Bate Bay

[Yowie]

Headed out with my fishing mate yesterday in his boat, out past Jibbon Bombie to about 150 feet of water. Drifted back in with the easterly wind, not too pleasant as the swell and wind chop was from the east, with waves kicking back off the rocky shoreline in the opposite direction, making for a lot of rocking and rolling in a 25 foot boat.

We did several drifts, pulled up the blue spots in the deeper water but once in slightly shallower water, it was spiky flatties by the dozens. After bouncing around too much, headed further north into Bate Bay but only plenty of spiky flatties again.

Anchored over a reef before sun down, and pulled up plenty of pike, a few sgt baker, sweep and a couple of slimies. On darkness, one tailor turned up but bit off the hook boatside.

We were thinking of heading in, and I dropped over a final bait of a slimey strip. We were fishing the baits just off the bottom, and I thought I snagged up, lifted the rod hard then big head shakes and the critter took off. I was hoping for a good jew, but had the feeling it was not. It took off towards the front and eventually swam around the boat. Walking around a pitching boat, at night, the rod in one hand and hanging on to the boat rails to avoid going over was not easy. Eventually I was again at the back of the boat and the line took a big run. 

I worked it back to the boat, then it swam left and right and left and under the boat and down near the bottom and was going hard all the time. After quite a while, it swam just under the surface, my mate shone the torch on it, and it was a big gummy shark. The boat has a duck board on the back, I could have grabbed the gummy by the tail and hauled it onboard, but we didn't need to pull it out of the water, and it was too big for fish and chips. A solid gummy, fat body. 

I took a mark of it's length alongside the boat, and my mate cut the line and it swam off. I measured the mark, and the gummy was around the 170 to 175 cm length, the biggest one I have hooked or seen.

Headed home after that.

[kantong]

a good feed there and a solid workout on the shark, thanks for sharing!

[Restyle]

Wow, what a gummy, would’ve been a fun fight and a surprise. Never heard of them being that big in Sydney. Biggest I caught was 1.3 at bundeena wharf.

[Blackfish]

That’s a great Gummy and it sounded like a bit of hard work on the Flatty front.

[Rebel]

Nice haul again.

At least you could have given the gummy to the neighbours.

Well done.

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, kantong said:

a good feed there and a solid workout on the shark, thanks for sharing!

Thank you, surprising how hard it fought.

2 hours ago, Restyle said:

Wow, what a gummy, would’ve been a fun fight and a surprise. Never heard of them being that big in Sydney. Biggest I caught was 1.3 at bundeena wharf.

I checked up and the bigger ones are usually down south. At that size it was probably a female. I caught a few over the years, the previous biggest was up in the Hacking at 1.5 metres, all the others out in Bate Bay and around the metre mark.

2 hours ago, Blackfish said:

That’s a great Gummy and it sounded like a bit of hard work on the Flatty front.

Happy with the gummy, even though released. So many little spikey flatties around, and we needed a larger than normal snapper sinker to stay on the bottom, so hauling that up with 2 little spikey buggers was .

36 minutes ago, Rebel said:

Nice haul again.

At least you could have given the gummy to the neighbours.

Well done.

Thank you, and none for the neighbours. Probably a female at that size, so better off being released.

[Fab1]

You shouldn’t have hung on while fighting that gummy.😂😂Good work fellas as always.

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, Fab1 said:

You shouldn’t have hung on while fighting that gummy.😂😂Good work fellas as always.

Thank you. A couple of times while walking around the boat I was thinking I was going to have a bath, in the ocean, at night.  🤣 

The gummy pulling hard, the boat rocking, wet hands trying to hang on.

[Bluebenbomb]

The fight with the gummy would have been exhausting, but you still managed to bring it up eventually. Well done. Good work with the flatties - they will be great eating.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Bluebenbomb said:

The fight with the gummy would have been exhausting, but you still managed to bring it up eventually. Well done. Good work with the flatties - they will be great eating.

The gummy did not want to give up, my forearm was still aching the next day from trying to lift it to the boat. It kept powering away.  Already had a feed of flattie fillets. 👍

Edited December 23, 2022 by Yowie

[Larkin]

Sounds like you had a real battle! Lucky it wasn’t on a hand line 😂

Good feed of flatties for Christmas!

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Larkin said:

Sounds like you had a real battle! Lucky it wasn’t on a hand line 😂

Good feed of flatties for Christmas!

A few flatties for a feed.

The 1.5 metre gummy I caught in the Hacking many years ago was on a 15 pound handline, and that took quite a while to haul up. Thought it was a good jewie until the shark shape swam up. Grabbed it by the dorsal fin and lifted it into the boat, then realised it was a gummy, not a toothy critter.

[jenno64]

Nice feed Dave, shame about the gummy not being a jew! Never caught one but they must fight in a similar way!

[Yowie]

52 minutes ago, jenno64 said:

Nice feed Dave, shame about the gummy not being a jew! Never caught one but they must fight in a similar way!

Thanks Rob. Fought hard for it's size, as most sharks do. Not a common catch up this way, more common down south.