TERAGLIN are a bit of a mystery fish to most east coast bottom fishos and many anglers I know have never seen one, let alone caught one. Their movements are quite limited to only a relatively small area off the east coast between southern Queensland’s Double Island Point and down into New South Wales off Broken Bay and Port Hacking in Sydney.
They prefer to live around hard reef grounds in depths between 20 to 90 metres, particularly where high peaks and deep gutters are prominent. I’ve also caught the odd one around old sunken ship wrecks. They are rarely ever caught over a sandy or gravelly bottom or in shallow waters very close to shore.
Teraglin are a schooling fish and quite often will show up on the depth sounder in tightly packed numbers close to the hard reef or structures during the daylight hours. The odd teraglin can be caught throughout the daylight hours, but only when the moon cycle is either full or around the new moon period.
Even during these two moon cycles, it’s usually by accident catching one during the day and they can just feel like a little picker at your bait. Striking hard on the line can sometimes jag one. When this happens, it can be a real surprise
as what you thought was just a nibble from a small rubbish fish turns out to be a solid hookup and a good fight! A decent size trag can really pull some line off your reel or through your fingers if you’re using a handline.
BEST TIME
Prime time to catch these fish is after dusk and most anglers that like to target trag will set-up anchor on their favourite reef marks just before sunset. As darkness falls these trag will start to move around the reef to feed and often will chase the small baitfish or squid well off the bottom and even up to mid-water.
What can also happen with this particular species, when they really start feeding and biting hard and fast the bag limit of only five per angler can be caught rather quickly. See in one of the photos here where myself and three other anglers caught 18 in just a hectic one-hour session.
Teraglin will eat just about any fresh fish bait when they are on the tooth and strips of yellowtail and slimy mackerel or half of a fresh WA pilchard are my favourite baits.
On the other side of the coin, when they do come on the chew and you happen to pull the hook on one even in mid-water, it can often spook the whole school and shut the bite down completely. Sometimes they will start biting again after a short wait and a little burley can help, but most times you simply have to move to another spot.
IDENTIFICATION
The teraglin is a very easy species to identify from their lookalike cousin the silver jewfish and the first telltale sign that appears straight away is the bright yellow colouring in the mouth and throat as you remove the hook. The other different features from the jewfish are the fins and particularly the tail.
The photos here of both species next to each other gives you a good idea of the differences. The jewfish has an oval shape on the end of tail, whereas the teraglin has a concave shape to the end of the tail. The darker colouring of the teraglin is also very different to the jewfish’s much more silver appearance when first caught.
RIGS
The good old paternoster rig with one or two droppers is still a very popular technique used to catch many bottom fish and targeting the teraglin with this rig is no exception. The size of the lead weight used to get the baits down depends on the strength of the current and the choice of hooks can also vary from angler to angler. When the teraglin start feeding well of the bottom dropping the baits down to mid-water with just a ball sinker sitting right on top of the hook will get plenty of bites as well.
These days some anglers are even trying circle hooks, but the way these finicky fish bite sometimes the circle hooks have led to many disappointing misses. My hook preferences are still the good old 5/0 or 6/0 Mustad Suicide’s or the Gamakatsu 5/0 or 6/0 Octopus hooks. My other favourites are the 540 Mustad’s in a 4/0 or 5/0 size. Even the two-hook rig I use for snapper with two 540 Mustad French style hooks joined together with a swivel is a deadly rig that rarely fails hooking up in the teraglin’s quite large mouth.
BAITS
Teraglin will eat just about any fresh fish bait when they are on the tooth and strips of yellowtail and slimy mackerel or half of a fresh WA pilchard are my favourite baits. Having a soft plastic lure or a hard metal jig set down deep a couple of metres off the bottom will work at times as well. If I use this jig method I like to put the rod in the rod holder with the reel set on strike drag and the ratchet on.
This jig technique is best done using a light, non-stretch braid line and just the up and down movement of the boat on anchor will keep the jig working to attract the odd bite. I also like to set the jig outfit up on the bow of the boat well away from where I’m working with the natural baits to avoid any tangles.
PREPPING TERAGLIN TO EAT
If you keep a few trag for the table its very important to bleed them straight away and try and keep the whole fish on ice in a fish box or esky to chill quickly. The flesh is quite soft with a very delicate and flavoursome taste. Many anglers will say the fillets or cutlets from a fresh teraglin are far superior to that of the silver jewfish. The one thing I have found also with this species the flesh doesn’t keep all that well in the freezer for too long. Snap frozen and left in the freezer for a few weeks or so seems to be about its limit.
In the cooking department the boneless cut-up fillets are excellent just dusted in flour, then dipped in a well beaten egg and shaken in a plastic bag with bread crumbs or better still, Cornflake crumbs. Once coated, I like to leave them sit in the fridge for an hour or so before deep frying in hot olive oil.
The other dish I have made many times with trag is dicing up the fillets into real small pieces and mixing them with sweet potato mash, combined with a well beaten egg and finely chopped brown onion and fresh parsley. Using my hands, I like to form round flat fish cakes, then shallow fry them in olive oil until they’re crispy brown. A good squeeze of lemon juice and a sprinkle of salt and they are fit for a king!
