Bate Bay

[Yowie]

Headed out with my fishing mate early this arvo, up towards Kurnell for a change.

2 drifts only, heading south with the northerly breeze, but not a fast drift. Finished up after sundown, about 3 hours of drifting. Only bottom bashing for plenty of spikies, with the half a dozen blue spots amongst them. The spikies were still biting on the last drop, no shortage of them.

The blue spots ranged from just over size to 53cm, mate was happy with that one. 

No whales spotted today. A brown bird visited the boat and swam around for half an hour or so, much larger than a seagull, eating fish scraps thrown to it. Appeared similar to a Skua. Any idea anyone?

[Toilor]

Hey Yowie, really appreciate your regular reports.  Did it look anything like this.  

[zmk1962]

There’s a few fillets there to keep you busy Dave … nice arvo catch. Better than trying to share a donut! 
cheers Zoran 

[bessell1955]

A good feed or two of Flathead, well caught.

[Yowie]

8 hours ago, Toilor said:

Hey Yowie, really appreciate your regular reports.  Did it look anything like this.  

No.

Mid to dark brown feathers, solid body, shorter beak no hook on the end.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, zmk1962 said:

There’s a few fillets there to keep you busy Dave … nice arvo catch. Better than trying to share a donut! 
cheers Zoran 

Thanks Zoran. No donuts, only the ones from a donut shop. 😂

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, bessell1955 said:

A good feed or two of Flathead, well caught.

Thank you. The spikies were very numerous, water depth over 100 foot mark.

[Blackfish]

Had a couple of mate went south of Port Hacking yesterday and had similar results as you Yowie.

They will be biting their heads of next week when I come down for a visit 🙏  😀

Also have a look at this site and you may recognise the bird but juveniles to adults are often different colourings.. mmm a bit like fish.

https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/birds-of-the-south-33-antarctic-and-sub-antarctic-species-facts

[Yowie]

7 minutes ago, Blackfish said:

Had a couple of mate went south of Port Hacking yesterday and had similar results as you Yowie.

They will be biting their heads of next week when I come down for a visit 🙏  😀

Also have a look at this site and you may recognise the bird but juveniles to adults are often different colourings.. mmm a bit like fish.

https://oceanwide-expeditions.com/blog/birds-of-the-south-33-antarctic-and-sub-antarctic-species-facts

The closest is the Skua. No white under the wings, a fairly constant brown colour all over and under.

[Yowie]

Mate took a photo of the bird while I was fishing, only just sent it to me.

The red colouring on the front is from the late afternoon sun. The colouring at the rear is what is was like all over. Body size of a large chicken.

[Blackfish]

Juvenile Brown Skua ?????

[Bryant fish]

Mutton bird?

[Isaac Ct]

Good bag of flatties nice quality amongst them.

Good feed, well done.

[jenno64]

Nice feed Dave, conditions looked pretty friendly too:)

[Rebel]

Top haul again.

Well done.

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, Blackfish said:

Juvenile Brown Skua ?????

That's what my mate and I were thinking.

3 hours ago, Bryant fish said:

Mutton bird?

No.

2 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Good bag of flatties nice quality amongst them.

Good feed, well done.

Thank you, happy with that.

2 hours ago, jenno64 said:

Nice feed Dave, conditions looked pretty friendly too:)

Thank Rob. A little bumpy but not too bad. Just had a swim at Eloura, the bigger waves a bit dumpy. A couple of the bigger ones were above the heads of the board riders.

2 hours ago, Rebel said:

Top haul again.

Well done.

Thank you.

[Couta]

Hey Yowie,

I had a look in my bird book - it does seem to be a Brown Skua. Here's a few comments from the book.

Weight 1.4 to 2.2 kg

Large robust gull-like Skua with warm medium brown plumage. Can have pale mottling on upperparts. 

Spends most of its time south of Tasmania, moves to Aust mainland (offshore) April-September reaching as far north as Sunshine Coast. 

Usually occurs in ones or twos.

Attends fishing vessels. 

There's heaps more if you are interested. 

[Larkin]

Nice feed of flatties Dave! Hard work pulling up lines all day with only spikies on the end.

I’ve seen one of those birds out there too - it came over to say hello. Was a few weeks back.

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, Couta said:

Hey Yowie,

I had a look in my bird book - it does seem to be a Brown Skua. Here's a few comments from the book.

Weight 1.4 to 2.2 kg

Large robust gull-like Skua with warm medium brown plumage. Can have pale mottling on upperparts. 

Spends most of its time south of Tasmania, moves to Aust mainland (offshore) April-September reaching as far north as Sunshine Coast. 

Usually occurs in ones or twos.

Attends fishing vessels. 

There's heaps more if you are interested. 

Thank you for that, mate and I thought it was a Skua of some sort.

I did see one of those some years ago, swimming around the boat for a while, eating scraps I threw to it.

[Yowie]

7 minutes ago, Larkin said:

Nice feed of flatties Dave! Hard work pulling up lines all day with only spikies on the end.

I’ve seen one of those birds out there too - it came over to say hello. Was a few weeks back.

Thanks Chris. Mate wanted to try near Kurnell for a change, then anchor before sunset. He changed his mind and wanted to keep drifting until fairly dark, then head home. Spikies 2 at a time on occasions.

I kept half a dozen of the larger spikies, added to the smallest flattie fillets (yes I caught it), I was going to use the spikey fillets as salted baits for next time. As the blue spots were scarce (too many spikies taking baits), I boned the fillets, a fiddly job to remove the bones, but cooked them up in a lime coconut potato tumeric sauce. Very tasty, even the wife liked it - have cooked the recipe before.

4 bigger flattie fillets for another night.

So many spikies out there, and because of their small size, they are tossed back. Grow to about 34cm, my biggest is 32cm. Similar to the red spot whiting, small fish, but the boned fillets are very tasty, and very popular in the food trade.

[Larkin]

13 hours ago, Yowie said:

Thanks Chris. Mate wanted to try near Kurnell for a change, then anchor before sunset. He changed his mind and wanted to keep drifting until fairly dark, then head home. Spikies 2 at a time on occasions.

I kept half a dozen of the larger spikies, added to the smallest flattie fillets (yes I caught it), I was going to use the spikey fillets as salted baits for next time. As the blue spots were scarce (too many spikies taking baits), I boned the fillets, a fiddly job to remove the bones, but cooked them up in a lime coconut potato tumeric sauce. Very tasty, even the wife liked it - have cooked the recipe before.

4 bigger flattie fillets for another night.

So many spikies out there, and because of their small size, they are tossed back. Grow to about 34cm, my biggest is 32cm. Similar to the red spot whiting, small fish, but the boned fillets are very tasty, and very popular in the food trade.

That recipe sounds really nice. 
Is the species the longspined flathead?

 

 

[kantong]

a good feed there. Much tastier than the long tom I bet.

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, Larkin said:

That recipe sounds really nice. 
Is the species the longspined flathead?

 

 

Longispinus or something similar. The pesky little PITA ones. No legal length, and no shortage of them. I will post the recipe.

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, kantong said:

a good feed there. Much tastier than the long tom I bet.

Certainly better eating than the tom.