Yowie

There have been fibbers, fakers and cheaters in fishing since I was a kid, probably the biggest bullshitters in life are fishermen. Some of the photos of fish have the tail fin unnaturally stretched along the measuring tape to gain an extra centimetre or 2, or the brag mats have a few wrinkles so that the fish looks longer that what it really is. Maybe an independent person might be needed to verify a record catch. That comment does not apply to all fishermen, and women, but then again, read my first sentence. Yowie.

Fished off Lilli Pilli on Thursday. Pulled out 3 salmon, 2 near the 50cm mark and one fat one of 63cm. The bigger one took off like a kingie at first, some head shaking, then it started swimming on the surface for a while before diving again and tiring after a few minutes. Also pulled out a just legal reddie, 2 trevally around the 35cm mark and a tailor under 40cm. Bitten off by a bigger tailor. Yellowtail non-existant but a few small trevally swimming in the burly. Quite a few frigates still swimming about, with the occasional salmon crashing the surface. The salmon all took baits from the bottom. Yowie.

That hole off Lilli Pilli is probably the deepest part of Port Hacking, have fished there before for nothing much, so I do not fish in it at all. Jewies sometimes bite during daylight, though I target other fish once the sun is up.

Pilchards, squid strips, salted bonito. Only caught 1 yellowtail which I cut into fillets, the salmon and kingie took those as they sank, no sinker used, just throw the bait out and let it sink.

Baits sitting on the bottom. The salmon and kingie took sinking baits.

At first light.

Fished early Friday morning, but could not post a reply until today due to not being able to access this website. My computer kept indicating the "website does not exist". Fished the deep off Lilli Pilli, not much wind but it was a bit cool. Surprisingly, I did not see another boat on the water. Caught 3 jewies, just over the size limit, but 2 of them swallowed large baits on ganged hooks, and their stomachs and gills were damaged, so I kept them rather than throw them back to slowly die. The 3rd one was only just hooked, so he was released. Also pulled out a 55cm flattie, 2 legal reddies, a just legal trevally, a salmon and a rat kingie. The salmon and kingie again were caught on hand lines, more finger burning fun. Once the sun was up, the fish stopped biting, so I headed for home. Usually I catch a few reddies up to 40cm or bigger in the Port, but this year they have not been much above the size limit. Has anyone been able to catch the bigger sizes this year? Yowie.

There are still a few houseboats travelling around the Port, so some-one has them for hire. They appear to travel out of Gunnamatta Bay. Yowie.

Red morwong (cheilodactylus fuscus) normally have a solid red back, and the banded morwong (cheilodactylus spectabilis) have dark red stripes running vertically from the top to almost the bottom of the body. I have caught both on a line and observed both whilst skin diving. The fish in the picture has stripes but only half way down the body. The slight dip in the head just above the eyes, and the deep fork in the tail indicate a red morwong, the stripes do not. The white coloured stripe at the narrow part before the tail is found on banded morwong. It could be the result of both species inter-breeding, which does happen in the fish world. Regardless, both species are good eating. Yowie.

Fished the deep off Lilli Pilli this morning. Don't like weekend fishing because of the number of boats, but could not find time during the week to have a go. Pulled out a 41 cm tailor, and a bream just under the 40cm mark. The bream took a pilchard that sank to the bottom, then swam to the surface and fought like a tailor. Also picked up 2 reddies that were just over legal. Pumped a few nippers and drifted many places before finding 3 legal whiting, one was 35cm, the others under 30. Still a couple of frigates swimming about, with the occasional bigger splash amongst them, probably salmon or kings. Yowie.

Have caught the odd one over the years, up to about 60 cm long. Only at night time and in the shallow water of the deeper bays such as Yowie Bay. Yowie.

Probably a couple of days more and the fishing should improve a bit, a bit of murk usually improves it for a while. Fishing the wedding cake.

Fished near the mouth of Yowie Bay early this morning. Water very murky and with plenty of floating sticks and clumps of weed. Some of the weed is a freshwater variety, so it must be from above the weir at Audley. A lot of fish, but only 2 legal size, a 55cm jewie and a 34cm tailor. Stacks of reddies, but the biggest only 29cm. Also pulled out 2 kingies about 60cm mark, had another one grab the line as I was retrieving it and break off at the boat, and another but probably bigger one grabbed a small reddie as I was pulling it in. This one took off and swam around a mooring chain, I reduced pressure on the line but it still frayed through. The kingies were biting on salted bonito on a 12 pound handline, none of them took any baits on the rods. Yowie.

Tasted O.K. to me, produced a couple of long fillets. Cut out the larger rib bones, however, there are also many smaller bones that run beside the top of the rib bones to the skin. Pan fried the fillets to slightly crispy and just crunched up the smaller bones, hardly noticed them though many people would be put off by the bones. Yowie.

Didn't go up that far. There were a few frigates buzzing around Lilli Pilli early on. Threw a lure at them for no interest. The boys at the bait shop at Sylvania Heights told me there are a few tailor on the troll around Gymea Bay, and someone fishing at Wanda Beach early in the week picked up a couple of 3 to 4 pound tailor. Filleted the long tom and pan fried them last night. Tastes similar to garfish, but would prefer garfish instead. Just like an oversized garfish, except with teeth and attitude.

Started at first light out from Lilli Pilli. 40cm tailor on the first cast, not another tailor bite after that. Picked up 3 trevally after a while plus a bream and a fair sized crab that grabbed a pillie when it hit the bottom. Apart from that, not much else, so I pumped a few nippers at Mainbar and drifted back towards Lilli Pilli for 2 whiting to 34cm. The flats at Lilli Pilli were almost empty, compared to the amount of fish a month or 2 ago. Moved to a couple of other places for another trevally, and back to Mainbar for a 58cm longtom, which put up a fight as it tail walked across the surface a couple of times. Tried to bite me a few times with it's long pointy teeth. Yowie.

No legal size, my mates and I called them shit fish many years ago because of the smell when the stomach is cut open. Would rather starve than try eating them. Yowie.

The ballast heap is still there, exposed at low tide opposite Little Turriell Bay (be careful not to motor over it at high tide because it will be under water and the rocks will damage your kayak or boat). The whiting move around a bit, any where there are shallow sand banks on a rising tide you will find whiting. Gunnamatta Bay, Mainbar, around the ballast heap, Lilli Pilli flats, upper end of South West Arm, Grays Point and further up from there. I have caught sand whiting in water as deep as 30 feet, not many though, though usually you will catch trumpeter whiting in the deeper water. I have also sighted whiting swimming on the rising tide at Mainbar flats in the early morning, with their backs out of the water. A couple of times I have cast a nipper next to these fish for an immediate strike. Sometimes the whiting will be mainly undersize, and they will get to the baits or lures before the legal size fish have a chance. At this time of year, the whiting can become a bit quiet in the Port. You will then need to move about to find them. Yowie.

Most of those fish are frigate mackerel now, bonito have just about moved on. Some days they will not bite at any lures at all, so you will have to persevere with small lures. Could also try a 3 or 5 gram metal slice, as they are about the same size as the baitfish. Yowie.

That's a good fish for a light handline.

Have this added to my favourites list since joining, still does not allow me access most of the time. Only started doing this from late last year. Yowie.

Fished off Lilli Pilli early Thursday morning. A tailor hit as soon as the first pilchard hit the water. They only stayed for a short while then disappeared by first light. Ended up with 6, from 33 to 43 cm and dropped a couple at the boat. A short time later, some salmon turned up and ended up with 3 from about 40 to 45cm plus a kingie a bit under 60cm, those were released. The salmon and kingie took salted bonito pieces on a handline, gave my fingers a bit of line burn. After that all went quiet. Pumped a few nippers and drifted the various flats for 2 whiting and 1 bream. Rather quiet except for many bait stealing little toads. The bream and whiting have dropped off since summer, though they could have moved to other locations that I don't fish. Still, enough for a feed with the tailor fillets oven baked last night. As a side issue, I have trouble logging on to the Fishraider web site. Can only manage to log on once or twice a week, as all other times my computer tells me the site does not exist. This is the only site I have trouble with, and after today I will not be able to log in for a few more days. A couple of weeks ago, I was typing a report and the computer logged me out from the site while I was typing. Yowie.

Good fish Morgs. Yowie.

It looks more like the Sweetlips variety - Plectorhynchus picus. Yowie.

Looks like the Spotted-fin Glasseye, sometimes called a Redeye. Caught a few over the years in Port Hacking. Yowie.