Toadmaster

A shredded leader is something you can kind of come to terms with when the adrenalin comes back down. What's really heartbreaking is when there's a little pigtail on the end of the line.

Nice seafood basket there! Good to be able to compare the eating qualities of the 3 fish side by side - they are all good in my opinion, but I'd take the whiting any day. That looks like a trumpeter whiting by the way with the strong silver lateral line. Looks like a cracker of a day and a great bank spot to fish from. Getting some nice fish is a bonus!

Sounds like you have a well oiled routine to get them safely into the esky. I was using witches hats in Botany Bay so had to disentangle them first - not so easy in a kayak. They are pretty angry fresh out of the water, so I found it best give them a couple of minutes to calm the farm. The muddy would have been 'interesting' to deal with. The kayaks with a raised seat would definitely be an advantage there!

Thats a great haul of crabs, and gars! Both great eating - what a top notch feed! Especially impressed with catching them all in a yak. Speaking from my own limited yakking experience, it can be a bit hair raising having a cranky crab scuttling around between your legs and trying to avoid being nipped in sensitive areas!

Maybe we can swap our catfish for their marron. Happy days!

My mate caught a similar looking fish a while back off Molyneaux point. I thought it was a previously undescribed species, so as owner of the boat I had naming rights, Maybe Seriola acaudatus (no tail) or Seriola Picklesii in honour of the kingie master?

Haha, thanks for the kind offer. A mate told me many moons ago when they used to fish off the Hawkesbury bridge, there was an old timer there with a chopping board and a cleaver and he would walk up and down and promptly dispatch any unwanted by-catch. By all accounts he dined better than most of the anglers there. Maybe he was also immune to pain.

I read somewhere that Westralians are very partial to catfish although they are despised in these parts. They call them cobblers apparently over there. After reading that I was curious and actually kept the last one I caught after (very) carefully removing and discarding the head. And I have to say crumbed and fried it was delicious, I also found a video on how to fillet and skin and it was quite easy once it had been 'disarmed', But it is dangerous work as you can testify, so I may be better to follow your advice from now on.