wrasseman Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 (edited) Hi all, long time no posts. I came out of hibernation last weekend and headed up to the coast to check out a spot (bellbuoy beach) I had previously heard good things about... Not real exciting i'm afraid, there was a nice looking headland but with the tide below half and dropping (we have a 3.5m tidal range, I can't imagine what the 8m Kimberley tides would be like???) there wasn't much water depth over the shallow reef or in the "deep" sandy hole. Nevertheless i had a bit of a flick and turned up a little 35 to fork salmon. After this I went for a bit of an explore. Since I had stupidly only brought my light trout rod with me, csting distance off the beach was a bit limitted so I went for a fair walk to another reefy spot. Once there I found a reasonable vertical rockwall that sugguested wrasse ao i gave it a bit of a working over to turn up a nice little 37cm blue. But unfortunately I could only manage the one. By this time the tide was bottoming out so I headed back to the original headland hoping I'd get a bit more deepwater access from the exposed rocks, this wasn't to be however so I called it a day. 10days left til the trout season starts- can't wait. Cheers col. Edited July 25, 2006 by wrasseman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TunOFun Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Yeah colours and pattern on body is unusual, but the rest certainly looks sambo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 Looks like a Juvinile Salmon to me, except that the gold spots look a bit bigger and darker than usual. penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flattieman Posted July 25, 2006 Share Posted July 25, 2006 (edited) Well done on the catches, wrasseman. Hi guys. Time for me to waffle on as usual . I can remember reading something on this topic. The short answer is YES - that is a juvenile Australian Salmon (Arripis trutta). The answer to "Why does it look so strange?" is interesting. In Victoria, small Australian Salmon are called "bay trout" for this reason - brown spots or blotches along the flanks . These spots fade with age and differ in prominence from population to population. The origin of the fish also influences the spots - I believe that the spots are less common in seafaring salmon due to the poor camouflage factor that this would create. Perhaps there were once brown-spotted seafaring salmon, but natural selection would have taken care of that (brown-spotted ones get eaten and can't pass on the gene). Perhaps this is why "bay salmon" with brown blotches are primarily found in bays . Flattieman. Edited July 25, 2006 by Flattieman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Penguin Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 (edited) Well done on the catches, wrasseman. Hi guys. Time for me to waffle on as usual . I can remember reading something on this topic. The short answer is YES - that is a juvenile Australian Salmon (Arripis trutta). The answer to "Why does it look so strange?" is interesting. In Victoria, small Australian Salmon are called "bay trout" for this reason - brown spots or blotches along the flanks . These spots fade with age and differ in prominence from population to population. The origin of the fish also influences the spots - I believe that the spots are less common in seafaring salmon due to the poor camouflage factor that this would create. Perhaps there were once brown-spotted seafaring salmon, but natural selection would have taken care of that (brown-spotted ones get eaten and can't pass on the gene). Perhaps this is why "bay salmon" with brown blotches are primarily found in bays . Flattieman. Thank u Flattieman for that info, We are all much wiser thanks to some of the info u provide us on this site. penguin Edited July 26, 2006 by penguin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flattieman Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Thank u Flattieman for that info, We are all much wiser thanks to some of the info u provide us on this site. penguin Thanks mate . That's what FR forums are all about. Flattieman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrasseman Posted July 26, 2006 Author Share Posted July 26, 2006 (edited) Hi guys, It looks like a pretty normal small "cocky" salmon to me. Spots fade as they grow (particularly once over 40cm) and the back gets very dark hence the name "blackback" for fish over 1.5kg or so. The only small salmon I caught in sydney - all but 2 of my sydney salmon have been "blackbacks" (though they looked more green than the big tassie fish which are very dark)- looked the same. Cheers col. Edited July 26, 2006 by wrasseman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest lbgking Posted July 26, 2006 Share Posted July 26, 2006 Bay trout are also refered to as "Salmon trout" in parts of SA. But have a different flesh to NSW Salmon. In the bigger fish there are no blood lines in the flesh. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wrasseman Posted July 27, 2006 Author Share Posted July 27, 2006 We should have a section for photos and vote best photo.............. these are excellent. Thanks for that but I'm afraid I don't even enter the local site's photo comp. Check out (some of these guys are awesome): http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3457 or http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3237 or http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3192 or http://www.sportsfishtasmania.com/phpBB2/v...opic.php?t=3098 cheers col. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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