clare dragoon, carrigaholt, 18/10/2009

People: viper, romofa and jw

Duration: 0900-1730

Tide: strong spring

Weather: 2 meter sea, 12 knot SW

Bait: mackerel, launce

Rigs: g&B devil, plain 3 hook and a wire trace

Results: whiting, haddock, spur dog, red gurnard, grey gurnard, pollack and a 24lb angler fish

Report: whiting of 2lb 14oz for me, 2lb 15oz for Viper and a red of 1lb 14oz also for viper, all
a couple of oz short of the specimen weight

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at another mark 13 mile NW of loop head i got bored with the whiting
put down a wire trace baited with 2 whole joeys and caught
this angler fish, thought for a minute i'd got the margaret thatcher puppet from
spitting image

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Well done, some fine whiting there and that angler fish is far too good looking to be anything like Maggie Thatcher

Cracking mouth shot of the Angler, I though pike were bad.

Wow John! I was waiting for this report because I was very curious how you all get on. Congratulations for the angler fish! That is awesome!

Good report, good fish, well done. The angler fish looks as if it has a half pound of sausage in its throat! What is in there ?
P

well done on the angler fish,if i saw one on the end of the line i think i would be throwing the rod over board ,strange looking fish

some fish that, its got a mouth like the baddy in the alien films

Congratulations John, an extraordinarily fine catch, and a highly interesting fish
Worth knowing about the anglerfish might also be since these creatures live at such a great depth, they are used to a pitch dark environment and have therefore developed a remarkable relationship between the two sexes.
Once a male and female fish finds each other in these dark waters, they will never let go again. The male has no digestive system and as soon as he finds a female of his own species he will attach himself to her and start excreting a special enzyme. The enzyme will make the body of the female fish accept the male instead of expelling him and they will gradually merge together. The male will link his blood system to the blood system of his partner; thereby removing the need for him to catch any prey.
So in fact you might even have caught 2 anglerfish
The male fish is much, much smaller than his partner – typically between 4 and 6 inches (10-15 cm) while free swimming. As soon as he has attached himself to a female he will start to shrink and become even smaller. The female on the other hand can be at least 36 inches (90 cm) in size. Did you notice anything John?
On the picture I was only able to spot its illicium (rod) and the esca (bait), the fleshy growth at the end of it.

looks like another great day out worth the trip and the effort well done lads. catching the angler fish must have just topped the whole trip off nicely a question springs to mind if you catch an angler fish in competition can you claim for two fish
there an awesome looking breed very alien looking as for the female bleeding the male dry i think we all have some angler fish in our own lives lol

Worth knowing about the anglerfish might also be since these creatures live at such a great depth, they are used to a pitch dark environment

This is not true at all anglers can and are caught in less than 15m of water.. I was involved in the commercial fishery of these creatures back in the good ol days, we used to start fishing them in max of 40m in February then move closer inshore as the season progressed ending up in less than 20m by early October when we would finish that fishery. Their most common diet during those months are ballan wrasse so where ballan are plentiful you're sure to find these beasts and also monkfish ... biggest one I ever saw we caught in 30ish meters he was well over 6 feet long by 3.5 feet wide can't remember the fishes weight at the time but we struggled to manage him... best way to hold em while unhooking them is stick your thumb and index finger in its eyes.. they can leap at you and lock on to you like a dog on the deck so be careful handling them




Nice fish John and a good size too not often seen on rod and line well done

Guys, I think there is a little bit of mismatch here. The Austrian is referring to Melanocetus johnsonii, while John caught Lophius budegassa or more likely Lophius piscaterius and I think that to this species of fish Mohawk is referring to.

Guys, I think there is a little bit of mis match here. The Austrian is referring to Melanocetus johnsonii, while John caught Lophius budegassa or more likely Lophius piscaterius and I think that to this species of fish Mohawk is referring to.

Yup your spot on, what John is holding up there is a "Lophius Piscatorius" just to confuse us all even more its common marketing name is Monkfish even though it's not a Monkfish at all! A Monkfish is a "Squatina Squatina" which are not as common as the anglerfish but not as rare as some people believe. We used to get several of them also and some much larger than the current rod caught records as a by catch in the fishery, all were returned alive I'm happy to add . Both species are very slow moving by that I mean they tend to sit in one spot for extended periods of time this being the reason rod caught fish are not very common, you need to be lucky and drop the bait on top of one or drag a bait accross his nose most of the time

They both move in closer to shore / shallows as water temp rises in late summer

Thanks to Tommy and Jim for their explanations and clearing this up, nothing beats good old Latin when it comes to identify and distinguish between species and in that sense let me just quote "errare humanum est"

thats unreal well done! would kill to get on of those!

Great day out lads, thanks for a great trip! Keep me in mind next time you're heading out.

as my granny used to say "the head on that and the price of cabbages!" nice fish too

Well done jw, cracking fish, and you got Fish of the Week on the CFB website too!

fish of a lifetime john well done its a cracker

nice angler fish