Milkfish for Anglers

Milkfish for anglers - milkfish, is one of the most challenging types of fish in the world of sport fishing. This species can be found throughout the tropical and warm temperate regions of the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, from South Africa to the Red Sea, across Asia to Hawaii, California and the Galapagos Islands. In Australia, banding has been recorded from the south-west coast of WA, around the tropical north of the country and down the east coast seasonal to Jervis Bay and even to Victoria.

Banding is the only member of the family Chanidae - fish closest living relative is sandfishes. The current banding ancestors can be traced back in the fossil record over 100 million years to the Cretaceous period, where their primitive ancestors branched away from groups currently include carp and other cyprinids.

Milkfish is an interesting fish with a torpedo-shaped body that is blue-green above, silvery on the sides and white on the bottom. They have large eyes that are covered with a layer of gelatinous tissue, making them look like a mullet, while some researchers have described them resemble primitive fish, toothless herring with a forked tail.

Banding typical life cycle of many species of tropical fish are usually found in brackish water or fresh water rivers, swamps and wetlands. While adult fish in the coastal areas or around the offshore islands and coral reefs.

Banding adults aged up to five years, but only lay eggs in water full of salt. Spawning usually occurs near coral reefs during the warmer months on new or full moon phases and takes place at night. Adult females can be about eight years old with a weight of 6kg and is able to produce between 3-4 million eggs per seedling. Eggs and larvae live in the plankton for two to three weeks, before they settled and eventually moved into brackish waters. Such as adult fish, milkfish puppies eat a variety of small planktonic, microbial, and zooplankton epiphytes.

As plankton predators, banding can be very difficult to catch with a fishing rod, and most anglers who caught milkfish do after their draw with berleying liberal with bread, followed by a good feed with bread or bread serving imitation flies.