Botany Heads Sat 28th

[Camoman]

Decided to head out Saturday morning as it looked like the weather was going to be great. Got outside the heads at about 7.30am and decided to have a drift for some flatties. Was quiet for a while before we started pullin in the fish in relatively quick succession. Found them in about 40m of water. Pulled in four good fish. 3 around the 55cm mark and 1 about 45cm.

Would have kept on the drift over the patch for a bit longer except a massive bait ball got pushed to the surface about 15m from our boat. This thing was busting up the surface in a big way and would have been at least 25m by 25m wen it hit the surface. Couldn't believe my luck so my mate and I quickly put out one skirt and one hard body and I put them smack in front of the ball as it moved south. Called the hook up as my mate got on and then my skirt got taken about 5 secs later. We landed both fish and then gave it another go. Again my mate was on and was lovin the action since he hasn't been fishin much before. More boats pulled up so we decided we wouldn't eat much more than 3 large salmon between us and so we decided to move back to the drift. On the way back to our drift i spotted another smaller ball (I think the ealier one had split) and so we gave it one troll on out way past. Hooked up again but my mate pulled a little too hard and lost the fish. So 3 fat salmon between 55 and 60cm. Too much fun...

On the drift again my mate managed a 35cm leatherjacket which was great but then wwe couldn't find those flathead again.

All in all a great morning out with some nice fish and hot action. 4 flathead, 3 salmon and 1 leathery. All fat quality fish. Two side notes:

- the salmons stomachs were filled to the brim with what I believe were leatherjacket fry (only bout 5mm long but had the telltale spike on top). Good to see them helping us out with keepin thier numbers down.

- the mate i took out is a chef. I never really rated aussie salmon before (as most people I have talked to also agree they aint all that good) but he did wonders. Baked one for lunch on saturday once we got back in and it was great (although a little tough). Then had one for dinner last nite, he poached it and it tasted fantastic and wasn't tough either. So I will definitely be takin more home in the future.

[flatty hunter626]

seems like you had a great day out on the water with some nice fat fish to show for it....

cheers flatty hunter

[cogo44]

On Sunday south of Sydney Heads, we encountered the marauding Aussie salmon and landed eight of them while bottom fishing. Very unusual for us to catch them on the bottom in 60 metrers of water!! Birds were everywher joining in the action. The biggest specimen went over 2 kilos. Apart from that, the fishing was spasmodic but at least the jackets were not too prevalent. If the salmon can keep gorging on those young jackets they will go up in my estimation. The cat will get my salmon over a number of meals this week because they're a bit tough and tasteless for me. The flathead and gurnard were great tucker last night.

[Guest Big-Banana]

Gurnards are too pretty to eat!!!

Aren't they an awesome looking fish.