queensland Jew Fish Sesh

[kitacooch]

Hi there folks, a mate and i went out off GC fri night looking for a snapper. Things were slow in the arvo with a few pickers lingering but just on dark i got smashed. Thinking i would play the fish i let it go a bit then started to worry about line left on the real i began to throw the breaks on but it was too late, it stopped, i could feel the head shakes but i could also feel the rubbing on the reef and within 20 sec it was over. With a bit of cussing i re-rigged and dropped it back over, my mate i decided that if we got into another we would have to throw the brakes hard to prevent being reefed. Within and hour we bagged 3 of these monsters, we only wanted to keep 1 each but their swim bladders were out their mouths and they didn't seem like they would release well, so after 3 we left them biting as we couldn't eat any more than 3 of these fish and didn't want to risk releasing them to just die.

So i have a couple q's if someone would be kind enough to answer.

Do these fish release well?? We were only in 25m of water.

Are they a Ciguatera risk?

When filleting 1 it looked like there was a worm in the flesh, is there any work risks with Jews.

Are they seasonal out side or all year round?

Thanks heaps.

[Wbgredcliffe]

Top session, very nice.

[aussie123]

That's a nice catch,well done.

Jews are more common in Winter but they are around all year.

They are usually at their best the week before the full moon with the last 3 days before the full moon the prime time to catch them on the inshore reefs.

Dusk to 2-3 hours after dark is usually the prime time.

Barotrauma is an issue but it is believed they do release well as many offshore caught and tagged Jews have been recaptured over the years.

A release weight or Venting tool can be used effectively if they cannot find their own way down.

Any organs hanging out of the fish will go back into their body on their own and you should never try to push them back in.

The worms are common in Jews and they are harmless if eaten.

They also generally only start to appear in fish around that size and bigger.

No ciga in Jews either.

[kitacooch]

Thanks Aussie, i appreciate your responses, just 1 other thing mate, do you normally bleed them? We didn't bleed these ones and there was a quite a bit of blood left behind the skin, i ended up skinning them and trimming the blood off. The fast ok though, will be targeting these in the future i think.

[aussie123]

I have bled them but most times I do not.

Regardless of how you do them, you will always have that red on the fillets that needs trimming off.