Friday flatties & in search of an early dolly

[61 crusher]

With great weather conditions forecast & a 5:30am meet up at the ramp with Zoran & his well decked out “Barrycuda” we were off & in no time out at the 50m mark

By about 10:30 we had 11 flatties onboard from low 40’s through to high 50’s one good sized rock cod (poor mans lobster), 2 x good sized red spot whiting & one slimy which I had to dance around on the engine pod to retrieve after 2 of them dropping off out the back while trying to get them into the live tank

while setting up the trolling gear for the north fad we saw a school of bait on the sounder & out came the Sabiki rods, only managing a slimy a yakka & a lone arrow squid (bait on the move) & a couple of spikies which were released (bait holding on the bottom 15m)

Once about 800m from the fads we deployed 5 skirts & on the first pass picked up about a 58cm rat which we managed to the boat & trace but on lifting into the boat had a knot slip & saw said kingy swim away with a bit of jewellery hanging out of its mouth 🙃. After several passes though the fads & trap bouys no dolphin fish to be found but all up 6 under sized kings hooked & released 

With a calm sea & run in tide we were back at the ramp in just over 40 minutes (go the torquey 150 merc). A bit of cross over ramp traffic & busy cleaning table saw us saying goodbye & leaving Brooklyn a bit after 5pm 

All up another great day out on the water & a nice feed to take home, thanks again Zoran thoroughly enjoyed the mateship & day out 👍👍

Sorry no photos but I’m sure Zoran will tag some in, & on a side note guys check out @zmk1962’s  video with the cordless drill & portable reducing gear, definitely makes life easier retrieving the boat at the ramp 😎

[Rebel]

Great report and a great day out.

[zmk1962]

Top day  and great write up Dieter  ( @61 crusher )THANKS !... really enjoyed the fishing, mateship and our share of the flatties/red spot that we've eaten so far. 

We definitely got a feed but that big one has still eluded us ... we must try again !

Here's are a few of the pictures from the day and the link to the video.

Good start .. the 730am count. We won't say who was in front !

And then the 1015am count: BTW, we used 2 hook paternoster rigs, with a 10cm SP minnow on the top hook, salted pilly or yakka bait on the middle hook and a sinker jig at the end. Most of the flatties, the 2 whiting and the rock cod were caught on the bottom sinker jig.

 

I call the next picture "DIETER-MINATION"

The FAD action ......water temp 24C

 

My share of the pickings...

Cheers Zoran

[Yowie]

Nice work, some of the flatties are good sized.

With the cod, I fillet them if big enough to keep, remove the rib bones carefully and pan fry the fillets. Good eating, so are the flatties.

I tried a SP for ocean flatties, never caught anything on them ,even spikeys not interested, so I stick to spikey fillets as the bait.

[zmk1962]

Thanks @Yowie. Yup cod are poor man's lobster if cooked right - think we'll crispy fry this one, haven't decided as yet.

I swear by SPs on ocean flatties - I make sure to use fully white or mostly white minnow shapes. Curl grub and other shapes have not worked for me.  Could be a locality thing... go figure! 

Where I fish, we have caught quite a few small octopus as by catch, and one of the flatties threw up a white occy leg... so perhaps the long white SP simulates and occy. Anyway, it works on my boat !

Cheers Zoran

Edited December 7, 2020 by zmk1962

[kingie chaser]

Looks like you had a fun day out guys & a bouns feed to 😁

Sorry I couldnt make this time around but hope it all aligns for the next one 

 

Great vids to Zoran 🙂

[Yowie]

On 12/7/2020 at 7:34 PM, zmk1962 said:

 

I swear by SPs on ocean flatties - I make sure to use fully white or mostly white minnow shapes. Curl grub and other shapes have not worked for me.  Could be a locality thing... go figure! 

Where I fish, we have caught quite a few small octopus as by catch, and one of the flatties threw up a white occy leg... so perhaps the long white SP simulates and occy. Anyway, it works on my boat !

Cheers Zoran

Ocean flatties I have caught, have many unusual critters inside their stomachs, but my mate and I have tried SP's at different times for nothing, zilch, none, f**k all, etc, so they are not used anymore. 😂  

Edited December 8, 2020 by Yowie

[Scratchie]

Great report Dieter. Always good to see a few raiders getting out for a fish! @zmk1962boat sounds like a weapon! Unlucky on the dollies. Did you try throwing live baits at them? Heard there’s a few about. Mostly small but wait a week and they’ll be legal! 🤣

cheers scratchie!!! 

[zmk1962]

12 hours ago, Yowie said:

Ocean flatties I have caught have many unusual critters inside their stomachs, but my mate and I have tried SP's at different times for nothing, zilch, none, f**k all, etc, so they are not used anymore. 😂  

Cool .... 😎  .... leaves more for me !

 

Cheers Zoran

[GoingFishing]

Great report fellas !! You have commited to the true raider experience!!

1. Comraderie

2. Caught some fish 

3. Shared some knowledge 

4. Had a good time whilst doing it !

Them kings would have been good fun to get the string pulling. Personally, chasing mahi at the FADs is my absolute most favourite type of fishing. Cant wait till that good water comes down

[zmk1962]

Thanks Sam ! 

1 hour ago, GoingFishing said:

Personally, chasing mahi at the FADs is my absolute most favourite type of fishing. Cant wait till that good water comes down

Maybe we'll finally get that tag team session offshore!

Cheers Zoran

[zmk1962]

11 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Did you try throwing live baits at them? Heard there’s a few about. Mostly small but wait a week and they’ll be legal! 🤣

Dieter must be catching up on work - think he jigged a day judging by the amount of messages he was getting on his phone on the water. Yup we did try live bait - its in the last few min of the video - no takers at 15m, 30m, 80m and bottom. Tried SPs and metal slices as well. No dollies to be seen on this day unlike the Thursday I had a few weeks back with Wayno on board. 

Cheers Zoran 

[Yowie]

11 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Cool .... 😎  .... leaves more for me !

 

Cheers Zoran

Stop bragging. 

[GoingFishing]

1 hour ago, zmk1962 said:

Thanks Sam ! 

Maybe we'll finally get that tag team session offshore!

Cheers Zoran

We will definately do a dolly trip together this summer season. I give you my word Z !

[61 crusher]

On 12/7/2020 at 8:37 PM, Yowie said:

Ocean flatties I have caught, have many unusual critters inside their stomachs, but my mate and I have tried SP's at different times for nothing, zilch, none, f**k all, etc, so they are not used anymore. 😂  

I can vouch they do work @Yowie however on the day I don’t recollect any flatties coming up but they certainly kept the pickers busy (small bite marks) 

that little plastic squid jig with assist hooks attached to the sinker accounted for a lot of fish

Thanks @Zoran for the photos & video, always makes a write up more interesting & yes work combined with family runarounds have kept me busy

call the next picture "DIETER-MINATION"

Focusing on finding the bait school 👍

13 hours ago, Scratchie said:

Great report Dieter. Always good to see a few raiders getting out for a fish! @zmk1962boat sounds like a weapon! Unlucky on the dollies. Did you try throwing live baits at them? Heard there’s a few about. Mostly small but wait a week and they’ll be legal! 🤣

Thanks Jeff Z’s boat is definitely that + well decked out with all the bells & whistles & everything in easy reach 

The only thing we didn’t do was cube, lots of rats, had we who knows maybe a yellowfin might have showed up (lucky bugger 👍)

3 hours ago, GoingFishing said:

Great report fellas !! You have commited to the true raider experience!!

1. Comraderie

2. Caught some fish 

3. Shared some knowledge 

4. Had a good time whilst doing it !

Them kings would have been good fun to get the string pulling. Personally, chasing mahi at the FADs is my absolute most favourite type of fishing. Cant wait till that good water comes down

Nothing better than true raider spirit except for maybe a good aerial  dolly bouncing around on the end of a 10 to 15kg outfit pulling string 😀👍

 

[kingie chaser]

@zmk1962 didnt see it in the video but did you guys try any verticle jigging under the fad??

 

Could be worth dropping a knife jig to the bottom as well at some point??

 

Might be some larger kings sitting near the bottom?

Edited December 8, 2020 by kingie chaser

[zmk1962]

11 minutes ago, kingie chaser said:

@zmk1962 didnt see it in the video but did you guys try any verticle jigging under the fad??

 

Could be worth dropping a knife jig to the bottom as well at some point??

 

Might be some larger kings sitting near the bottom?

Not this time mate. We couldn’t see anything on the sounder so didn’t bother breaking out the knife jigs. 
cheers Zoran 

[Rebel]

Great day out well done.

[Itchin'faFishin']

Great video Zoran. Terrific seeing how your boat works so well for this type of fishing. Thanks for posting your half of the story too Dieter.

[Vara]

Thanks for report crusher. 
 

headed out to fads ourselves Tuesday. 
 

Same report out there rats rats and rats. Spent some time around Newport reef. More rats. Didn’t think worth putting a report in but just an FYI for anyone thinking of heading to fads. 

Edited December 10, 2020 by Vara

[Pickles]

Great report fellas - a fun day and good feed to boot, well done

[zmk1962]

12 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great report fellas - a fun day and good feed to boot, well done

Thanks.... we took the raider spirit so much to heart that we co-wrote the report 😂

cheers Zoran