INDIANANGLER

I caught this fish yesterday night on a bottom rig. Its the ugliest fish i have caught yet. First i thought its a cat but on closer look its not like any cat i have caught but resembles a tadpole just 100 times bigger.

It swallowed the hook so C&R was not an option and it bled to death.

Please help to identify it.

the pic is not too clear.. i guess its a flathead...

maybe a small grouper

santosh it was not a grouper.

it was cat family, but head like a salamader or a frog tadpole.

I agree that it certainly looks like a flathead.

These are a very popular fish to catch in Australia, as they (despite their
looks) are very good eating.

You will have to be careful not to get punctured by the poisonous
spines on their gill rakers and dorsal fin.

These will cause the wound to bleed continuously.

The Aussie antidote is carried by the fish itself ... you just rub your finger on the slime on the flathead's belly and apply it to the bleeding wound.

Fortunately, I have not had to try it out , so far!

Again, the larger sized flathead are females and it is advisable to return them back to the waters to breed future generations.

Regards,
Kingfish

Its a bartail flathead.

Thanks for the identification guys.

Looks like you were fishing one of the beaches of Dubai? Was it near the palace??

No it was Ajman. Hows the fishing in Dubai ?

Hi Kashaif,

Fishing in Dubai is picking up.

I did manage to get a 2+ kg flathead, some barracudda, sherri etc these eid hols. Others around have also taken kingfish & cobia.
Besides that I managed to get my rod ripped out of the rod holder on 2 occassions (dont know why since I had loosened up the drag), but fortunately it didnt get away from me as the drag was lose.

Btw, I dont think Desmond is going to reply to that question of yours.

regards,
Keyur

Hi keyur

I got a Queen around 1 Kg and a needle fish (not ballyhoo) it was really big around 1.5 kg didnt knew they grow so big.

A guy next to me caught 2 barracudas, but no cudas for me yet.

Fishing is Dubai is perfectly fine. Most of the anglers to manage to land kings and probably a COBIA as well.

Agree with teritex as the fish being a Bartail Flathead (Platycephalus indicus).

kingfish is very right about the fish being good to eat. Once got the oppurtunity to eat a locally cooked 24" specimen at Talchari, Orissa and it was divine.