Outside the Hacking

[Yowie]

As the forecast for today was light winds and slight seas, I decided to head out to beat the winds that may eventuate over the next few days.

I headed to near Marley, and tried many spots for spiky flatties, and eventually 1 just legal blue spot. I headed out a bit, deeper water than what I normally fish for flatties, and found some Barry Couta, losing one rig just below the swivel. After that, not a bite from anything, so moved back closer to shore. The wind dropped off to nothing, but a slow southerly current kept me moving.

I eventually found a patch of fish, 2 drifts produced my bag limit, so I headed home. Several humpbacks in a small pod headed north, a bit late considering that most are already up north.

One nice blue spot at 51cm, the others 41 and below. 3 tigers in the mix, with 2 tiger throwbacks under sized. 

The eel in the photo was down the gullet of the largest tiger just below it, plus a small fish, then it grabbed a large bait. Amazing how the eel could fit inside the stomach of the fish. Happy with a couple of tigers for a change. 

 

[JamoDamo]

Good feed as always wish I could get some fish in but nothing much is hitting my lures.....

The eel looks exactly like those "slapstix" big flathead soft plastics : 

 

[Welster]

Another great feed there Yowie.    That eel is nearly as long as the tiger.   

[Blackfish]

Great stuff Yowie ... again.

What gets me is what must be the Biomass down there to support all these fish.

[Yowie]

28 minutes ago, JamoDamo said:

Good feed as always wish I could get some fish in but nothing much is hitting my lures.....

The eel looks exactly like those "slapstix" big flathead soft plastics : 

 

It certainly does.

[Yowie]

9 minutes ago, Welster said:

Another great feed there Yowie.    That eel is nearly as long as the tiger.   

That is what surprised me, having that stuck down it's stomach, plus a 6cm fish, partly dissolved but it had a big mouth and looked like a Dory species.

[Yowie]

6 minutes ago, Blackfish said:

Great stuff Yowie ... again.

What gets me is what must be the Biomass down there to support all these fish.

There are so many flatties in places, even if they are just spikies, but they need food to survive.

I would like to send a camera down to have a look.

I have found many fish species inside flattie stomachs, though most are partly dissolved by stomach acid, worms, tiny squid, eels but not as long as the one today, tiny crabs. A couple have eaten bristle worms, and when I pulled them out of the stomach, the bristles stuck in my fingers and irritated me for hours. A few have even had 2cm long box fish, the skin dissolved but the hard box body still intact.

There is more to see from oceanic species, than estuaries species, but the stomach acid disfigures most food.

I found with the tigers today, they would grab a bait but not hook up as I wound the line up 5 or 6 feet, then a short time later the flattie would grab the bait again and hook up. I assume the flatties will travel some distance off the bottom to grab food, I have seen duskies do that up river in clear water.

A couple of times fishing outside, in 100 feet or so of water, I have pulled up blue spots and had others swim up beside the hooked fish. My son once pulled up a double header, with a third one swimming beside the hooked fish, so I dropped my line over, the free swimmer grabbed my bait and was in the boat before he could swim anywhere.

[zmk1962]

Top stuff Yowie. Another great feed. 
cheers Zoran 

[Rebel]

Great haul. Well done.

[61 crusher]

Great feed & bonus tigers, well done interesting about capacity of there stomach

13 hours ago, Yowie said:

couple of times fishing outside, in 100 feet or so of water, I have pulled up blue spots and had others swim up beside the hooked fish. My son once pulled up a double header, with a third one swimming beside the hooked fish, so I dropped my line over, the free swimmer grabbed my bait and was in the boat before he could swim anywhere.

Have had that experience in 50m up at Coffs several times with really big ones following up legal double headers but not being able to hook them once they turned to head back to the bottom 

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Have had that experience in 50m up at Coffs several times with really big ones following up legal double headers but not being able to hook them once they turned to head back to the bottom 

I was lucky that I was about to drop down when my son pulled up the double header, so I dangled a bait in front of the 3rd flattie and it swam straight to the bait and snapped at it. I hauled it on board before it had time to think about what had happened to it. I suppose like poling for tuna.

Like you, a few times I have had another flattie swimming about the hooked ones, unable to grab another line and the free swimmer heads back to the depths.

[Plumb]

Beautiful