Woronora river 12/12 - new p.b flatty

[Berrero]

hey raiders,

Up at 4am on Saturday to head down to the wonnie to drift for some flatties.

 

didnt have a very good start, within 30 mins of hitting the water we got stuck in a good 45 min shower. was out on my friends new barge with absolutely no cover, needless to say we got pretty wet.

 

considered calling it early but we pushed through and after about an hour we realised it was the right decision after I boated my new p.b flatty at 84cm.

 

old gal fell to a whole little baby mackerel (sold as blue bait I believe?), like a small pilchard. maybe 2-3 inches long. single 3/0 hook pinned through the nose as you would live bait.

was a good fun fight on my 10lb setup. she even managed to break my landing net once I got her in 🙊

Considering she spat the hook as soon as she hit the deck I'm glad this happened once I had her in the boat

few quick pics and sent her on her way. 

 

(excuse the gloves, bare hand all fish usually but after copping a bad barb on a knuckle a few months back and still unable to bend it without some hefty pain.. I dont risk it anymore with the flatties.)

[frankS]

Well written report and very nice fish. Congratulations on your PB and well done to let her live to breed some more.

Frank

[Triple G]

Congrats on the new PB!,

Looks like you finally dried up in the end and had a great day out!

Well done for releasing her back home, as I just recently experienced this feeling last week releasing an 80cm model.

I could not imagine the guilt or resentment if I dispatched it, instead I still recall clearly that massive head just swimming away from the boat.

GGG

[Rock hopper]

Well done mate.
Big girl.

Those head spikes take a long time to heal if you get done.

Cheers
 

[Berrero]

40 minutes ago, motiondave said:

excellent job there, cracky flatty for sure.

according to all knowing Google, blue bait is a small pilchard,  Dunno. Still, if it got the fish, then its good bait.

looking at the first photo, that area looks familiar, I think its the big flats area around there. Ive not fished there for ages, last time I did was a cold winters day, and drifted that area a few times, no hook ups, but some big grabs on the bait

thanks mate.

not sure on the bait, asked the guy at Mac's for the 'bag of small pillies in the freezer' and pointed to them only to be corrected and told they were little mackerel. they certainly looked like small pillies but had the wiggly lines on the back like mackerel and lacked the pillie spots. tweed bait brand from memory and labelled as blue bait. either way they were cracker love a good pillie but hate the poor hook point exposure at times. will definitely keep these guys on my radar.

 

also I think you are on the money with the spot. have had a lot of big takes in the wonnie. a hit and miss system for sure though. 

[Berrero]

22 minutes ago, Rock hopper said:

Well done mate.
Big girl.

Those head spikes take a long time to heal if you get done.

Cheers
 

out of the few hundred flatties I've caught and bare hand released over the last two years or so, of course it was a 30cm one that did me in. the little ones are so fiesty. this pic was a little over a week after getting hit from memory

[Caple666]

beautiful flatty mate and congrats on the new pb!!!

[Yowie]

Good work on the big flattie.

The little flatties have very sharp spikes, and go off like a frog in a sock. The bigger ones still can move fairly quickly, but are easier to judge when that big head is moving side-to-side.

A couple of times I have found small mackerel and yakkas mixed in my salted pillie purchases.

[jenno64]

Awesome capture and release...great post too....gotta love a good finish after  a rough start. Keep hitting that spot on the same tide;)

[Ribs]

Good lizard there mate, especially for the Wonnie, glad you let her go, I’ll try and get her again over Xmas. 

[kingie chaser]

Great work in the new PB.

On the finger have you been to the doctors?

Late last year I just bang my finger on a tap at home & broke just a small bit if skin under the fingernail, didn't think anything of it until the next day it was a bit red, 2 days later the finger was swollen & the redness & swelling was working it's way up my hand, the next day later I was in hospital getting intravenous antibiotics!

 

Took 3 days of large doses to get it under control.

Left untreated they said it would have moved up my arm & could have caused septicemia. 

Edited December 19, 2020 by kingie chaser

[Berrero]

25 minutes ago, kingie chaser said:

Great work in the new PB.

On the finger have you been to the doctors?

Late last year I just bang my finger on a tap at home & broke just a small bit if skin under the fingernail, didn't think anything of it until next it was a bit red, 2 days later the finger was swollen & the redness & swelling was working it's way up my hand, the next day later I was in hospital getting intravenous antibiotics!

 

Took 3 days of large doses to get it under control.

Left untreated they said it would have moved up my arm & could have caused septicemia. 

Yep - went to 3 all up. First doctor said to just rest, second doctor literally laughed at me when I told her what happened and started googling fish bites, third doctor put me on antibiotics and it cleared up fine. Mine started spreading up the hand as well - knew the severity of it when it was happening, just had to weed through the f'wit doctors to get one that actually helped.

Unfortunately this was the middle of covid and I ran a fever from it, so covid test had to come first in and could only then go to the doctor once I was cleared 3 days later which only made it worse. 

Getting better slowly over time just still painful to move. Thanks for the congratulations

[Rebel]

Great report and Super photos. Well done.