kiwicraig

Sorry for the delayed report(s) - I've had my parents visiting for Christmas and when we were not fishing, beaching, eating or drinking I was too knackered to post a report! I managed to take my Dad out for a morning session on Christmas Eve. We were hoping to get out and fill a bag with Blue Spot flatties and the conditions on Willy Weather looked pretty good. Unfortunately they were wrong. We got outside and the swell that was forecast to be 1-1.5m was more 2 like 2-2.5. We motored out to about the 50m mark but could not hold the bottom. I doubled up on snapper leads but even with 2x sz 4 snapper leads on the line we struggled to hold the bottom. We managed one decent flathead out there that went about 46cm with the two sinker rig. The extra weight was too much for one of my old reels though - when I hooked up as well the reel snapped off just above the seat. When the wind started to pick up as well I made the call to head in. On the way back we pulled up next to @flatheadluke just as he was landing a nice flattie. "Get your lines in" he shouted. We obliged and managed another two legal flatties fairly quickly before we needed to head back in and help with Christmas prep. The fillets and wings (plus another pack of wings I had in the freezer) were well received at my street's traditional Xmas Eve street party! No photos this time - was a bit pressed for time when I got back.

Just take your time and bring them up slowly. You can bring them right up to the surface if you take it slow. Put the net in behind them and when it is in position scoop quickly.

Thanks Jim - I'll check it out.

Crab nets and traps are banned in Brisbane Waters. I use a handline with a running sinker to a gang of hooks. On the gang I attach about 1/3 of a flathead frame from a previous session - nice tough bait and the crabs usually like it. While anchored I just leave the handline over one of the rod holders and stick the handle of the net into the rod holder. When a crab picks up the bait they will try to wander off with it causing the handline to start spooling. When that happens just slowly wind in and then net them before they break the surface of the water.

I decided to take my son out yesterday morning to see if the blue swimmers were in Brisbane Waters in any numbers. Short version is they weren't. But we had a good time. Tried a few spots that have produced before. My son picked up a just legal one in the channel by Davistown RSL. Let that go as you don't get much off one that small. Thought I'd let it get a bit bigger. We had a bigger one on the line but it let go on the way up. Got a slightly bigger one over by Blackall ramp, but that was it for 3+ hours so pretty slow. I pick up a new trick though. I took a Bluetooth speaker with me and made my son DJ. Reckon it extended his tolerance tenfold.

Well there you have it - whenever you find a fact on the internet there is an expert to contradict it 😋

This thread has lead me to do some more research so I thought I would share what I have found. As usual @Yowie is spot on. From the DPI website's section on Bluespotted flathead lists the following under "Confusing Species": Caudal fin is a fancy way of saying "tail" - and I do remember most (if not all) of the little ones I pulled up having a pale tail. I'm going to make it my mission to go and get some photos of both to share. @61 crusher - you are also correct. I'm not going out far enough. The same site also says: That's just under 46m. So the best advice is what @antonywardle has been saying to me all along. Head out to the 50m mark for Bluespot. Closer in you are likely to get tons of little spikeys.

Thanks for the tip. I have a bad habit of getting impatient and giving it a go in about 45m. Next time I'll hold firm. Would make sense if as Yowie says the spikes are a different species. I've been working on the theory that they were juvie bluespot and big ones would be in the same place.😂

Thanks Yowie. I always thought these were just juvenile blue spot and therefore had a size limit of 33cm so I've always just chucked then back. Will have to do some research and look closer next time.

I was looking at the conditions for Sunday on Saturday afternoon and it looked so awesome. Light winds, little swell and high tide in the middle of they day. I texted a mate of mine who lives south of Sydney and said if you feel like a drive come up and we'll get stuck into some blue spot flatties. He's got a nice new boat but has not had much luck landing legal fish in it. His response was a bit of a surprise. He called me and told me he was actually in Newcastle and had been out all day Saturday. He'd burnt through over 80 liters of fuel for a donut - ouch! I said that since he had to come past me anyway he may as well come and have a fish with me. He agreed to leave Newcastle about 7 and I would launch roughly the same time. My plan was to troll lures around the heads and the edge of West Reef, then head out to the flathead grounds and find some fish. I rigged a couple of heavy rods with big hard body lures. One deep diver, one shallow. Hoping to find a king. I launched on time and motored out to Box Head. Dolphins were breaching nearby - so that was nice. I followed the coast line towards the north end of West Reef, then looped back and ran back along the inside edge of the reef. I picked up 3 Tailor, but no kings. One was little and went back. The other 2 were kept for bait later. I headed out to the start of the flathead grounds and started a drift in about 43m of water. After 20 mins or so I had not had a touch but I heard from my mate that he was just getting bait and ice in Woy Woy and would on his way soon. I used Google maps to send him a link that give him access to track my location (you can turn it off again when they find you) and headed a bit further out. I had been drifting out there for about 20 mins an had had a couple of bites but nothing landed. I decided to make a coffee because that always makes the fish bite. It did, but unfortunately I dropped it on the way up. I rebaited and dropped it down. I was dreading telling my mate that it was slow. I saw his boat in the distance and watched as it closed in on me. Then when it was about 100m away I hooked up. Could not have timed it better - just as he pulled along side I was pulling in a nice 53cm flathead. I followed that soon after with a couple more legal fish, then both rods went off at the same time. Even my mate and his boys landed a few - so he was pretty happy. It came to an end when I got the mother of all tangles bringing up my sixth when it wrapped round the braid of the other rod. After removing the flattie I had to cut the leader off one rod just so I could get the other untangled enough to wind it in. When I did get it in though it had a slimy on it so that was a bit of a bonus. But I had to put that rod aside to sort out on land. My mate had motored up drift again so I went to join him. I pulled up and was chatting with them then I spotted a huge shark cruising around his boat. The dorsal fin must have been 30cm out of the water. My mate had a game rod on board so I threw him one of the tailor. Unfortunately by the time he had it rigged the shark had vanished. That could have been interesting! We were both plagued by little flatties. I must have thrown back 30 or 40 undersized flathead - but that was then end of the legal flathead. The only other excitement was a flyover by a couple of fighter jets - that screamed overhead really low. Through the day I tried a range of cut baits - tailor, slimy, sgt baker. But the flatties were only taking the good old servo pillies. When I ran out of those I said cheerio to my mate and headed back in. We already had dinner plans for tonight so I vac packed it all to restock the freezer - putting away 3 packs of fillets and one of wings.

Great effort and a great report. Well done raiders.

Great topic. I have nothing to add (yet) but will be following with interest so keep it coming!

Wow some great tips here. Thanks all. Send like a simple enough question but seems there is quite a bit too it.

I want to get a legal King. I've never targeted them before. Secondary would be a trip out to the fad to target mahi mahi.

I am looking for better ways to manage all my tackle. Right now I have one big table bag that has multiple removable trays, which I divide by type. E.g one tray for sinkers, one for hooks etc. When I go out I grab the bag and take everything. But finding what I need is a pain and I tend to end up with trays all over the boat. Leader is a particular challenge - so bonus points for any great suggestions here. I'm thinking there is some tackle that I only ever need on the boat. Like snapper leads and metal vertical jigs. Anyone retro fitted storage on a boat?

Yeah, rough day. We've all had those. Learn what you can and move on. To me a day like that would be a reminder to give the boat a good old spring once over end to end. My son is starting to come with me a bit more, so reading that I think I might put a blister pack of seasick pills in the dry bag that lives on the boat. You could do the same for your Dad. It's too late when you start to feel sick but would have helped when you remember in the car. With my anchor rope that is part of my washdown procedure. I pull it out, hose off the anchor and chain. Then I remove any knots or twists while those dry and coil it away nicely. My first anchor drop is always fine. This saved me one-day when I was heading through a narrow, shallow channel near lots of boats and jetties and a loose connection killed the motor. Had to get the anchor down fast to halt the drift while I sorted that out. But if I had a live well I probably wouldn't have caught that either. That kind of thing I would only test on the water.

Plus one. Trev sashimi is great.

Thanks Frank. You're quite right I didn't bleed it. Though I did brain spike it and put it in an ice slurry. I read that you should when I was looking for tips on how to clean them. Since I hadn't I filleted it straight away, cut wide of the blood line and took extra care washing off as much blood as possible and it was fine. I'll know for next time and this post may help prevent someone else making the same mistake.

I am by no means the greatest fish chef in the world. Yet I have ruined several friends' ability to enjoy store bought fish. From the moment I decide to keep a fish I treat it with the utmost respect to ensure it is in the best possible condition. I kill it quickly, get it on the ice straight away. When I get home I sorry it the catch, then the boat and gear. I will either cook it or vac pack it within hours. Commercial operators just can't treat it with the same care. And it takes much longer to get to the fish shop. One friend I gave fish to a couple of weeks ago is now in the market for a boat.

The gummy came up awesome in a beer batter. Head to head it's too close to call, but given that I'll get 2 more meals out of that one gummy I might have to figure out how to target them.

Drifting for bluespot flatties offshore I use a paternoster on 3-5kg rod, 2500 reel. Today I was using 15lb leader as I was mainly planning to be on clear ground. Paternoster is so versatile because it is easy as to change the the lead and/or the hooks. This makes it good for short fishing sessions because you can change tactis without re-rigging. In shallower water I favour a running bean sinker above the swivel, leader and a single hook.

Haha - time will tell - I will let you know. I had some left over tortillas in the freezer so had the flattie as fish tacos for lunch. Will get a few meals out of the gummy I portioned it up and have some for tomorrow night and the rest is vac packed in the freezer.

Went out very early this morning to try and get a session in before work and before the wind came up. I launched about 5am and the wind was already about 10 knots at the Blackwall boat ramp. I hightailed it out past Box Head - the forecast swell was very low so I wanted to see if I could drift for flatties or if the wind was going to be too much. Swell was indeed negligible. The wind was not, however. Because it was an offshore wind and West Reef is on my way to the mark I was heading for I cut the motor just short of West Reef with a view to letting the wind drift me over it. I put a couple of baits rods down. I landed a Sgt Baker and had a squid follow the bait up on the other rod. Normally I would have had a squid jig rigged up already on another rod, but not today. In a pre-work session I always try to avoid re-rigging as it just eats into fishing time. I hooked into something else as well. It did not feel big but it was crafty and it managed to cut me off on the reef. Not bad for one drift over the reef, but I wanted to stick to my plan so I headed further out to a bit past the 40m mark to a spot that has produced good flatties recently. I changed up the sinker and dropped baits down. Even with the drogue out I was drifting quite quickly so I decided to just fish one rod, keep it in hand and open the bail arm if it was coming off the bottom. This paid off as I quickly hooked up and could tell it was a decent fish. I worked it up and and netted a flattie around the low 50s mark. Unfortuantely the wind was just picking up though and I sensed this was going to be a hiding to nothing so I decided to change tactics. I headed in a bit to around the 30m mark and dropped on a spot I had marked in the sounder. I managed to land and release a small squire and undersized flattie, but the drift was still too quick to keep the baits down. I wound up and headed even closer in. Because the wind was offshore I decided to nose in just outside Box Head and let it drift be back out over the drop off. This proved a good tactic as it was a bit sheltered so the drift was slower. I not only could keep baits down, but I could even downsize the sinker. Then the rod loaded up and I struck and had a solid hookup. And it ran - peeling line off my fairly light gear I use for flatties. I could feel definite head shakes and was wondering - could this be the big snapper that had been eluding me? It was not a bad fight, but of line lost, regained and lost again. But then I saw colour and knew it was not a snapper, but a gummy shark! Not what I was after, but I'll take that any day of the week! By now it was time to head in so I dispatched the gummy, wound up and headed for home. Glad I did, too because by the time I got back to the ramp the wind had picked up even further. Only a couple of hours on the water and came home with a nice flattie and a gummy for the table. The Gummy was a first for me and measured in just under 97cm. Great way to start the day.

Top croc! I just love that waterway. Agree with others - the smaller ones are better eating. I like to let the big girls go so BW stays a great place for a flick.

I recommend brain spiking the flatties before you put them in the Esky. Two main benefits. 1) the fish tastes better because it puts less stress related acids in the muscle. 2) if you do it right it goes limp and stays that way - rather than going stiff in a C shape. This makes the filleting much easier. There are some who don't buy into that first point. I've had catches where I have missed one and I am totally convinced. Even if you are a sceptic though, point two makes it worth while. There is an app that shows you how to spike different species. I have an Iki-jimi spike, but a knife or Phillips screwdriver will do the job fine.