Catch of the Week (June 26): There's been another rare capture of a King George whiting on the Far South Coast of NSW. And this time it was a real stonker...
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
It's a fish that any South Australian would be proud to catch and down that way they call any KGW over 50cm a “kidney slapper”!
The 1.61kg King George Whiting that measure 620mm long was caught north of Batemans Bay, on Thursday, June 11.
“Quite a remarkable capture for these waters. The NSW record is 1.8kg which means they are not unheard of up here but still very rare,” said the skipper of the fishing boat Alan Brown, who sent us the photo.
It was caught on fresh squid in about 20 metres of water by angler Steve Cochran.
Skipper Alan thought it initially was a salmon or snapper or even a small mulloway when they saw colour and it put it a pretty good fight!
The fish’s stomach contents included sea urchin roe, leading the guys to think it may have been following a larger fish such as a snapper or ray picking up the scraps, and also beach worm, leading them to think it had also been in close to the beach or estuaries.
According to records, the previous record fish was caught by an Ivan Allcock at Berry in 1998.
This is the second recent report of a King George whiting on the Far South Coast after a much smaller model was caught in Wagonga Inlet at Narooma back in April.
Local estuary fishing guru Ronny Butler had caught a few previous King George, but other locals have scoffed at these, saying Ronny got the identity wrong.
Ronny decided to keep this one for a feed and to prove beyond doubt that they do occasionally occur in our area from time to time!
Send us your catch of the day at stan.gorton@fairfaxmedia.com.au