Crowdy Head/harrington

[hawksburydave]

I was fishing on a trip at Harrington/manning river/crowdy head region and had little success for the week but on the last day got a rare catch (aside from the 10+ puffer fish)

Caught some strange wrasse, had some really and i mean REALLY big fights from some flatheads.

On the last day I managed to catch what has now been identified to my mate eddy as a parma polylepis or a Big Scaled Parma. It looks like a dying bream that swam through sewerage pipes

After reading up on the species i discovered that the maximum size is supposed to be twenty cms... now this one was about 23 cms, so that would make it both a FRaider record and also a requirement for the species info to be changed.

Caught it with 3-5lb ugly stick with Penn light reel, longshank hook and a defrosting prawn

JUST FOR THE RECORD I RELEASED IT. it doesnt look all too tasty afterall

Here is a pic next to a tacklebox lid

Has anyone ever cuaght these? how big? has anyone eaten one and most of all, HOW DO THEY FAIR ON THE PLATE? any recipes or reasons i shouldn't have thrown it in

Edited December 21, 2008 by hawksburydave

[openflame06]

I have never caught them, but just about every time I have fished crowdy with friends will pull in something that we are not 100% aware of what it is.

[Dougz77]

Hey Hawksburydave,

I looked in all the fish species guides i have and could not find this species at all.

Looks like it has quite leathery skin like a leather jacket mixed with a luderick!!!

I'm glad to see not very well known species being hooked for a photo cuz its great to see they are still around somewhere.

Hope you hook some good eating fish soon mate,

Dougs77

[Seagoon]

Hey mate, yeah i know how you feel about finding out later that the max size is actually about the size you got. I caught a spiny nosed flathead (a quite uncommon flathead bread) off middle head and it was about 30cm or something like that, not very big. Anyhow I released it, and then did some research on it when I got home and found that there was no size limit on them, and that the max out at about 33cm or something. I was kicking myself. Actually it was very ancient looking, like it had not developed at all in a million years. At first glance I thought it was a rod cod and was actually cursing it.

Cheers,

jon

[hawksburydave]

Hey mate, yeah i know how you feel about finding out later that the max size is actually about the size you got. I caught a spiny nosed flathead (a quite uncommon flathead bread) off middle head and it was about 30cm or something like that, not very big. Anyhow I released it, and then did some research on it when I got home and found that there was no size limit on them, and that the max out at about 33cm or something. I was kicking myself. Actually it was very ancient looking, like it had not developed at all in a million years. At first glance I thought it was a rod cod and was actually cursing it.

Cheers,

jon

Haha yeah exactly.

Thats a really rare find.

I reckon the one i caught wouldve tasted terrible anyway so i put it back in.

Originally i thought it was a black bream crossed with a luderick

keep up the good fishing mate