in the middle of winter










Fish was a little bigger than that photo might show, it was a good one cheers

That's cool! I've heard it's a good idea to get fins off and guts out ASAP to limit ammonia taste, but what do I know!

Originally Posted by MB

That's cool! I've heard it's a good idea to get fins off and guts out ASAP to limit ammonia taste, but what do I know!

For sharks thats a must. trunk them, fins of, head and tailed, gutted and put on ice. Rig always have that strong ammonia smell but the meat is
quite good and doesnt seem to transfer though to the taste esp of you do the above.
That sevengiller had no smell at all, meat looked great and cooking some just straight from filleting it was real good. very mild favour, if you like rig/lemon fish you love this.
Bigger sharks they recommend soaking the meat in milk for 2-5 hours before cooking to get rid of any ammonia/mercury taste but for rig and that sevengiller see no need for that unless it was a far bigger one.

Have found if you have snapper thats been frozen for a period soaking it in milk certainly improves it untold when cooking .

back in former life when worked in fish factory...the shark got a soaking in white vinegar n water...the vinegar took away any smell.pretty good at doing same for your hands too.

Here’s one to pull on y’a mates next time out.
https://twitter.com/thefigen/status/...ZH7ujR7kYQ58bg

Out with @Pengy yesterday, was a cold easterly wind that wasn't forcast and anywhere we tried to hide out of it was shit fishing... Eventually we decided to man up and anchor up in the wind and caught some carrots and cuda and the inevitable sharks.
Finally the wind stopped and it came out nice.
New prop on the boat...very pleased with it should have done it ages ago.

Quick trip to Westport and back today to go and pull some pots with a couple of mates.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Out with @Pengy yesterday, was a cold easterly wind that wasn't forcast and anywhere we tried to hide out of it was shit fishing... Eventually we decided to man up and anchor up in the wind and caught some carrots and cuda and the inevitable sharks.
Finally the wind stopped and it came out nice.
New prop on the boat...very pleased with it should have done it ages ago.
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Cheers Cam. It was a pleasant surprise to get the invite and not have to get ready for the usual Cam Oclock
As described, we had a bit of a catabatic easterly that made things uncomfortable, but the weather goods played nicely in the end, and we got a feed of my fave fish so all is good in the world.
@stingray. You will be pleased to know that I didnt f up with the biggest cod of the day.....but it was a close call

Originally Posted by Pengy

Cheers Cam. It was a pleasant surprise to get the invite and not have to get ready for the usual Cam Oclock
As described, we had a bit of a catabatic easterly that made things uncomfortable, but the weather goods played nicely in the end, and we got a feed of my fave fish so all is good in the world.
@stingray. You will be pleased to know that I didnt f up with the biggest cod of the day.....but it was a close call

And did you keep your breakfast down?

I did....just

Sent from my SM-A336E using Tapatalk

Originally Posted by deer243

For sharks thats a must. trunk them, fins of, head and tailed, gutted and put on ice. Rig always have that strong ammonia smell ...

All that's critical. Used to catch them commercially as a teenager and the final step was running sea water through the spine with the deck hose.

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Gotta be a heap of fish about with no Nelson members posting trip reports for weeks.....they will be hungry

5 more games of hockey and maybe a final …fishing is back on! Bloody hell every evening is still and clear every the estuary is holding vis …maybe a SOS flounder trip to remind me of what they look like!!

Originally Posted by stingray

…maybe a SOS flounder trip to remind me of what they look like!!

Flat as a pancake, white belly, pointy at the face end, yum as ….. I hope that helps you remember