The Gold Fish tail/tale
The GOLDEN GRUNTER tale:
On one of our recent YouTube episodes, (We caught a Gold Fish & a Mud Crab), Karen caught a Golden Grunter.....well that's what we know them as, and will continue to call them.
At the time even though it was a good fighting fish, and we have heard a great eating fish, it was just a little disappointing. We had been ALL day in the Kimberley wet season HEAT, it was very uncomfortable! We were wanting a Barramundi, but I was so happy I finally caught a FISH! I knew as soon as I seen it coming in, you hear me on the clip saying ''Oh, it's one of those Gold Fish''. Johnno '' A Grunter''. Me ''Yah''.
I got the fish in, and we got a few photo, after all this is one impressive looking fish!!
Photo above: Karen holding ''Golden Grunter'' at Airport Creek, Derby, Western Australia. Caught on bait, December 2020.
Only fish caught for the day, only day we had been fishing all week, so I shared the photo. I knew as I was uploading it how much discussion it would create, so I put it out there on a few fishing groups... ID this fish!
Fisho's seem to love ID''ing fish, and I knew straight away people would be calling it a Mulloway or Black Jew fish, even though people around these parts who catch them regularly know them as a completely different fish, the Golden GRUNTER.
I was a little surprised by the number of people so sure they knew what it was, and wouldn't believe it could be anything else: it has to be a Black Jew fish, only Gold because of what it has eaten.
YES It is Gold because of environment and diet, but not it is not a Jew Fish.
I like everyone to know Positive Fishing is 'For The FUN Of It'' we are no expert, we are just two people out there having fun, having a bloody ball. :) So we did not enter into the debate, just let it ride out. But I had to know, and after a few nights of asking around and checking out fisheries web sites, we could not find this fish anywhere with a Western Australian ID!
Closest we came was this, from Queensland fisheries: (Thanks Peter Burns for your help finding this)
So I contacted Fisheries WA. Everyone keeps telling me they are great eating, I want to know if I am aloud to keep them!
Christmas holidays, so it took a while, but in the New Year we got a reply form Fisheries WA that said
The fish in your pics has been identified by a research scientist as Scaly jewfish (Nibea squamosal), a characteristic of which are the dorsal lumps shown in your pics. The fish is not a Mulloway (Argyrosomus japonicas), Black jewfish Protonibea diacanthus or a member of the Javelinfish Family (Haemuidae). No size limit and as they are in the ‘all other species of finfish category’ they fall under a mixed bag of 30 with other fish of that category.
So our Golden Grunter is a SCALY JEWFISH, and next one I catch I am going to keep and eat! So many people have told us how good they are!
Have you caught a GOLDEN GRUNTER lately? We would love to hear from you if you have.
Email: positivesteps@live.com.au
Oh yah, worth a mention: Black Jewfish v's Mulloway from the Fisheries WA page:
Tail is the key to jewfish ID
Recreational fishers visiting the North West sometimes mistake a black jewfish for a mulloway, which is mainly fished for in WA’s south-west.
Although these species may look similar, the tail is the key to identification. The rear edge of a mulloway tail is straight while the black jewfish tail flares out at the centre, giving the tail a diamond shape.
Our northern Fisheries and Marine Officers have reported a number of mistaken identities recently and advise that learning to tell mulloway (river kingfish) from black jewfish (northern mulloway) is important as they have different minimum size limits.
The minimum legal size for mulloway is 500 mm, while the minimum legal size for black jewfish is 700 mm, as they mature at a slower rate than mulloway.
If you’re fishing north of Exmouth Gulf and you catch one of these fish, it will almost certainly be a black jewfish, meaning you can only legally keep it if it measures at least 700 mm from the point of the snout to the tip of the tail. Fishers must return any undersize fish to the water immediately, with the least possible injury.
There have been a lot of very big Jewfish (even if we call them Mulloway) caught around Derby, I would be really keen for some tail photos, if you want to share please send to positivesteps@live.com.au
Watch it on Youtube here: https://youtu.be/o1J1hA8cJVM