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Gummies & Flathead


RexSenior

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Hi Raiders

It's been a while between posts as the fishing has been terrible (for me anyway).

I headed down Blacksmiths beach last night with a friend and a bag of pillies in search of some tailor (as I had no time to catch worms for other fish).

We arrived around 6pm which turned out to be way early with the big tides - not much water left on the beach!

We went a few hours without a touch then as the high tide approached I caught a flathead around 38cm on a ganged pillie.

That was all for half an hour so we decided to pull up stumps and start packing up.

Once the flatty was cleaned I reeled in my last rod which had a 45cm deep sea flathead attached. Curious about the possibility of more fish I threw another pillie out whilst I cleaned the second fish.

Back to the rod to find a 1.1m gummy shark doing his best to spool me! (It was dark and my drag on that reel makes no sound whatsoever).

We caught another two in the next 10mins all on pillies then I walked over to find my rod, reel and rod holder all gone!!

As I had cast it out a fair way there was a good chance of snagging the line somewhere in the shorebreak. About 20 casts later I finally caught the line from the other rod further down the beach and saved it. I was expecting a big shark / jewie or something as my rod holder was about 60mm in the sand - nothing but gang hooks so not sure what happened there.

Anyway we went home after that around 11pm, slow night turned good at the last minute. Just remember to stay for that one last cast!!

Cheers, James

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Well done James. Couple of nice feeds there mate. I reckon Gummy shark is among the best eating fish from the sea. Good that you stuck it out for that bit extra time. Cheers.

Cheers Neil. I've heard they were good and did not disappoint!

I think the best part was how easy they are to clean, very few bones and long flanks of juicy white flesh.

Nice work. Thats really surprised me. Ive asked a couple of the local tackle shops about gummies here and was told. No chance.

Great feed :)

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It's funny you say that, I've been given the bum steer a few times. Some of them try and point you towards buying the bait or gear that they need to sell, not what will work for you.

In saying that those are the first I've caught in that section of the beach - we threw out a heap of berely (which was our bait) just before we were going to leave and suddenly they were everywhere!

I'm sure more would have been caught if it wasn't for the lost time trying to snag my rod back from the ocean!

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Well done mate. I will keep that in mind 'one last cast' which normally turn out another 30 minutes fishing for me. Haha...by the way, how do u prepare and cook the gummy? I tried one before but the ammonia smell ruined the taste. I bleed it straight away after i caught it around noon time off the boat and cooked it that night. Any suggestion to get rid of the ammonia smell?

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Well done mate. I will keep that in mind 'one last cast' which normally turn out another 30 minutes fishing for me. Haha...by the way, how do u prepare and cook the gummy? I tried one before but the ammonia smell ruined the taste. I bleed it straight away after i caught it around noon time off the boat and cooked it that night. Any suggestion to get rid of the ammonia smell?

I did a bit of research yesterday, the best way is to cut off the head and tail, then gut the shark and straight on ice.

As I was fishing on the beach I only bled the shark because every time I clean the fish on the beach I end up eating sand.

There are a few reasons why the ammonia smell comes out, the contents of the gut and lactic acid build up in the blood when the fish is stressed (that's why killing them straight away is important).

I will know for next time!

I cut them into cutlets then cut out the backbone to butterfly the flesh then skinned it. Straight into some egg mix then a 50/50 mix of herbs & flour then shallow fry with olive oil - it was delicious!

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Hi Raiders

It's been a while between posts as the fishing has been terrible (for me anyway).

I headed down Blacksmiths beach last night with a friend and a bag of pillies in search of some tailor (as I had no time to catch worms for other fish).

We arrived around 6pm which turned out to be way early with the big tides - not much water left on the beach!

We went a few hours without a touch then as the high tide approached I caught a flathead around 38cm on a ganged pillie.

That was all for half an hour so we decided to pull up stumps and start packing up.

Once the flatty was cleaned I reeled in my last rod which had a 45cm deep sea flathead attached. Curious about the possibility of more fish I threw another pillie out whilst I cleaned the second fish.

Back to the rod to find a 1.1m gummy shark doing his best to spool me! (It was dark and my drag on that reel makes no sound whatsoever).

We caught another two in the next 10mins all on pillies then I walked over to find my rod, reel and rod holder all gone!!

As I had cast it out a fair way there was a good chance of snagging the line somewhere in the shorebreak. About 20 casts later I finally caught the line from the other rod further down the beach and saved it. I was expecting a big shark / jewie or something as my rod holder was about 60mm in the sand - nothing but gang hooks so not sure what happened there.

Anyway we went home after that around 11pm, slow night turned good at the last minute. Just remember to stay for that one last cast!!

Cheers, James

Gummies are one of my favorites , yump

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If you think they are good now wait till you pulll a piece out if the freezer in a month.

The only fish i know that improves with being frozen . Gets rid of that last bit of ammonia

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Edited by NaClH2OK9
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If you think they are good now wait till you pulll a piece out if the freezer in a month.

The only fish i know that improves with being frozen . Gets rid of that last bit of ammonia

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Really? That's awesome. Still have a few pieces in the freezer happy days.

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  • 2 weeks later...

If you think they are good now wait till you pulll a piece out if the freezer in a month.

The only fish i know that improves with being frozen . Gets rid of that last bit of ammonia

Sent from my SM-G920I using Tapatalk

Yes, that's the trick alright. My Dad was a professional shark fisherman and gummy is one fish that's improved by freezing first. Also, I've only been on the NSW coast about 18 months but it seems to me that beach fishing begins to heat up 1 - 2 hours after dark - especially on the incoming. Would others agree?

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Yes, that's the trick alright. My Dad was a professional shark fisherman and gummy is one fish that's improved by freezing first. Also, I've only been on the NSW coast about 18 months but it seems to me that beach fishing begins to heat up 1 - 2 hours after dark - especially on the incoming. Would others agree?

Yesterday, fished at Wairo Beach, arriving 4am. All the action was before the sun came up. Picked up my biggest salmon on the first cast. Then some whiting and darts on the smaller rod. But all went very quiet at dawn with the tide still rising.

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