Blackie Fishing With Peter

[Juzza]

After a long day of uni, went out to narra for my FIRST proper session of backies!!! First i would like to thankyou to Pete for his hospitality for literally showing me EVERYTHING i needed to do, great man Peter.

Really didnt know what i was doing when i got there, well, though i did have an idea from pete's help beforehand. So, found some deepish water and was walking back to the car to get ready. I open the boot to my car and someone with a big van drives in...guess who?

We got into our waders and got our gear. Pete had everything prerigged and i hadnt..theres something i need to do next time (Boy is it hard rigging everything up while you're standing in the water). Few more things i forgot, rubber stoppers (used a plastic bead instead), my net! it was too small..., something decent to hold everything i had out of the water, finally i needed to preweight my float. So, pretty much i didnt have anything right except maybe presetting my leaders (actually that wasnt right either, they all got tangled)

Anyway the fishing wasnt too hot, but i got into some blackies, actually caught 3 throw backs and one of them was almost a keeper ~26cm. And Peter caught 3 all keepers! (maybe hes befriended the fish at narra and the big fish jump onto his hook more willingly).

He kindly donated his fish to me before he left, And here they are! Well, part of them. =D There was one problem though...dont think i filleted the blackie properly, how to do you do it?...its different from filleting a tailor. The first blackie was wreaked and alot of meat in the shouder section . So i thought it would be better to cut down along the spine and could get all the meat along the shoulder...then filleted it normally.

Mmm blackie fillets for dinner today. Overall, great day, blackies gave me a good satisfying fight. Just wait till i catch a legal one...then 30+ then 40cm+ then 50+. <--- over ambitious

Cheers,

Justin

Edited August 28, 2008 by Juzza

[Mondo Rock]

Nothing wrong with your fillets from what I can see in the picture!

Great to see raiders sharing knowledge and getting success.

[sidecaster]

After a long day of uni, went out to narra for my FIRST proper session of backies!!! First i would like to thankyou to Pete for his hospitality for literally showing me EVERYTHING i needed to do, great man Pete.

Really didnt know what i was doing when i got there, well, though i did have an idea from pete's help beforehand. So, found some deepish water and was walking back to the car to get ready. I open the boot to my car and someone with a big van drives in...guess who?

We got into our waders and got our gear. Pete had everything prerigged and i hadnt..theres something i need to do next time (Boy is it hard rigging everything up while you're standing in the water). Few more things i forgot, rubber stoppers (used a plastic bead instead), my net! it was too small..., something decent to hold everything i had out of the water, finally i needed to preweight my float. So, pretty much i didnt have anything right except maybe presetting my leaders (actually that wasnt right either, they all got tangled)

Anyway the fishing wasnt too hot, but i got into some blackies, actually caught 3 throw backs and one of them was almost a keeper ~26cm. And Pete caught 3 all keepers! (maybe hes befriended the fish at narra and the big fish jump onto his hook more willingly).

He kindly donated his fish to me before he left, And here they are! Well, part of them. =D There was one problem though...dont think i filleted the blackie properly, how to do you do it?...its different from filleting a tailor. The first blackie was wreaked and alot of meat in the shouder section . So i thought it would be better to cut down along the spine and could get all the meat along the shoulder...then filleted it normally.

Mmm blackie fillets for dinner today. Overall, great day, blackies gave me a good satisfying fight. Just wait till i catch a legal one...then 30+ then 40cm+ then 50+. <--- over ambitious

Cheers,

Justin

Your fillets look pretty good to me mate, but a keen blackfishing mate of mine reckons they're heaps better skinned as well.

Well done on the fishing

Sidecaster...........

[arpie]

hehehe Well done Justin! You were so lucky to meet up with Peter!! You have been helped by 'the Master'!

Take note of his 'Fishing Pole' & I am not talking about his fishing rod!! :) It really is very clever! Also, his keeper net is so easy to add the fish to, with the stiffening around the opening. Being 'organised' really helps with blackie fishing! :)

The fact that you caught some throwbacks (& a nearly keeper) just means it is a matter of time before you do get into some real keepers!!! Peter is a terrific blackie fisherman & is top of my list to contact when I head to Sydney for a fish! :)

Don't give up on it! Make up some traces in advance & tie them onto a bit of flat foam, so if you do get busted off, it is easy to make some more.

Blackies are a bit tricky to fillet, but after you have done a few, not too bad! Your fillets look fine! Just make sure your knife is really sharp, as they have particularly tough skin! I usually put the knife right thru the back of the gut section (where that funny bone is) & closely run the knife down the backbone thru past the tail. Then I flip that back bit of the tail 'backwards' & forcing the pointy end of the knife closely along the spine so it comes out up where the head has been removed (sharp edge pointing towards the outside edge.) Then slice out towards the outside spine (keeping the edge of the knife down onto the spine bones), cutting thru the flesh & skin. Flip the fillet away from the spine & then use the sharp knife to separate the flesh from around the rib cage - you should have a fillet in your hand! There will be a few bones running in the middle of the fillet. If you take them out by slicing either side of them, you will be left with a boneless fillet. Then just skin them normally.

Good luck! I worked out my method by trial & error! If you smoke the fish, you only need to take off the head & gut section (removing all the black lining of the gut & take out the blood line in the stomach.) Check out the Cooking section!

Cheerio

Roberta