THE ULTIMATE ANGLING BUCKET LIST

But it would have to be virtually on the fish’s nose. There won't be any sort of predatory chase. Slow
painstakingly deliberate movements are the evolved mode of attack here.
As for personal experiences, I've seen an odd one here and there in the Channel Islands take a small live
sandeel baits fished around the edges of offshore and inshore sandbanks.
We also had one in my dinghy on a mackerel baited silver tinsel feather being fished over mixed broken
ground quite close to the shore while looking for bait during one of the Wexford small boat festivals.
But, like most anglers, my experiences of this fish are limited.
Other than seeing half a dozen small ones come up together in a trawl while collecting diseased
flounders along the edge of Lune Deep off Fleetwood, plus a few quite sizeable specimens trawled up
off the Scilly Isles, I'm as much in the dark as the next man. And while it is a fish I would dearly love
to catch, if only because they are one of the best eating fish ever, not one I expect to be putting a tick
against any time soon.
BOAR FISH Capros aper
Bucket List status – no result yet
From personal handling experience, I
have to say that I am very surprised at
having to cover this particular species
here. I remember having dozens of
specimens to examine and all
afternoon to examine them in one
bright sunny day spent trawling just a
few miles off Peninnis Head in the
Scilly Isles aboard Dave Thompson's
boat 'Swan Dancer'.
Lots of other goodies too, more of
which in their appropriate slots. But
the boar fish, or zulu as it is also
sometimes called, was especially
intriguing, particularly as we also had
quite a few john dory onboard too which they kind of superficially resemble to make a direct comparison
to.
Nobody would ever confuse the pair, but they do share a similar rounded, laterally compressed body
profile with a protrusible mouth which shoots out forming a bridging tube. In this case a very small tube
for sucking in tiny crustaceans.
Obviously, they must also take a bait, though getting one in front of a feeding specimen would be quite
another matter altogether.
Getting back to the identification, the first dorsal fin is both tall and spiky, joining directly on to a
second soft dorsal fin. Similarly on the underside, the anal fin starts off with a few short sharp spines
then a softer section. There is also a single strong sharp spine at the front of each pelvic fin, in addition
to which the eye is noticeably very large denoting a deep water life style.
Colouration to some extent depends on water depth, being yellowish at the shallower locations around
the fifty fathom contour, becoming yellowish red, then completely red with several faint darker or
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