Habitat
Found in schools around rocky reef areas as well as algal sand flats and tidal estuaries around Tasmania to a depth of 20 metres. They are grazing fish that tend to chew small pieces of preferred ribbon seaweed off rocks and will move from reef to reef or tidal estuary to find it.
Fishing information
Luderick are often caught using specialised equipment including a long slow tapered rod, centrepin reels and light lines with small hooks positioned under a float. Use bait such as green ribbonweed or small pieces of prawn or sandworms. They are strong fighters and try hard to get off the line once hooked including rolling, long powerful runs and heading for rocky outcrops. Local anglers in Bass Strait find that fishing on the high tide in estuaries increases the number of luderick caught.
Handling
Luderick are powerful fish that have very sharp dorsal and anal spines and should be handled carefully.
Cooking
To enhance the flavour of luderick, either keep the fish in a keeper net or kill, bleed and clean your fish as promptly as possible. This helps remove an iodine or weedy taste that can be imparted to the flesh if the gut is not removed promptly. The flesh is delicate and flavoursome though dark in colour at times. Luderick have a distinctive flavour and taste good pan-fried, grilled, baked, barbequed and smoked.
Recipe: Bill’s Luderick Recipe
Preparation as described above is very important in particular make sure to bleed and gut the luderick live. Fillet off skin and de-bone. Beat an egg (a dash of milk helps). Flour fish dip in egg mix, then roll in breadcrumbs (adding some lemon zest to crumbs for flavour if desired). A dash of chilli sauce in the egg mix is also nice.