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Madkanu

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Posts posted by Madkanu

    Just a couple more casts…

    in Saltwater Fishing Reports

    Posted

    2 hours ago, saltrix said:

    Nice trevally, and good work with that lure, next time drink the beer and rinse the fillet in a couple of teaspoons of salt in a few cups of water dissolved.

    If bled and iced or caught fresh as you did I have found trevally to be excellent eating

     

    Thanks @saltrix. I was thinking salt water would probably be a smarter way to go. At least I got 2/3rds of the beer in me with lunch. 
     

    1 hour ago, LuckyFil said:

    Trevally also make very good sashimi if you like it!

    Thanks @LuckyFil. Zoran had mentioned that to me as well. I’ll have to do a bit more research into that I think but I’m game!

     

    17 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

    Well done Rob ... perseverance pays.  Had a chuckle imagining just how far the nuclear prawn flew ? 🤣  I have found that peoples opinion about the eating quality of fish is largely and directly related to how they treat and look after their catch ... and then there is also the creativity in the  kitchen that comes into play.  Having said that, we all have our favourite flavours and textures  - and we all know how @Yowie loves his mowies ... and @Pickles his bream 🤣 😁 

    You're very fortunate to have that area as your back yard ... you'll soon figure out all the good spots and times I'm sure.

    Cheers Zoran

    Thanks Zoran. Yes, the turbo shrimp lived up to its name 🤣. 

    I definitely feel very fortunate to have the backyard I do and @DerekD has shown me some great spots I need to go try again. No shortage of good spots to throw a line in. 

    • Like 2

    Just a couple more casts…

    in Saltwater Fishing Reports

    Posted

    I finally got around to dropping a line in the water this morning after a few weeks of not fishing - the last outing being “One of These Days” with Zoran  @zmk1962 .

    I was a bit lazy and so just headed down to the Newport Wharf which is a few minutes from home.  The tide was rising and a bit slack so probably not really the right time for the location but regardless, I pressed ahead with the logic of the best time to fish is when you can.  
     

    I had absolutely no action for the first couple of hours. I had started out with a glassy soft plastic (which has been quite productive in the past), then thought I might see if there were any squid around (nope), then tried a double clutch crank bait (nada), then switched back to a soft plastic but out of a bit of a sense of desperation for a bit rigged it up with a Gulp nuclear chicken prawn.
     

    First cast I went hard but something was wrapped so I broke my knot (luckily not the tip of my rod) and watched the nuclear prawn fly across towards the opposite shore. At this point I contemplated calling it a morning but decided to retie and have another go. Had to retie the FG knot twice as the first attempt didn’t hold under pressure so started over and had another go. 
     

    Finally back in business, I was playing with the soft plastic prawn and it was probably on about the 5th cast that I got a hit.  @DerekD you’ll be happy to know that this was your soft plastic retrieve that I had dialed back a bit and the strike was on one of the pauses.   The result, a decent Trevally. 
     

    IMG_0461.jpeg.b5dd3e224b9bd8f269ed6071d8b12603.jpeg
     

    I stuck around for another 45 minutes or so but couldn’t find another so that was it for me. Home to learn how to fillet and prepare Trevally. 
     

    Thanks @zmk1962 for the tips. The internet revealed lots of opinions about this fish and my wife certainly noticed how fishy it smelled when I brought the fillets into the kitchen. I wound up trimming away all of the red flesh and blood line and, as I didn’t have any sea water at home, I rinsed it in beer before a bit of flour, salt and pepper, egg, then panko crumb and a fry in a very thin layer of hot oil. It came out great (not fishy at all) and was plenty for four fish tacos.  Definitely one I would do again!

    • Like 16

    Fish Burgers

    in The Kitchen

    Posted · Edited by Madkanu

    This week’s fishing expedition resulted in a smallish sergeant baker that I filleted and then skinned. When I got home I realised just how boney it was (admittedly I had been warned) and by the time I managed to debone it I was left with 6 thin strips of meat. I decided to turn these into fish burgers. 
     

    This being my first attempt at fish burger patties, I thought I would post the result here. They turned out pretty well but I’m interested in others’ experience and preferences. 

    IMG_0358.jpeg.349595ad47f46a4b8bb1fc07efdf0750.jpeg

    Ingredients:

    120 g fish - diced into roughly 0.5cm pieces

    1/3 of a large dill pickle - finely diced

    6g ginger - finely chopped

    1/2 a large clove of garlic - finely chopped

    1 egg

    About 1/2 to 1 cup panko bread crumbs

    salt and pepper (you know best how much you’ll want)

     

    Method:

    In a medium sized mixing bowl first whisk the egg

    Add the fish, pickles, ginger, garlic and salt and pepper and about half of the bread crumbs

    Start mixing everything together with your hands and begin forming the mixture into a ball.  Keep adding more bread crumbs a bit at a time until you are able to form a ball that holds together.

    Divide the mixture in two and form 2 patties.

    I happened to make these after breakfast and so put them in a container in the fridge for a few hours.  I ate one the first day which I cooked on the stovetop in a lightly oiled grill pan.  The second I grilled the next day on a gas grill.  Both methods worked well.

    A few pictures below in case you want to eyeball the quantities.

    In my case the pickles were a substitute for capers which was my original plan but I didn’t find in our fridge.  You may want to try something else to add acidity like lemon juice.

     

    IMG_0352.jpeg.6c0b4459b0aab594ee31f2118d5ee112.jpegIMG_0354.jpeg.d0d92552b2d5fbde98c07f7a60999f96.jpegIMG_0353.jpeg.6a38dbcb6dca630f66a8c2dc35a7045e.jpeg

    An idea of how much of the breadcrumbs I started with.  I probably wound up adding about this much again before the mixture really held together.

    IMG_0355.jpeg.7572594167e8dc0fa93e51ec4fc71fb0.jpeg

    70978054449__72A6399F-E497-4300-8301-A6351E55EBA3.jpeg.b1db79cfc16c524dcb3d1891bdc03646.jpeg

    • Like 9
    • Thanks 3

    One of these days came yesterday

    in Saltwater Fishing Reports

    Posted

    1 hour ago, zmk1962 said:

    PS - This is the 2nd time I have been out with the flatties being a no show ... on both occasions there was a large ship motoring around the 30-60m grounds - on this occasion it actually identified itself on CH16 as a Navy ship undergoing exercises and firing blanks .... hmmmmmm  

    See, I knew you’d fill in the “blanks”! 🙂

    iI seem to remember the navy ship identifying itself as “Australian Warship Valencia” but I probably misheard it as my wife just pointed me towards the Pittwater Boaties Facebook group because of a post she saw and apparently  HMAS Diamantina (a minesweeper - https://www.navy.gov.au/hmas-diamantina-ii?fbclid=IwAR2Mpv6-F6PE88jEYMKALg0Y-iF38NgoCEwrhfSGD4I6Ps349wo9oKtMvi8_aem_AaSpBkgbLU466Wse6RnhoOlP_RKWZkhkggY0QLsrAXLVbMIEgPHTDUS4IJWnyieQI6k&mibextid=Zxz2cZ) has been hanging about.

    IMG_0357.thumb.jpeg.cf1e43e6bfb90e4c620abcaa7801aa27.jpeg

    Whatever it was firing/detonating/practicing looking for we didn’t hear but one of the bits I heard over the radio was that it was 30kg. 

    • Thanks 1

    One of these days came yesterday

    in Saltwater Fishing Reports

    Posted

    3 hours ago, Pickles said:

    Great report Rob - a day out with Zoran (and Maria) is always a good day and the fish are a bonus. I’ve heard a few ports of Hairtail showing up in unusual places, but it happened over inter the last time we had a heavy rain event also - must trigger their movement (been getting them near Fort Denison in SydneyHarbour too) 

    Absolutely @Pickles!  Always a pleasure spending time with those two.   Interesting about the hairtails. Reason enough to be out fishing in the rain. 

    One of these days came yesterday

    in Saltwater Fishing Reports

    Posted

    @zmk1962 and I have been talking about getting out fishing one of these days. Unfortunately that has been a challenge as Zoran wisely fishes mid week to avoid the busy ramps and I unfortunately still have to work for a living.  As chance you have it, I had a few days off this week currently being between jobs and so wind and swell forecasts pointed to yesterday being our day. Rain forecast was a bit “sub-optimal” but we agreed we were all game to push ahead. 
     

    We hit the Brooklyn boat ramp at 6am. (Wow, nobody here!) and were on the water for sunrise.

    IMG_0225.jpeg.ac1e9406615195b2071fe417d489f946.jpeg

    We tucked in just around West Head to load up on yakkas before venturing out to a few of Zoran’s offshore spots to look for flatties. 

    Maria hauled up a couple shovelnose rays which went back and Zoran pulled in a keeper tailor and an octopus which we sent back.  As far as flatties go, we only found a couple of small spikey rats and mice.  After trying a few different spots we had been rockin’ and rollin’ out on the ocean for a while and the probability of rain had definitively flipped from 50% to 100% along with the wind picking up beyond what was anticipated so we were pretty chilled and damp by this point and elected to change tack.  

    On our way to the next location we were greeted by a harbour seal sunning itself (what sun?!).  Maybe things were looking up.

    IMG_0325.jpeg.17ca3c19267ce1ef2322717b5f94d2c4.jpeg
     

    We went to work looking for snapper and immediately started having a bit of action. Not what we came for but a few rock cod, a sergeant baker and nannygai came aboard and assured dinner was sorted. 

    Once things quieted down in the land of red fish, we headed back into the mouth of the Hawkesbury to see what else we could come up with.  Within minutes we hit upon two hairtails.  Maria brought hers aboard first and while Zoran was managing that one struck my yakka.  I had to keep him double parked for a few minutes until Zoran had Maria’s safely in the well.   maybe not huge for a hairtail but I was pretty thrilled with it.
     
    IMG_0335.thumb.jpeg.2c1444c540989e005a7af0bc756c8707.jpeg

    The next bit of action was a decent sized squid which also decided it wanted a meal of yakka. I decided to keep him which wound up being a nice entree of salt and pepper squid before dinner last night.

    (not the fanciest of presentations but it didn’t last long)
    IMG_0324.thumb.jpeg.5df6146166d93ab56f1bff041a08408d.jpeg

     

    Soon after the tidal flow decreased and things slowed down again.  Around 2:30pm we elected to call it a day.
     

    IMG_0274.jpeg.9e917edd5653adb796b0210398c43ab5.jpeg 

    I’ll leave it to the master to fill in any blanks in this story as well as correct anything I may have wrong.  I really just wanted to thank Zoran and Maria for a fantastic day  and thanks Zoran for your patience with my questions, the hairtail and rockcod  cleaning lessons and some of the tangles we had to deal with.  A great day and one I won’t soon forget (particularly as we eat our way through the rest of the catch!)

    Thanks for the experience!

    Rob

    • Like 20

    Feed of Flatties (After remembering to paint the fence)

    in Saltwater Fishing Reports

    Posted

    On 3/12/2023 at 12:00 PM, Little_Flatty said:

    On another note I think I kind of understand why @DerekD teaches his mentees the walk-the-dog retrieve on their initial sessions. My first thought was that it was too advanced for beginners. But so much of other lure retrieves depend on the same movements, like plastics and hardbody jerk baits, albeit slower. It’s the wax-on-wax-off of lure fishing🤣

    No doubt @Little_Flatty.  A toolkit of techniques to now start thinking about how to apply differently in various situations. 

     

    18 hours ago, DerekD said:

    Hi @Madkanu

    When your wife said "finally" after hearing about your first two flatheads I laughed.

    Good news is that the successes should come more frequently from now on as your technique and understanding becomes more refined.

    Still plenty more to teach you about local fishing but we are over the hump.

    Based on that photo your wife is an impressive cook. Going to have to get her more seafood to experiment with.

    Regards,

    Derek

    Haha.  Yeah, you and me both. She’s seen me catch plenty of fish over the years so certainly had been wondering why this had been taking so long. 🤣

    She is a great cook and she’ll definitely be game for experimenting with whatever comes next. 

    I have definitely gone from not really knowing where to start and random experimentation to a solid toolkit of techniques for specific targets that I can work on and I am grateful for the years you’ve shaved off that learning curve.  Thanks again. 

    • Like 1
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