In Search of the (Holy) Mackerel
The Lure of Jesus and Mary
The 2 most desired fish on Badu (not counting crayfish) are Coral Trout and Spanish mackerel. The SM has proved elusive. For the first part of the week, it’s been the Jesus lure that has brought in the most fish. Julie and Dave have tried a succession of different apparatus – but with little luck. Jesus was named because it had been lost after a battle with a mackerel – but then miraculously floated to the surface – resurrected. Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day – teach him to fish and he will drink beer.
Then along came Mary. Not the mom, the girlfriend. Definitely no virgin. She immediately took on the bad boys – barracuda and sharks. But she welcomed them all – trevally, tuna, trout.
Baracuda
On Dave’s B-Day, he caught this toothy guy. We caught more cudas than any other type of fish. They were very aggressive and difficult to release as they would try to bite us as we did so.
Trevally
We caught (and released) some dozen of these. This was a nice sized one.
Coral Trout
I think this might be the best-tasting fish I have ever eaten. Julie caught the largest one.
Sweet Lips Snapper
We caught some of these nearly every day. Very tasty!
Reef Shark
Sharks were a problem every day – Dave brought this one in. Most of the time they just bit off the leaders – and with it the lures.
Blue Fin Tuna
Julie and I each caught one of these – we released hers and kept mine. This one was part of dinner during the Aussie Rules footy final.
Queenie
We caught a few of these – good fighters, Queenies would jump a bit before they were brought in. Dave’s got a nice one in this photo.
Mackeral
Finally did get a mackerel. It too joined us for a barbie for the Aussie Rules Footy final.
Tags: australia, badu island, deep sea fishing, fishing, sharks, Travel
jpb
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:52 am
Jim,
Those SM are kind of hard to catch. We had the same problems with sharks off the coast of SC here in the states when we went out. If you hooked up a King M it was a race to get it on the boat before a shark took it.
Do be careful and do NOT go for the best deal learning to dive. There are some real fly-by-night outfits out there. Trust no one and suspect everything when diving and you will enjoy diving a really long time. (Paranoid? maybe.)
You are not missing anything but wet weather, and annoying politics back home, so continue the good life for those of us who can’t.
October 3rd, 2006 at 8:50 pm
Just booked a 5 day,live-aboard dive course (3 nights out on the reef) that starts tomorrow…it’s too pricey to be a fly-by-night operation I think!
Jim