Yowie

If you can see the whiting, they can see you and it will be rather hard to have them bite. Shallow water makes them more cautious, deeper water not so bad. Have tried blood worms, squirt worms and nippers. In clear water and no wind, very difficult to get them to take a bait, with the water ruffled by wind, sometimes they are less cautious. Early morning or late afternoon better than with the sun sitting up in the sky. Cloudy days can also make the whiting come on the bite.

I have a couple of different recipes I found in fish recipe books, on the internet, and sometimes just crumbed and pan fried. I have several fish cook books.

Just an older tinnie, still with most of the paint on it. Nothing fancy, I don't want to stand out like dog's b#lls so that everyone can see me. The previous one was almost paintless and 42 years old, held together with waterproof silastic but some of the holes were getting too hard to repair.

They are yellow finned jackets, and have 4 spikes near the tail. I was hit by the tail spikes of a large male and it drew blood, so have been careful since. Yes, I like a couple of feeds of fish a week, more than the missus and grown up kids.

Thanks Basil. I sometimes pick up a few around the headlands at times, the squid may not have entered the Hacking in numbers just yet.

A good feed of squid there Basil. After I pulled out the fish today, I tried a couple of squid spots up river, for nothing. Usually better up river in March/April.

Better than last week's catch, only a couple of bream and whiting, not worth a report. A good dump of rain would help.

Thank you.

No complaints today.

Thanks Scratchie. Shared the fish amongst the various family members, 2 feeds for the missus and myself. Reddie fillets tonight, flattie fillets in a couple more nights.

Thanks Basil, just finished the reddie fillets and they were quite tasty.

Headed out early to near the mouth of Yowie Bay. The trevally only just made the size, hooked in the gills while swimming amongst the yakkas. Was going to use it as bait, but it will be eaten instead. Apart from the jackets, the other fish were taken on squid and fish strips. A few throwback reddies were just under size, so they are getting bigger over the last few months. The jackets were taken on squid pieces. Not large ones, and some others were thrown back. The biggest of them was a male, the others all female. One thing I have noticed with the yellow finned jackets is that most of them are female, very few males caught and the males are usually slightly larger in size and have bigger spikes near the tail. No tailor about, the occasional rat kingie splashing and a lot of smaller fish hitting the surface. I think these were frigates, they appear in the Hacking in February and no takers on the lure as usual.

Obviously a bored fisho. Did you learn anything from the re-runs? Just put on the sou-wester outfit and go fishing.

Congratulations on a great effort to pull it boatside.

A nice feed there. The blackfish are moving about in the Hacking, not in big numbers, but they are slowly building in numbers.

Small squid pieces on a small hook are better. Size 10 or 8 longshank hooks, squid strips 5 or 6 mm wide and 10 to 12 mm long. Sometimes just moving the bait slightly up and down can help with a hook up. When about in numbers, the jackets will quickly swim to the bait and try to scoff it down before the others get to it. When only one or 2 about, they will be a bit more cautious in eating your bait, especially the larger fantail jackets.

What you can also try in a situation like this is a strip of fish bait slid up the line (puncture the strip a couple of times and thread the line through) then tie a treble on the line so the hook points stick out, no sinker needed, and throw it out and retrieve with a stop/start motion. Squid are aggressive feeders at times, and I have also seen them become rather timid in shallow or clear water during the daytime.

Many years ago in Port Hacking, at a few secrets spots, the school jewies would come on the bite, and I mean 20 or more in one session (the best was 42 in one night - no, did not keep them all) Mainly my usual fishing mate, and the fish could be at either end of the boat at times. Another mate's father kept on pestering me to take him out in the boat, so I did. I gave him one of my handlines to use, baited the hook and threw it out. Also a line for myself. Well, I pulled up jewies one after another, and the mates father did not get one bite. He kept whinging (as I knew he would) and he wanted to swap position, so I sat in his seat and used his line, and he sat in my seat and used my line. As soon as we swapped, I was pulling up fish and he again did not catch one. So more whinging, take me home now, etc. So I packed up, took him home and gave him a couple of fish. He never wanted to go fishing with me again. But as a bonus, his wife baked me a chocolate cake (they were delicious), so when I had a spare jewie I would swap it for another cake.

Good work on a great feed.

Amazing what works, and does not work , at times. Sometimes I catch the kingies on a yakka line, small piece of bait on a small hook and light line, when a well presented bait does not attract a sniff. White bread moulded around a hook also works well at times.

Nothing wrong with those flatties (I mean the 50's and 60's ) Could have been worse, with you not catching a legal one, and the missus really giving you a fishing lesson. At least you headed home with some good sized flatties. The whiting may have been a red spot whiting, found in the deeper off shore waters. Should get you some brownie points.

a nice fish. Don't know about the sunburn though, have had more than my fair share of that.

You can see who are the cheapskates (Rick and Berleyguts) using barrel sinkers and not spending money on a good lure. Yes, it sometimes does work. As for a cheap tailor lure, a long shank hook on a small piece of wire trace, and a piece of white cloth wrapped around the hook.

Al that for fishy fingers, scrubbing and cleaning? What happens if you have smelly jatz crackers, do you do all that scrubbing and cleaning?

Good sized whiting when they hit the 40 mark.