chance conversation with a very experienced South African spearfisherman called Graham Carlisle. I recalled chatting to Graham at one of our usual club meetings about competition spearing. I nearly dropped my hot dog when he showed me his 80cm competition gun. With the trend of longer and bigger guns, this seemed like a step backwards. Graham explained that by using a small gun it taught you how to get much closer to your target and it taught you how to stalk successfully. Competition spearfishing can teach many skills, however, not everyone wants to compete. The lessons learned by using small guns and targeting smaller species can be forgotten. Long guns can make you lazy, a return to the shallows and short guns is a day well spent and you can also find some very tasty surprises. Here are a few recipes for the smaller species mentioned. The Goat fish I did filleted and boned, pan fryed with skin on. Add to the pan cherry tomatoes then sliced mushrooms. Add pesto sauce (from the jar is fine) and basil. Have your linguini pasta ready. Just before you take everything out of the pan, throw a handful of spinach leaves over the top, let them wilt just a little then add everything to the pasta. Very good species for this style of cooking. The Blue and Sambo, I did in a Thai style curry. Use a deep pan with a lid or wok. First, fry off an onion with a couple of finely diced, small hot chillies out of the garden. (If you don’t like hot curries then miss this part!) Once the flavour is sweating out I add the green chilli paste, lemon grass and garlic. Then get it nice and hot, mixing the spices in the pan. Once this is done I then add a tin of coconut milk and simmer, dice fish and add along with one Kaffir lime leaf. Lid on and simmer adding fresh coriander stalk and root, finely diced. Simmer and serve with jasmine rice and coriander to garnish. With the King george whiting fillet, I leave the skin on after scaling first. Dust in flour and pan fry. Simple but wicked!
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