Stonefish Ate My Stiffy

Gday guys,
Had a bit of a muck down at my local creek as a bit of a destress after my exams. Turned out to be an interesting 2 hours because I caught my second Stonefish on a lure!

I was fishing around a small rock bar when my lure was met by a thud. I thought I'de nailed a rock straight up so I left my line slack to allow the lure to float of the 'rock'. After a little while I put some pressure on and the rock started moving off. I ended up winching this brown blob up to my feet and sure enough...a deadly stonefish! After a few photos I carefully removed the faithful Brown Snake Stiffy Minnow and sent its on it's way - well...sort of. The bloody thing just ended up sitting in the 20cm of water infront of me until I left!

They're an interesting looking fish so I took plenty of shots.

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...maflage003.jpg


http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...maflage005.jpg


http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...maflage007.jpg

Later on I moved down to a nice drop off with plenty of current pushing over it where I managed a small flounder and a tiny flathead.

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...maflage008.jpg

What flounder...???

http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...maflage010.jpg


http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...maflage012.jpg


http://i598.photobucket.com/albums/t...flage016-1.jpg

Every fish I caught had perfect camoflage so it wasn't too bad a way to spend a few hours.

Cheers Isaac

Nice photos Isaac,
The first fish one of my daughters ever caught was a bloody stonefish.
It took a trolled deep diver!
Be careful where you walk mate, wouldn't want your trip to end in agony.

Cheers Jeff.:06:

Nice one Isaac,
i snookered a bullrout at baffle ck,but have never got a stoney..not sure if thats a good or bad thing..

At least you got your stiffy back mine is still on a stingray some where. nice work catchin that flounder i see a few geting caught around the river at the moment.

Nice pics mate. They don't mind eatin softies round bribie either. Def a lot more out there than most think.

Cheers. Keith

Hey mate yeah them stoneys have that blue mouth too and a mate caught on once and we had trouble unhooking hit but we got it (lure caught) and to prove that it wasn't a once off the next week he got another one around the same spot.

All three look like masters of disguse, and I reckon you'd be hard pressed to spot 'em with they're just sitting there with that bottom.

A couple of years back i was a bit bored after not catching anything for awhile, and was just swimming my lure in front of my toes - only about 20cm away fro 'em when a rock opened its mouth and snaffled my soft placcie. I was very surprised, and felt a bit silly but also lucky as I was only wearing thongs.
And Harro, I know what you mean by the blue mouth.

http://www.activeangler.com.au/forum...&pictureid=177

Cheers Nath

noway id of released that spose to be great eating, for ants, just throw them far enuf up the bank that they cant be walked on

Trouble is kev the spine and poison sac remain intact long after,n if a bird etc moves the carcass some1 will end up stepping on it.A lot less chance of stepping on it in the water than up on the bank imho.
chewy..