What's the MOST Challenging Fish...

[Marwan]

when in doubt ask the locals..that seems to work..

[Lockedin]

I've heard (but have no way to verify) that one way to tell is to lay the fish out, and watch for flies: No Flies = No Eat.

Again, I have no way to verify.

Marwan's way would probably be more advisable.

[settingsteel]

So tell me CubanoPerdido whats your most challenging fish in Costa Rica, Roosterfish? If you want to know a bit more about ciguatera do a search here on DB or just start a new thread on it I'm sure quite a few fellows will chime in that topic.

[blaiz]

Originally Posted by cubanoperdido

hey boys (& girls i suppose)

parrotfish....different kinds, but i think they all eat coral, yes?? i went with a local in cape green an he nailed a couple of parrots...took the liver and sauteed it with some oil, then boiled the fish and put some rice all together, damn good! but i ate it thinkin bout "siguatera" (not sure if thats spanish or english), its a problem you can get from eatin fish that eat coral, or even eating fish that eat fish that eat coral, like barracudas. i'm weary of them, but maybe its ignorance on my part. anyone know about this stuff? i even ate a couple of monster triggers there (an kept my fingers crossed), but never had no problem.... anyone know bout this?
happy huntin..
z-ya

Yeah, we have a pretty big problem with ciguatera in hawaii too. I havnt heard of too many cases from parrot fish(uhu) though. Usually it comes from the fish that eat the algae off of the reef e.g. Kole(gold ring sergeon fish) and then like you said bigger predators, Ulua(giant travalle),Kahala(Amber jack),Roi(peacock grouper), sometimes even Uku(green jobfish) though I try not to think of the later!

They do sell a kit that you can test your fish with. Its called the cigua-check. Its not that cheep and doesnt have much of a shelf life so alot of fishing/dive shops dont stock it. You can order them online but even still I hear that they are not that accurate. Its easy to get false posotives.

Here are a couple of quotes from an article in the last issue of Hawaii Skin Diver.

"Ciguatoxins are neorotoxins that act on nerves and muscles and can cause a wide range of gastrological, neurological, and cardiac disorders. It is a hardy toxin that in that it has no odor, taste or color to make it obvious to the potential consumer.

"Ciguatoxin is produced by a type of algae called Gambierdiscus toxicus"

"This microbe lives epiphytically on macroalgae that grow on the reef. When herbiveorous fish graze the reef, they can ingest [the toxin], and the fish absorb it into their bodies. As carnivorous fish consume the herbivores, the toxin is magnified as it is passed up the food chain until it reaches humans."

"The general onset of symtpoms occurs within 1 to 24 hours, though it could be as early as 30 minutes, or as late as 48 hours. Gastrological symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, and are exhibited more than 50% of the time. Often, but not always, neurological disorders follow the gastrological symtoms, and may include a tingly sensation in the lips, hands and feet. A classic sign of ciguatera poiconing is the perception of temperature reversal in things you touch, i.e., hot feels cold and cold feels hot. When touching something cold, you may fees a burning or itching sensation in your finger tips. Muscle, joint, or tooth aches are possible, as well as fatigue and/or anxiety. In severe cases, hypotension with bradycardia, respiratory difficulties and paralysis can occur. Death from ciguatoxin is very uncommon."

They also note that some "areas" of reef are more toxic than others.
"Typically 10-15% of the "usual suspects" (namely jacks, surgeonfish, groupers, snappers, and wrasses) will be ciguateric."

(Hawaii Skin Diver, Ciguatera in Hawaii by Suzanne Defelice+Paul Bienfang+Mike Lameier)

Hope this doesnt turn you off at all. I would just talk to the local fisherman and see which areas are more toxic. Stay away from certain fish known to have it. Thats what I do, I havnt had it yet and Ive been eating reef fish in Hawaii for 20 years!(knock on wood!!)

Aloha
Jake

[Coral Sniper]

From what I know parrots are the fish that will not get ciguatera,very safe fish to eat.

I am starting to go easy on the big parrots because of what I have read recently.

Basically the big ones can be up to 20 years old and they are one of the few gardians of the coral reef against algae(wich they eat) .
This algae bleachs and kills the coral.

They also have to be pretty old to mate,so the big ones are the ones that we need the most.

Just my thoughts.

[Marwan]

Originally Posted by Lockedin

I've heard (but have no way to verify) that one way to tell is to lay the fish out, and watch for flies: No Flies = No Eat.
.

I heard about that one too, i dont know rick, could be just me,,but i dont think ill have much of an apetite for a fish with flies over it either

[blaiz]

Originally Posted by Coral Sniper

From what I know parrots are the fish that will not get ciguatera,very safe fish to eat.

I am starting to go easy on the big parrots because of what I have read recently.

Basically the big ones can be up to 20 years old and they are one of the few gardians of the coral reef against algae(wich they eat) .
This algae bleachs and kills the coral.

They also have to be pretty old to mate,so the big ones are the ones that we need the most.

Just my thoughts.

Is Ciguatera a big problem in Tonga too?

[Coral Sniper]

Yep,but its not as bad as some other places

[sunfish]

Gilthead bream are the trickiest to shoot here in Ireland. I've lain on the bottom for two minutes, being circled by a mixed shoal of bass, mullet and bream. The nbass and mullet come into range, sometimes within a foot of the guntip, but you could black out waiting for the bream.
The average size is under a kilo but they taste mighty fine. Sneak and peek works sometimes.

[settingsteel]

Originally Posted by sunfish

Gilthead bream are the trickiest to shoot here in Ireland. I've lain on the bottom for two minutes, being circled by a mixed shoal of bass, mullet and bream. The nbass and mullet come into range, sometimes within a foot of the guntip, but you could black out waiting for the bream.
The average size is under a kilo but they taste mighty fine. Sneak and peek works sometimes.

Ahh good to see we're back on the threadso bream you say...whats the tech name...here in florida bream is generic for a large group of freshwater "sunfish".

[bgill]

Here in Wisconsin we can only go for so called "rough fish" like Carp, Suckers, Gar, freshwater Drum or Sheep's-head, Shad, Gizzard shad, Bowfin or dogfish, and Bullheads. None of which are very desirable to most people. But very fun to hunt and clean the lakes of invasive and or undesireable species.

Besides the rough fish...We can also spear "Pan-fish"...Or Bluegills, Perch, Sunfish, Crappie, Rockbass, Whitebass, ALL of which are desireable fish...To me anyhow.

Out of ALL of these fish - big (10 plus incher) late summer Bluegills are the toughest and most challenging I'd say...They don't let you get too close very easily! Especially where they've been hunted!

Whitebass can be hard to find, not all lakes have them, most that do have poor vis...

Crappie's usually are'nt worth the effort to fillet unless they're atleast 11 inches...Preferably bigger! And the bigger ones can be hard to find on some lakes.

BTW...Most of my spearfishing is done with a "polespear"...Atleast for the good eatin' fish. Besides they (most pan-fish) are smaller...Thats why they call 'em "pan-fish" I guess...

A 12 inch Bluegill would be huge!

[MahiMan]

Every time I read about fresh water spearing it seems soo odd...... mainly because its illegal here. Wonder what it would be like hunting peacock bass down here, even though they are invasive they are very welcome ..... on second thought everything in most freshwater bodies here have extremely high levels of mercury, so its not in our best interest I'd say =x

There are tons of invasive freshwater fish down here now that I think about it O_o

[getawayFK]

Most challenging fish for me (at least in this part of the world - Persian Gulf) are large milkfish... They seem to be very wary and will never give you a shoot. You'll only see them swimming away. Another hard fish to get are large seabasses. Those are also warry and very cautious and will never get close to you. Second to that are mullets. The easiest fish I find to get are large baracudas (talking about 1.5m + size) . They seem to don't give a d^mn about nobody and you'll get to them to literally touching distance (that if you swim slowly toward them instead of largely splashing) and will be able to place your shoot wherever you want. Trevallies are also easy shoot. Now for groupers it largely depends. Sometimes they are extremly dumb to let you shoot them between the eyes while they are looking at you, and sometimes they'll run away as soon as they spot your shadow...

[Mongrel454]

I find the most challenging fish are all the fish worth eating
All the crappy reef fish that arent worth eating will come over and pose for your shot, not even worth practicing on LOL

[blaiz]

Originally Posted by MahiMan

Every time I read about fresh water spearing it seems soo odd...... mainly because its illegal here. Wonder what it would be like hunting peacock bass down here, even though they are invasive they are very welcome ..... on second thought everything in most freshwater bodies here have extremely high levels of mercury, so its not in our best interest I'd say =x

There are tons of invasive freshwater fish down here now that I think about it O_o

Where I grew up on Kauai we had a bunch of man-made resevoirs for the sugarcane fields. After a while they were stocked with game fish like large and small mouth bass, talapia, and peacock bass (im assuming they are the same, look like a bass with a black dot one of the top fins?) we used to fish for them w/ small tackle.

Peacock bass (we called them tucanary) were friggen bad ass! My friends dad used to dive the golf coarse ponds for a living to collect golf balls. He was attacked by peacock bass numerous times. (protecting their nests) Once a tucanary hit him in the face so hard it split his mask in two

I thought that was pretty gnarly!