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Sydney flatheads and gummies


Luke96

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Morning All,

 

Long time reader, first time poster! 

Had the day off on Tuesday and conditions were looking good to take the tinny out of broken bay. Unfortunately the weather man forgot to mention that it would rain all morning without a break… Headed to my flathead spot after grabbing some yakkas at westhead- to use as strip bait. Earlier in the year this spot had produced hundreds of undersized flattys, so I was keen to see if some bigger models had moved in as we are warming up. 

 

First drift was slow going, without a breath of wind it was hard to cover too much ground, but eventually found a spot holding some smaller fish (no sounder on boat - so its a bit of a guessing game). Managed to pick up a few bigger models in this drift, the biggest going just under 60cm. 

 

Continued my drift further than planned - now inline with the headland of the beach - so I wasn’t expecting to get much more action (having moved off the sandy bottom), at least from any lizards.

 

Big bend on one of my rods and after a few good runs I pulled up a decent sized shark. I was about to cut the hook when I realised that this was in fact a gummy! I have caught them out of VIC, but never really heard of them in Sydney - does anyone else have target them here!? Got this guy on board and after a quick dispatch decided to bring all lines in and move back up my drift. As I’m brining in the last rod it gets buckled, and the little 2000 reel starts taking off as another gummy is in. 

 

Called it a day there so I could get the fish on ice sooner - left the fish biting + I was sick of being rained on.

All in all a great session and very happy to get a good feed. Would love to hear about others experiences with gummies in Sydney! 

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Nice catch!

I caught a couple in Summer 2018/  2019 in broken bay just inside lion island where I typically get a lot of flounder .

I had never caught one before  but had a ball fighting them ! I didn’t keep them as i already had enough flathead to keep me happy but if i get another one it will be coming home with me !

That was a bit of a strange day actually ! The flatties were really spread out and that is why i drifted out so far also the flounder were nowhere to be seen , on the way back to the ramp i decided to do a drift from flint and steel to juno and my first bait ( garfish fillet) was dropped just inside flint and steel and no sooner had it settled and BANG! Up came 84cm of flathead ! and as quickly as i could i sent her back down !

I went home with a big smile that day and a feed !

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4 hours ago, XD351 said:

Nice catch!

I caught a couple in Summer 2018/  2019 in broken bay just inside lion island where I typically get a lot of flounder .

I had never caught one before  but had a ball fighting them ! I didn’t keep them as i already had enough flathead to keep me happy but if i get another one it will be coming home with me !

That was a bit of a strange day actually ! The flatties were really spread out and that is why i drifted out so far also the flounder were nowhere to be seen , on the way back to the ramp i decided to do a drift from flint and steel to juno and my first bait ( garfish fillet) was dropped just inside flint and steel and no sooner had it settled and BANG! Up came 84cm of flathead ! and as quickly as i could i sent her back down !

I went home with a big smile that day and a feed !

Cheers mate! similar sort of thing to me - only in a small 3.5m tinny so tend not to drift too far out but the flatties were few and far between so i got out quite deep before i even really noticed.. 

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Below is a screen shot of the depth contours inside broken bay and the white is set at 9 meters and the blue is shallower .
If you look at the channel on the north side near middle head and on the side closest to the northern shore and follow it towards lion island you will see there is a shallower section jutting out and running to the south - this is where the gummies were sitting . Why ? I don’t know but Flounder are usually here as well .

You are looking at around 2 meters depth change so not a lot but i think it is enough to create a funnel for the current to run into .

Fish anywhere around that drop off and you are in with a chance of flathead and flounder but i never seem to do real well drifting up the guts of that channel - usually banjos and shovels etc in there .

It can be hard fishing there during the week as the trawlers work this area pretty hard .
 

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