Does anyone know what the world record for milkfish is? have got some crackers lately and it'd be a laugh if one of them could've been a record!

Got any pics Jez?
They grow to 15kg+ and 150+cm's...

I do have a few pics...ill upload some when i get home.
was just really interested to see what the actual record is...cant find it on the net anywhere!

No idea Jez but dead keen to see your pics and find out how you catch them!

Try this out Jez, there's a few on here all beit Aus records, most Darwin Harbour

http://www.ansa.com.au/Sportfishing.htm

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G'day Jez/Ernie

Re: record claims, to access the IGFA records you have to be a member of the IGFA, I have a copy of the IGFA record book at home, I'll have a squiz for you, its a couple of years out of date, unfortunately I lent the latest one to someone & its gone missing in action. Just some background on all record claims. IGFA record claims can be submitted after the fish is captured even if you aren't a member at the time, they have catagories for just about anything & everything including Garfish. The fish don't have to be a gamefish & or even weigh line class & some of the records are a bit how ya goin, not worth the time or effort some of the ones submitted. You still have to complete documents with relevant information & provide a line sample & statutory declaration with the record claim, photos, copy of certified scales & associated fees. It would be all proceesed & you would be notified in due course, line samples, over length doubles & leaders are the main cause for records not being accepted.

Australian records you have to be a member of an Australian Game Fishing Club which is affiliated with the Game Fishing Association of Australia (GFAA) prior to the capture of the fish. The fish has to be a recognised game fish & has to equal line class or better, there are conditions apply to beat an existing record by a certain percentage. Line samples & relevant documents, photos & a copy of the certified scales are forwarded to the GFAA to assess any record claims. Pre test line is the best way to go to avoid any line class issues breaking over the rating, same with IGFA, most records not accepted come down to line breaking over rating, lond doubles, leaders etc.

You can google GFAA & view the Australian records & all associated requirements & existing state & Australian records. I also hold our club's certified scales if you ever require a weight verification.

Milkfish aren't a recognised game fish so you can't submitt them for an Australian record claim even tho they would meet every category required if they were submitted to the governing body to be assessed.

The attached link you indicated is to ANSA which is different again, they have a rating for the fighting abilty of the fish. I'm not really overly familiar with all of their requirements so you may need to read their regulartory requirements if you are interested in ANSA.

In a nut shell there is a bit more involved to submit a record claim & have it approved, lety us know if you have any specific questions, the GFAA site should start to give you an idea of the different species, line classes etc, cheers Balls.

Hi Balls, you forgot the Austraian Angling Association. If you fish for a registered fishing club, you are able to claim an Australian record. When I was recorder for a fishing club, I advised our members that if they caught a fish they didn't know, to bring the fish in for identification. I did this with an unusual criiter I caught, and got an Australian record for a Small-scaled Bullesye weight 145grm. Doesn't need to be big to get a record

Interesting info there Balls! Certainly sounds a bit more complex than I would have imagined, but at the same time I can see why they need that level of complexity.

Jez, be interested to see the pics of the ones you've been getting, hopefully the big ones are comming back into the harbour for the build up already. The below is a pic of my PB milkfish from Darwin Harbour. Realistically only a 6kg fish.. and to think they grow to 15kg+!
Most of the ones you get here are only 3kg or so, although you wouldn't know it the way they scream through the water!
Great fun to catch.

http://www.fishingterritory.com/viewtop ... t=milkfish

G'day Drifter

What is a small scaled Bulleye, is it a Mullet, they aren't on the GFAA listing as a recognised game fish & I just checked it & Mullet definitely aren't a game fish (great for catching gamefish when used as swimbaits), you sure it isn't an ANSA record which is totally different to the GFAA??

Nice Milkfish, beautiful looking fish, by the way the really small ones you can buy make great swimbaits for Marlin, cheers Balls.

How do i upload pics guys? prob a really silly question but i have no idea!

Most of the fiosh i've been catching have been between 5-8Kg's.

The biggest milkfish i ever caught was when i was 14 out of a rubber ducky...i used to harrass a lot of them in Cullen Bay of all places before other people saw what i was doing and eventually i was banned from fishing there!
Back to the big one! We were in the harbour getting into a few out of the Ducky when a school of much larger fish moved through. They were smashing everything in the trail so it was no problem getting one to take a bait. When i first saw the fish charge towards my floating offering i began to realise that this was much BIGGER than than my previous PB of around 7-8 Kg's. In a flash of silver the fish smashed the bait and after waiting for a few seconds i set the hook and it was on! The fish immediatly left the water and began porpoisiong for the other side of the harbour with us tring to keep up with our dodgy 3.3hp outboard! The fight went back and forth over about 2 hours when the boys from the navy base started screaming words of encouragement through the megaphone they had. Eventually the fish rose up towards us and this was when i really started to see the bulk of him! this fish was HUGE! With me hanging on to his first half and my mate holding on to his second half, we made our way towards the fella's at the navy base who had been watching the entire time. I kept the fish in the water the whole time we were preparing a set of scales and a hessian bag to weigh him. With the hessian bag supporting the fish we set him on the scales and i was blown away....In comparison to the other fish i had caught in the past i was thinking this fish may go around 12-3Kg's but i hadnt taken the sheer bulk of him into consideration. the scales were pulled down to 16.8kg's after taking the weight of the hessian bag out of the equation. While keeping the fish in the water i called my dad to ask what i needed to do for records etc. but he told me i would have to take the fish. Being young and slightly soft i had never killed one of my beloved Milkies so i decided that if he was actually a record fish then my friend, half a dozen navy blokes and me would all know that i had caught him. That was enough for me. My greatest regret is that it was 10 years ago and i was 14 years old, in a rubber ducky with no camera and as the fish was not in the best shape i couldn't wait for my dad to finish work and bring one down to me, so the decision was made to swim the fish until he recovered sufficiently and then release him. These days i always have my digital camera and given my time over i probaly would have taken the chance and waited for a camera to arrive. I have hundreds of photos of milkfish i have caught since then on fly and conventional gear but i am yet to see another school of milkies of that calibre smashing through my berley trail again!

Great story
Great memories
Yes. it was a world record. No question. Who cares if a bigger one has been caught...you caught the best one!

When you post a reply, look down the page you type your reply...there is a section "Add an attachment".
Click "Browse"
Find your photo on your computer. Make sure you have resized your photo to the required pixels (I think its 600 pixels wide but it may have changed recently to 1000 pixels wide)
Double click the photo icon and it will attach to your post.
Then just click "submit" as usual.

There is another way but thats probably the easiest.

Cheers
Mud

this isn't a fish i caught but it looks to be around the same size as the big girl i let go....thought some of you guys would like to get an image!

Aloha, first time post here. I have a brackish pond about a mile upstream from my home that is loaded with Milkfish which we call 'Awa (ah-vah). They are extremely finicky and very difficult to get to bite. I have tried bread, and various dough mixtures. My son finally caught a 5 kilo one on a dough bait I made but they seemed to have stopped biting this mixture. There are several in this pond over 15 kilos which I'd love to hook into. What baits and burley (chum) do you folks use for Milkfish. Your comments are much appreciated.
Mahalo, Ji

PS. Hawai'i record Milkfish weighed in at 44 pounds or 20 kilos.

G'day from downunder Ahnko! The milkfish in Darwin are usually caught on bread, or a bread imitation "fly". They are also berleyed up with bread.

It must be said that these fish have been "conditioned" to eat bread after years of feeding at a nearby fish feeding tourist facility, although still being a completely ""wild" fish.

Maybe if you go down there daily and throw in some bread for the next 5 years or so you'll have your own little fishery! Its still not that easy to fool them though, can be mighty frustrating, but worth it when you hook up and your line is screaming off the reel!