Berleyguts Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 (edited) The forecast on Willy Weather called for 1.5m swells and light winds, so I thought I might chance a trip to the Port Stephens FAD. Pulled out through the heads about 6 this morning and it was sloppy and windy. Grabbed some slimies and yakkas at Cabbage Tree and thought I’d try for kings at the pens again, instead. Was a bit of a wet ride there in my open boat and it was pretty uncomfortable fishing near the pens but there were about 10 other boats there, so I thought I’d tough it out. The swell was more like 1.8 - 2m and the winds more like 15 knots at least. Although I saw a couple of blokes hook up on kingies and one lose one (maybe) to a shark, they were nowhere near as active as Monday and I could not get a hit on lure or bait. It was difficult to fish up close to the pens with the swell but I got a reasonable drift past them from south to north. I dropped a paternoster rig down (two hooks on droppers above an 80g Bottom Ship jig) and quickly caught my bag limit of 10 flathead, with double and triple hook ups the norm. Pulling 3 in the boat one time, I somehow managed to flick two straight off the hooks on the other side of the boat! ? I released anything under 36cm and the biggest went 49 cm (not counting the 2 beauties I flicked off out the back of the boat. Got a nice feed and came in early, partly because I was getting a bit queasy in the conditions. Interesting points: Water temp was only 20.4-21 degrees. I caught a small dolly, about 14” on a floating bait inshore of the pens in 38m of water. Most of the flathead’s bellies were full of what looked like kingfish pellets and one had a whole slimey head in it. An uncomfortable morning at sea but it was still good to be out there. One thing though... I must get better at filleting flathead!!! Edited March 16, 2018 by Berleyguts 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MSB Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Nice post Baz, enjoyed the read MSB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Nothing wrong with a feed of Bluespots. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MainframeJames Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 How deep is the water there near the pens where you were catching the flathead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 46 minutes ago, MainframeJames said: How deep is the water there near the pens where you were catching the flathead? The pens are in about 38 to 40m of water. Due to the wind, I started my drift near the SW pen, so in about 38m and I’d drift to about 35m then start again. The proprietor of one of the local tackle shops told me there’s flatties right under the pens but the wind and swell, as well as the number of boats and the Huon work activity made drifting through the middle tricky, especially with all the ropes to get hung up on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Nice feed of flatties. I use this method to fillet them. Works good for me. I have seen some methods that take the rib bones out in one crack but I can’t get it to work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Nice one baz! That area has been a flatty drift for me for years! Good to see you get a bag mate! Cheers scratchie!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ribs Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 Good work Baz, nothing wrong with a feed of blue spots, too bad no kings were around,?????? I'll be up there this Thursday to have a crack on both . Leave some fish for me please? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 1 hour ago, Scratchie said: Nice one baz! That area has been a flatty drift for me for years! Good to see you get a bag mate! Cheers scratchie!!! Well, now it’s my FFS... Fallback Flatty Spot! My son only eats flathead (although he tried kingfish the other day and said he’d eat it again), so I’ll be stopping there a bit more often in future. I should have figured there’d be flathead hanging around under the pens to feed on scraps from the kingfish pellets. Some of them were nice and fat! I’m not sure I’ve ever caught my bag limit on a species before (since bag limits came in at least). Now I have 2 trips in a row... kings on Monday and flathead yesterday! ? I love Port Stephens! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 36 minutes ago, Ribs said: Good work Baz, nothing wrong with a feed of blue spots, too bad no kings were around,?????? I'll be up there this Thursday to have a crack on both . Leave some fish for me please? The kings were there... just not as active as the other day. Are you coming up for the trailer boat tournament? I hope the seas drop off for you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rickmarlin62 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 nice work baz..glad to hear you are sorting the joint out..49cm bluespot is a good fish mate...im still moving house and tied up with work but hope to come up soon..cant understand why waters so cold there as it looks better on SST chart..tight lines mate...rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 16, 2018 Author Share Posted March 16, 2018 7 minutes ago, rickmarlin62 said: nice work baz..glad to hear you are sorting the joint out..49cm bluespot is a good fish mate...im still moving house and tied up with work but hope to come up soon..cant understand why waters so cold there as it looks better on SST chart..tight lines mate...rick It’s either cold... or my sounder’s playing up. I watched a training video on sounders the other day and reset to factory default and started again. Might be something I still have to adjust. For instance, my shallow depth alarm keeps going off at speed and then it jumps the other way to 300+m. Maybe it’s something in the temp settings, too? I certainly thought it was odd to get a stray dolphinfish in so close in “cold” water. Might compare it with my pool thermometer next trip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 1 hour ago, Berleyguts said: or my sounder’s playing up. I just line up a few trees or buildings on the shoreline. If you can see the bottom, it is too shallow. If your snapper lead hits the bottom in 10 seconds or so, it is flattie depth. Stick your finger in the water, if it feels cold then the water is cold. Who needs a sounder? 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) 16 minutes ago, Yowie said: I just line up a few trees or buildings on the shoreline. If you can see the bottom, it is too shallow. If your snapper lead hits the bottom in 10 seconds or so, it is flattie depth. Stick your finger in the water, if it feels cold then the water is cold. Who needs a sounder? Ha ha! It takes longer than 10 seconds for me to hit bottom in 38m. ? It’s not real safe driving along at 17 - 20 knots with a finger in the water to detect a temp change, which I’m looking for when chasing pelagics. A sounder helps! ? I just need to learn how to use it better! Edited March 17, 2018 by Berleyguts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 8 hours ago, Berleyguts said: Well, now it’s my FFS... Fallback Flatty Spot! My son only eats flathead (although he tried kingfish the other day and said he’d eat it again), so I’ll be stopping there a bit more often in future. I should have figured there’d be flathead hanging around under the pens to feed on scraps from the kingfish pellets. Some of them were nice and fat! I’m not sure I’ve ever caught my bag limit on a species before (since bag limits came in at least). Now I have 2 trips in a row... kings on Monday and flathead yesterday! ? I love Port Stephens! I think I need to move. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rock&Beach Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 19 hours ago, Welster said: Nice feed of flatties. I use this method to fillet them. Works good for me. I have seen some methods that take the rib bones out in one crack but I can’t get it to work. That is a great way of filleting. I normally leave the skin attached at the tail and then flip it over and run my knife back which can be a bit fiddly. That looks much easier. Thanks Heaps. Chats R&B Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 10 minutes ago, Rock&Beach said: That is a great way of filleting. I normally leave the skin attached at the tail and then flip it over and run my knife back which can be a bit fiddly. That looks much easier. Thanks Heaps. Chats R&B That’s how I do it. Although I have a pretty good knife, I still miss too much meat sometimes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) 55 minutes ago, Welster said: I think I need to move. It is paradise, that’s for sure! The hardest thing is finding work here. I only work 30 hours/4 days a week and I work a lot of weekends and public holidays but that means I can fish during the week which suits me cos I don’t like crowds! ? I was lucky that my wife was able to take her job in Sydney CBD and work from home. She’s the main breadwinner now. We were also lucky to sell our Sydney home before the market started to flatten. Edited March 17, 2018 by Berleyguts 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
back cruncher Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Hi all...baz,im sure the water temp was over 23 onn monnday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) 25 minutes ago, back cruncher said: Hi all...baz,im sure the water temp was over 23 onn monnday. Hmmm... that means the sensor for my sounder is playing up, then. ? I thought it was odd. If I can’t get it sorted, along with the weird depth readings, maybe I need a new transducer??? Hang on... it was over 23 on Monday. I got 24 in lots of areas. But this was yesterday... still, I’m going check it against my pool thermometer. Edited March 17, 2018 by Berleyguts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Nelson Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 Nice feed Baz.? I'm hoping to get out Monday but might be too windy, hope not Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MainframeJames Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 1 hour ago, Berleyguts said: Hmmm... that means the sensor for my sounder is playing up, then. ? I thought it was odd. If I can’t get it sorted, along with the weird depth readings, maybe I need a new transducer??? Hang on... it was over 23 on Monday. I got 24 in lots of areas. But this was yesterday... still, I’m going check it against my pool thermometer. I'm not an expert but I have seen transducers give readings similar to what you're saying if they're getting a lot of wash/bubbles around them when moving. Gives crazy depth readings and messes with temperature because it's contacting air sometimes instead of just water. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berleyguts Posted March 17, 2018 Author Share Posted March 17, 2018 (edited) 2 hours ago, MainframeJames said: I'm not an expert but I have seen transducers give readings similar to what you're saying if they're getting a lot of wash/bubbles around them when moving. Gives crazy depth readings and messes with temperature because it's contacting air sometimes instead of just water. Well it was somewhat rougher yesterday and I did take a bit of air from time to time! Also, my new berley pot is working well but perhaps it’s releasing too much near the transducer. ? Edited March 17, 2018 by Berleyguts Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Welster Posted March 17, 2018 Share Posted March 17, 2018 5 hours ago, Rock&Beach said: That is a great way of filleting. I normally leave the skin attached at the tail and then flip it over and run my knife back which can be a bit fiddly. That looks much easier. Thanks Heaps. Chats R&B That works for me. This one looks legendary but I butchered it. https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1953377061579944&id=1558573467726974 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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