Old Man Fitzroy

[ronje1]

Hello from Rockhampton

Today a local newspaper report carried a story and photos of the demise of "Old Man Fitzroy" in the Rockhampton reach ( 70km from mouth) of the Fitzroy River.

Old Man Fitzroy was a groper of undetermined age and had survived crocodiles, sharks, nets, anglers, floods and drought for decades.

On tuesday he was found floating between the 2 traffic bridges and attempts to revive him were unsuccessful.

He weighed in at 202 kilograms.

Dept of Primary Industries is to conduct a post moretem examination but smart money is that he simply died of old age.

Will attempt to get a photo similar to the one in the local paper.

Old Man Fitzroy was a pretty big fish and ones like him are few and far between these days.

He'd make the eyes bulge a bit on some of the users of the tupperware rods being bandied about these days (including me).

Rumours of a Loch Ness monster near the bridges have circulated for years with claimed eyewitnesses not able to get their arms wide enough to demonstrate the length of the monster they'd supposedly seen. Not unsubstantiated stories anymore though.

Vale Old Man Fitzroy.

Rocky Ron

[Stingray]

would be great if you could get some photos, it's a shame something like that has to die.

Cheers Stingray.

[happygilmour]

Hi Rocky Ron,

Thanks for the story. Lets hope the death was from natuaral causes.
I hav lost 2 nice fish to very large groupers of Cape Cleavland here in townsville. The first was a 80-90cm spanish mackeral, my first for this years season, was caught on a ganged pillie and after a great fight made one last run away from the boat down to the bottom and then proceeded very fast back up to the surface with a large shadow in pursuit. The grouper grabbed the mack right at the boat from it tail and left the head protruding and proseeded to swim back to the bottom tearing my hooks from the macks mouth!

The second was about a month later when a queenie was taken in the same manner but the queenie manages to swim away from the boat on the surface before the grouper nailed it too.

Very cool to watch but also would of liked to get the fish as well.Lets hope there are plenty more in the sea

Cheers

Aaron

[ActiveAngler]

Rocky Ron,

Such a shame when this big girls die. Hopefully it was from natural causes that Aaron mentioned.

I know of two stories where, regrettably, people have killed gropers.

a) GROPER IN INNISFAIL - a group of men, caught one of 5 local gropers in the Johnstone River and pulled her up on the bank, and hacked into her / him to get some fillets and left her/him there to die on the wharf. This was done around midnight and the people who did it were never caught. b@st@rds!! Police were out looking for them also.

b) The other one was at Beavor Cay near Beavor Reef, FNQ - out from Misssion Beach / Ingham. Nice spot, heaps of tourists boats come there and watched the Spangler Emperor feed in such cystal clear aquatic blue water and dive around the reef. Also to swim with the gropers. The one that was killed, by a apparent prawn trawler deckie, (not confirmed but that was the rumour) speared her for fun and left her on the cay to die. We are talking a groper of around 400kg plus. The tourist boat came out and discovered the findings.

I dont know what drives someone to do such a thing, but such a waste of a PROTECTED species.

Regards - Ben.

[TinarooTriumph]

Ahh... I love these stories of big fish that are well known in area's. Sad to hear Ron, and yes lets hope that it was just an old-age thing... after all, thats nature!

I have heard a few of these big fish stories and as I said I love em'... I don't think it would be fishing without them. The one that sticks in my head the most is the big Barra called 'Scar' which always was, and still is based around Palm Cove/Clifton Beach near Cairns. Firstly, to date, everyone that has battled 'Scar' has released him which is an absolute miracle if you ask me. You might read up above at what Ben said about those two Gropers being killed, but it doesn't suprise me. The term 'C&R' is practically unheard of up here in FNQ. Back to 'Scar'... last person to catch him, measured him at 126cm, which, for a Saltwater Barra is an absolute tank of a thing. But what gives him his very own name, is the facial features. He had obviously been caught at a young age, and has been un-hooked pourly or possibly even mangled with a pair of Boga Grip or Pliers. A mate of mine caught him almost exactly two years ago when he was Live-Baiting under the lights of the Wharf. Now my mate has caught crap loads of Barra in the past, including some long Salties, and he said this thing just went insane... it knew how to throw hooks. Landed the fish, but had to improvise with the measuring and layed it next to his Rod, got home and found out it was not much longer then 105/107cm. The beauty of my story of 'Scar', is that we have seen him (or we like to think we have!). Last year at a get-toegther down in Cairns at Palm Cove, we were messing about the Wharf (as you do!) and with a spot light we shone down on a large group of baitfish, when we saw a massive Silver flash below suddnely take off and leave behind a swirl the size of something like out at the Bermuda Triangle. It still haunts me to this day. I have seen huge fish in the clear shallows at Tinaroo, but this was something different... this was BIG!

The other big fish story I have heard plenty about is the big groper himself at Hinchinbrook called 'Sly'. On a recent trip to Hinchie only a fortnight or so back, we all got to dangle some Yaka's infront of him and nearly get eaten in the process. But one tale which is well known of his how he did nearly eat somebody who was taking a swim from the drop off Jetty at the Resort. Apparently it was a child, who was just frolicking in the water and big old Sly must of been fairly bloody hungry and he took a big old reach for the kid. Having fed Sly a fortnight ago, he isn't the most elegant eater, even if the fish is right infront of his eyes he will still usually boof it hard and miss it altogether, so I can see how this kid got away! When I was on the Hinchinbrook Explorer that morning, I asked the Skipper if it the story was true... and sure enough, it was. Not knowing how heavy Sly is, he would definetely give 300/350kg's a nudge.

Keep them coming if you have any!

Cheers

Theo.

[Shortlite]

There's also that horse of a barracuda that lives under the end of the Lucinda Jetty. We've seen it a couple of times, and it's about as thick as a sewer pipe, and easily close to 7 feet long.

It has a hankering for fresh trevally/grunter/finny scad for breakfast...

[ronje1]

Well

A bit more news about Old Man Fitzroy

It seems that the night before, 3 of the local members of the native title claimant group were fishing with a big gill net in the same spot. They've been netting the hell out of the river taking juvenile barra and anything else that hits the net.

Their favourite spot is in the closed waters just below the barrage which separates fresh from salt particularly now that we've had a spot of rain and the barra are on the move.

Its currently closed wild barramundi season.

The Qld Govt doesn't want to prosecute these fellas so have given directions to the DPI inspectors and the police not to touch the offenders until the law is changed. They've been considering the changes since March 2006.

Locals are fed up (even non-anglers) and the death of Old Man Fitzroy was the final straw.

An attempted fire-bombing of one of the offenders vehicles has been reported but no evidence to support it exists. More tal;k of vigilante action is circulating so things are becoming a stirred up.

The natives are restless one might say.

Wors is that the Dept of Primary Industries dumped the carcass after refusing to investigate the cause of seath. That made everybody suspicious and then out came the news about the net.

May we live in interesting times.

Rocky ron

[TinarooTriumph]

Gee's Ron... it's all happening in Rockhampton by the sounds of it!

[vanurose]

I don't really know if Scar is still alive. I just can't see how he could be. Three times in a week last month guys in wetsuits and spears took bootloads of fish from under the jetty. They would not show anyone their kill and covered each fish up with sheets. So who knows what was hidden and slaughtered each day. What can we do about it fellas?

[BeerMan]

wow nice stories ive never heard anything like them