Bate Bay

[Larkin]

Gday raiders!

With Gunnamatta Bay ramp reopened, decided to fish local - Bate Bay and south past jibbon. Loaded up on livies, and tried along the cliffs for kings, no takers. Tried the reefs too, but only got rubbish fish. 
Hit up the flatty drift - got 5, largest two at 48cm and 45cm. No spikies where I was fishing, and only one undersized. But bites were sparse compared to what I normally see, so took about 1.5-2 hours to get those 5 fish. By midday hit up some of the shallower reefs to try for some squid. Got 2 quite large ones on two drifts. Some big squids out there atm!

with plenty in the esky called it a day.

[XD351]

Nice fish and Squid ! Strange how Botany Bay seems to only have small squid at the moment but a few km south you get those beauties! 

[Bryant fish]

Well done great squid

[Yowie]

Nice feed there. Sounded a bit slow, though lack of annoying spikies does help.

Now back in Sydney, so will give it a go during the week.

[Little_Flatty]

I can imagine the family saying fish for dinner…AGAIN 🤣

Sounds like a good session! Well done.

[Isaac Ct]

Nice stuff Larkin, another good bag. Interesting that squid are out still, will have to have another crack at them.

[jenno64]

Nice bag Chris

Entree and main sorted👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

[Larkin]

14 hours ago, XD351 said:

Nice fish and Squid ! Strange how Botany Bay seems to only have small squid at the moment but a few km south you get those beauties! 

Thanks XD! Some very good sized ones out there at the moment.

5 hours ago, Bryant fish said:

Well done great squid

Thanks Bryant! The largest I’ve caught this year, so far…

3 hours ago, Yowie said:

Nice feed there. Sounded a bit slow, though lack of annoying spikies does help.

Now back in Sydney, so will give it a go during the week.

Thanks Dave, drove all over bate bay lol. I had wanted to explore a bit, so dropped a line at a few places.

Conditions looking good this week. Flatties are sparse, but I think the salted bonito/mackerel baits make a difference. I tried yakka fillet but the strip baits out performed with no hits on the yakka. As soon as the salted baits hit the water a big puff of concentrated flavour wafts off them.

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

I can imagine the family saying fish for dinner…AGAIN 🤣

Sounds like a good session! Well done.

Thanks Mike!

Haha, I’ve heard that many a time mate! 😆 

But my fish n chips are the 💣! and they always come back for seconds. 😎

2 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Nice stuff Larkin, another good bag. Interesting that squid are out still, will have to have another crack at them.

Thanks Isaac! big ones out there atm, these were outside on the deeper reefs 15-30m

2 hours ago, jenno64 said:

Nice bag Chris

Entree and main sorted👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Thanks Rob! You know it mate!

[Yowie]

7 hours ago, Larkin said:

 

Thanks Dave, drove all over bate bay lol. I had wanted to explore a bit, so dropped a line at a few places.

Conditions looking good this week. Flatties are sparse, but I think the salted bonito/mackerel baits make a difference. I tried yakka fillet but the strip baits out performed with no hits on the yakka. As soon as the salted baits hit the water a big puff of concentrated flavour wafts off them.

 

I might give the flatties a try later in the week. Should have some salted fillets of something in the freezer.

Mate put his boat in for service 3 weeks ago. "the crane broke down, very busy, you will get it back tomorrow" etc.  Still not back, but no names on who it is in the Hacking.

[Larkin]

 

Battered flatty and chips last night. Salt & Pepper calamari tonight. Crispy coating and super tender!

I’ve experimented with a lot of coatings and blends trying to find the crispy one - here it is!!

50% tapioca flour

50% potato flour (potato starch)

salt & heaps of fine cracked black pepper.

Score and cut into squares. Exactly 30mins tenderising in lemon juice prior to coating and deep frying in hot vegetable oil. No more, no less if you want it spot on tender.

Don’t overcook!!

[Scooter0069]

Nice bag Larkin and dinner looks great had a try myself on Sunday got a few flatheads for a feed wasn’t much of a drift didn’t help had to keep moving around to find them

[Larkin]

11 hours ago, Scooter0069 said:

Nice bag Larkin and dinner looks great had a try myself on Sunday got a few flatheads for a feed wasn’t much of a drift didn’t help had to keep moving around to find them

Thanks Scooter!

top effort mate! A few about but got to find them.
Luckily there were no small ones where I was, one thing I don’t like is bringing up small ones non stop to get to a good one.

[Basil D]

On 9/23/2023 at 8:23 PM, Larkin said:

Gday raiders!

With Gunnamatta Bay ramp reopened, decided to fish local - Bate Bay and south past jibbon. Loaded up on livies, and tried along the cliffs for kings, no takers. Tried the reefs too, but only got rubbish fish. 
Hit up the flatty drift - got 5, largest two at 48cm and 45cm. No spikies where I was fishing, and only one undersized. But bites were sparse compared to what I normally see, so took about 1.5-2 hours to get those 5 fish. By midday hit up some of the shallower reefs to try for some squid. Got 2 quite large ones on two drifts. Some big squids out there atm!

with plenty in the esky called it a day.

nice flattys and Calamari .

How sad it is and frustrating not to have the numbers of calamri we used to get 

[Pickles]

Another great report @Larkin, those are solid squid Chris and a lovely catch of Flatties - some nice fillets there.

[Larkin]

22 hours ago, Basil D said:

nice flattys and Calamari .

How sad it is and frustrating not to have the numbers of calamri we used to get 

Thanks Basil,

Last year was a good year for squid, this year not as many. But there are some big ones out there at the moment!

10 hours ago, Pickles said:

Another great report @Larkin, those are solid squid Chris and a lovely catch of Flatties - some nice fillets there.

Thanks Bob!

flatties are a little spread out on the drift. The squid I’ve been catching lately all seem to be large.