shrug1013

Was fishing Sat., off the NC coast near cape lookout about 30 miles out and saw two of these things in the water. They were together and then they split after we took a second look. One was about 4' long and the second was about 3'. We did a little research and we think they are a type of Sunfish in the family of Molidae. Just our guess though. Any help would be helpful. Thanks

Here is a couple of the links that I found the information on what I think it is:

http://www.fishbase.org/Photos/Famil...Family=Molidae

http://www.waterworxbali.com/mola-mola-gallery.shtml

uncwgrad02

Looks like a sunfish to me?

Guest

Sunfish. Most deffinitly

TunaBomber

Looks like a sunfish to me. They aren't common down there? We get loads of them here in the summer

shrug1013

Has anyone else seen a sunfish before??? While Fishing???

CAPTJohnny

Yep they are like something out of a bad dream. You should see a reallly big one!!! They come up to the side of the boat in the middle of the night, and I swear they cry, help me, help me.. something out of the ring or something. I wonder why the Mako's don't smoke these things, they must taste like $%#@

Guest

Heres one I took a pic of in only 14' of water. (May be tough to see, but its there...)

Animo916

Have any of you ever seen one of these fly?

Guest

Ive seen them break the surface, but not "fly"...

Animo916

When I say fly, I have literally seen them 4 or 5 feet out of the water and wonder how the heck they do it every time I see it.

MI Ben

Animo I've seen manta rays fly but not ocean sunfish. The sunfish I saw was lounging on the surface, about 5 feet across. Just a giant head with a fin on top and a fin on the bottom. Awesome creatures. Heard they can get over 10 feet accross.

spearfish3

My friend caught one while swordfishing in the keys. It was huge and put up a decent fight on 80's. Believe it or not it even jumped once. We thought we had a sword on, but it was that ugly a$$ sunfish. In the end it was disappointing but it was the ugliest fish I have ever seen and had skin like a rock.

PFO

we had a big one hanging around the boat 2 years ago while fishing when a 20' walkaround buzzed by us and slammed right into the beast and shut the motor right down. no damage to the lower unit or the fish. we pulled up close to it and it did not have a mark on him.

rob2640

One of the super maxi sailing yachts "Scandia" is thought to have hit one of these while leading on the way down to Hobart in the 2004 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race.
Completely wiped off it's keel and ended up upside down. They managed to salvage it and it was in this years race but did not do nearly as well.
No one said what happened to the Sunfish but I imagine it was not good.

Tunadevil

They can jump at least 5 feet, most of the time when guys think they see tuna jump the Sunfish is the culprit. The bodies are rock hard that is why I think the sharks don't mess with them

You should see one dump a 130 International.

MI Ben

Apparently they eat jellyfish. What were you fishing with to have one dump an international?

Animo916

Most likely foul hooked. I have heard of a few people that have tangled with sunfish and every one of them was snagged.

Doug in Bermuda

It is a nautical Gremlin.

TJ45

Ocean sunfish or Mola Mola. They can weigh up to 2 tons.
http://www.earthwindow.com/mola.html

Tunadevil

Big eye fishing in Hydro, Right in the middle of the bite, two boats hooked, up slid right in between them, BAM flat line goes off 30 minutes later - foul hooked Sunny in the dorsal with a deep clone. I would have sworn it was a Eye till the end. ;?