Bate Bay

[Yowie]

Headed out to Bate Bay with my fishing mate yesterday arvo, leaving after the storm had dumped it's rain. Wind forecast was light winds from the west during the day, however, it was southerly winds just about all day.

We tried some trolling around the bombie and down to Little Marley, the only hit was from a mutton bird that dived onto a lure.

Moved back to Bate Bay and anchored. Burleyed away and not one yakka to be seen at all. The fish were scattered, at times no bites, other times plenty of mado pickers. Stayed until near full darkness then headed home. Only had pillies, cooked prawn heads and a salted fillet for bait as we were expecting yakkas to turn up. 

Not big trags, the biggest at 46cm, and the biggest reddie at 41cm. Enough for a couple of feeds each.

I also pulled up 3 rat kingies, 2 of them taking an unweighted cooked prawn head.

[Fried Rice]

Nothing wrong with that catch, great feed. Well done. Never tried cooked prawn heads as bait.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Fried Rice said:

Nothing wrong with that catch, great feed. Well done. Never tried cooked prawn heads as bait.

Thank you.

If I have a feed of prawns, I freeze the shells and heads, usually kept for burley, but sometimes use the heads on a hook. Peel off the shell, hook point inside the head and out through the legs near the rear, then the hook point back through the legs near the front of the head and up behind the eyes. Need to use a reasonable sized hook, 4/0 or bigger, otherwise the point does not poke out of the head. Uncooked prawn heads also work, though a bit softer than the cooked ones.

[jenno64]

That’s a great haul Dave, especially with the second tier baits!

[Pickles]

Lovely bag of fish Dave, seems that snapper and Trag have replaced the Flatties, which seem to have gone quiet. Some lovely fillets of Trag for tea.

ill have to give prawn heads a go on the Kingies.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, jenno64 said:

That’s a great haul Dave, especially with the second tier baits!

Thanks Rob. Things were looking grim with the bait disappearing, 3 pillies and a few prawn heads left when we packed up. 

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Pickles said:

Lovely bag of fish Dave, seems that snapper and Trag have replaced the Flatties, which seem to have gone quiet. Some lovely fillets of Trag for tea.

ill have to give prawn heads a go on the Kingies.

Thanks Bob, trag fillets tonight, then a few reddie fillets in a couple of nights.

I was not expecting the kingies to take the prawn heads, but I have also had them take a tiny piece of bait on a yakka handline, which usually ends in tears, and they do not stop, the line just runs out. 😂

[Pickles]

50 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Thanks Bob, trag fillets tonight, then a few reddie fillets in a couple of nights.

I was not expecting the kingies to take the prawn heads, but I have also had them take a tiny piece of bait on a yakka handline, which usually ends in tears, and they do not stop, the line just runs out. 😂

Yep, been there, been done like that 

[Larkin]

Nice collection Dave!

Can’t go wrong with reds and trag.

if you can’t find yakkas around Jibbon, hit up middle ground. They hold up there in large schools pretty much 24hours. Don’t need burley, just a sabiki - no bait.

[Yowie]

9 hours ago, Larkin said:

Nice collection Dave!

Can’t go wrong with reds and trag.

if you can’t find yakkas around Jibbon, hit up middle ground. They hold up there in large schools pretty much 24hours. Don’t need burley, just a sabiki - no bait.

Thanks Chris.

We were fishing at the '6' (which we discussed recently) and not a yakka to be seen. Usually yakkas there all the time.

Happy with what we caught.

Mate lost a rod overboard. He had it in the rod holder, which was in the wooden gunnel along the rear side of the boat. The rod tip pulled down hard from a fish, broke off part of the gunnel and headed for the water. He grabbed the rod holder and gunnel but could not grab the rod. The rod was pulled away through the water. 

[Isaac Ct]

Nice stuff Yowie, still a nice feed.

Well done

[Fried Rice]

16 hours ago, Yowie said:

Thanks Bob, trag fillets tonight, then a few reddie fillets in a couple of nights.

I was not expecting the kingies to take the prawn heads, but I have also had them take a tiny piece of bait on a yakka handline, which usually ends in tears, and they do not stop, the line just runs out. 😂

Also been there done that. Target then off the yak with fresh squid on heavy gear and they swim past the bait. Target Leatherjacket on the bream stick with a size 8 longshank and a bit of prawn and................ping.

[Yowie]

1 minute ago, Fried Rice said:

Also been there done that. Target then off the yak with fresh squid on heavy gear and they swim past the bait. Target Leatherjacket on the bream stick with a size 8 longshank and a bit of prawn and................ping.

Kingies can be finicky.

A few years back, I grabbed a handful of bread, held it overboard to wet it and mulch it, then I felt something chewing on my fingers. Looked overboard and it was a small school of rat kingies. The only bait they would take was bread, nothing else, so I hooked up a couple on the whiting rod with bread baits. 6 pound line. Good sport.   Took forever to bring them on board.

[Larkin]

5 hours ago, Yowie said:

Thanks Chris.

We were fishing at the '6' (which we discussed recently) and not a yakka to be seen. Usually yakkas there all the time.

Happy with what we caught.

Mate lost a rod overboard. He had it in the rod holder, which was in the wooden gunnel along the rear side of the boat. The rod tip pulled down hard from a fish, broke off part of the gunnel and headed for the water. He grabbed the rod holder and gunnel but could not grab the rod. The rod was pulled away through the water. 

Similar thing happened this morning - My mate was joined by a guy who was new to JetSki fishing - hadn’t clicked in the rod holder properly and overboard went a brand new shimano Saragossa 8000 reel and rod. Didn’t even get to cast it once.

 

[Basil D]

Looks like everyone is getting into the trag

nice snapper too 

[Crabstar]

How was the boat traffic yowie?

think I’m staying off the water for minimum another week or so with the holidays in full swing

 

good feed!

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, Basil D said:

Looks like everyone is getting into the trag

nice snapper too 

Thanks Basil. Happy with the trag for a change, reddies are always welcome.

[Yowie]

47 minutes ago, Crabstar said:

How was the boat traffic yowie?

think I’m staying off the water for minimum another week or so with the holidays in full swing

 

good feed!

Very few boats outside, however, the southerly wind during the day kicked up a little bit of swell, so that may have put a few off heading outside.

The upside was there were a few good waves landing on Wanda the next day, so caught a few waves there.

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, Larkin said:

Similar thing happened this morning - My mate was joined by a guy who was new to JetSki fishing - hadn’t clicked in the rod holder properly and overboard went a brand new shimano Saragossa 8000 reel and rod. Didn’t even get to cast it once.

 

An expensive way to learn what not to do.

Mate was placing the knife in the holder on the bait board, a wave rocked the boat and the knife headed overboard.

Retrieving the anchor with his electric winch, it stopped short just under the boat. Sounded like the gearing had stripped itself. New winch around $3,000.

So a winch, knife, rod and reel overboard - expensive reddies and trags.  🤣

Edited December 29, 2023 by Yowie

[Larkin]

34 minutes ago, Yowie said:

An expensive way to learn what not to do.

Mate was placing the knife in the holder on the bait board, a wave rocked the boat and the knife headed overboard.

Retrieving the anchor with his electric winch, it stopped short just under the boat. Sounded like the gearing had stripped itself. New winch around $3,000.

So a winch, knife, rod and reel overboard - expensive reddies and trags.  🤣

Poor bloke! 

[whiskey299]

Nice silver and red! 

A general question to the wider community how do you like to cook trags?

 

On 12/28/2023 at 1:56 PM, Fried Rice said:

Nothing wrong with that catch, great feed. Well done. Never tried cooked prawn heads as bait.

This is also used to chase groper so don't throw these away!

[Yowie]

18 minutes ago, whiskey299 said:

Nice silver and red! 

A general question to the wider community how do you like to cook trags?

 

This is also used to chase groper so don't throw these away!

Cook them in fillets. The larger ones sometimes in cutlets.

Similar cooking methods to jewies. Tried a new recipe with the fillets - lemon juice and rind, cut veges, chives, wrapped in baking paper, then opened up and placed on a plate of stir fried spinach with garlic flavouring. Even the missus liked it.