chinaman rock cod size/eating

hey all, recently up in exmouth for a week with the gf's family (report still to go up) semi successful trip but still fun.

caught a few baby cod from the reefs around the shoreline (like 12cms) and put them all back as u would then on the last arvo there brother in law got one about 25-28cms. im not familiar with cod species but knew 300-400cm min. so i just said its under and had to go back. closer reading of the recretional fishing guide and a few pics and the fishwrecked id guide and i found it was actually a chinaman rock cod (charlie court) no limit and according to the site dont get much bigger and very good eating quality.

so just curious what size would people keep them at and are they worth it? it was kinda fat but mostly just a big mouth.

cheers, Niko


Posts: 5745

Date Joined: 18/01/12

bigger ones-most definitley.

Wed, 2014-10-08 21:38

bigger ones-most definitley.

They are as good as anything and not part of your demersal limit anymore to boot.

Kids love them and so do I though they are a pain to fillet unless chilled properly.

Plus they have the usual cod sharp gill plate

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Cruise Control's picture

Posts: 970

Date Joined: 03/11/10

They were one of the first

Thu, 2014-10-09 13:22

They were one of the first fish that I caught when I came over here. As Rob points out, a bugger to fillet but good on the chew, nice clean white flesh. An elderly dutch lady I met on the original Coral Bay jetty showed me how to fillet them (that was in the days when you could fillet on the jetty, standing in the water). Bugger me she was good with a knife !

uncle's picture

Posts: 9349

Date Joined: 10/02/07

yeap they taste

Thu, 2014-10-09 13:25

mighty fine crumbed up

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Niko's picture

Posts: 213

Date Joined: 26/11/13

lol i wont tell the inlaw he

Thu, 2014-10-09 21:39

lol i wont tell the inlaw he was a little devastated when i told him it was no limit after the fact, was a hard trip for us and him especially, struggled to get a sized fish from shore. would you bother with something less than 30cms or nah?