Yowie Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 You have seen it all before, pictures of flatties, but it was wall-to-wall flatties today, though not big ones at that. The forecast was for a southerly change to blow up early this morning, then fade later in the day. My mate and I planned for it, the wind started dropping off, so we headed out in his boat around 11am out to Bate Bay. I picked a spot, we headed there and the fish were on straight away. Not big fish, the ones we kept were 35 to 40 cm, so anything under that was released, apart from a couple of spikies kept for bait. We released about 3 times the amount of fish we kept, blue spots and spikies. One patch of blue spots were under 30cm, one after another, have never seen so many small blue spots like that. It is breeding time right now for these fish. Only one slow drift of over 2 hours kept us busy, hardly drifting at all. The wind dropped off to below 10 knots near the end of fishing time. There was not one other fishing boat I could see in Bate Bay, only a couple of sail boats. During that time, a small pod of dolphins splashed and jumped, looked as though they had bundled up a school of baitfish. A couple of feeds of flattie fillets from tomorrow night. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 Great job ... and very tasty 😋 cheers Zoran Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
frankS Posted October 16, 2019 Share Posted October 16, 2019 Wonderful. You never cease to amaze me. I would love to one day have you accompany me in my boat for a session to show me around a few spots in the port, but I realize you may not want to reveal your spots or your style of fishing to a total stranger. Well done once again and thanks for sharing. Frank Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 16, 2019 Author Share Posted October 16, 2019 11 hours ago, zmk1962 said: Great job ... and very tasty 😋 cheers Zoran Thank you. They are good eating. 2 hours ago, frankS said: Wonderful. You never cease to amaze me. I would love to one day have you accompany me in my boat for a session to show me around a few spots in the port, but I realize you may not want to reveal your spots or your style of fishing to a total stranger. Well done once again and thanks for sharing. Frank I have a few spots inside the Port that I don't want to divulge, however, there are places I don't fish that produce fish, so I am told. Trial and error over the years has shown me a few good spots, and some not so good. 2 hours ago, jnrfinatic said: You'd be happy with that any day mate. Well done Adem Yes, happy with that lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Great report and a great day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 17, 2019 Author Share Posted October 17, 2019 15 hours ago, Rebel said: Great report and a great day. Thank you. Although not big fish, there was plenty of action in 90 feet of water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TAZ Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 On 10/16/2019 at 9:38 PM, Yowie said: You have seen it all before, pictures of flatties, but it was wall-to-wall flatties today, though not big ones at that. The forecast was for a southerly change to blow up early this morning, then fade later in the day. My mate and I planned for it, the wind started dropping off, so we headed out in his boat around 11am out to Bate Bay. I picked a spot, we headed there and the fish were on straight away. Not big fish, the ones we kept were 35 to 40 cm, so anything under that was released, apart from a couple of spikies kept for bait. We released about 3 times the amount of fish we kept, blue spots and spikies. One patch of blue spots were under 30cm, one after another, have never seen so many small blue spots like that. It is breeding time right now for these fish. Only one slow drift of over 2 hours kept us busy, hardly drifting at all. The wind dropped off to below 10 knots near the end of fishing time. There was not one other fishing boat I could see in Bate Bay, only a couple of sail boats. During that time, a small pod of dolphins splashed and jumped, looked as though they had bundled up a school of baitfish. A couple of feeds of flattie fillets from tomorrow night. They are possibly the happiest looking flatheads I have seen. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Sounds like a perfect day on the water Yowie. Plenty of top notch feeds there too. bn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 1 hour ago, big Neil said: Sounds like a perfect day on the water Yowie. Plenty of top notch feeds there too. bn Thank you Neil. It was good day out there, surprising no other fishing boats to be seen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 2 hours ago, TAZ said: They are possibly the happiest looking flatheads I have seen. Just happy to be caught by us - well, maybe not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Squidy Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Top stuff Yowie, cant be long now until the river really starts to pick up again. Cheers, Rich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 3 hours ago, Mr Squidy said: Top stuff Yowie, cant be long now until the river really starts to pick up again. Cheers, Rich There were a few tailor buzzing about when we returned the other day, according to my mate's neighbour. Between Gymea Bay and North West Arm, and a couple of kingies as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iconnolly Posted October 19, 2019 Share Posted October 19, 2019 Yum !! a few flatty fillets there. Quick question... How to you tell "spikies" from a small flathead of any other species? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 21, 2019 Author Share Posted October 21, 2019 On 10/19/2019 at 5:29 PM, iconnolly said: Yum !! a few flatty fillets there. Quick question... How to you tell "spikies" from a small flathead of any other species? I posted some photos a year ago. The spikeys have a very long spike on each side of the head, longer than any other flathead of a similar size, plus a smaller second spike. The spikeys grow to around 34cm long. Platycephalus longispinus is their scientific name. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iconnolly Posted October 23, 2019 Share Posted October 23, 2019 Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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