Grappling With Groper

[juicy]

Hey guys,

Went out fishing off the rocks at Manly for some drummer or groper and ended up doing alright.

We also got a few leather jackets and heaps of wrasse which we threw back.

Withing the first 15mins of fishing we got 2 leatherjackets and a drummer, then it all went quiet for a while then my mate hooked up a nice female groper which was a challenge to bring in fishing in between reefs, as the fish came up the big blue daddy followed it all the way to top, i was spewing as i had just hooked up another leathery or would have dropped my bait straight down and tried to hook him up.

We were wrapped with how the day was going soo far then we hooked up a even bigger monster (assuming it was the big blue) which took a run straight down into the reef before we could say boo. We gave it line hoping it would come out but nope he didnt want to budge, we found some local divers who thought the $50 dollars wasn't enough to warrant them a quick dive to see if they can free then. After 20mins we gave up on it and cut the line.

We learnt our lesson and i put my 6500 baitrunner on full lock just in case he was still hungry. i was dropping my bait where he ran and hid previously and within another half hour we hook up again and after a shorter dash he won again finding a nice little place to hide.

Although we didnt get the blue one it was a good days fishing, we were only out on the rocks for 3hours before heading back.

heres some pics of my mate with his groper and the days keepers.

Hopefully this weekend i can get the big blue.

days catch

[flatty hunter626]

yer definately a blackfish!

[juicy]

my mistake guys i was thinking luderick but typed drummer

[hottyscotty]

you've got it the other way round

black drummer is fully black, blackfish is with the vertical black stripes. both are relatives though.

then theres the silver drummer but silvers are different family to blacks.

hope i didn't confuse you

[flatty hunter626]

my mistake guys i was thinking luderick but typed drummer

lol fair enough i hav done the same sort of thing many times!

[stylo]

Nice work mate !

What tide were you fishing ?

[juicy]

Thanks mate

We were fishing the low tide.

It gets abit risky any other time at that spot as water can be up to your ankles one min and a wave can crash over the rocks and hit you in the chest the next.. something i learnt the hardway fishing there another time.

[stylo]

Thanks mate

We were fishing the low tide.

It gets abit risky any other time at that spot as water can be up to your ankles one min and a wave can crash over the rocks and hit you in the chest the next.. something i learnt the hardway fishing there another time.

Crazy bas5tards ! Well done again

[Geton_fish]

Well done on the fish mate.

Where abouts in Manly were you? The pic looks like Long Reef, and you have done a wise thing fishing at low tide there, I've learnt my lessons the hard way as well.

Keep up the post

[Ray R]

Nice catch ju11cy, those groper taste good too if you fillet and skin them, years ago one of my old work mates showed me how to catch groper and then he also told me how to prepare them and he was spot on , fillet, skin , cut into small portions , soak in coconut milk,( 2-3 hours) make a light batter and fry them up, beautiful..Cheers..

[juicy]

thanks for the tip about soaking them in coconut milk.

I did fillet, skin and cut them up into portions.. but i marinated in lemon and garlic before and whipped up a little beer batter with herbs and seasoning (by seasoning i mean chilli)

[glennmreid]

Nice catch of fish there mate.Well done!

[vinflattie]

nice grouper, havent got a chance to get out there to catch one these days.

very itchy ....ai....