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Our local Salmon or Threadfin s are a group of fishes in which the eyes are covered with a gelatinous membrane that becomes opaque after death; this feature leads to the common belief that they are semi-blind. They are frequently found in muddy waters; to assist them in their search for food, some of the rays of the pectoral fins have become modified as slender filaments which act as feelers.
One peculiarity of them is that with age the backbone develops large bony nodules which hamper filleting by conventional methods, especially in the case of Burnett Salmon. A flap is cut at the tail base and extended forwards as two long cuts above and below ,into the backbone.
The tail flap is then used as a handhold and the fillet torn away. The fish grows to about 1.2 m in this area. This is a dusky blue green fish, silvery-white to pale yellow below; the fins are pale yellow, the pectorals often dusky.
It can be distinguished from the Burnett Salmon in that the Colonial Salmon has only 3 or 4 sensory filaments attached to the pectoral fin where the Burnett Salmon has 5. This is an important sport fish taking trolled or cast lures or plugs, performing acrobatically in its attempts to dislodge the hook
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