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Main species:
Foxfish: Like a smallish, red baldchin (bluebone) in appearance and every bit as good to eat. Like caves and broken, rubbly
bottom. Have small mouths and bites are short, sharp continuous pecks, best way to hook is to feed out some slack line so
that they can swallow the bait.
Breaksea Cod: Usually smaller and a lot darker than their deepwater siblings, but what they lack in size they make up for
in number. Can be found just about everywhere, finding the big ones is the tricky bit. Voracious feeders, can fit
surprisingly large baits in their mouth, easy to hook.
Red Snapper/Swallowtail: Usually found in small schools around lumps/pinnacles, so it's not unusual to get a dozen or so
very quickly. Large mouths, will usually hook themselves.
King George Whiting: Usually encountered in sandy holes on broken bottom, 1 or 2 at a time. Will peck away incessantly at
a bait until it is all gone, best way to hook is the same as for Foxfish.
Jewfish: By no means common on the Five Fathom Bank, and the majority will be undersize, most come from small caves and
ledges and where there is one there is usually a couple. Less hesitant bite than ones from deepwater, and like a largish bait.
Other common species: Harlequin, Leatherjacket, Sweep, wobbegong, Skippy, Flathead, Blue Devil, Queen Snapper, Blackfish,
Gurnard, Wirrah plus other reef 'uglies'.
Tackle
Rigs: As main rig use a paternoster style rig with two droppers tied with a full blood knot or 'dropper loop'. Swivels
seem to spook shallow water fish and become expensive when you lose plenty, use black swivels if necessary. Line around
50lb is great for traces and perfectly strong enough for all fish likely to be encountered, I like Schneider brand -
excellent wear resistance and knot strength, but don't use clear lines, again they seem to spook the fish.
Keep droppers quite short, about 30 cm as long droppers will snag if too long. Hooks 3/0 chemically sharpened suicides -
small enough to handle smaller mouthed species yet large enough to escape most wrasse etc. Sinkers should be quite
big, around 16 oz to make sure you stay on the bottom. A sinker which is too light will drift around on the bottom
and snag too much or you will be inclined to feed too much line out and again snag. Also set up a rig, same style,
with bigger hooks (6/0's) for bigger baits to target the larger species eg Jewies.
Rods/Reels/Handlines: Easiest combo is a mid sized overhead on an 8 to 10 kg line class rod with plenty of butt strength
and a sensitive tip. Handlines are a good, cheap alternative, but make sure line not too heavy otherwise you will lose
too much sensitivity. Braided line is brilliant - easy to feel bites, set hooks and hold bottom. Line class around 30 lb
(15 kg) is more than adequate for the Five Fathom Bank.
Bait
Octopus: The pick of the baits, make sure it is fresh (i.e. NOT pink) otherwise swells up and fish don't like it. Cut the
suckers off the tentacles and cut into bits about the size of 20c piece for 3/0's and bits the size of a mulie for 6/0's.
Leave plenty of hook point exposed.
Squid: As good as occy but more susceptible to pickers. Bait as for occy
Herring/Mullet: Excellent so long as it is fresh. Scale, fillet and cut into diagonal chunks for 3/0's, whole fillet for 6/0's.
Other baits: Prawn, Mulie, excellent baits but usually destroyed by pickers.
ALWAYS occy/squid on bottom, fish bait on top hook, mainly for snagging reasons.
Other Hints
Tow a big squid jig with you on a heavyish handline - some of the squid and cuttlefish are absolutely huge. If you are keen,
catch some live herring on your way out and drag a free swimming herring while you drift. Can be dynamite on sambos,
Yellow Tail Kingies, bonito and even mackeral in season.
Information about the Breaksea Cod
Scientific Name Epinephelides armatus. Belongs to the Serranidae family of fishes that also include such species as
wirrah, harlequin, estuary cod, coral trout and Queensland groper. Range from Esperance to Shark Bay.
The most common recreationally caught size range of both sexes is between 400 and 450mm. For males only it is 400 to 450 mm
and females are most common within 300 to 350 mm.
Males reach a larger size than females - 546mm vs. 485mm and maximum weight of about 3kg, though fish over 2 kg are
uncommon (stories of 3+ kg breaksea are exaggerations!)
Males are rare under 300mm in length, females are rare over 450mm in length. Females are most commonly encountered at
4 years of age, males 7 years.
Reach at least 13 years of age as females and 21+ years as males (not bad for such a small fish.)
Are quite slow growing, reach about 80mm at year 1, 180mm in year 2, 250mm in year 3, 300mm in year 4, 340mm year 5,
400mm year 8, 450mm year 12, 500mm year 16.
Spawns between December and April, with peak spawning occurring in January/February. The estimated birth date for Breaksea
is the 1st February. Female breaksea reach sexual maturity at 260 mm in length and 3 years of age.
Average fecundity (fruitfulness) per gram in female E. armatus does not vary between sizes or throughout the breeding season.
Total fecundity increases disproportionately with increasing total length i.e. a large female may carry as many eggs as 10
small ones.
Breaksea are multiple spawners, that is, spawn several times over the breeding season. A large female can spawn up to 2.2
million eggs several times over the season.
Breaksea are protogynous hermaphrodites (change sex from female to male) with size and age at sex change most likely to be
socially rather than environmentally dependant (i.e. change sex whenever the head male is lost or killed, rather than
automatically changing once they reach a certain size or age. May remain females for their entire life if there is no
reason to change).
There are some problems associated with imposing size and bag limits for this species (Mainly barotrauma i.e. blown
bladders, eyes) and the implications of hermaphrodism.
Closed seasons (and possibly sanctuary zones) would be more efficient at enhancing breeding populations of Breaksea cod.
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