Yowie

That mouth is the last thing many little fish or prawns will ever see.

Just have to keep an eye on the weather reports for outside fishing.

When you factor in the tow vehicle and van, the outfits can be worth between $100k and $250k, so it is a big investment to outlay. Look inside a large caravan park and guesstimate how many millions of dollars worth of vehicles and vans there are.

Headed out early this morning to Bate Bay, somewhere east of Cronulla. The flatties were mostly small and scattered about, with a few throwbacks amongst them. Lots of spikies mixed with them. Enough for a few feeds. Just a basic report today, not much else to say. Sooty shearwaters flying about but did not appear to be feeding. Heard a penguin squawking nearby but could not see it in the choppy water.

Some very nice flatties there Rob.

Mine was more than that. That is why the bank account is dead. No money left for a new boat. Some vans are on the other side of $100k.

You need to harden up. Try some cement powder with your weetbix.

You think you have a nice fillet, then you see where the worms have been. Regardless of that Jim, sounds like a good day out. As for the kingies, you fight them all the way then find they are undersized.

That was what was mentioned recently. Still tasted O.K.

One thing I forgot to mention, was that the bottom reddie in the photo was missing some of the dorsal spikes. There was a thread recently about this. It is hard to see in the photo, but the first couple of fins are present, then the next 6 or 7 cms are devoid of fins, then the rest of the fins are normal. A bit hard to say what caused the problem, but when I filleted the reddie, there was no apparent deformation of the internal bones.

Thanks Rob. It was an interesting session. Just finished the reds as fillets, rather nice. Dave.

Thanks Rah

Thanks Scratchie. The flattie felt like a nice jew at first, then the head shakes gave it away. Nothing like a bit of handline fishing to liven things up. The finger burn marks from last weeks oversized eagle ray have just healed up.

The fish are coming back, you just have to find them.

Headed out early to the Hacking, in the deep a bit out from Lilli Pilli. Fishing started off slow, then the flattie grabbed a fish bait on a handline. Put up a good fight. It had swallowed a pair of ganged hooks (not stainless hooks, but the easy rust type), so I cut the line and placed the fish into the esky with a bit of water. Placed it in upside down and it turned over very quickly. If a flattie is going to kick up it's toes, it will stay upside down. If it is healthy, it will flip over, which this one did. It swam inside the esky, so I picked it up for a photo, placed it into the water and it swam off strongly from my hands. Yakkas were not about, but I did catch 5 fat pillies that I cut in half for 10 baits. These baits and squid strips were the go. The salted pillies only caught little reddies. Pulled out 2 just legal reddies and a bream. Also caught and released a jewie and kingie, both around the 60 cm mark, and a salmon about 45cm. All on the handlines for finger burning fun. Something grabbed a half pillie on the rod, and when I loaded up, there was some weight and power on the other end. Could not gain any line. It did feel more like a big ray than a fish. Took about 100 metres of line into the deeper water, stayed down near the bottom, but I felt some rubbing on the line from a rock and it was gone. It was now bottom of the tide, so I moved to near the ballast heap and waded the flats with soft plastics. Not a flattie to be seen for an hour's wading. Plenty of whiting about, some maybe just over legal size, so headed for home.

Bought a 16 foot Manta Ray single axle in 2014. Now own an 18 foot dual axle Oz Classic, a nice van with most of the mod cons.

One of them I think is Abraham (don't ask me which one) and the second photo is Liam. Did not know they are Raiders. I am now onto my second New Age van, purchased earlier this year, and know a couple of people in the company. A great company and great vans.

Keep going out there and you will become use to it. I do not eat before heading out (either up river or outside) I have something to eat after the fishing slows down a bit. Concentrate on the fishing, not your stomach. I assume on the charter boat you stand up most of the time while fishing. You need to have your legs bending a bit at the knees with the swaying of the boat, while your upper body stays fairly upright and does not move too much.

I fish mono as well, using Sufix brand, but it is a bit hard to find in the shops.

I have 3 younger brothers, and during school age, being the eldest, I was always given the job of mowing the lawn. The other bastardo's laughed as they were never asked to mow the law. Soon fixed that, I mowed down everything in the back yard, including the old man's good plants, and was not asked to mow the lawn again.

Another successful day, a few for a feed and the release of a big girl.

Fab, 'The early bird catches the worm', same applies to fish. I have been rising early to go fishing, since early high school days, though now past the 60 mark, it is not as easy. Dave.

Good work on the jew. Memo to self - 'always use the net for a large flattie' - so many are lost on the final lift out of the water.

Have had a number of the eagle rays do that over the years. They can jump out 4 to 5 feet, as they ramp up a lot of speed when heading to the surface.