Catface rockcod - Algoa Bay

Managed to fit in a dive on Thursday evening in Algoa Bay. I was pleasantly surprised with the water conditions and the water was warm. Ran into Gletwyn and his family at Humewood beach and he advised that his Suunto dive computer said 22 degrees celsius on the surface.

I swam out and was surprised by the warmth of the water and the amount of fish life on the outer reefs. There were a few catface rockcods about and having not speared one before checked the minimum size on my Rob Allen 1200 speargun. 50 centimetres minimum and 5 as a bag limit. A decent specimen of approximately 60 centimetres was lying under a ledge of the reef and I decided to pull the trigger. The shot was perfect behind the gills on the spine and exited on the side near the caudal fine. The fish took off aggressively. What I did notice was how strong this fish swam with a spear through it. Weight was just under 3 kilograms, well off the SA spearfishing record of 8kgs (approx).

The reference books say it makes fine eating, so it will be done on the coals later today together with 2 jutjaw (milkfish).

It is called a catface rockcod due to the dark cat-like stripes which resemble whiskers near the eye and mouth.