The Long-Toms belong to the needle fish family, the same family as garfish and flying fish.
They are long, slender fish that can skip over the water for long distances. The Stout Long-Tom is the member of the species found in our local estuaries.

The stout longtom (Tylosurus gavialoideds) can reach a length of 1.3 meters with great elongate upper and lower jaws forming a slender beak armed with long needle like teeth. It is bright green over the back and upper sides, silvery below and has dusky tips to the pectoral fins and snout. At times attacking Long-Toms take on a glowing purple colouration over the back and ex-tending to the tip of the beak. The dorsal and anal fins are positioned towards the rear of the body, the caudal fin has a lower lobe noticeably longer than the upper lobe. The species is endemic to Australia.

Long-Toms feed on anchovies, sprats, herring, hardiheads and prawns.

A hooked longtom always gives a startling display of acrobatics, leaping, tail walking and twisting in mid-air in its efforts to dislodge the hook.

Caution: Longtoms have very sharp teeth and can inflict nasty wounds. They are aggressive and when it lunges at the fisherman who has caught it, it means business. Once bitten, the holding power of the slender jaws are considerable.

They are fearless when disturbed and have been known to swim and attack wading anglers.
Interesting fact: All needlefish lack stomachs. Their ancestors had them, but at some point in evolutionary history they were lost. (“Fish with no stomach baffles scientists”)

Long-Toms are generally caught whilst targeting other species but should you decide to chase them any flies resembling their preferred prey should work.