Yowie

Thanks Rick. About time the tailor started showing up. Dave.

The wind was forecast to drop off a bit from yesterday's gale, and it did, so I headed to the deep up from Lilli Pilli. Used pillies for 1 tailor, then they disappeared for a while until just before sunrise. At that time they were taking fish strips off the bottom, as did the crab. A salmon also grabbed a fish strip, but spat the hook next to the boat. Looked like it was near the 60cm mark, a fat bugger that had trouble jumping out of the water, it did not jump too high at all. Headed to Maianbar flats, pumped some nippers and waded about for 2 whiting, but the tide became too high, and then the wind picked up again so drifting was out of the question. Anchored a bit further away and pulled out the other whiting and the bream. Headed for home, and the wind was really puffing away heading back up Gunnamatta Bay.

Nice flatties, and you are keeping everyone happy.

Anchovy.

Just shows that you do not need to fish deep water all the time.

That is a good feed Bruce, a fat gar and a nice tarwhine as well. Dave.

Looking at the Bom this morning, there is a prediction of an East Coast Low on the NSW/Vic border late Sunday and pushing north after that. Should put a bump into the ocean over the week.

Do not know. It has a long pectoral fin like an albacore, but ? Just have to remember that some fish species will interbreed (like humans) and produce specimens that bear no resemblance to their original species.

Same fish I caught a couple of years ago. Lizardfish.

You need an R.P.G. for them. They are a pain-in-the-arse at times. You did well on yesterday's score.

Nice catch of pearlies. Shame that the marlin disappeared, would have been fun and games to land it by yourself.

Spotted-fin Glasseye - Priacanthus macracanthus. At least you had a pleasant time on the water. Plenty of undersized reddies about, and the tailor are rather scarce. Reports of tailor in Botany Bay, the Harbour and the Hawkesbury, so someone needs to invite them into the Hacking.

Rat sized kingies have been splashing around further up river, Gymea Bay and North West Arm, for a few months.

Not amongst the boats. Sometimes the drop off, sometimes else where.

Have seen a few smaller ones in Gunnamatta Bay.

I was using 6 pound mono, a size long shank hook and no sinker. Small pieces of bread crust, no more than 1cm square. Flick it out like you are throwing a Frisbee. Now for the hard part. You need a slight breeze blowing from behind you, try throwing that into the wind and you won't get anywhere. For windier conditions, a small bubble float, half filled with water will help casting conditions. For really windy conditions, the gars probably won't be biting. Gars will swim down several metres, but usually swim very close to the surface. Bread is the main bait I use, though have caught them on dough, squirt worm pieces, small pieces of soft fish flesh, and the occasional ones on a whiting hook and nippers, when fishing shallow water for the whiting.

Once they have the bait (usually the crabs slowly move away and the line slowly moves off) just a matter of slowly pulling the line to the boat and slipping a net underneath. Sometimes crabs will let go of the bait, so stop pulling the line, let it sit there and they may return and grab the bait again. Sometimes they drop the bait and don't come back.

Last week was sh^thouse. 1 bonnie and 2 crabs all morning, not a report to publish. The bonnies were cruising around the boat for some time, and only the 1 hit. Today, not a bonnie or anything else cracking the surface.

Cut off the gar fillets, and with a long bladed filleting knife I remove the rib bones. The fillets are dipped in flour, then egg/milk mixture then into Panko breadcrumbs (or normal breadcrumbs) and pan fried in a butter/olive oil mixture. Crisp them up a bit more than other fillets, home cooked chips and veges. Washed down with a young crisp Riesling. Though small fish, they are a reasonable size for gars. 5 gars produced 10 fillets, 6 for me and 4 for the missus, which is plenty. Dark colours in the cobia, certainly stand out. Needs to grow another 30cm or more before coming back to the Hacking.

Fished the deep near Lilli Pilli early, hoping for a tailor or 2 but not a bite from them. Caught a couple of yakkas for strip bait, and one as a livey. Burleyed for the yakkas, and the gars turned up in the bread burley. Pulled out 5, dropped a couple and they disappeared by half light.. The flattie and flounder on yakka strips, the crabs on the same bait. Was nearing time to move, when the little cobia grabbed a pillie. Thought I had my tailor. A quick snappie (he would not sit still for the photo) then released. My second cobia in the Hacking, bigger than the first one, but not big enough to keep. Moved to Maianbar flats, pumped some nippers and pulled out the whiting. Bites were few and far between. Released the tarwhine, but it floated belly up a short time later, so retrieved it. Not a big one at all, but it is legal size.

Nice feed of pannies.

I body surf regularly at Wanda or Elouera beaches, and have noticed recently that the terns are diving for bait fish, even fairly close in during day time, so the bait fish are bringing the bigger ones in.

Bream on 6lb mono amongst structure is not easy, have been dusted many times myself, even with heavier line. Bream are dirty fighters around rocks and pilons.

That is a good fish from the beach.