Hi team

Thanks FishMan, I thought so. First one I have ever caught on the reef we were fishing, hopefully there are more there to be plucked from the sea.We get the odd one on a couple of spots at White but this is great.

Interesting catch. Could be red cod or nthn bastard red cod. 

Largetooth Beardie Lotella rhacina perhaps?

I bow to your greater knowledge.

Undoubtedly.
Don't ask me if they're worth eating though. Those Lotella species don't grow very big.
I filleted a big bastard cod once out of curiosity. The flesh was infested with worms.

Have seen one in manukau, near the heads, foul ground. but bigger ,so assume was the Nthn bastard cod.

While you're on a roll Craig, how do we tell the difference between the bastard red cods and the beardie's?

smudge wrote: While you're on a roll Craig, how do we tell the difference between the bastard red cods and the beardie's?

Size, colour and body form.
But that applies to all fish ID. Sometimes there are strong diagnostics features - like a white rim on a fin - sometimes there are not. The morid cods are particularly difficult for an untrained eye. All I can suggest is that you look up the species definitions for each and pin down some identifying features that can easily help you tell the different species apart. I don't know the morid cod group well enough to comment on them.
For fish groups that I do know well (like tropical trevally) it is useful to find out the position of the eye, head measurements, fixed fin colours etc for each species.
Even then it's very easy to be wrong!

Hi all.just thought I would add.one great thing about this forum compared to the many Facebook groups operating is the genuine answers given to questions people ask.You see time and time again on Facebook people posting genuine questions and a large number of the answers are confusing or just pathetic.Would be a real shame to see this forum dissappear their seems to be alot of genuine knowledge and experience on this forum and the information shared and learned is great.