Port Hacking - mixed bag

[Yowie]

Headed out early this morning, up from Lilli Pilli. Very quiet at first, no bites until half light. Pilchards and squid produced nothing, the baits just disappearing as if by magic, no bites detected so probably leatherjackets.

Could not catch any yakkas, just a couple of sweep, so the sweep fillets were the go, catching the 2 flounder, reddie and gurnard.

Up-anchored and moved to a secret nipper spot, and found the shallow water was teeming with whitebait that were getting harassed by something. Threw out a metal and hooked 3 fish that eventually dropped off each time, then the 4th one was landed, a salmon in the low 40's. A small school of salmon swam near me, and there was a trevally swimming in the school as well. Salmon released.

Headed to Lilli Pilli flats and drifted with the nippers for the bream, and a trevally in the high 30's that was released. Moved around a bit and found the whiting, smaller bream and some little tarwhine. One of the tarwhine was legal size, but only by a few cms.

Not much wind early, then eventually it came up, blowing against the current making for a slow drift.

[Restyle]

Did well this time with a good mix of fish. Weather was amazing today.

[noelm]

The baitfish are around everywhere in huge numbers, nice catch there (again) saw a kid on the beach today with a little cheap department store combo unit catch a Tailor about 3kg on about 20lb line and an old black Prawn! He was so excited, he asked me what it was and if he could eat it! He packed up his gear and took off, no idea where he lives.

[Bluebenbomb]

Awesome report@Yowie, the warm weather that has been present these few days seems to have resulted more fish. Maybe next time I'll try sweep fillets as well, especially if the yakkas aren't biting. 

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Restyle said:

Did well this time with a good mix of fish. Weather was amazing today.

Was fairly good, until the wind picked up a little and made the drift a bit difficult. A few feeds there, also for one of my brothers.

1 hour ago, noelm said:

The baitfish are around everywhere in huge numbers, nice catch there (again) saw a kid on the beach today with a little cheap department store combo unit catch a Tailor about 3kg on about 20lb line and an old black Prawn! He was so excited, he asked me what it was and if he could eat it! He packed up his gear and took off, no idea where he lives.

Thank you. The baitfish are moving about. That is a big chopper to catch.

59 minutes ago, Bluebenbomb said:

Awesome report@Yowie, the warm weather that has been present these few days seems to have resulted more fish. Maybe next time I'll try sweep fillets as well, especially if the yakkas aren't biting. 

Thank you. Have caught a few nice fish at times on sweep fillets when the yakkas are scarce.

[Pickles]

Great feed Dave, we’ll done mate.

[Yowie]

35 minutes ago, Pickles said:

Great feed Dave, we’ll done mate.

Thanks Bob. A feed tonight, then more in a couple of nights. Bream fillets for my brother, i"m keeping the good stuff. 🤣

[Little_Flatty]

43 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Thanks Bob. A feed tonight, then more in a couple of nights. Bream fillets for my brother, i"m keeping the good stuff. 🤣

To be fair, I suspect your brother would've had the same fishing exposure as yourself, so likely he could have developed skills to catch fish himself  If he wants flounder and snapper, he could head out and catch his own 🤣

Always like your mixed bags. It's interesting how the species vary when you consistently hit the water throughout the year.

[big Neil]

Another good day where local knowledge pays dividends for you Yowie. What's the red fish in your photo, looks like a Sgt. Baker? Those Flounder will be excellent on the plate. How do YOU cook them?  bn

[noelm]

Red fish is a Gurnard, they have big pectoral "wings" a beautiful blue colour.

[Yowie]

8 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

To be fair, I suspect your brother would've had the same fishing exposure as yourself, so likely he could have developed skills to catch fish himself  If he wants flounder and snapper, he could head out and catch his own 🤣

Always like your mixed bags. It's interesting how the species vary when you consistently hit the water throughout the year.

Happy with the mixed bag.

That particular brother, and another one, could not catch a fish to save their lives. 🤣 Nor are they interested at all. The remaining brother did some fishing years ago, now he only likes eating battered fish from a fish shop. 

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, big Neil said:

Another good day where local knowledge pays dividends for you Yowie. What's the red fish in your photo, looks like a Sgt. Baker? Those Flounder will be excellent on the plate. How do YOU cook them?  bn

As Noel stated, a red gurnard.

With the flounder, I fillet them. A tedious job, as if you were to cut off a fillet in a normal way, half of it would remain on the backbone. It is a matter of running the point of the knife along the backbone to lift off the meat, then cut out the rib bones from the fillet. I usually crumb and pan fry flounder.

The wife hates fish bones 🤣 , so I have to fillet everything I dish up to her. Yes, I have to cook any fish I catch.

Edited December 13, 2022 by Yowie

[mrsswordfisherman]

Keep up the good work with the captures Dave

Swordie said "same pic again" 

[noelm]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

As Noel stated, a red gurnard.

With the flounder, I fillet them. A tedious job, as if you were to cut off a fillet in a normal way, half of it would remain on the backbone. It is a matter of running the point of the knife along the backbone to lift off the meat, then cut out the rib bones from the fillet. I usually crumb and pan fry flounder.

The wife hates fish bones 🤣 , so I have to fillet everything I dish up to her. Yes, I have to cook any fish I catch.

Yep, same with me, all fish bone fee, and I cook it! My wife can cook anything, but, fish is my domain. I personally don't mind bones, as long as you know a fishes "anatomy" then bones are no issue, kind of like eating crabs, once you know how, then crackers, pickers, hammers and anything else are not needed.

[kantong]

great job mate, always coming home with a bag of fish! 

[Rebel]

Nice flounder.

Never caugtht a flounder.

Top Photo.

Well done.

Check your front door. @Fab1might be there with a Ham to trade.

Cheers.

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, mrsswordfisherman said:

Keep up the good work with the captures Dave

Swordie said "same pic again" 

Thank you Donna.

Tell Swordie to blow it out of "where the sun doesn't shine," however, he probalby thinks it does shine out of there. 

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, kantong said:

great job mate, always coming home with a bag of fish! 

Thank you.

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, Rebel said:

Nice flounder.

Never caugtht a flounder.

Top Photo.

Well done.

Check your front door. @Fab1might be there with a Ham to trade.

Cheers.

Are you listening Fab?  I would throw the fish at him, so he could say he caught something. 

A bit odd that you have not caught a flounder. I catch a few every year in the Hacking, and the occasional one outside drifting for flatties.

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, noelm said:

 kind of like eating crabs, once you know how, then crackers, pickers, hammers and anything else are not needed.

I was once eating a crab in a restaurant, broke off the top part of the nipper, and used the hook on the end to fish the meat out of the nippers and other parts.

A young waitress ran over and handed me a metal gadget to fish out the meat, and said, "Sir, this is what you need to use." I said, "I'm doing alright thankyou," She said, "Okay, I've never seen that done before."  🤣

[noelm]

49 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Are you listening Fab?  I would throw the fish at him, so he could say he caught something. 

A bit odd that you have not caught a flounder. I catch a few every year in the Hacking, and the occasional one outside drifting for flatties.

Lots of Flounder in Lake Illawarra, but they are always small ones, never ever seen a decent one caught in the lake, no idea why?

[Yowie]

22 minutes ago, noelm said:

Lots of Flounder in Lake Illawarra, but they are always small ones, never ever seen a decent one caught in the lake, no idea why?

As a kid, I pulled out a few, though I mainly fished the channel, and the shallows south of the main channel around the bridge. They were plenty big enough to eat back then.

[Fishingwazza2019]

Well Done, and a good catch after what sounds like a challenging start. Always good to come home with a feed

[Green Hornet]

54 minutes ago, noelm said:

Lots of Flounder in Lake Illawarra, but they are always small ones, never ever seen a decent one caught in the lake, no idea why?

That’s strange. We’ve always caught good size ones in the Crookhaven and Basin. My diary shows that when I still had my boat we’d average 12 good ones per summer.

They were a traditional Sunday breakfast in my family.

[GordoRetired]

Another good bag of fish. Well done 🙂