North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Went down to the beach at east point last night for a feed of prawns with the family. Thought I would take the rod with me to see if I could coax out a few whiting at the same time. Within 30 seconds of lobbing out a number 10 long shank baited with pieces of peeled prawn I was getting bites. You beauty I thought, they are here. You can imagine my surprise when I reeled the bugger in and instead of the beautiful, elegant whiting I was after it was a rugged, spiny powertail.

I was pleasantly surprised at the fight these things were putting up but eventually the novelty wore off and I went home.

These so called powertail seem to be pretty prolific up here, so much so that they are currently representing about 90% of what me and my mates are catching leading one them to dub them the rabbit of the sea.

Couple of questions for you more experienced NT fishos:

1) is there any merit in eating these things or would that just be a desperate measure?
2) if they start showing up are there any ways to avoid catching them? They seem to take whatever im throwing out there
3) I have heard that barramundi love them, does anyone use them for live bait?

Cheers,

YZ

Yes they are edible- better than blue salmon, if you don't use bait you won't catch many of them and yes barra eat a lot of them, worth using foe live bait IMHO.

yeah stop using bait and your catch rate will decline.
they do like soft plastics but not as much as a piece of bait.

Heard the yellowish ones(i think it was) are good eating as they've recently come in from the salt. Meant to be top crab bait. Biggest drama I've been told is removing the slime from esky/kill tank. My old man, visiting from south, was stunned when I got his off the hook & threw it over the side.

I know an ex pro who used them as jewfish bait

Stinky horrible slimy things, don't them bring them into your boat, release them with extra long handle pliers so you don't get pricked by the poisonous spines. They come out in plague proportions after good rain. They're scavengers, once witnessed a school of them eating a floating pig carcass at rapid creek, disgusting creatures.

yep eat the big yellow ones, firm flesh good for currys holds together . Old bloke cooked me sum other night, more like chicken nuggets.
Have not come to filleting one my self yet

I'm with smed, top crab bait!

Other than that they fight ok and make a pretty good sound when belted with a baseball bat...

Wrighty wrote:I'm with smed, top crab bait!

Other than that they fight ok and make a pretty good sound when belted with a baseball bat...

Definitely, the crack as their head splits is good,

haven't eaten the forked tail ones, but have eaten the eel tail down south in the Swan River (cobbler) also up here and they were great chewin!

The golden powertail is definitely good on the chew, as PP said great in curry, and a big one will yield a good crucifix.

olfart wrote:The golden powertail is definitely good on the chew, as PP said great in curry, and a big one will yield a good crucifix.

G'day Olfart, whats the best way to get the crucifix out, thought about using the mrs big pasta pot to boil the head up, but don't think she would appreciate that....

Thanks guys,

All the ones I have been catching have been these grey slimey looking things. Might give the bait a break for a while and fling a few more lures around. First time I ever fished in darwin I got belted on a soft plastic by something big but havent had much luck on lures since then.

Brendan

We used to park them on an ants nest, the crab boiler will do the trick, no more mess than making fish soup, slow simmer usually sees the meat fall off. Put them somewhwere to dry right out, then start painting, the 'crucifix' is prety clearly defined.
Used to be a great example at the South Alligator behind the counter.

Btw, the 'crucifix' is the internal bone structure of the head.

You need a big one to bother filleting as they are all noggin & eat ok but bl..dy slimey things to fillet & yep put the head near an ants nest they will clean it up in no time if the hawks dont pinch it.