Botany Bay 10/8/14

[GoingFishing]

Hi Guys

The weather looked promising this morning with a little wind so i convinced dad to tag along for some fishing in the bay.

We arrived at the gentlemans hour of 9am and armed with prawns,pillies and chicken we fished the western side of the oil rig. We managed a couple of near legal snapper, and maybe a zillion undersize pinkies and trevs which all went back to the drink.

After about an hour i hooked up to what felt like a better fish, at first i thought i had a port jackson or a ray because it had some dead weight to it and not many headshakes.

Im no expert at fish ID, can somebody help ID this fish ? It looks like an emperor of sorts ? and... are they any good eating?

I have been struggling to find the flathead in the bay lately ( which is embarrassing because theyre normally an easier species to catch), i tried flicking plastics around towra,dolls point and kurnel beach today for zero. Can anyone give me some pointers please.

cheers

Sam

[Dave_]

Mate, I'm guessing that's some kind of Morwong, maybe a small blue. The eating quality can vary a fair bit with the species, Dusky Morwong for example are terrible from all reports and red and blue are good.

[Krispy !]

That's a Blue Morwong mate nice catch. Was a nice day on the bay today

[Jew Stalker]

Mowey for sure. Better off eating your thongs.

Edited August 10, 2014 by Trout Stalker

[GoingFishing]

Sounds like my taste buds aren't in for the treat I thought they were !! Thanks guys

[Jimbu]

Apparently if you treat them right they taste pretty good - ie. Bleed, gut, scrub black lining from stomach and put on ice. Otherwise, they are disgusting!!

[fragmeister]

Here is a recipe for Mowong - Not the best of table fish but this recipe masks the poor table qualities.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7MrtjrCYCA

[Blairy]

Hi guys, being a deep sea bottom basher I have caught heaps of Mowies over the years - and they taste fine. It is all about the cleaning. Simply fillet them and skin them that takes all the black away and with out masking flavours I just crumb the fillets and cook in a pan in olive oil. If you don't have them on Ice I recommend you gut them straight away.

They are perfectly tasty and very underrated.

[Yowie]

Mowey for sure. Better off eating your thongs.

Wirrah might even taste better.

[GoingFishing]

Looks like a mixed bag of opinions, everyone's got different taste I guess so it sounds like the best thing I can do is cook him up and decide for myself !!! ( though Trout Stalker has set my hopes quite low to begin with haha )

If I don't like the taste then il be sure to let future Mowies back into the drink.

Thanks fellas

[Linc]

I've cooked them a few different ways and never found them to be too bad, they put up a fairly decent fight too don't they Pity none of the snapper went over 30 for you! and don't be too hard on yourself about the flatties in the bay, they've been very inconsistent since the start of winter for me, wait till spring warms up the bay a bit and they'll be munching whatever plastic you throw at them.