Three days, one post

[jdanger]

Been a little while so here we go!

Saturday 09-02-13

Location: The Spit Bridge & surrounds

Conditions: little to no wind, sunny

Tide: 1.9m high, fished couple of hours either side

Got up early on Saturday morning to try for some squid around the spit with squidyedges and his mate Cam. We started fishing in the dark along the bridge and went through to sunrise without a tentacle to show for it. I couldn't see too much weed from where I was and the current was quite strong so maybe we were in the wrong place?

Moved on to the plastics once the light came up for not much except for this little guy. Anyone know what it is?

We decided to try the other side of the bridge so after we moved the car, the three of us set off on a walk around the bay to our left. Found a few inaccessible-looking ledges to try and despite getting plenty of hits, we couldn't hook up anything decent. Alex caught a small wraisse and a bream which I swear was barely bigger than a fifty-cent piece. We could see better fish swimming around (sambos?) but couldn't interest them in anything. Alex upgraded to a small pinky, so with our palm-sized fish of the day, decided to pull the pin.

Sunday 10-02-13

Location: Canada Bay

Conditions: no wind, sunny

Tide: 1.9m, fished couple of hours either side

Alex and I, unhappy with Saturday's results, decided to rectify our weekend by hitting up the local estuary.

We hit up the honey hole for nothing but an undersized bream which went back, and sensing the quiet, moved on the the bay proper. I managed to drop a small flattie trying to pull it up without the assistance of the net before we hit the ferry wharf. They're doing some renovations at the moment so we had a nice big barge with an earth mover parked on it to cast around.

Neither of us were feeling any love until my line went tight on a bottom dweller, only for the fish to let go of the GULP! shrimp as I tried to lift it off the bottom. Must've missed the hook, I thought. Casted to the same place to give it a second chance, only for the same thing to happen! I gave up on the troll fish to tie on something with trebles, only for Alex to move to the same spot and bring up a 38-39cm flattie. Into the net it went; he was happy to land a legal fish, and I was happy he got the bastard! The flatty decided to repay the favour by leaving Alex with a slice down his finger during the release. Typical.

Couple of casts later and the vibe pays dividends! Directly on the other side of the jetty to where Alex caught his, I came up with this doppleganger:

And yeah, that's Alex's blood from the last fish.

We'd both broken our donuts and just in time! A massive southerly blew in from absolutely nowhere, so we called it a day.

Tuesday 12/02/13

Location: Canada Bay

Conditions: Light wind, overcast with occasional light showers

Tide: 1.8m high, fished an hour before/couple hours after the peak

Had a late start at work this afternoon so decided to make the most of my morning, especially since I was feeling guilty about sleeping instead of fishing yesterday. I also decided this was going to a strictly HB session since I've been flogging the plastics lately and neglecting most of the rest of my tackle box.

Wasn't getting anywhere for a while; the usual spots weren't giving me anything on either the HB or the vibe, bar the occasional snag (managed to keep all my lures for once! )

I got to the bend in the path on south side of the park and decided to give the area a good going-over as I knew there were plenty of rocks on the bottom which were worth targeting. First, my Tsunami Basspro got hit by a small flatty which went airborne and spat the hook a couple of metres out. I don't like dropping fish, but I didn't mind as at least this one put on a show.

A few metres closer to the jetty, this time casting along the wall, and I'm onto a small bream. Didn't get a measure but this is he:

Decided to stay in the same spot for a bit as it was working well, then BAM, two in a row each at 29-30cm. I thought I'd caught the same fish twice they were that similar. Both put up a great fight, with multiple line-snatching runs each on 10lb mainline and 6lb fluoro leader, and each was fat and healthy.

I also saw this big thing, which I was hoping someone here might be able to identify. I've seen these around Canada Bay plenty of times, but have no idea what kind of jellyfish they are. This one looked dead as it wasn't doing much swimming and looked a little flat, but still.

Thanks for reading, and thanks to Fishraider for hooking fishos up!

Edited February 12, 2013 by jdanger

[nbdshroom]

Excellent report, I thoroughly enjoyed that! Sorry can't help out on ID'ing what that fish or jellyfish were. Those flathead have a mild toxin that acts as an anticoagulant so that is probably why your mate was still bleeding

[t3zza]

Painted grinner is the fish you caught. Assuming you're fishing in the place I'm thinking of, does the park get busy on the weekend?

[jdanger]

Excellent report, I thoroughly enjoyed that! Sorry can't help out on ID'ing what that fish or jellyfish were. Those flathead have a mild toxin that acts as an anticoagulant so that is probably why your mate was still bleeding

Glad you enjoyed it. I'd heard that the flatties had an anticoagulant on the spines but man, the red was really flowing! I reckon those spines could leave one with stitches.

Painted grinner is the fish you caught. Assuming you're fishing in the place I'm thinking of, does the park get busy on the weekend?

Awesome, thanks T3zza. I thought the face looked like a grinner but I didn't realise they came painted.

Also Bayview Park is a pretty popular weekend spot. I'd almost say don't even bother with the wharf as it gets crowded but that seems to be the only spot people fish from, so the rest of the park/path is fair game. I'm assuming you're talking about Canada Bay and not The Spit; I don't know that area well at all.

[PRED-ATOR]

Nice fish fella's its good to see you using the hard bodies, dare I say my influence paid off? : )

Thats a few solid days of fishing, i was stuck at home lol so well done.

As for the spit, gulp jerk shads and grubs work well at night for bigger bream and ive also caught pike under there on the same lures.

The moored boats is another option, just be careful not to hit those bazillion dollar rigs lol.

Stan

[Day's Fishin]

Not positive but I think it's a moon jellyfish.

Regards Jeff

[jdanger]

Nice fish fella's its good to see you using the hard bodies, dare I say my influence paid off? : )

Thats a few solid days of fishing, i was stuck at home lol so well done.

As for the spit, gulp jerk shads and grubs work well at night for bigger bream and ive also caught pike under there on the same lures.

The moored boats is another option, just be careful not to hit those bazillion dollar rigs lol.

Stan

Haha, but of course. All I have to do now is master the bimini twist!

RE: Spit; I thought casting around the boats might have been a good option. There would have been less current at least, but I thought it may have not been worth the risk. Maybe next time...

Not positive but I think it's a moon jellyfish.

Regards Jeff

Checked out moon jellyfish, but turns out that this is the one - Australian Spotted Jellyfish http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phyllorhiza_punctata

Scary looking things but apparently harmless.

[fisherking]

Hi Jdanger,

Believe it or not.... Next time you or your mate gets spiked by a flathead, rub your wounded finger on the slime on the flatheads belly. It's slows the anticoagulant !

[bharris]

Hi Jdanger,

Believe it or not.... Next time you or your mate gets spiked by a flathead, rub your wounded finger on the slime on the flatheads belly. It's slows the anticoagulant !

100% true the slime helps heeps

Sent from my GT-I9100T using Tapatalk 2

[Robinsoi]

^{Great report and top effort}

^{Well done guys and keep up the good work.}

^Ian

[sam0]

That is an awesome report mate. Been keen on giving Canada bay a go as I go there often.