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.