North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Have you caught a barra with jelly flesh?

A longtime Darwin fisho told me he has been catching more than usual in Darwin Harbour, and some goldies have it too.

Few years ago I caught a barra in Woods Inlet that had tea-leaf spots on it and the flesh felt a bit like jelly.

Apparently healthy-looking fish with no spots can have it too.

Dunno what causes it.

Have had a few soft Goldies say... 1 in 10.

Got onto a school of reds once where every second fish was soft and mushy.

I know kingies used to get something that they would go soft after they died. Don't know if it is the same thing.

Some science...

"Softness of the flesh can be influenced by the type of feeding, the fishing ground and the stage in the spawning cycle. All these factors may be superimposed on the gaping caused by rigor, thereby making it worse".

http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/tan/x5914e/x5914e01.htm

For the serious reader...

https://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream ... sequence=1

We first noticed it when cooking fresh fillets and then learned to feel them on the hook then throw them back if they were soft. I always put it down to water temperature but I'm not so sure now.

Only place I've ever come this is in the ponds at the saltworks.

Noticed that barra with jelly-like flesh all had narrow waists. Looked a bit emaciated. After finding that "jelly flesh" came from those fish, we released narrow waisted ones.

Lots of big barra in those ponds and usually in the first pond next to pump channel.

We put it down to lack of food.

The only way food could get into those ponds was via the pump and barra used to gobble-em-up quickly.