09/19/2009 La Santa Fe - Pargo ruso

Pantoja, Alan and myself had a nice long day in the water today. It was warm, hardly any current, vis OK, overall good diving conditions. We did all shallow reefs today, 25-40ft, and it wasn't very fishy at all which can result in frustration and the mind playing tricks on you. I saw this fish in about 35ft, cruising alone along the flat bottom. I discounted it at first but the more I looked at it the bigger and more snapper like it appeared so I shot it. I didn't know what the hell it was and the guys called it pargo ruso (Russian snapper), I didn't know they ranged this far south. The beast weighed in at 8.5lb and was 22" to the fork or 24" to the tips of the tail.

The rest of the catch which paled in significance included a nice mangrove by yours truly which had to be shot 3 times! and a nice mutton by Pantoja. Alan was on the hunt for more pargo ruso

I also used my new gun for the first time today. I think it's accurate, this little mackerel was the first time I ever fired it. Overall I found it a little bulky and not convenient to shoot into holes.

Well it's new cause I never used it till now

For anyone who's interested in the yield of the pargo ruso. I did a careful job of filleting it, it's not as easy as most fish but not too bad, and got 2lb 12oz of clean fillets. I weighed the plate separately and then the plate with the fillets. I then used a spoon on the skin and skeleton and scraped up enough to feed my dog for the day together with the small mackerel. Overall not very good yield at %32 not including the dog food. I recommend pargo ruso only if you're really hungry based on yield and difficulty of cleaning, it does taste good.

World and Florida record is 12lb 12oz, tell Emil to get busy

Quote from LunkerBuster

what do you do besides de-bone the fish for the dog..I would love to keep some of these fish that I use for chum to give him so good nutrients and fish oils..?raw, boiled?

Always raw unless it's leftover table food. The scraping with a spoon is for fish that I filleted already. I also give him complete fish. I like giving him the mackerels because he eats most of it, in this case nothing was left but if it was a bigger mackerel maybe the head, tail and fins would be left over, it varies with other fish. As a rule the mackerels go to my dog, as well as small jacks.

Video: Dog eating mackerel

Emil looks kinda' hefty beside you as well :laughing:

I saw a school of about 10 of them, the one I got wasn't the biggest. I got schooled and took a late long shot hitting one in the tail. It ripped off and the school swam away. I was surprised a little later to see one return and go under a coral head. I thought it might have been the one I hurt seeking refuge but it turned out that no. There were margates under that coral head and it would take some time to accustom my eyes to the darkness and distinguish the mangrove among them. When I finally would my gun proved to be too long to shoot into the hole. I lost a lot of time positioning and repositioning it. I finally got off one shot and all hell broke loose inside. When the sand settled I pulled out the shaft without the fish. Then a few more dives where I spotted the fish again but couldn't get an angle for a shot.

Then Pantoja and Alan showed up with the boat and I asked if there was a shorter gun on board. Turned out there was a short pneumatic. Pantoja jumped in and brought it to me loaded. We both made a couple of dives and I finally located the mangrove and left the gun on the bottom pointing to where it was. Lo and behold mr. Pantoja dives down and takes the shot :nono: The fish was hit, came out of the coral head, struggled and tore off, and went back in. I then did a few more dives to locate him again and finally put in a head shot. The angle was very tight and the butt of the pneumatic hit me in the neck, the shaft didn't even fully come out of the gun. It was hard to take a careful shot because on that gun the shooting line was loose and floating around, a couple of weeks ago Guille cut his finger when it got caught in that shooting line. When I looked at the mangrove after I could only see 2 wounds which made me think that there was another one in there because there was supposed to be 3. All that action was the best part of the day for me.