Broken bay 6/5/23

[XD351]

G’day Raiders,

Went out for a fish today , fished mostly around flint and steel and my usual drift from patonga to lion island . I ended up with my bag limit of flathead- between 38 and 44cm so nothing spectacular! I was also out there to test a theory , a new lure and compare a rig used by one of the YouTube channels is like to watch - spikes fishing against my bog standard Hawkesbury rig I have been using for donkeys years.

The lure or more correctly jig is called a hyper kraken and is sold by Mel Spikes from the Spikes fishing YouTube channel , I had previously been using a normal style jig head and a 75 mm paddle to drop down in 10-12m of water around flint and steel but was getting Hammered by small tailor . I spotted the kraken on Mel’s online  merch shop and bought a couple which turned up in the mail a few days later along with a couple of her hand tied half pillie rigs that she seems to catch just about everything that swims on and these were asking for a workout as well!

With a high tide around 8.30am I decided to get there around 5am to fish the last of the run up and I was hoping the predicted 10-15kph westerly wouldn’t show until after high tide,unfortunately it was there waiting for me and this made things difficult as it kept pushing my boat back against the tide so I ended up having to cast up current and hop the jig back towards me -  I was really hoping to drift with the current  and teabag the jig .

I spent the first hour or so jigging this and also tried a paddle tail on a std jig head - Damned tailor just hammered my stock of tails 🤬. The kraken accounted for one decent tailor and a small flathead on the run up and I kept plugging away while the tide turned . This made life a bit easier and I was able to do what I set out to do - teabag the jig and catch a keeper on this lure , all be it not a giant one but it was right in the middle of my slot limit for flathead that  I like to eat which is legal to 50cm 🤤🤤🤤.

By now the tide was beginning to run and the kraken was going back in its box as I began to have trouble getting bottom , I had pre rigged two rods for bait fishing and within a few minutes I had a Hawkesbury prawn pinned on the 2/0 octopus hook of the half pillie rig and sent it down to the bottom . The sinker hit the floor and I was just about to put the rod in the holder so I can bait up the other rod and it got hammered ! I could feel head shakes and knew it was a flathead and played it to the surface as I usually do and it was then I realised the net was up the front of the boat and this fish had engulfed the octopus hook that was connecting to 10lb trace , I reached for the net but the flathead went nuts and cut the trace 🤬 . My rig runs a long baitholder hook on 20lb trace so 40cm flathead are usually not a problem so I just had to make a mental note of the light trace .

I kept at this with the light trace until the second rig supplied had frayed then tied up an identical rig with heavier 20lb trace , that didn’t seem to slow this rig down and it had accounted for three of the five flathead in my bag limit and my rig only one 😳 The difference between the two are length of trace ( half pillie = 10-15cm and mine 1.5m ) the hook ( half pillie - 2/0 octopus and mine 4/0 long baitholder)  and a tiny Lumo bead on top of the hook of the half pillie rig - mine has none . I did run a bead between the swivel and running sinker on both , both used the same Lumo sinker - although I usually a bomb sinker on a slider but the swivel on last bomb sinker  I had broke on the first drift😡 

Once I had my limit of flathead I decided to try for a bream up in the mouth of Cowan , I had to downsize the gear and already had two rods rigged ready to go but this time I sent my rig down first and stuck it in a holder to bait up the other half pillie rig which hit the deck a few seconds later - I barely had time to flip the bail over and it got smashed , the drag screamed and then nothing ! The hook pulled 😡 , probably a small Mulloway I thought and this was confirmed a few minutes later when the other rod got hit and up came small Mulloway- at a guess 40cm and it was released while still in the water . Didn’t get the bream I wanted and I did do a drift off the east side of Dangar island for zip , I now have some thinking and head scratching to do to work out why this funny little rig caught the fish it did . Either way I came home happy ! I didn’t take photos of the other fish - to busy trying to keep two rods under control - I need an extra arm I tell ya!

 

44cm flathead and the kraken jig - one thing for sure with three stinger or assist hooks fitted anything that goes near this jig gets well and truly hooked ! 

P.S Back at the ramp two nice Mulloway hit the cleaning table , one went 1.1m and caught near Gunyah ,the other if I had to guess about the same ( different fishos ,different boats )  and all I could get out of this other guy was caught near the heads .

 

Edited May 7, 2023 by XD351

[Isaac Ct]

Well done, nice flattie. Not a bad trip. The 'Kraken' looks interesting, similar to a lure you would use on the reefs for snapper.

[Pickles]

Great report Ian and the kraken rig looks a bit like Zoran’s @zmk1962 flathead rig.

nice work on the Flatties.

[XD351]

Yes it is a bit of a weird looking thing !

[Yowie]

Nice day out, plenty of flattie fillets, nothing wrong with that.

[bessell1955]

Good fish.

[Larkin]

Nice feed of flathead XD! 👍

always good to try new things and change it up a bit. Mel seems to do really well on that half pilly rig. I think her choice of bait probably makes a big difference too - buys fish shop fresh pillies instead of bait quality frozen.

I’m always modifying my rigs by testing out different hooks, line weights, brands, thickness of line ect I use different rigs for every fish I’m targeting.

[XD351]

13 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Well done, nice flattie. Not a bad trip. The 'Kraken' looks interesting, similar to a lure you would use on the reefs for snapper.

Thanks Isaac!
I believe this is what they were designed for and I think they come in bigger sizes .

12 hours ago, Pickles said:

Great report Ian and the kraken rig looks a bit like Zoran’s @zmk1962 flathead rig.

nice work on the Flatties.

Thanks Bob!

I can’t recall seeing Zoran’s flathead rig - I am now curious ! 
 

12 hours ago, Yowie said:

Nice day out, plenty of flattie fillets, nothing wrong with that.

Thanks Yeowie ! I see you got some nice whiting , I would have liked a few of those as well !

9 hours ago, bessell1955 said:

Good fish.

Thanks Bessell!

8 hours ago, Larkin said:

Nice feed of flathead XD! 👍

always good to try new things and change it up a bit. Mel seems to do really well on that half pilly rig. I think her choice of bait probably makes a big difference too - buys fish shop fresh pillies instead of bait quality frozen.

I’m always modifying my rigs by testing out different hooks, line weights, brands, thickness of line ect I use different rigs for every fish I’m targeting.

Thanks Larkin! 
I think Mel has settled on a system that works for her and she goes to great pains to mention that the pillies are food grade and not frozen, Mel also does the same for the rig - even though she does sell them Mel always says you should learn to tie them yourself and she has shown how to do this multiple times in every video .

I believe that as an angler you should never stop experimenting , once you do stop you get caught in a rut and this can really limit your options when the fish don’t want to play .

I never did all that well on Pilleis in the Hawkesbury but that have been because they were always frozen garbage from a tackle shop or servo . Once I started using Hawkesbury prawns that we got off the trawlers and froze  ourselves our catch rate went ballistic, these days I get mine from a local bloke who runs a trawler and packages them fresh off the boat .

[Rebel]

Top report.

Nice flattie.

Well done.

[zmk1962]

Top report and catch Ian ... sounds like you're having too much fun! 

Yes - Kraken has some resemblance to the sinker jig ... featured in this report and others ...

It's gone through a few variations mainly on how its attached around the sinker - I now finish my paternosters with a snap swivel at the bottom - this is used to snap on the sinker loop and also the flattie sinker jig ... the original design had its own snap swivel - posted in the workshop: 

I'm always experimenting - yesterday came up with a new way of dispensing the Gordo inspired burley for bait ... will test it on the next outing. If only the weather would clear!

Cheers Zoran

[kantong]

A great day out experimenting and bagging out on flatties is always a good day. Thanks for sharing!

[XD351]

On 5/7/2023 at 1:33 PM, zmk1962 said:

Top report and catch Ian ... sounds like you're having too much fun! 

Yes - Kraken has some resemblance to the sinker jig ... featured in this report and others ...

It's gone through a few variations mainly on how its attached around the sinker - I now finish my paternosters with a snap swivel at the bottom - this is used to snap on the sinker loop and also the flattie sinker jig ... the original design had its own snap swivel - posted in the workshop: 

I'm always experimenting - yesterday came up with a new way of dispensing the Gordo inspired burley for bait ... will test it on the next outing. If only the weather would clear!

Cheers Zoran

Thanks Zoran! That has definitely given me a few ideas to try !

I think it will give me a way of fishing during the tide change which is usually when the banjos ,shovels and catfish seem to appear. With the rig you have developed I can adjust the sinker weight and work this lure while I drift with a bait out as well so it gives me a few options ! Thanks for posting it here - saved me a pile of time trying to find your original post !

Edited May 9, 2023 by XD351

[XD351]

1 hour ago, kantong said:

A great day out experimenting and bagging out on flatties is always a good day. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks Kantong !
Any day out fishing is a good one - catching something makes it a great day but catching a fish on a new lure and a technique based on a theory or an idea makes it a fantastic day - even if I only caught one fish for the day but it was on that jig I would still be smiling !

[zmk1962]

43 minutes ago, XD351 said:

Thanks Zoran! That has definitely given me a few ideas to try !

I think it will give me a way of fishing during the tide change which is usually when the banjos ,shovels and catfish seem to appear. With the rig you have developed I can adjust the sinker weight and work this lure while I drift with a bait out as well so it gives me a few options ! Thanks for posting it here - saved me a pile of time trying to find your original post !

Enjoy. I developed that idea after seeing small occy inside several flatties (always pays to check what they feed on). Figured the sinker bouncing on the bottom stirs up sand and mud - just like an occy rising from or settling on the bottom would stir up. So putting a small sp occy in that mud cloud should appear natural. 
It’s caught, tailor, big yakkas, lots of flatties, banjos (😲), squire, small sharks …. And bigger occys!

Best of luck with it. 
cheers Zoran

[XD351]

Funny thing is I got the idea for catching flathead on a  jig that resembles a squid after catching my pb flathead on the edge of flint and steel on a big whole dead squid ! It was the last bit of bait I had and I only took it because I got sick of looking at it in the freezer ! I know there are squid down there as we used to lose a lot of live yakkas to them when fishing for Mulloway- they can be a real pest and decimate your supply of yakkas.