Early morning session at Rushcutters

[Little_Flatty]

Went down to Rushcutters Bay this morning to cast some lures. I felt like a feed of flathead fillets for Good Friday.

Started out with a 3 inch bass minnow in pink. On about my third cast in, just as I was lifting the lure out of the water, a bream came right up to the surface and clobbered it. I think it was as shocked as I was, and the fight was initially a chaotic close-quarters splash fest. As I was readying my net, it dived and took a few more runs. After that, I finally got it in the net:

Kept on casting along the wall, but it seemed like the flathead didn't want to play. So I decided to double down and target the bream. So on goes a cranka, which got cast just out from the wall. On one cast, I noticed the lure 'sinking' a little faster than I would have expected, so I tightened up and connected to another reasonable bream:

It was nice to get a cranka back in one piece for once, unlike my previous expensive disaster.

Apart from that, I did see an absolute hoodlum of a kingie cruising up and down the wall. It would have been at least one metre long. With the gear I had, I would not have stood a chance, had I hooked it, so I didn't try.

[Green Hornet]

A couple of nice fish there Little_Flatty.

Its amazing how aggressive bream can be at times and I notice your second fish has a slight case of saddleback syndrome (the dip just in front of the dorsal fin for those that don't know what I'm seeing). Personally, Ive never caught a fish with it and if you kept the fish, I'd be keen to know if the deformity went all the way down and into the spine.

Nice job on the Cranka too. Luckily that king wasn't after a feed of crabs. 

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, Green Hornet said:

A couple of nice fish there Little_Flatty.

Its amazing how aggressive bream can be at times and I notice your second fish has a slight case of saddleback syndrome (the dip just in front of the dorsal fin for those that don't know what I'm seeing). Personally, Ive never caught a fish with it and if you kept the fish, I'd be keen to know if the deformity went all the way down and into the spine.

Nice job on the Cranka too. Luckily that king wasn't after a feed of crabs. 

Thanks. Interesting you haven't caught any bream with saddleback syndrome. I think I've seen a few.

I did keep the fish, but I'm not filleting it...it's going on the BBQ whole. All the same I can let you know what I find.

 

[Little_Flatty]

@Green Hornet on the note of bream's aggressiveness, I heard an interesting theory on Doclures (don't remember the guest) whilst driving to the spot. The theory is that their peg teeth do not aid in retention of their prey, so when they are hunting live prey, they apparently need to really crunch it. A flathead, mulloway or other pelagics can rely on having sharp teeth to retain their prey.

It matches up with my experiences; most of my bream takes have been savage. Flatties on the other hand seem to take an item of prey and almost make a decision to eat it later...often when fishing for flatties with SPs, I quite often count to five when I feel a bite, then strike and they are almost always still there after that time.

[Green Hornet]

6 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Thanks. Interesting you haven't caught any bream with saddleback syndrome. I think I've seen a few.

I did keep the fish, but I'm not filleting it...it's going on the BBQ whole. All the same I can let you know what I find.

 

Thanks for that.

Saddleback syndrome becomes more prevalent the further north you are and while I see the odd one, not too many are caught on the south coast where I am. 

Enjoy your BBQ. If ever I keep one, I like to eat my bream whole as well. With their heavy bone structure you lose a lot of flesh when filleting. Either that or I’m just crap with a knife.

[Green Hornet]

3 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

@Green Hornet on the note of bream's aggressiveness, I heard an interesting theory on Doclures (don't remember the guest) whilst driving to the spot. The theory is that their peg teeth do not aid in retention of their prey, so when they are hunting live prey, they apparently need to really crunch it. A flathead, mulloway or other pelagics can rely on having sharp teeth to retain their prey.

It matches up with my experiences; most of my bream takes have been savage. Flatties on the other hand seem to take an item of prey and almost make a decision to eat it later...often when fishing for flatties with SPs, I quite often count to five when I feel a bite, then strike and they are almost always still there after that time.

I think you’re right there and in my experience, snapper hit harder than a bream. 

I’m sure a lot of flatties that are “dropped” have taken the plastic and the hook hasn’t penetrated their mouth. That’s why when I feel the “pluck” of a flattie strike, I set the hook harder than normal. I seem to lose a lot less fish that way. 

[Yowie]

A bream I caught a week or so ago had saddleback, however, no deformity with the fillets. 

As for flatties, and in the shallow water I mainly catch them on nippers, I feel them grab the nipper but just hang on, so I slowly retrieve the nipper to give them time to swallow it, however, some times they let it go, so I give the line a bit of movement and there is often a second grab and hookup.

If no hookup, then on with a new nipper and lob the bait where I felt the last bite. Quite often the flattie will be more aggressive and hookup.

[Larkin]

Next time you see a king cruising, throw out a sugapen and hold on for the ride. 🤪

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, Yowie said:

A bream I caught a week or so ago had saddleback, however, no deformity with the fillets. 

As for flatties, and in the shallow water I mainly catch them on nippers, I feel them grab the nipper but just hang on, so I slowly retrieve the nipper to give them time to swallow it, however, some times they let it go, so I give the line a bit of movement and there is often a second grab and hookup.

If no hookup, then on with a new nipper and lob the bait where I felt the last bite. Quite often the flattie will be more aggressive and hookup.

That's more or less how I fish SPs for flathead, give them time to take it down. They seem to munch on them for quite a long time. The counting to five came after one session where I kept on missing hookups. I tried delaying setting the hook and lo and behold, I landed every hit after that. You have to know it's a flathead hit though.

And yes, I often see the same flathead come back for multiple goes, when I can get a good visual. I think they get quite annoyed at their prey 'getting away'.

18 minutes ago, Larkin said:

Next time you see a king cruising, throw out a sugapen and hold on for the ride. 🤪

I guess the Sugapen would die doing what it loved doing best...infuriating aggro fish!

5 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Personally, Ive never caught a fish with it and if you kept the fish, I'd be keen to know if the deformity went all the way down and into the spine.

Like @Yowie said, I'm not sure there was a skeletal defect. I'll PM you my photos unless everyone wants to see pictures of my half eaten dinner! 🤣

 

[Isaac Ct]

Nice bream there mate, I mean you could have tried with the kingie… but as you said. Not a chance!!

[masterfisho7]

Well some nice bream there 

[Rebel]

Top Bream.

Well done.

Great photos.

[Pickles]

Nice work on the bream - love how they pull when going for a run. Rushcutters is a great spot from a boat also.

It hasn’t happened to me often, but sometimes Kingies fight clean and don’t head straight for the bottom and bust you off. The sugar pens are a great lure (I like the clear with light yellow stripes), and often if you go “gentle” so do they, but usually “wake up” and go like stink. 

[Dr B Pollock]

On 4/15/2022 at 4:13 PM, Little_Flatty said:

Thanks. Interesting you haven't caught any bream with saddleback syndrome. I think I've seen a few.

I did keep the fish, but I'm not filleting it...it's going on the BBQ whole. All the same I can let you know what I find.

 

The latest science on saddleback was recently published in a peer-reviewed journal as a review article - concluding that SE Qld is a unique global hotspot for saddleback, most likely  caused by physical injury. The link is https://journalajfar.com/index.php/AJFAR/article/view/633. Regards, Barry Pollock

[Little_Flatty]

1 hour ago, Dr B Pollock said:

The latest science on saddleback was recently published in a peer-reviewed journal as a review article - concluding that SE Qld is a unique global hotspot for saddleback, most likely  caused by physical injury. The link is https://journalajfar.com/index.php/AJFAR/article/view/633. Regards, Barry Pollock

Thanks Barry, that's very interesting and well worth a further read!

@Green Hornet this one is also for you.

[mrsswordfisherman]

Thanks @Dr B Pollock Barry for that contribution.

Welcome to the forum and great to have a well published scientific researcher among us

PM me if you need any assistance 

mrsswordfisherman aka Donna

Community Manager