Port Stephens- Tried something different

[Scratchie]

G’day raiders, 

Hope you are all well and keeping safe. 
 

Yesterday, conditions looked to good not to head out to catch a feed for the family. 
I took my son Brandon with me and we were on the water by 5am. 
The plan for the day was to cast some plastics early and hope for a snapper, then catch some bait and do some deeper dropping for some flathead. 
As we are limited to our LGA, Broughton is a no go for us (I miss Broughton 🥲) however there are still some good grounds around my local and I have been doing a lot of exploring for future trips! 
The fishing on soft plastics has been more than hard work, with lots and lots of casts for very little reward. 
Yesterday was no different but with many changes in plastics and locations we found two decent snapper until about 8am when the sun appeared higher in the sky. We then collected some bait and found a few barracuda sitting under a school of pillies. Kept two for bait and stuck to the plan. 
I can’t remember the last time I dropped a paternoster rig in 40m of water but with benign conditions it was really the only option. Firstly, we found the nursery with both hooks bringing up tiny flatty but then we stumbled on what we were looking for. A few decent flatty and basically we loaded up onto something on every drop! A bit of fun for an hour or so, then we decided to call it quits and head home! A beautiful day on the water with turtles, dolphins leading the way home and a chance to forget the challenges we all faced once back on land. 
 

Tight lines all, 

cheers scratchie!!! 

P.s Is there a legal size limit to a red spot whiting? I caught about 8 of them but sent them back. 🤷‍♂️

 

[BigHorse]

nice haul there scratchie! Found this for you also. Keep the fish coming👍

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by BigHorse

[thatdan1000]

Hey Scratchie,

Great stuff! 

27cm minimum legal length applies to sand whiting only (meaning red spot etc don't require a minimum legal length) 

But there is a bag limit of 20 in total for all whiting species (17 sand + 3 red spot, or 20 red spot if you're onto them)

It should be noted as well that the combined 20 is also your possession limit, so you can't catch 10 red spot and freeze them then go out the next day and get 20 sand, as you can only legally have 20 of any whiting in your possession at one time. (But this is per person, so you can assign 20 per licenced angler at the same address)

BUT as we always say and most people on this forum practice, only take what you need!

Hope to see you on the water one day mate I need to finally have a crack at some Broughton reds!

[Rebel]

Good haul and Super photos. Well done. Better than staying home.

Cheers.

[Isaac Ct]

Nice haul mate.

[kobi caught a fish]

they are some nice fish

[puddlejumper]

Well done mate, im jealous

[Yowie]

Another good haul there Scratchie.

Red spots have no size limit as you will have read above, the fillets are small but remove the bones and they make tasty fish fingers.

They do not grow very large, if you crack the 30cm mark, you are doing well.

[beats workin]

So jealous.

No waterways in my 5k's

[Little_Flatty]

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

Another good haul there Scratchie.

Red spots have no size limit as you will have read above, the fillets are small but remove the bones and they make tasty fish fingers.

They do not grow very large, if you crack the 30cm mark, you are doing well.

My mum used to get these by the dozen from the fish shops and shallow fry them whole with a light batter with salt and pepper and garnish with spring onions (a bit of chopped chilli wouldn’t go astray either). This was before the day of air fryers, would imagine these would be just divine coming out of an air fryer.

Absolutely delicious, although it is a real finger-licking job instead of a fork-and-knife kind of meal. Worth a shot if you’re adventurous.

Edited September 1, 2021 by Little_Flatty

[Pickles]

Brilliant Jeff - greatjob

[zmk1962]

Top stuff Jeff - thanks for keeping the memories alive. Here you are trying something different and I’d be ecstatic just doing the same same - as long as it involved salt water and  🎣   
 

cheers Zoran 

[Scratchie]

On 9/1/2021 at 9:24 AM, BigHorse said:

nice haul there scratchie! Found this for you also. Keep the fish coming👍

 

Cheers for that mate! I was pretty sure there was no size limit. Just didn’t want to waste fishing time searching google 😄

On 9/1/2021 at 9:32 AM, thatdan1000 said:

Hey Scratchie,

Great stuff! 

27cm minimum legal length applies to sand whiting only (meaning red spot etc don't require a minimum legal length) 

But there is a bag limit of 20 in total for all whiting species (17 sand + 3 red spot, or 20 red spot if you're onto them)

It should be noted as well that the combined 20 is also your possession limit, so you can't catch 10 red spot and freeze them then go out the next day and get 20 sand, as you can only legally have 20 of any whiting in your possession at one time. (But this is per person, so you can assign 20 per licenced angler at the same address)

BUT as we always say and most people on this forum practice, only take what you need!

Hope to see you on the water one day mate I need to finally have a crack at some Broughton reds!

Thanks mate! I need to see some Broughton reds too 😫😫😫

On 9/1/2021 at 11:00 AM, Rebel said:

Good haul and Super photos. Well done. Better than staying home.

Cheers.

Cheers Rebel. Yes mate, it was a trip I needed to take! 

On 9/1/2021 at 11:10 AM, Isaac Ct said:

Nice haul mate.

Thanks 

On 9/1/2021 at 11:17 AM, kobi caught a fish said:

they are some nice fish

Cheers 

On 9/1/2021 at 12:06 PM, puddlejumper said:

Well done mate, im jealous

Thanks. Hopefully your turn will come soon 

23 hours ago, Yowie said:

Another good haul there Scratchie.

Red spots have no size limit as you will have read above, the fillets are small but remove the bones and they make tasty fish fingers.

They do not grow very large, if you crack the 30cm mark, you are doing well.

Cheers Yowie. The ones I caught were actually quite decent at around 25-27cm. Will save that for next time 🤙

20 hours ago, beats workin said:

So jealous.

No waterways in my 5k's

Be patient, your time will come and you’ll so enjoy it. 

20 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

My mum used to get these by the dozen from the fish shops and shallow fry them whole with a light batter with salt and pepper and garnish with spring onions (a bit of chopped chilli wouldn’t go astray either). This was before the day of air fryers, would imagine these would be just divine coming out of an air fryer.

Absolutely delicious, although it is a real finger-licking job instead of a fork-and-knife kind of meal. Worth a shot if you’re adventurous.

Hahahaha! Thanks for that. I have a few fish recipes and usually the whiting goes in the deep fryer and they are all gone before I finish cooking! 🤔 

17 hours ago, Pickles said:

Brilliant Jeff - greatjob

Thanks Bob

4 hours ago, zmk1962 said:

Top stuff Jeff - thanks for keeping the memories alive. Here you are trying something different and I’d be ecstatic just doing the same same - as long as it involved salt water and  🎣   
 

cheers Zoran 

Cheers Zoran! I feel for all that can’t go fishing safely. 
As I said, it’s be a long time since I dropped a bait in 40m. Definitely a bit of fun but I do prefer my plastics in shallow water. Always good to have options though 👍

[rickmarlin62]

Nice feed scratchie

[Scratchie]

15 hours ago, rickmarlin62 said:

Nice feed scratchie

Cheers Rick! 
 

 

Vac sealed for another day! 👌

[GordoRetired]

Looks like you certainly achieved the objective of bringing home  feed. I intend to try to do the same this Tuesday as the forecast is looking good. I just hope that I can find a decent Snapper spot on Long reef. Any suggestions gratefully accepted. 🙂

[Scratchie]

1 hour ago, GordoRetired said:

Looks like you certainly achieved the objective of bringing home  feed. I intend to try to do the same this Tuesday as the forecast is looking good. I just hope that I can find a decent Snapper spot on Long reef. Any suggestions gratefully accepted. 🙂

Thanks Gordo! 
My only tip would be to check the weather. Pretty sure your looking at 2.6-2.9m swell 🤔🤔

[GordoRetired]

1 minute ago, Scratchie said:

Thanks Gordo! 
My only tip would be to check the weather. Pretty sure your looking at 2.6-2.9m swell 🤔🤔

That's what it's saying at the moment for the area I plan to head to. Went out last week with a similar forecast and it was not too bad. In closer to shore with the off shore breeze it was positively calm. But I will be keeping a close eye on the conditions and if it's to lumpy with wind chop on the swell I won't head out. 
I keep an eye on https://tides4fishing.com/au/new-south-wales/sydney  and it's supposed to be a very 'fishy' day. Fingers crossed 🙂

[GordoRetired]

On 9/4/2021 at 2:51 PM, Scratchie said:

Thanks Gordo! 
My only tip would be to check the weather. Pretty sure your looking at 2.6-2.9m swell 🤔🤔

OK, you convinced me. The forecast is for quite a bit more wind tomorrow than it was showing a few days ago so I will be cautious and wait till later in the week when the wind and swell are due to drop down quite a bit. :-)