Port Hacking mixed bag

[Yowie]

Fished the deep near Lilli Pilli early, hoping for a tailor or 2 but not a bite from them. Caught a couple of yakkas for strip bait, and one as a livey. Burleyed for the yakkas, and the gars turned up in the bread burley. Pulled out 5, dropped a couple and they disappeared by half light..

The flattie and flounder on yakka strips, the crabs on the same bait. Was nearing time to move, when the little cobia grabbed a pillie. Thought I had my tailor. A quick snappie (he would not sit still for the photo) then released. My second cobia in the Hacking, bigger than the first one, but not big enough to keep.

Moved to Maianbar flats, pumped some nippers and pulled out the whiting. Bites were few and far between. Released the tarwhine, but it floated belly up a short time later, so retrieved it. Not a big one at all, but it is legal size.

Edited January 4, 2018 by Yowie

[Yowie]

[rickmarlin62]

nice bag..cobia in the hacking..you never know whats next..rick

[Scratchie]

Love your work yowie! It’s definitely tough fishing atm! Cute little cobia there! How do you cook your garfish? 

Cheers scratchie!!! 

[wchh]

I won't be too surprised if you pull a barramundi out of hacking! I will spread the news if you do not catch a good bag next time! 

[Guest Guest123456789]

Nice haul Yowie. That a seafood paella right there!

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Love your work yowie! It’s definitely tough fishing atm! Cute little cobia there! How do you cook your garfish? 

Cheers scratchie!!! 

Cut off the gar fillets, and with a long bladed filleting knife I remove the rib bones.

The fillets are dipped in flour, then egg/milk mixture then into Panko breadcrumbs (or normal breadcrumbs) and pan fried in a butter/olive oil mixture. Crisp them up a bit more than other fillets, home cooked chips and veges. Washed down with a young crisp Riesling.

Though small fish, they are a reasonable size for gars. 5 gars produced 10 fillets, 6 for me and 4 for the missus, which is plenty.

Dark colours in the cobia, certainly stand out. Needs to grow another 30cm or more before coming back to the Hacking.

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, wchh said:

I won't be too surprised if you pull a barramundi out of hacking! I will spread the news if you do not catch a good bag next time! 

Last week was sh^thouse. 1 bonnie and 2 crabs all morning, not a report to publish.

The bonnies were cruising around the boat for some time, and only the 1 hit. Today, not a bonnie or anything else cracking the surface.

[blaxland]

Pretty good I would be more then happy can you tell me the rig and bait for garfish ? I normally use spltshot and small hook for scads with pillly bits would this work if gars show up?

 

[GoingFishing]

Thats a nice mixed bag Yowie ! Them crabs look delicious  how do u manage to get them in the boat without dropping them?

[Yowie]

11 minutes ago, GoingFishing said:

Thats a nice mixed bag Yowie ! Them crabs look delicious  how do u manage to get them in the boat without dropping them?

Once they have the bait (usually the crabs slowly move away and the line slowly moves  off) just a matter of slowly pulling the line to the boat and slipping a net underneath. Sometimes crabs will let go of the bait, so stop pulling the line, let it sit there and they may return and grab the bait again. Sometimes they drop the bait and don't come back.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, blaxland said:

Pretty good I would be more then happy can you tell me the rig and bait for garfish ? I normally use spltshot and small hook for scads with pillly bits would this work if gars show up?

 

I was using 6 pound mono, a size long shank hook and no sinker. Small pieces of bread crust, no more than 1cm square. Flick it out like you are throwing a Frisbee.

Now for the hard part. You need a slight breeze blowing from behind you, try throwing that into the wind and you won't get anywhere.

For windier conditions, a small bubble float, half filled with water will help casting conditions. For really windy conditions, the gars probably won't be biting.

Gars will swim down several metres, but usually swim very close to the surface.

Bread is the main bait I use, though have caught them on dough, squirt worm pieces, small pieces of soft fish flesh, and the occasional ones on a whiting hook and nippers, when fishing shallow water for the whiting.

[Stu-SP]

Great work Yowie! Yet again another productive session in the hacking for you. When you say you fish the deep near lilli pilli do you mean in amongst the moored boats or out in the channel on the edge of the flats/drop off?

[Yowie]

3 minutes ago, Stu-SP said:

Great work Yowie! Yet again another productive session in the hacking for you. When you say you fish the deep near lilli pilli do you mean in amongst the moored boats or out in the channel on the edge of the flats/drop off?

Not amongst the boats. Sometimes the drop off, sometimes else where.

[Archillies]

Any kingfish around Yowie?

[Stu-SP]

3 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Not amongst the boats. Sometimes the drop off, sometimes else where.

Cheers mate! Tight lines

[rickmarlin62]

I catch garries on bait jigs slowly retrieved across surface with small berlet float in front with bread n tuna oil...use jigs with size 10 hooks and I cut the white feathers off with scissors level with bend of hook or they don't hookup properly...sometimes tiny cubes of prawn added if finicky...rick

[Yowie]

13 hours ago, Archillies said:

Any kingfish around Yowie?

Rat sized kingies have been splashing around further up river, Gymea Bay and North West Arm, for a few months.

[Rock&Beach]

Garries are great fun.  Over in Perth we used to use gents or a small piece of squid on a very small long shank. Have a small berley cage full of tuna soaked bread crumbs and slowly retrieve across the surface. When you hooked up they are poor man's Marlin loved it!!!

Used to fish in the same spot often and an older lady with the same process and a handline used to crush the rest of us at about 5-1. She was awesome. 

Cheers R&B