Palm Beach day trip

[sam_chamoun93]

G'day fishraiders.

I've been reading this forum for a while now, figured that with all the information it has given me, I may as well try and give a bit back. So here it goes at the first report for this young eastern suburbs fisherman

Sorry for the lateness of this report (validating email issues), but back on the 31st of July, me and the boys planned a day trip up to Palm Beach on a Sunday to give it a go at fishing. They had been up there before and had some fond childhood experiences of the place. We didn't get out on the water until mid day because the local bistro didn't open until 11, which was more like 11.15 We hired out a boat (if indeed you could call it that) from the fellas at Barrenjoey boat hire who gave us a good deal with some bait. Rods and tackle ready, we headed out on our little pontoon.

We headed out east from the Palm Beach peninsula (?) and sat just outside Coaster's Retreat. 2 undersized snapper later, we moved Northwards to Currawong Beach, seeking shelter from the winds just beside the headland. We burleyed a but more heavier this time, and made an improvised floating burley device with the angel ring and catch net . A couple more small snappers later and we were feeling a bit let down as we sat listening to the esky radio we had brought on board. We reeled up what we thought was another tossback, but found a big funny looking one sided fish on the end of the hook. A 35cm FLOUNDER, bloody awesome we thought. We changed our rigs to the one that had caught the fish (1m leader) but nothing for the rest of the afternoon.

Light started to run out so we headed back and gutted/ filleted the fish on the boat. Unfortunately our young hands destroyed much of the fish in the process Whatever small fillets were left we cooked up on the bbq at the park. They tasted pretty ordinary but a good day out with 2 mates made it all worth it.

Thanks fellas

Sam

[Jewhunter]

It's not always the fish you catch but the experiences you have on a day out with your mates.

Read right through these forums & use the search feature at the top right of the page & you will

catch more fish.

Flounder are a great eating fish. Not something you can fillet though!

Cheers,

Grant.

[Paddy454]

Welcome Sam,

Sounds like a fun day with mates.

Better luck next time.

Paddy

[Yowie]

When you fillet a flounder, and same applies to a John Dory, you don't cut down behind the head and cut off a fillet as per most fish, because you will lose too much meat due to the structure of the backbone.

Run the knife around the section you want to fillet (the area you would normally cut off as a fillet), but inside the upper and lower fins, tail and behind the head. Press down until the point of the knife cuts to the bone, but not through the bone. Use a knife with a rounded point, not one with a straight blade.

With the rounded point of the knife, start behind the head and gently use the rounded section of the knife to cut the meat away from the backbone, and work your way along the body to gradually remove the meat in one piece. You will end up with a fillet that has removed just about all of the meat from the backbone.

IT WILL TAKE PRACTICE to perfect it, and it is much more time consuming than just whipping off a normal fillet from the average fish. Practice on some other fish first to become use to it.

[rjc123]

Bad luck mate! Still sounds like a lovely day on the water Used to do that boat hire every now and again and managed to find a few good spots. Stokes pt, West Head and the basin were our best spots. Mainly tailor, trevally, salmon, bream and flathead but hooked into a few bigger fish around stokes and west head before. Burley is the key! If you head to the back end of the basin, throw around a few plastics for bream and flathead. Best in summer/autumn but if you fish it hard you will find some fish! If catching fish is what its all about then anchor at west head and fish baits. High tide is best but the fish are there most of the time. Mainly bream, snapper (90% undersize), silver trevally, tailor and the odd flattie or salmon. Great spot to catch yakkas too which you can cast out in hope for a rogue kingie or big jewie!

Cheers, Tom

[sam_chamoun93]

When you fillet a flounder, and same applies to a John Dory, you don't cut down behind the head and cut off a fillet as per most fish, because you will lose too much meat due to the structure of the backbone.

Run the knife around the section you want to fillet (the area you would normally cut off as a fillet), but inside the upper and lower fins, tail and behind the head. Press down until the point of the knife cuts to the bone, but not through the bone. Use a knife with a rounded point, not one with a straight blade.

With the rounded point of the knife, start behind the head and gently use the rounded section of the knife to cut the meat away from the backbone, and work your way along the body to gradually remove the meat in one piece. You will end up with a fillet that has removed just about all of the meat from the backbone.

IT WILL TAKE PRACTICE to perfect it, and it is much more time consuming than just whipping off a normal fillet from the average fish. Practice on some other fish first to become use to it.

Thanks for the tips mate. I remember looking at it side on and thinking "what the hell do we do here?"

Actually thanks to everyone for the quick responses and welcomes.

[hookmeup]

Sounds like a good day Sam, but be warned you can gut & clean yr fish on board but don't take the head off till back at the ramp/cleaning table.

[eastwood1980]

Nice catch! bad luck you didn't catch anything else, better luck next time.

I go there all the time, very unusual you didn't catch a flattie or a bream.

[Shannan Nath]

A day on the water....catching fish is a side issue!