Unsolved Mystery Solved!
Jun. 22nd, 2002 10:33 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petermarcusI caught the mystery fish!
For those who don't get into fishing, it was a 2-pound bluefish and you don't have to read any further if you don't want to ;)
bluefish description
For more of the story, including some fish pics...
So this mystery fish has been cutting my bait in half, including, once, a 30lb test leader. It hasn't been very helpful in being caught, so I've been wondering what it is. My guess was a small shark or barracuda. When a baitshop owner thought my mystery fish might be a bluefish, I didn't believe it. I've caught bluefish in the surf before, but usually under a pound, and maybe a foot long. Caught one today, though:
This is 18-20 inches long, and 2 pounds of muscle. It took two needle-nosed pliers to pry the jaws open so I could take the hook out. The teeth were small, but sharp. The jaw power, however, was amazing. I could see the teeth working on the wire leader, bending it all out of shape. Once I got the hook out, the tail of my baitfish was still in his mouth, cut exactly like before...knife sharp. As the edges matched the mouth of the bluefish, I was sure this was the mystery fish.
Caught with the evidence!
Mystery solved! As bluefish are pretty bad tasting, I tossed him back and watched him swim off to terrorize someone else's bait. Other than the blue, I caught a nice big trout that I'm gonna have for lunch tomorrow, some sail-catfish (they are supposed to taste great if you like catfish...and I don't, so they went back, too) and a couple other smaller panfish. It's been a good fishing weekend :)
For those who don't get into fishing, it was a 2-pound bluefish and you don't have to read any further if you don't want to ;)
bluefish description
For more of the story, including some fish pics...
So this mystery fish has been cutting my bait in half, including, once, a 30lb test leader. It hasn't been very helpful in being caught, so I've been wondering what it is. My guess was a small shark or barracuda. When a baitshop owner thought my mystery fish might be a bluefish, I didn't believe it. I've caught bluefish in the surf before, but usually under a pound, and maybe a foot long. Caught one today, though:
This is 18-20 inches long, and 2 pounds of muscle. It took two needle-nosed pliers to pry the jaws open so I could take the hook out. The teeth were small, but sharp. The jaw power, however, was amazing. I could see the teeth working on the wire leader, bending it all out of shape. Once I got the hook out, the tail of my baitfish was still in his mouth, cut exactly like before...knife sharp. As the edges matched the mouth of the bluefish, I was sure this was the mystery fish.
Caught with the evidence!
Mystery solved! As bluefish are pretty bad tasting, I tossed him back and watched him swim off to terrorize someone else's bait. Other than the blue, I caught a nice big trout that I'm gonna have for lunch tomorrow, some sail-catfish (they are supposed to taste great if you like catfish...and I don't, so they went back, too) and a couple other smaller panfish. It's been a good fishing weekend :)
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mystery fish!
Date: 2002-06-22 07:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-22 08:28 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-23 01:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-06-24 08:41 am (UTC)Nicky got to see a lot of these during our canoeing trip yesterday. They were everywhere! :) I also spotted some small mouth bass too.