parrotfish

    hi,
    i was wondering for the longest while, why i never see any pics from floridaside, anyone catching parrotfish.
    not only the smaller species, but the rainbow, blue, and midnightparrots. i see some nice rainbows from the spearos from puerto rico. are they protected, or dont you have them up there ?
    i cant believe nobody shoot them if they could, because they are one tasty famous fish.

    i swear i could catch one in my hand if I tried, they are docile and stupid IMO.


    I never heard they could be caught H&L, either legally or if it was possible

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from LunkerBuster

    i swear i could catch one in my hand if I tried, they are docile and stupid IMO.


    They may seem that way here, manly because they are not targeted by hunters, but I can assure you they are very smart out in the pacific islands, including Hawaii.

    i believe it...that was what I was inarticulately trying to say...I have seen some here that i thought were GG from a distance cos of their size and slow cruise


    they have zero pressure from any people here and I don't know what fish are known to eat them

    i like to spear fish

    Quote from Marco

    What do you use as a bait? A piece of coral?


    That's the thing. I had my dad hook a big blue in the eye, not the eye socket but the eye skin. It was about 20lbs which was more surprising his eyeball didn't pop out.


    Also my friend caught one on a piece of ham.

    Davie Peguero

    I used to catch them in Cuba every now and then with something call sigua. It a small mussel creature with shell and all (the shell usually seen on little hermit crabs) that is live on the rocks where the waves smash against. But I am sure you can catch them with macao (hermit crab), I don't know a single fish that doesn't bite with it. I am sure pantoja can elaborate on this.

    catching and eating parrotfish in trinidad/tobago have a long tradition. specially in tobago people used and still do catch them on line, from the rocks. since then people also call them rockfish down here. but the more common name here is chub.
    mostly the stoplight and the queen parrot fish are caught that way. best bait for them is those handsize brownish/greenish crabs that live on the rocks, hiding below the waterlevel once you aproach them.
    locals invented something called "grab eye" to catch these crabs. a bamboostick split open on one side like a v, and tie a 10 inch long thin fishing line between the two ends. by pulling this stick from down below where the crab sits, you will hook the crab with the tight line behind its eyes, since its eyes located on some hooklike bones. queen and stoplight will take that bait, and sometimes even big midnight and rainbows as well.
    since people started spearfishing, the main target was always any chub. because they kind of easy to shoot, they are plentyful, and almost everywhere, and people will always buy/eat them. even in times where you have snappers, kingfish and more on the table, some older people will come and ask for their rockfish.
    their are a some divers that will swim out on the weekend, and come back with a stringer of 30-40 chub.
    for the longest while i was wondering why plenty people called one of my localdivefriend "chubby" ,
    wich is also the name of a very popular soda for children. until i was told that he use to be for years the biggest chub-supplier of the island.
    something about the big species, you can still find them in some some places in rocky areas, right at the shoreline in 10feet water. but mostly find them on offshore reefs, beetwen 20-60 feet.
    but they are not that easy to shoot. they tend to react on hunting pressure quickly. if you see 20 of them in one area, you may get 2-3, before the rest will move. come back one week after, it already get harder to just get 1-2. come back 3times a week, and you wont see them again here for a long time.
    and one strange thing again, the distance beetwen trinidad and tobago is about 20miles. in tobago you will see plenty big rainbows and midnights, from all divers in trinidad, there is only a handful who seen one in years. it seemes that those fish like cleaner waters.

    They sure look tasty, but, I have never tried one before. I always see them shooting em in Hawaii and often wondered why no one here shot them, now I know.

    Quote from tinu

    but they are not that easy to shoot. they tend to react on hunting pressure quickly. if you see 20 of them in one area, you may get 2-3, before the rest will move. come back one week after, it already get harder to just get 1-2. come back 3times a week, and you wont see them again here for a long time.

    That sounds very much like what I've experienced in Cuba.

    Here in Moz its like Tinu mencioned, although its also true that parrot fish are quite easy to spear but only in areas where they are not speared and of course small ones...


    When they reach a certain size they tend to become very difficult, they adapt very quickly to the fishing pressure and simply go away in the presence of spearfisherman.


    Here's a Pic. of a nice Blue Barred...



    I shoot one once in a while but only if its a challenging shot and of decent size for they are really good eating...

    "The heart is but the beach beside the sea that is the world..."

    they are a wrasse just like hogfish, do they taste similar? since they are illegal to collect all the ones at my work are usually from africa despite the fact we have them all up and down our coasts.. kind of funny.

    Scupper Pro Gives You Wings!

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