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distributional criteria. Anglers also pick them up
occasionally in deep water off the south and west
coast of Ireland.
There are however places where Irish megrim
can 'almost' be caught to order, such as to the
seaward side of the island of Inishbofin off the
Connemara coast, at Broad Haven to the north of
Belmullet, and aboard 'Rosguill' out of Mulroy
Bay near Downings, where Michael McVeigh's
customers find quite a few.
Megrim, Downings Ireland
The location where I personally have seen most,
and I'm talking here of a couple of dozen or so in
the same day, was while trawling within just a
few miles of the Isles of Scilly where we also
picked up a number of other deep water species
including hake and boar fish, and not too far
from that spot where on a different occasion we
caught quite a few blue whiting on baited
feathers.
So a proven deep water species area fitting all the criteria of depth within range over clean ground, with
exceptionally deep open Atlantic water in the immediate vicinity.
COMMON TOPKNOT Zeugopterus punctatus
Bucket List status – no result yet
As flatfishes go, the topknot is
something of a misnomer. With a
body shape which on the face of
things looks best suited to clean
ground, this particular flatfish
species prefers to live amongst
rocks and under boulders in
shallow areas of permanent water
where it feeds on small fishes and
anything else it can catch.
Topknot may well reasonably
regularly take a bait. Perhaps more
so than anglers realize, for it is both
able and willing to flex its body to
grip around boulders and even get
underneath them, which could
understandably lead to thoughts of a tackle hang up followed by a break out.
Never a big fish, with say a pound maximum being its upper size limit. Also a strikingly odd looking
fish, which should help make identification a formality. The mouth and eyes are large and the body
shape deeply elliptical. The dorsal fin extends onto the head almost to the lip, and both it and the anal
fin under lap the tail, with the anal and pelvic fins being fused together by a connecting membrane.
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