Lampuki

[skip]

Was surprised to see Fresh Lampuki being offered down the road from work, so I stopped to ask the guy whether it was Fresh Frozen from last year!

After getting over the initial insult he proceeded to explain that it had been sold to him this morning and was a 15kgs female that it seems are caught on long lines when aiming for swordfish. The females are coming in/up to lay their eggs, in fact this specimen was full of eggs which is a real shame.

Whilst nice to see already, and I'm sure nice to eat so early in the season, it's also disappointing to see a female full of eggs being caught. This is a by-product of long lining that has been banned in many countries, due to the non discriminatory nature of long lining. Be it baby swords, pregnant lampuki etc, a long line just wipes out everything in the area. I personally don't think that commerical fisherman should be allowed to long line and that there should be strict rules in place concerning where and when it's done. Even semi professionals can destroy fish stocks in an area through long lining, and only if its done by amateurs/sport fishing would be impact be negligible.

We fail to learn that if we catch/kill all the females now, we'll end up with a lousy Lampuki season with low catches and then everyone will be moaning. I had no idea about this before seeing it today, so whilst perhaps old news to many, it was news to me!

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[Simon G]

Thats nothing you should see the amounts of sea turtles that are caught and die on long lines
and the dolphins which get caught in tuna round ups (most are released imideatly but some die from injuries or stress)

there was a thing some time ago about using bigger hooks on long lines so turtles and small sword fish dont get caught but nothing ever happend (WE ARE IN MALTA)

[ciappinu]

Interesting about the lampuka. I always thought there should be the big ones at this time. As a sports fisherman, I'm not in big favour of long lining either. However I also understand that fisherman need to make a living, and considering, Maltese waters are not overfished by Maltese fisherman. You should see how seas around Italy are overfished, and slowly slowly, they are moving towards us. What I'm certainly against is bottom trawling and the use of explosives, which is unfortunately still used here in Malta.

[gottie]

Shame on catching pregnant Females !! Anyone catching Large lampuki at the moment should let them go. Probably it will be the same people who are catching pregnant females who will be complaining about lack of lampuki in a month or so.

[skip]

My thought's exactly, those will be the ppl saying there aren't any!!

[Simon G]

If amatures adopt a catch and release policy
you still have all the fun catching and fighting the fish with the added benefit of letting them go to maybe fight again next season.
on the other hand most albies have eggs so............

[gottie]

Anyway, forget about the mummy puki for now and let's talk about the small ones.
Anyone catching their first lampuka of the season pls inform ! 

[gottie]

Or perhaps we can talk about lures and techniques for Lampuki trolling. Does anyone weight their lines or not ? I usually put a texas weight in the head of the lure but no weights on the line. 0.40 mm leader usually does the job well.  I also like to use the handlines for puki. Anyone fishes for the small lampuki with rods?

[Simon G]

this year we are going for lampuki in the bahrija area 1-3 miles out or closer we intend trolling using 3 rods.
one weighted to about 15ft with a strip of squid
two surface one with feathers and the other with a garfish

we intend going up and down the same area while chumming copius ammounts of chopped fish and sardine oil

[ciappinu]

Mini lampukis are already selling in Gozo....as usual the Gozitans are the first to taste them.

[Simon G]

we usually start fishing for them in mid august when they are 500gr+ at the moment they are quite small

[gottie]

I guess they're still quite far out  at the moment. Usually Towards lampedusa, that's why the Gozitans are always first to catch them as they head that way. Its also a bit harder to locate them now, without FAD's. This year FAD's  should be in Ppce by Aug 12.

[ciappinu]

My favourite time of the year is closing in! Time to work less and fish more!

[Simon G]

went out fishing for lampuki on hurds bank today and caught 45 lampuki ranging from 300-500grams
not bad for 4 hours then they disapeared we continued trolling for 2 hrs without a strike or even seeing any

[ciappinu]

45?! Wow! Not bad. I haven't even smelled lampuki. Weather forecasts don't seem encouraging, but the sea is talking a different story. I didn't see any F5 today.....