Yowie

A mate from Sydney headed to his weekender at Congo over the long weekend and managed a feed of blue spots, not big but enough for a good feed. Hopefully the fish will turn up soon for you.

Looks like a good spot for a fish, good scenery, shame nothing much turned up.

A bag of nice reddies, should go down well on the plate.

I keep fish for up to 3 days for eating - frozen if kept longer, but that rarely happens.

Looking at it from my point of view, I fish only mono, and usually don't use any trace. Just straight to the hook, line strength depending on what and where I am fishing. 6 pound with nippers, 12 or 15 pound handline in the deeper water with fish or squid strips. I use 20 pound clear, high abrasion resistance mono with ganged hooks while using pillies, it gives some resistance to abrasion, however, the teeth of tailor will cut it through anyway. If you are fishing for bream in rocky areas, using light traces, the bream will quite often zero in under a rock. Also remember, it you are using 10 pound line, mono or braid, and you use say 4 pound trace, your line strength is down to 4 pound, not 10 pound. That reduces what pressure you can apply in difficult situations, such as rocky areas.

Thank you all, just finished a feed of the fillets. Marinated in lime juice, lime zest, sweet chilli sauce and soy sauce, accompanied by chips and veges, and downed with a bottle of W.A. wine that I bought on my trip to the other side of the world (well, Western Australia that is). My daughter called around for a visit and said, I'll have some of those fillets.

Headed out this morning to Bate Bay with a mate who wanted a feed of flatties. A change to fish there in a bigger boat rather than my tinny. First drop just after sunrise and we stopped after 9am. Released about the same number of Blue Spots as we kept, they were just on or just under legal size. Of the ones we kept, most were 35 to 40cm, with the biggest just on 50cm. Spikey flattie fillets as bait. Little swell and very little wind, so a slow drift but we found the fish, with a few double headers.

As Volitan stated, if it was the same fish, you would expect one or both hooks to be somewhere inside the flattie's mouth/gills/stomach. It is possible for a large flattie, with a hard mouth, to perhaps spit out one hook, but probably not both hooks.

Mantis shrimp as Blackfish stated. Have seen them in the stomachs of jewies in the Hacking.

God work there Rick, nice sized bream when they are around 40cm and bigger.

Very nice. It is always interesting to see a flattie swim up to and grab your bait or lure. They usually smack it pretty hard.

Looks like a good move, and some nice fish to add to the new location.

Bread crumbed and pan fried flattie fillets tonight, very nice. The baker was kicking up a fight from down deep, was expecting a nice flattie instead.

Headed out early this morning, the only day that will be fishable outside this week. Not too much swell and a nice drifting speed. Trolled pillies and spun lures around the mouth of the Hacking for not a touch, so motored out to the flattie drift just on sunrise. Pulled out 5 blue spots and plenty of little spikies, kept a few of the spikies for bait, then the bites stopped. Have had that happen before. Moved around and pulled out a small Sgt Baker then snagged, so must have found a patch of reef out in the middle of nowhere. Re-rigged and moved out a bit, nothing for a while then thought I had hooked a good flattie. Pulled out a bigger than usual Sgt Baker, a quick photo and it was sent back. Would be good to eat except for a million small bones in the fillet. The long fin at the front of the dorsal fin, folded back in the photo, indicates it is a male fish. Moved again and found another patch of blue spots. Not big fish and some distance between them. The flattie photo will not upload for some unknown reason, but similar to others I have posted before.

Nice fish for a youngster.

Surprising they put up a good fight, as I found out 2 months ago at Nyngan.

Good work again there Scratchie, couple of nice reddies.

A good fish for any fisho, but especially a young bloke.

Thanks Keflapod. Flatheadluke also made a comment about grandpa still living at home. Well, my grandfather died about 20 years ago so I just ignored Flatheadluke. If he was trying to be funny, he wasn't. My father, grandfather and great grandfather taught me various aspects of fishing, and I learnt a lot myself by trial and error.

Nothing wrong with that one, very nice fish. It pays to keep going (to a point )

Nice feed of fish, and a new species as well.

Yes, a bit quiet just yet. Temperature at Wanda Beach now 17 degrees.

Just being practical. Have lost plenty of gear to jackets over the years, must be keeping the tackle shops in business. My grandfather told me that many years ago, when he was fairly young, the jackets would be in plague numbers off the coast and he would hold a dead fish on the surface to attract the jackets, then pick them out by hand and into the boat. He still had all of his fingers.

Not for me.

No, and have not seen that boat.