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Sydney Harbour Fishing with a complete newbie


fragmeister

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Hi Raiders,

This is actually a fishing report but here is a bit of preamble...

One of my mates ( Bob) is a complete newbie to fishing and never eats fish.

I have been telling him for years that if I only had access to supermarket or fish shop produce then I would probably never eat fish either but... its a very different equation to catch your own fish, treat it properly and cook it yourself.

He remained unconvinced so I offered to take him out and catch some Blue Spotted Flathead and then take it home and cook it for him.

Before heading out to the flathead grounds we sussed out North Head for any action. There was bait everywhere but the swell in close to the rocks was a little uncomfortable for Bob so after a few casts into the wash we headed off to drift off South Head in about 50m meters.

Bob is a pretty quick learner so after I had shown him a few times how to bait up and what constituted a bite worthy of a strike he was away.

Bob Caught his bag limit in about 3 hours while I watched and cheered.  I settled for just a couple of Blue Spots myself that I would keep and cook up for him later that day.

The size of the fish was excellent and most of Bob's were around the same size as the  2 two I kept.

There were plenty of small flatties taking the bait too so we had to take particular care to mark the spots where the larger ones seemed to be.

There was no wind , very little current and of course not, a lot of drift so I actually used the Minkoda to push us along.

 

IMG_0893.thumb.jpg.d2fd6d1532173183ea7d3f03fff5a77b.jpg

 

While we were out we saw schools of Bonito probably 1 k offshore and managed to spin up a few each time the schools came by for use as bait.

We also saw a pod of hunting Dolphins which was really cool ... the were leaping clear of the water catching fleeing fish in mid-air. I have never seen such a flurry of activity.

We left about 1 PM and Bob was a converted man, at least as far as fishing goes. I dropped him home with his cleaned and filleted fish and told him to get back to my place around 4 and I would cook a few up for him.

When he arrived I showed him how I prepare them in a Tempura Batter and then I deep fried them for him.

I served it up to him and his response was... "That's not fish"

He was blown away!

He is a converted man.

Cheers

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by fragmeister
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13 hours ago, Blackfish said:

Great read Jim, 5  stars.

Thanks!

13 hours ago, Scratchie said:

That’s an awesome report! 

Good on Bob for giving it ago, catching a few and then eating the rewards! Well done Jim to converting another! 

Cheers scratchie!!! 

He was a natural too... took to it like duck to water.

12 hours ago, Yowie said:

Good work there Jim, and some nice sized Blue Spots  at that.

No reports from you for a while.

Thanks Yowie... first trip in while and probably the last for another long stretch, unfortunately.

11 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Great report & account of converting a total newbie, well done

Thanks. He's convinced this fishing lark is easy... bagged out on his first trip out.

11 hours ago, masterfisho7 said:

Well done the best eating fish to me 

Yes.. they are a cracker of a fish to eat.

11 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

Great work Jim good job on converting ur mate into a fisho !!! 

Really good size on those flathead.

Yes, they seem to get bigger in size throughout the summer although there are also many small flatties at say 150mm and it can become a little frustrating as you end up retrieving to check the bait or rebait and in 45 meters that get a little tiresome... shouldn't complain though!

Edited by fragmeister
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On ‎1‎/‎25‎/‎2019 at 6:04 PM, fragmeister said:

I have been telling him for years that if I only had access to supermarket or fish shop produce then I would probably never eat fish either but... its a very different equation to catch your own fish, treat it properly and cook it yourself.

Great story Jim.

Its a shame some people don't get those opportunities I guess most of us take for granted in our younger years.

I recall my father taking me beach fishing at 5 or 6 years of age, the only bad memory I have of this is pretending to be like him one day & trying cast his rod while he was down the beach & throwing his whole rig into the water.

Needless to say he was not a happy camper as he never got it back 😖 

I'm all for fishing for my own tucker whenever I can BUT there are some fish that I want to eat that I know I simply cannot obtain in my local fishery but luckily enough I often get the chance to eat these through work.

Glad to hear we have another convert to join the ranks :thumbup:

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