Information Page.

Odd fish from Brazil.

My third son Richard is still fishing in Brazil and his last two emails included a few interesting pictures, so here they are.

Hi Dad,

After skyping you I headed down to the beach at about 4.30 (it gets dark 5.30). The sea was high and choppier than I would have liked - at high water the waves go over the reef and the bay always has a bit of a swell. Anyway, I trolled out with a small rapala, no bites. I then put on the big weighted redgill and started to flog away as I drifted inshore more or less in line with the eel grass bed.

After 5-6 casts I was into a lively little fish that turned out to be a leatherjacket - my first one ever! Chuffed to bits I took a photo and unhooked it with the pliers, carefully avoiding the poisonous spines. A few casts later I was into another, even livelier little fish. Another leatherjacket I thought... wrong! The fish looked like a jack that had been run over by a lorry. I'm pretty sure it was a look-down, but until tonight i'd only seen them in photos.

Anyhow, the interesting thing is that there must be enough baitfish about to have attracted a diverse group of little predators. ...and where there are little predators there may be something bigger to eat them! I'll be out again at dawn tomorrow, weather and baby permitting, with an extra rod set up for live baiting. Will let you know if anything exciting happens.

Richard

ps. the kayak photo is from yesterday evening when conditions looked the same but I only had one bite.

That's his first email and here's the follow up - not quite what he'd hoped but still interesting.

Hi Dad,

It was blowing again last night so I decided to try a bit of beach fishing. I had a two (circle) hook rig baited with mackerel and squid. The fish were mad on - I was getting bites within seconds of casting. Anyhow, the first fish I landed was a golden catfish - a little more robust than the typical silver catfish and a beautiful burnished yellow colour. That's the 4th species of catfish I've had from my beach - amazing! After that I had 3 silver catfish and a large Gulf kingcroaker.

Thinking there might be something bigger around I went again this morning with two rods (both baited with squid as I had run out of fish)... nothing! That's fishing, I guess.

Cheers,

Rich

I don't know how many species he's caught over there now but it's well into the forties. Great fun!

If you have any comments or questions about fish, methods, tactics or 'what have you.'get in touch with me by sending an E-MAIL to - docladle@hotmail.com

The kayak.

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Leatherjacket.

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Lookdown.

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Birdlife.

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Golden catfish.

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