Holls

Good work with the SPs. Noticed the bream has damage to its mid dorsal fin. I've caught a few like that and I'm wondering what causes it?

Well done! Some great fish there. Big queenie looks great as well!

I find gars easy to catch with a garhook (longshank) with about 1.5 metres of line to a pencil float. Sandfleas, a bit of fresh prawn or bread works. I flick the line out and slowly retrieve - the retrieve seems to attract them every time.

The GTs are a great fish. Caught in the bay at Tin Can Bay, my brother's town.

Thanks Blackfish, bound to be one of these, but not sure which.

Just did a check - think the fish mentioned might have been a Bass Groper.

Great morning off Ulladulla Harbour. Plenty of big blue mowies, snapper, nanygai, etc. A lot of Sargeant Bakers !!!. When we came in, at the fish cleaning tables there were stacks of nice sized Blue Spotted flathead being cleaned (targetted at 20-30 metres - we got a fair few last week). One guy at the cleaning tables had a big fish that looked like a groper. Wouldn't let me photograph it. Are they protected? It was dark brown to black in colour, about15-20 lb.

Very rare fish, obviously. No-one's ever seen it.

8 lbs! It seems some bream start to look like snapper when they get a bit of size. Saw a beauty taken from our lake, ugly looking critter, with head bump like a big red!

Try Racecourse Beach. Easy access via Sth Pacific Crescent on southern side of Ulladulla. Sand shifting a lot at the moment, some deep gutters with regular salmon, usually very early when sun is low or evening once the sun has set with the tide fairly well in. Though a guy picked up a couple at midday last week which surprised me.

Sounds like you might be hooking the bottom if its not moving around at all. Could be a little bit of reef exposed. Although i was snorkling around Manyana, further up the coast and spotted a ceramic toilet sitting on the bottom!

Well done. The Hobie yak is great, zip around no effort, no noise, don't spook the fish, great for sneaking along the edge of the water flicking SPs as well. My mate takes his Hobie mirage far out into the open ocean chasing snapper, don't think I'll be doing that for a while though.

Yesterday, fished at Wairo Beach, arriving 4am. All the action was before the sun came up. Picked up my biggest salmon on the first cast. Then some whiting and darts on the smaller rod. But all went very quiet at dawn with the tide still rising.

Yes, that's the trick alright. My Dad was a professional shark fisherman and gummy is one fish that's improved by freezing first. Also, I've only been on the NSW coast about 18 months but it seems to me that beach fishing begins to heat up 1 - 2 hours after dark - especially on the incoming. Would others agree?

Shortest post on record! Were you fishing by any chance? ha ha Have a great day!

Yes, I'm with Pauls, what bait?

Nice one! So all this happened before dark?

Look forward to the update. It's a good beach, that one!

Thanks everyone. I actually hope not to hook these big females, but in a way, it helps us learn a little more about lake fishing and what goes on down below.

Yes, your perfect predator, lying in wait for something above them. For that reason I've found the best way to catch flathead is to keep the bait moving. Very often they hit it as you lift the rod. By the way, in case of confusion, the flathead photographed here was the LITTLE one!

In my last report I mentioned a monster flathead that followed up a 33cm bream I had on my line and grabbed it just under the kayak. Well yesterday it got even more interesting. Using small live mullet (too small, couldn't catch decent ones) I eventually hooked this mighty flathead (pictured), took me at least ten minutes to get him beside the yak, photographed and back into the water where he shot off like a rocket. I'm only using a 5lb leader. Small bream were taking all my little livies and I was getting ready to paddle home when I hooked one last small fish. Suddenly the line got a whole lot heavier and peeled off my reel. I set the drag but could not raise this fish even slightly and imagined I might have hooked a ray (we have 100s of stingrays in Burrill Lake). For 15-20 mins I played this fish, raising him a metre or so, before off it went again. The water in the lake is crystal clear at the moment and I can just see the sandy bottom in 3 metres, FINALLY I started to make progress and very slowly I brought the fish towards the yak. Up it comes, little by little... and off again. More progress and finally it comes into view two metres down. An absolute monster of a flathead. I bring it up slowly. My intention was not to even try to net it, just get it along side and cut the line very close to the mouth. It comes up close to the top, and no question, at least a metre long!! Suddenly it regurgitates a small snapper and swims away! I wind in and there's this little busted up pinky about 20cm long hanging off my hook! (pic attached] I laughed my head off. Here's me thinking, ok little mullet will catch a big flathead.. ha ha

Very nice hooking into a good pelagic out of a yak. You look like you've got a good setup there. Nice one.

Good report. I better hit the rocks around Ulladulla!

Great to hear Conjola fishing well. Warmer water seems to be getting the flatties biting again.

If you are not a writer, you should be. Very aptly put and an entertaining read. And damn nice fish as well!