THEY may have downed more “frothies” than they did sinkers during a trip to the mouth of the Murray, but a group of Millicent mates still managed to snag the biggest fish they have ever seen.
The boys stumbled across the monstrous body of a sunfish at the Coorong on Saturday and estimated it to have been around two metres long and a “couple of hundred” kilograms in weight.
Clay Bowman, 22, said while he may be an avid fishermen of many years, he has never seen a sea creature of such size.
“We were just cruising down the beach and we found it laying there in the wash,” he said.
“We did not know what it was to start with, but then we spun the bus around and decided to have a suss at what it was.
“Wighty was on the phone to someone at the time and he put them on Facetime so they could have a look at it.
“They thought it was a sunfish so we Googled it and sure enough that’s what it was.”
Clay added that he initially did not think the find was too much of a “big deal” until images were shared across multimedia platforms and state media made contact with him.
“I just thought it was a plain old fish washed up on the beach, nothing too special,” he said.
“Then photographs of other people with the fish got shared around a bit and I realised.
“It was at least six feet in length I reckon and they can weigh anywhere from 250 kg to a tonne.
“They are the biggest type of bony fish in the world apparently.”
The boys did attempt a “Rex Hunt” move by kissing the beached sunfish before sending it back into the safety of the water, however they realised it was “too far gone” and had sadly passed away.
“They are a deep sea fish that just float round near the surface, so that’s why it was a bit weird to see it on shore,” Clay said.
“I do not think they even really swim either, they just float round with the current.
“It’s the biggest fish I have ever seen.”
Although it was a promising start to the fishing trip, unfortunately the sunfish was the boy’s largest and one of the only catches for the weekend.
“The rest of the fishing trip did not wind up too great in the end,” Clay said.
