Monday 6, Sep 2010
Click thumbnail for larger view
You might think that in my travels around the country I would’ve done everything there is to do in fishing? Well, think again! The more I travel, the more I find there are so many types of fish and so many ways to catch them that you can’t possibly do or know it all. However, along the way there has been some standout species, and the milkfish is one such species.
The milkfish inhabiting Australian waters go by the scientific name of Chanos chanos, and they inhabit tropical and sub tropical waters of the Pacific and Indian oceans. Similar species exist world wide.
In Australia, they are most common from Southern Queensland (where they are sometimes called Moreton Bay Salmon) right around to Monkey Mia in Western Australia. A few are found slightly south of this range but they are definitely most common in the more northern parts of Australia.
Milkfish are a common catch in professional fishing nets but being a vegetarian fish they are rarely caught by recreational anglers in the tropics. This has a lot to do with the fact that catching baitfish with bread-based baits is far less common in the north where anglers are allowed to use cast nets.
There is the occasional fluke; a whiting or bream fisherman who gets spooled in double quick time whist using a worm or saltwater yabby for bait may well have hooked a milkfish-they are much faster than jewfish, queenfish, barra, stingrays or any other large estuary species.
To target milkfish properly berlying with bread is the best technique, and the longer that a certain spot has been berlied, the greater the chance that milkys will gather around.
The most famous example is the Doctors Gully fish feeding tourist attraction in Darwin in the Northern Territory, which has been going for decades. Here massive milkfish come up into the gully with their mouths ready, long before the first loaf of bread hits the water.
If there are milkfish about in the estuaries or beaches that you are fishing then you will get their attention with bread; especially if you throw some in each time you hit the water.
This is exactly how my friend Shane Third from BCF in Cairns found where they lived.
On a day in Cairns recently, we tried several spots for an hour or so each until the tell tale swirl of a big fast fish boiled in the area where the bread was sinking.
A Fishing Australia 701 SWM rod and reel outfit, which comes spooled with 6 kg line, was selected from the tackle rack and a size 1 hook was tied directly to the main line.
Fresh bread was moulded to the hook, while the stale stuff was soaked in water and used for berley.
This was much like fishing for any species with an unweighted bait in that you could see they odd peck or short draw and simply had to wait for a committed long draw before setting the hook.
When I finally came up tight about 20 minutes into the session all hell broke loose. An absolutely mad rampaging milkfish zipped around the lagoon making the whole waterway look small.
After about 15 minutes, we finally landed the fish, which was around the 4 kilogram mark. One look at the tail and you can see why they are so fast, and the body is rock solid which gives them their strength and stamina.
My first ever milkfish was slightly foul hooked and Shane was a little disappointed with the fight, which made me think, "what the…"
I was buzzing; the fight was as good as I have had from any fish.
The next milkfish I hooked was caught on instant bait, and was more like what Shane was expecting-this thing peeled off 75 meters of fairly tight drag from the same outfit and then stayed out there zipping left to right in 50 meter long arcs like a kite loosing control in a storm!
Some 25 minutes later I nearly had the fish landed when the line popped. I checked the drag and it was awfully tight which didn’t help, although I still think the line got damaged as I had more pressure on the fish earlier in the fight. What was most impressive though was that you wouldn’t have known the drag was so tight given the way the fish peeled line on each run!
On the next fish I backed the drag off a bit and found out why the average fight on 6 kg tackle takes over half an hour. When a 5 kilo Milky finally graced our hands I felt a new chapter in my sportsfishing career had started. I’ll be trying to catch them whenever I get a chance.
By now you are probably wondering why they are called milkfish? Well their flesh goes a milky white when cooked, and according to the masses in South East Asia it is delectable, so much so it is the national fish of the Philippines.
However Shane assures me that they don’t taste so good and other folks I know say the flesh is bony and soft, however there is a fair chance us Aussies simply don’t know how to cook them yet…
Special thanks to:
See you on the water.
Rob Paxevanos.
