[youthenasia]

Headed out to nudgee for an early morning session with the mother-in-law. The weather was fantastic, and we were off the water by 9:30am. Put the crab pots down and managed to pick up a decent sand crab aswell. Overall an excellent morning out. All fish were caught on prawns and pillies. Biggest bream went 33cm, and all fish were caught by the mother-in-law... much to my dismay.

Heard the snaps were on so ventured out to wellington point a few weeks ago but could only catch rocks and eels. Hence the eastury fishing.

Cheers,
Youth

 

[rob316]

Good effort - by the MIL - but stick with the bays/creeks as the snapper have been absent from Wello for a week or 3, give it a month or so, they seem to be south and very north of there but have all but disappeared from Wello...just a prolonged slow phase...having more fun in the estuaries myself lately as well

 

[kayakone]

Hi Pete. I thought a MIL fish was a slatey bream? :lol:

 

[grinner]

hay pete. that a tailor there mate?
love those critters, dont know what it is about their flavour but i really really like it, now ive learnt to cook a bit.
gotta cook as quick as possible, boiling hot oil, dust in flour and sizzle, sensational, ive been having it a bit lately after a few good sessions. man, it makes you feel good, i think its high in iron.

those slow swimming fish like snapper, i dont like, their white flesh just makes me feel slowed down.

congrats.

 

[Guest]

Most certainly a tailor Grinner. If you enjoy them, you should put a few on the BBQ. The oily flesh cooks up a treat and the slight char aspect of the bbq does them great favours. Excellent. They also smoke really really well. My wife hates them as a fresh flesh, I tend to let them go but the ones I have brought home, once smoked they make the most excellent fish pie or smoked fish chowder. YUM!

 

[Dodge]

Youth nothing like some variety in a catch, well done mate

dust in flour and sizzle, sensational,

Pete a tip given to me only about 3 years ago, dust fish in rice flour before sizzling, it goes crispier on the outside than other flours and is all I use on all fish these days after trying it out.
Only comes in a small box and stores easily in an old screw top peach jar.

 

[grinner]

@ jon, yeah that sounds good, youre right about the oily flesh

@ dodge, sounds like that mite be the go mate, i will investigate,
ive also found putting the salt and pepper in with the flour before you dust them is good.
hardly a masterchef idea

 

[actionsurf]

Nice mixed bag Pete. Those Bream are a nice size. Bait or lures ? If lures, which one ? Got a bream tourney in a couple of weeks.

 

[Thegaff]

Youth nothing like some variety in a catch, well done mate

dust in flour and sizzle, sensational,

Pete a tip given to me only about 3 years ago, dust fish in rice flour before sizzling, it goes crispier on the outside than other flours and is all I use on all fish these days after trying it out.
Only comes in a small box and stores easily in an old screw top peach jar.

Ive been using corn flour for a wile now but will be giving the rice flour ago very soon.

 

[youthenasia]

There's been some patches of good weather, which has made going for a yak sesh a privilege. Yep indie, it was particularly heartless of me to use the mother-in-law as crab bait, but she worked a treat. Haha No MIL fish this time (or pike eels) trev, for which we were grateful. Looking at the trip reports lately you've been doing really well. Yep Pete, it was a tailor and it sure put up a good fight for its size. The look in the MIL's face was priceless - fear and excitement for her first yak fishing trip. Have to bleed tailor straight away, and I always ensure my esky is ice cold to keep any fish super fresh on the trip. We just anchored up, burleyed and used bait to catch what we did... not having much sucess on lures lately as I haven't been putting in enough time and effort. Lazy mans fishing.

Years ago we used to egg and bread crumb the tailor, or just dust it with flour and pan fry it. Worked a treat on Fraser Island, and is a quick way to cook them in mass proportions for a large group of people. Nez, as you mentioned smoking works really well, and we used to use the banksia leaves from the millions of shrubs on Fraser for a really strong and unique flavour.

Lately I've been removing the guts and scales, score the flesh on both sides, topped with a tin of diced tomatoes, some sea salt, a sprig of lemon thyme, and some slices of lemon, then wrapped up in oven and cooked in a 180-200 deg fan forced oven for approximately 45min to 1hr. As you have all mentioned, tailor can be an oily fish which shallow or deep frying exacerbates, but baking the fish with the lemon and lemon thyme cuts through the oilyness and the whole fish ends up tasting more like flathead. Only downside would be the ribcage of the tailor, which are better dealt with by filleting and frying. As some of you have made reference to, tailor should be cooked pereferably the same day as being caught, as we've found they don't keep all that well.

Cheers all,
youth