Dogtooth Tuna

[Kiboko]

Hi Guys,

Just registered on the website, great site with good information.

I looked at the tread on the 200kg doggie and also watched the show on TV.

We managed to get a 99.5kg doogie a few weeks ago at Latham, what was interesting is the fact that the fish looked fairly young judging it on it's teeth, it was in pristine condition.

A while ago we landed a 71kg one, this fish looked old as allot of it's teeth were missing/damaged.

We have seen allot of big doggies, very difficult to judge their size by the size of their heads as we have seen short stubby fish as well as long streamlined fish.

The biggest unofficial dogtooth landed as far as my knowledge goes was apparently caught in Seychelles on fly, a 140kg fish.

We have hooked up several big/strong fish way over the 99kg one we landed, but they also seem to cut us off on the reefs. We fish Stella 20000's with 100lb Braid, but even a Stella have difficulty stopping a fish over a 100kg on it's first run.

Our dogtooth season is about to start and we have a few new tricks up our sleeve for 2009, if all goes according to plan and Neptune allows us one of his bigger ones, we might soon post a pic of the new WR.

Tight lines

 

[OFC]

Now that is a "moerse" tuna! Well done!!!

 

[Fin-S]

Awesome fish man - well done, was it taken on a jig?. Look forward to seeing more reports from you and learning some tricks as to how to subdue the monsters. Are you connected to Latham Charters by any chance?

 

[Kiboko]

The guys from ESA refer to us as Latham charters, it's actually called Latham Fishing and is one of our companies.

Most of our fish is on jigs, this one however munched a dead bait on the dowrigger while we were jigging.
The bigger fish seems to prefer a live/dead bait above a jig, same goes for the gt's in deaper water (45m plus).

 

[Nepptune]

EDITED

 

[Kiboko]

imported post

 

[Nepptune]

Kiboko - My humble apologies mate, my bad!

But a HUGE welome to you guys none the less, great to have a onnection with info and details about the fishing up your way,as well as of course to share all the knowledge and reports of action and techniqes from your part of the world....

And of corse all those pics of MONSTER fish to keep us all dreaming and drooling!!

Welcome again, forgive my confusing you with the Tanzania Fishing Crew....

Cheers
Nepps

 

[Kiboko]

::respekt: Cheers mate! :thankie

We have a very exciting season infront of us, starts next week Sunday!

We are doing a 10 day trip fishing Latham and Mafia Island out of Ras Mbisi, sure to double bend a couple of rods and make the angling shops proud of our cunsumption of braid!!

Northern Mafia offers some excellent opportunities, unexplored waters, only recently James and Malcolm started fishing the area with great results, we have teamed up and will post pics after the trip.

Does anyone have knowledge of any tagging programs on doggies and GT's?

 

 

[Nepptune]

Damn thats a nice Doggie!!! I see a Shimano Blue Rose in that angler's hand if I'm not mistaken!!!

Kiboko - Let me know if you guys are keen for some jigs... I can keep you in a good supply of top quality jigs, any colours you need... PM me and I'll hook ya up with more details!!!Sanme's, Hookers, Nagamasas, Metallic Sardines etc.... Doggie and GT killers!

Tight lines on the weekend, I hope you guys are bent double at the rail with drags SCREAMING and rods bent double after MASSIVE GT's and Doggies.... look forward to the reports!

Regarding GT and Doggie tagging.... I'm not aware of any official GT T&R program, dedicated to these fish, but I am sure I could find out....

Doggies are also such tough fish to release unharmed as I'm sure you know, as the big guys typically fight right to the death....
Be pretty interesting to start up a small program for tagging n GT's and Doggies.... in fact a facebook page could easily be set up, and have members just add their catch stats and images along witha bit of info over the course of fishing... this way anglers from around the globe could benefit....
Tagging kits would be the only obstacle to overcome, as the rest would maintain itself I would think....

I'll have a look into it and get back to ya!

 

[Reefman]

[color=#006600]Kiboko[/color] wrote:

Northern Mafia offers some excellent opportunities, unexplored waters, only recently James and Malcolm started fishing the area with great results, we have teamed up and will post pics after the trip.

Kibo !

You have teamed up with James and Mal? Fill us in? Spent November in James' capable hands touring Kilwa and Ras Mbisi - stayed with James at home in Kilwa and at the lodge in Ras.

Here's a pic of Mal earning his keep aboard the other vessel....

 

[Reefman]

And another...

 

 

[Ulua]

Just returned from a trip to Cosmoledo Atoll in the Seychelles traging GTs and Doogies with plugs and jigs.

Landed many GTs and lost a few Doggies only mamaged to land one small one. Jig hooks pulled out and the 300lbs braid of the tandem hooks was torn to shreds.

GTs were plenty with a few nice fish in the 70lbs to 90lbs range. Plenty fish between 30lbs to 50lbs.

The guides on the trip advised me that Doogies are not a pelagic fish but are a reef fish despite being called a "Tuna" and that they take very long to grow.

I do not know much about them - is this true?

 

[Reefman]

James and Mal.... what great guys... nice setup and operation - top skips as well... ask James to lend you some of his recently aquired gear... he raided my tackle box before we left... got back to SA minus 2 rods, reel, ++ tackle LOL! Also ask him about "Captain Blank"!

 

[Kiboko]

"The dogtooth tuna is in the family Scombridae. It is one of the apex non pelagic predators (along with Giant Trevally, Napoleon Wrasse, and Large Groupers) of its range (from the Marshall islands to the Indian Ocean). It is not a true tuna, but is closely related to the bonitos. It has the large teeth and straight edged first dorsal fin characteristic of all bonito."

That is true, doggies hang out on drop offs, we normally find them on steep ledges dropping from 40m to 70m and they are territorial, what would be cool is to get an acoustic tag in one to confirm they stick around the same reefs. Latham will be the perfect place to do this due to the relative small size of the iland.

As anglers there is very little info available on the critters, however, to gain more insight in their behaviour, I have found the spearfishing feternity's websites very informative and give us much more details on how these monsters operate, search the web for spearfishing and dogtooth.

As for age, they recon a fish of 70kg is around 15 years old, here's an extract from a spearfishing site: http://www.freedive.net/ibsrc/fish_frms/f_dogtoth.htm

" Contemporary knowledge of the Dogtooth Tuna is limited compared to the commercially fished species. A question relevant to Atrophy hunters@ is the age of the larger fish. For example, during our 5 days of diving we shot two large Doggies each, but if these fish turn out to very old then we surely should only take one or none. We were aware that fish could be aged by counting annual growth rings in the ear bones (otolith). Inquiries lead us to Dr. John Gunn, leader of the Tuna Biology and Ecology Project at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industry Research Organization (CSIRO) Division of Marine Research, Tasmania, Australia.

Dr. Gunn explained that the process of estimating age in tunas is difficult and requires a large sample of ear bones from throughout the size range of species before a relationship between size and age can be determined. Never-the-less he agreed to age this Tuna subject to the world spearfishing record claim and estimates an age of 9 to 10 years.

We have an arrangement with CSIRO to begin collecting the ear bones for Dogtooth Tuna and to archive them with catch details. Once a reasonable size collection is available it is likely that aging will be possible via the CSIRO. In the meantime, we wish to encourage other fishermen to contribute ear bone samples from fish of all sizes by:
Recording the catch details (date, location, fish weight, length and girth).
Remove the ear bones. Hacksaw the head off the fish with a vertical cut one eye ball diameter behind the eye. This is most easily done before the fish is frozen. The ear bones (one for each ear) are located under the brain about one and half eye ball diameters behind the eye. Reach into the scull cavity still attached to the body with a pair of tweezers. The ear bones are loosely located inside a tube and are easily removed. In my 59.6 kg Dogtooth Tuna each bone was about 20 mm long, 5 mm wide and roughly tear drop shaped.
Thoroughly clean the bone with a cotton rag and store in a plastic container, with tissue paper around the otolith to prevent it from being broken in transit.

Mail your ear bone with date to: Steve Arrow, Arrow Pearling Co., 6 Rouse Head Road, North Fremantle, Western Australia 6159, Australia

I believe the world community (amateur and professional) must obtain sustainable fishing of all species. When more reliable estimates of the age of large Dogtooth Tuna become available, we can better judge the impact of taking a few large fish. Above all other forms of fishing, spearfishing must lead the way to sustainable fishing because our catch is carefully preselected. We the divers know the damage done to the environment we love, not merely felt in terms of reduced catches, but seen with our eyes and felt with our soles. "

 

[Kiboko]

[color=#0066cc]Reefman[/color] wrote:

[color=#006600]Kiboko[/color] wrote:

Northern Mafia offers some excellent opportunities, unexplored waters, only recently James and Malcolm started fishing the area with great results, we have teamed up and will post pics after the trip.

Kibo !

You have teamed up with James and Mal? Fill us in? Spent November in James' capable hands touring Kilwa and Ras Mbisi - stayed with James at home in Kilwa and at the lodge in Ras.

Here's a pic of Mal earning his keep aboard the other vessel....

Will post the details as soon as our ducks are in a row! You will be drewling!


 

 

[Kiboko]

[color=#ff6633]Nepptune[/color] wrote:

Damn thats a nice Doggie!!! I see a Shimano Blue Rose in that angler's hand if I'm not mistaken!!!

Well spotted!! I starting a new thread/topic just on the blue rose cause that a whole new discussion and I need some advise.