Jump to content

28-10-21 Long reef exploration and a few fish


Aerialangler

Recommended Posts

Been a while between posts 

In the lockdown downtime been working on the boat as no doubt many of you have too- with about 4 months of very limited work 

Paint touch ups, install a simple freshwater water deck wash, small boat mods and bought a new cmap card for the sounder 

So I’ve been keen to use the the cmap shade relief to find some new spots out off Sydney 

Well Thursday was looking good so I did a couple hours work then headed out around 10am 

Plan was to just investigate a few spots north of Sydney heads towards long reef 

Was nice to be accompanied by light winds and good swell conditions 

Not much current 

Got some live yakkas on way out 

Spent the arvo looking at spots between 30-40m mark occasionally dropping a metal jig or a soft plastic and dropping a live yakka at times 

No good fish came from that but I was marking good bait 

When I found some good bait I thought I would go back to my basic fishing for the evening

Anchor up on a spot off long reef and start a bread berley trail and pilchards cubed

Also had the live bait out 

Well on the first spot no action for 40 mins so decided to move - not much current 

Tried another spot with a bit more current but once again 30 mins no action 

Sun was getting low now so my mind was telling me it’s not a good day for fishing head home before dark 

 

But being a bit stubborn I thought I would head in shallow - 7-15 meters and try some plastics and a light jig in the rod holder 

First cast in towards the reef and a good size pan snapper 

Next cast a 45 cm snapper 

Then the jig rod went off and a 45 cm black spot goat fish ( or banded goat fish)

I kept the cast up but the fish went a bit quiet 

Caught a couple more pannie snapper on the jig 

Then nearly almost dark throwing the plastics and then the light jig rod went off 

Big runs and a nervous 3-4 mins and a good broad shouldered 57cm snapper was up at the boat 

So happy to land a reasonable snapper for Sydney 

Interesting day no fish for most of the day and some exploration and then the last few hours the fish came - all on lures 

5 inch jerk shad green color plastic 

And a 20 gram jig in the rod holder 

Thanks for reading and tight lines raiders 

328F4C0D-BCEC-4880-83F5-C13E09EA0FDF.jpeg

Edited by Aerialangler
Typo
  • Like 13
Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 minutes ago, 61 crusher said:

Well done & sticking at it, you turned a potentially fish less  day into a great day, out of curiosity how did the goatfish taste 

Yeh had a firm white fillet from it 

I read some info on them and one source said they feed on prawns so taste a bit like that 

when I opened its stomach yes it was full of small dark reddish prawns 

Cooked it simply in a pan to see the flavour and yes wasnt like anything I’ve had before - but tasty 

had that gelatinous shine if that means anything ha ha 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17 minutes ago, Aerialangler said:

Thanks for the comments fellow raiders! First time catching the goatfish 😀

 

14 minutes ago, Aerialangler said:

Cooked it simply in a pan to see the flavour and yes wasnt like anything I’ve had before - but tasty 

had that gelatinous shine if that means anything ha ha 

I caught a small one years ago (released) & wondered what it would taste like, good to here it was tasty thanks 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, blairy69 said:

Did you check for the record for Goatfish in Australia that looks a decent size - don't think the record is very big mind you I haven't checked in years.

 

No I haven’t checked 

I didn’t take a picture with a tape over the fish but was around 40cm

you can see the difference lined up with the size snapper 

903A2D6B-A665-4568-978B-51B201366F1F.jpeg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Aerialangler said:

No I haven’t checked 

I didn’t take a picture with a tape over the fish but was around 40cm

you can see the difference lined up with the size snapper 

903A2D6B-A665-4568-978B-51B201366F1F.jpeg

We have both bait (42 cm) and lure (30 cm) records for Goatfish 

Check the fishraider records @Aerialangler

Usually accepted on a measure only. Can you measure that tile perhaps?

Submit it in the records section and I will take a look. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...