Beautiful and goofy and with a set of dentures to rival a camel, the blue-barred parrotfish is a stunning shallow-water fish. Well-travelled DIY guy Peter Coetzee weighs in on how he targets them.

WHAT

Scarus ghobban/blue-barred parrotfish. Sometimes referred to as swallowtail or emerald parrotfish (I avoid the latter name as there is an actual emerald parrotfish and a small one at that). Its dentures are the second strongest biomineral on earth (behind the common limpet), and they will bite through a hook with almost no effort. With enough tension on the line the angler only feels a quick tap.

They are supposed to survive primarily on algae, but somewhere along the line they decided crustaceans were a welcome addition to their diet.

“They can often be seen tailing over shallow reef and turtle grass, most commonly on the surf side of islands and atolls.”

WHERE

Native and common throughout the Indo-Pacific, they are most prolific in the shallows where humans have left them alone. I’ve been lucky enough to catch these guys in Yemen, Oman, Seychelles, and to have targeted them in Kiribati, the Maldives and in Mozambique.

They can often be seen tailing over shallow reef and turtle grass, most commonly on the surf side of islands and atolls.

HOW

Sight-cast to individuals or shoals. Use a red, white or orange crab or shrimp fly, either static or stripped slowly depending on the immediate environment. The Omani fish seemed happier to follow than the rest, the Yemeni fish being more comfortable with a static fly, hard on the bottom. The eat is instantaneous and the first run is violent.

There is a hack to be exploited… These guys will often go to the surface at the end of their first run and swim in a few circles, seemingly to gain situational awareness. You can take advantage of this if you’re quick enough through the water and can net a fairly inexperienced fish. They exhaust themselves during a fight and should be handled with care when at hand.

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