INDIANANGLER

Have been going to waterbodies around Coimbatore spinning for Murrels with my good friend Sarvanan (Sara). After 4 fruitless trips, finally got my first Murrel. Good sized one too, thanks to the Angling Gods.
It hit the size 5 MEPPS spinner hard, line was 12 lbs capacity on a Shimano Alivio 4000 reel, and a 8 ft Quantum Rod.
The fish tipped the scales at 7.4 kgs/ 16.3 lbs.


Look at the eyes!!!!


The Fat Fish. Large round the belly.


It was tough holding it in one hand!


Big belly!

The fish went into the pot. Bops sure would be very unhappy with this but better my pot than the locals. If I had released it back, the locals would have netted it the same day once I left. So much for conservation.

The fish was very tasty! All the stuff about big fish not tasting good did not apply to this one. The fried pieces went very well with the booze and the macher jhol with rice was finger licking good!

Congrats Sailendra, very good catch !! You are back with a Bang

very very nice fish mate congrats

[quote="arish"]Congratulation Sailendra that a big Murrel and the first pic loook quite a teaser.

Rajat Dada do share your magic cooking receipts in a separate thread title MAGIC RECEIPTS :wink:

Regard
Arish![/quote)
i'm sure mr. rajat wouldnt mind posting all his bills and receipts. its recipes mr.arish. we wouldnt like to cook receipts.
@ sailendra nice sol.
[/u]

Hi
Congrats Sailendra.Don't give up try and try you will end up Big once

old paddle tail... man i love her.. if i catch one that big or bigger , she's going back to be a mama.. . id take one of her kids for the pot though... after all murrel are yumm... make good fillet . fishfingers.. can bake em.. fry em ..oh boy.. im fantasizing now.. got to get some murrel....


ok here goes.. i have never been pointed on this site before.. but mr."kingfisher" please dont make fun of people and their shortcomings on this forum.. no one is perfect... im sure you are not an obnoxious boor.. so please dont come across that way.. thank you..

Thanks a lot, Dr Prasad.

Stevenson, I too should have released it, I suppose . Will do it next time.

Rajat Da, plan a Cauvery baitfishing trip. Galibore. March is open. Would love to fish with you. You will get some good river magoor too with chicken gut. Straight to the pot. A few good indian river magoor in your hands !!!!!

... whatever .. gents.. peace out ..

Hi Sailendra,

Congrats and much respect. This is probably the biggest Murell caught and photographed. You qualify for a world record , Trust me. No issues from my side on catch and release. You just do what drives you.


Cheers
Jeen

Jean, Thank you very much. Am humbled by your kind words. Have been following your fishing exploits with your sons. You, Sir, are the Master. Namaste.

MM - People say that the males are generally smaller and darker than the females. So you aready have two colors. I saw one caught by Ken (?) in this forum, which had more yellow patches than dark. The ones caught by Jean's sons had the red coloration. May be the color of water and the vegatation in the water gives different coloration to the Murrels. The experts will know better. The guy who cut the fish was very clear that the fish was a female and was right when he said that despite the big belly, there would be no roe in it as it had the spots on it. Means that the fish changes color too!!

Ranger Sarvanan, we can plan a murrel trip one of these weekends. Would be pleasure. You Coimbatore guys are the hardcore murrel hunters.

Cheers

Great Catch ......Buddy....

Definately a Trophy Size....

@ "hamour"why would i query you on anything concerning angling.this forum is for anglers.

Post edited for personal comments.

thats what i was telling you..( that this is an angling forum)

Post edited for personal comments

Om Shanti, Guys.
Once peace has been declared, no need for stretching things to a breaking point.
Let us talk fish and fishing. Lets not get personal.

Viper, Thanks very much.

Ali Bhai, Thank you again. The moot point here is that I do feel a little guilty about killing such a magnificent specimen. Hence all these lines.
If I had my own pond, I would have kept him live and put it in it.
I have bought a small parcel of land near Bangalore and am planning to dig a small 2-3 acre lake in it. Hopefully the construction work should be thru before the rains this year.
Plan to stock it upwith some good endemic fish. Some fingerlings and some large live murrels.
Donot have much idea about what would be the right combination of species to stock. Hope the I get some tips from experienced IA forum members.
Looking forward to some tips, guys. Would really appreciate it

Cheers.

Wow.. 2-3 acres of pond :) .. Are you planning for fish farming ? You are very lucky to have such options available !! :) I remember at my mom's house in kerala had a small pond, some 20 square meter with loads of fishes in it and I absolutely loved it !!

Jeen, yes, I see what you are talking about. The eyes are very different. Have to be different sub species Also the periyar murrel coloration is dramatic. The red is brilliant.

Do you think the habitat makes a difference to the color?

Great info. Thank you, Sir.

Hi Jeen,

As per my little knowledge they are two types of Murrel in chennai. One is with red eye .they are look completly red when they are young(sapling) once it grow it turns into brow.but eye ball remails reddish orange colour. . we call them as VERAL in tamil.Another is of black eye they look dark greenish when they young and grows blackish brown. we call them as KORAVA in tamil.

Normally colour of scale and eye ball is based on water condition.

According to me both fish in different postings are of same species only. because i can see the redish orange patch in scale and gills and belly area.

For better Understanding kindly check the link below

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_snakehead

Baskar

Baskar,

You need to research your murrel a little more. The two types in Tamil Nadu you are referring to is the Murrelius and the striata. Thanks for the wikipedia link .

Jeen

Dear Vikram, I agree that habitat plays a key role in the process of evolution. Specially as the Murrel is an ambush predator. But the red blotches on the murrels caught by Jean & sons in the Periyar is still surprising .

Jean, there is a much smaller version of this fish which is called Garai in the north. Is this the Striata you are talking about. Wiki calls the Striata a snakehead too.

I have seen the murrels with their young in my village pond, they were bright orange/red in color about a thousand strong, a cm long and bunched in to a ball. The mom and dad murrels were hovering around this red fire ball. I watched them for a long time. Was impressed to to see this as I thought that fish generally spawn and leave the fry to the elements.