queensland Anyone Catching Jewfish Or Brown Meagre Fish at Gold Coast

[blue09]

Hi again all,

Hope that everyone is enjoying fishing.

I am really curious if there is any brown meagre fish or jewfish (2 different but similar types fishes) caught in Gold Coast area from the beach or off the rocks ?

Note: I used to catch brown meagre in my home country. As far as I know the brown meagre fish is only caught at night time around 1-2 meters depth rocky sufrafes in the salt water using prawns with a meter line and a float.

Brown meagre has white colour round bones in its head which is good for kidneys and it is a delicious fish especially in oven or grill...

I dont know about jewfish or possible spots though. I never caught but I am chasing it.

Help about spots around Gold Coast area for these 2 fishes will be highly appreciated.

Most of you already know what jewfish looks like, so here is the brown meagre fish...

Brown Meagre: (Image taken from Google)

[PhyRBuRn]

Never even heard of the Brown Meagre, but according to fishbase, the Brown Meagre is only found around southern Europe and northern Africa (http://www.fishbase.org/summary/Sciaena-umbra.html). As for jewfish, they are definitely around the goldy. I don't fish that area, so perhaps someone else can enlighten you on specific locations, and it depends on whether you want sub 1m fish or plus 1m fish, the big ones require a lot of hard work, good heavy gear and are generally not swimming in the esturies like smaller fish. One thing though, is it possible you have mixed up what a Jewfish looks like? As there aren't many similarities between the meagre and the jew. There are a number of fish referred to as jew, and there is also a dhufish that some people get mixed up with too. Most people when they are talking about jewfish are however referring to mulloway, which look like this:

[PhyRBuRn]

Also, for the sake of info. Jewfish (mulloway) have a min length of 75cm in QLD and a max of 2 fish may be kept. A 75cm fish is going to weigh in at around 9 pounds. They are fantastic eating as well.

Cheers

warwick

[Often Debaited]

try the coomera river for some jew fish

[Bri The Pom]

Or the seaway off the rock walls, especially under the pipe going accross the seaway floor.

The sand pumping jetty as well.

[blue09]

Thank you very much for the responses.

I know that Jew Fish is different than the Brown Meagre.

As I see from your responses, Brown Meagre is not popular in Gold Coast area.

Regarding to catching Jew Fish, what bait do you recommend (pilchard or banana prawns?)

And, what is the legal size limit for the Jew Fish?

[PhyRBuRn]

RE Size limit, see my second post. As for bait, jew will taken pretty much anything, i have caught small ones on yabbys and pipis. Pilchards and prawns will def work. Live bait, generally herring or poddy mullet, is by far the best bait for more reasonable fish and also very good on the big boys. Squid and Occy are my baits of choice for big fish though. As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the fish you're targeting, the bigger the bait required. There are always exceptions to every rule though. When targeting bigger fish, i will use a 3 or 4 gang of 6/0s, with 50-100cm fluro leader 50-80lb, and lead to suit the conditions. Bait will generally be a whole squid with about a 20cm body on it. Bottom hook through the head, and work your way up the body. Same rig for liveies, but a 9/0 or 10/0 live bait hook/circle hook instead of the gang.

[tugger]

If fishing off the beach for jew alot of guys use the beach worm and put a couple on and thread up the line a bit and fill the hook this is what they are looking for in the surf gutters most of the time but they will take a live bait or a fillet of tailor and bonito and of coarse the humble old pilchard

good luck

[blue09]

RE Size limit, see my second post. As for bait, jew will taken pretty much anything, i have caught small ones on yabbys and pipis. Pilchards and prawns will def work. Live bait, generally herring or poddy mullet, is by far the best bait for more reasonable fish and also very good on the big boys. Squid and Occy are my baits of choice for big fish though. As a general rule of thumb, the bigger the fish you're targeting, the bigger the bait required. There are always exceptions to every rule though. When targeting bigger fish, i will use a 3 or 4 gang of 6/0s, with 50-100cm fluro leader 50-80lb, and lead to suit the conditions. Bait will generally be a whole squid with about a 20cm body on it. Bottom hook through the head, and work your way up the body. Same rig for liveies, but a 9/0 or 10/0 live bait hook/circle hook instead of the gang.

Thank you very much. I only use ganged hooks with pilchard.

Can you show at a picture live bait hook circle hook instead of the gang ?

[PhyRBuRn]

Circle Hook (My preference. Provides a cleaner hook up IMO)

Live Bait Hook

Good luck fishing. Hopefully we see you posting photos of your first jew pretty soon.

[tiotony]

+1 for a big bunch of beachworms, have caught jew in the estuaries with it too. And also that brown meagre fish looks a bit like a sand bass, common in tropical Aust.

[cboy69]

Circle Hook (My preference. Provides a cleaner hook up IMO)

Live Bait Hook

Good luck fishing. Hopefully we see you posting photos of your first jew pretty soon.

Would you put the hook through the upper lip? or in front of the dorsal fin?

[cboy69]

Hi Blue,

although you were asking for spots. Try looking at the jewfish video here called 'Jew Off the Beach'
/>http://www.coastwatch.com.au/Fishing/FishingVideos-701/

It has some good info to help you on your quest

I still haven't caught one off the beach, but I keep trying :cheer:

[blue09]

Thank you very much for all replies. I will try with a squid or a prawn with a circle hook and let you know.

[PhyRBuRn]

@cboy69

On a poddy mullet, I will put the hook through in between the two dorsal fins, puts the hook slightly past halfway down the fish.