Yowie

That's what I like to see, some fish being caught. Would have given you some fun, and a feed if you kept them. Probably won't be fishing myself until the weekend has gone. Too many lunatics about.

Have hooked large black rays in the deeper sections, 5 or 6 foot across. There are also eagle rays, the biggest was measured at 6 foot across. The big eagle rays can run like a big kingie, just as fast and just as hard to stop. Yowie.

Probably does not have a coffee table small enough. The 4 fish would look like tiddlers on his big table. There are a few nice sized tailor inside the Port at present, so might be more up river than around the bombie.

A shame about the green toads turning up. Have not seen them for a while, even caught them off Lilli Pilli some years ago. The bastards can swim surprisingly fast after a bait or a lure.

I was talking about the areas where I catch a few fish. The hole off Lilli Pilli was measured at 26 metres in the 1980 survey map that I have. I don't always fish at the bottom of the deep water, quite often finding the fish in water about half that depth along the edge of the drop-offs.

When I had my hand in the water just after I anchored, it was warmer than the air temperature. Looking at the Weather Bureau website, there is stream of warmer water off the coast, around the 24,25 degree mark heading south, and a larger stream out past the shelf. When having a swim at Wanda Beach a week or 2 ago, the water was cool, however, in the last couple of days the temperature has risen a bit.

And your fingers too. Have seen a bloke cry when bitten by one only about 35cm long. The tailor would not let go and sunk it's teeth into his finger up to it's gums while wiggling like crazy.

Boat. There are a number of wharves in the Port, though they are usually full of fisherman day and night. Different areas fish better at different tides, though I find low light times (in the early morning or late afternoon into the night) as being needed to be considered more than the tide.

12 pound and 15 pound. Sometimes I use 10 pound line. Have had a few take the 6 pound yellowtail line with a little hook, but they just keep going until you run out of line.

West from Lilli Pilli baths is deep water, including Yowie Bay, Gymea Bay, Big Turriell Bay, and also other areas such as Burraneer Bay, Gunnamatta Bay and South West Arm. Shallow water is the areas over the sand banks and along the main channel east of Lilli Pilli to the entrance. Fish in the deep water areas along the edges of the bank where the bank drops down and meets the flat bottom, which could be 15 metres (have never measured the depths, though the deepest place is west of the baths. never caught anything decent there because it is just a flat featureless section of mud) Fish can also be caught in the shallow sections over the banks and along the channel. I have caught fish in water less than knee deep (Port Hacking as well as other locations) so it is a matter or persevering until you find the fish. Early morning or late afternoon into the night are usually better times than the middle of the day.

Fished the deep off Lilli Pilli this morning, one of those days where nothing stayed on the hook at first, the hooks kept missing or pulling out after a couple of seconds. Eventually pulled out 3 tailor from 42 to 48cm long, plus a stack of reddies but not one over the size limit. They were biting on any bait used. No yellowtail about either. As I was packing up, I was winding in a handline and a kingie grabbed it, but only about 60cm long. No bait left on the hook, so I threw it out and another kingie grabbed the bare hook but busted off. Managed another 2 kingies on handlines, probably a fraction smaller, but plenty of finger burning action. All returned. Most of my bait was gone by this time, so I threw a handfull of mushy bread over, and watched half a dozen kingies swimming through the bread trail, with the occasional one eating a bit of bread. Headed for home after that. Yowie.

Cannot find anything in my publications. Try the Fisheries or Australian Museum.

Jewies will hit the surface, especially at night time. Have heard them in Port Hacking at night time hitting the schools of mullet, and quite often will hear a big tail slap as they come up under the mullet swimming on the surface. Yowie.

What are the longer fish? They look like teraglin.

If you are talking about the area where the channel meets the lake, I drifted along there (never anchored) as a teenager (a long time ago) with live prawns I caught the night before, and caught plenty of flathead along that stretch, plus a few whiting and bream, and leatherjackets along the edge of the weed beds.

Good catch Chris. Had a fish myself this morning early off Lilli Pilli. 3 tailor to 42cm, 2 reddies to 38cm and dropped another at the side of the boat, and released a trevally about 35cm. Over the sand flats are large schools of sand mullet. Caught a couple under 30cm, but there are some bigger ones about. Plenty of surface activity, but appear to be frigates which were not interested in lures. Dave.

Good work. The thing about catching jewies is that some don't fight too much, and others fight really hard. Have had a couple fight to the death on light line ( actually dead when landed ) In my younger days, I fished with 3lb line for something different, but the jewies took too long to catch. 6lb line should have given you a bit of fun as you stated.

Photo 3 is not a bonito. Can see a couple of spots under the body, and looks like a mackerel tuna.

That's a nice fish.

Chris, Probably would be a couple of big ones there, but would need to put in the time for that to happen. I am happy with a feed of whatever comes along, according the times and locations I fish. Dave.

Drifted Lilli Pilli flats with nippers this morning early before the wind picked up, mostly calm, and the water was clear with the run up tide. Nothing to be seen except for the dozens of little toads and stingrays. Eventually managed 2 whiting at 37 and 41cm, a 38cm flattie and just legal bream. Dropped a slightly bigger flattie and that was that. Not even any little whiting to be seen. While I was drifting the flats, a lot of fish were carving up the surface around the baths. I motored over and some of the fish were inside the baths. I stood up in the boat and looked over the net, and could see several kingies around the 50 to 55cm mark. They were swimming under a school of anchovies, and when the anchovies were in a tight ball, the kingies would swim up and grab the little fish. I dropped a lure in amongst the fish, had a couple of touches on the lure by the kingies but no actual grabs at the lure, so could not hook up. Tried a nipper and had a couple of touches, but again no actual grabs at the nipper to hook up. The kingies were attacking the anchovies for half an hour to an hour. If I had hooked one, it probably would have swum through the net, as they were swimming freely through the net to attack the anchovies. Headed for home and cleaned the fish. The water in Gunnamatta Bay still has a bit of colour, so while I was cleaning the fish, I cut off a bit of whiting fillet and threw it out on a handline amongst the fish bones I threw into the water, and pulled out 2 bream at 32 and 37cm. Released the larger one. (no photos Tumra, maybe next time) Yowie.

A new mobile phone. Now that you mentioned it, I just looked at the setting and found that it was on the black and white setting, so I changed it to colour.

I suppose when a fish is hungry, anything becomes food. One of the reddies also had a fresh nipper in it's stomach as well. I've never seen nippers free swimming at any time, so maybe they are closer to the sand surface at night time. I have seen bream and whiting sucking up sand and expelling it through the gill covers to get to nippers and squirt worms, so other fish must do this as well. Observing how fish feed can help in catching them.

Fished off Lilli Pilli in the deeper water this morning for the fish in the photo. Most of them were hooked fairly deep in the mouth/throat, which sometimes happens in the discoloured water as the fish grab the baits with a bit of aggression. The jewie is not too big, however, I did release a couple of fish that were only just hooked. Another reddie just over size, 2 jewies of 55 and 65cm, and a tailor of 48cm. That tailor put up a good fight on a handline, and as it was heading towards the surface near the boat, something around 2 to 3 times longer than the tailor shot up from underneath, and the tailor took off like a rocket. I could not tell if the bigger critter was a fish or a shark, the water still has some brown colour and the critter looked brown along the back. Also bitten off by a tailor of similar size. A few small kingies around the 55 to 60cm mark followed the reddies to the boat. Not too many little reddies about which was a change, the fish would bite then nothing at all for a short while, then back again. The jewie had about a dozen nippers in it's stomach, so it had been feeding in shallower water during the night. Baits used were salted tailor strips, strips off a couple of yellowtail and pilchards. A squid strip sat on the bottom for no bites again like the last couple of times out. This photo is of the 8 whiting I caught last week, the best at 44cm. Yowie.

A bit hard to tell from the photo, but it looks like a Snook, which is from the same family as Pike and Barracuda. Have caught a few in Port Hacking over the years, though is more common in the southern waters of Australia.