XD351 Posted February 18 Share Posted February 18 (edited) G’day Raiders, I lobbed up to broken bay for a quick fish and to do a bit of recon - arriving on first light. I fished my usual haunts using half pilly ( drifting from either patonga to lion island or flint and steel to lion island ) then ran a few drifts from flint and steel towards patonga after the tide change (11:19am low)but only managed one measly 38cm flattie . I lost a decent hairtail while trying to land it - with a run out tide , SE swell and NW it made the spot very lumpy and I couldn’t stand up in my little boat and that cost me time trying to get close enough to get a grab on the hairtail and the hook pulled 🤬 this was on a green cyclops rig and a whole pilly. I did have a drift across the mouth of Cowan but didn’t get a bite so I decided to do some set up work on my sounder until around 2pm then and went home. A word of warning in regards to sounder set up - I made the mistake of using some settings I got off some American YouTube channel and it rendered my unit unusable- I had to do a factory reset, update the firmware and start again from scratch using some guidance from a sounder tuition course I payed for ( Australian guy and a recognised expert with sounders) As it turned out the course was spot on when it said I won’t need to wander far from factory settings - mainly contrast and brightness or sensitivity. All the fish came from the area circled and on the run out tide . I at least got to try out my new brag mat , this is the one sold for use in a kayak and it forms a V shape when opened so you can lay it across your legs and sit the fish in it to measure , I use one side flat against the floor and the other side forms a backstop stopping the fish sliding off . I found this made photographing much easier and faster - just got to work out a way of training the fish not to move right when I take a photo 🤣🤣🤣 Edited February 18 by XD351 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 A bummer about the hairtail dropping off. Would have made a nice feed with the flattie. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MoocherMan Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 If it’s any comfort I was offshore off Broken Bay all morning yesterday and only got a couple. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 Well done Ian, you always put in a solid effort and great report. Pity about the hairy ... but that's fishing. 38 minutes ago, Yowie said: A bummer about the hairtail dropping off. Reminds me a bit of when you threw away the gemfish at the boat 🤭🤭🤭 Cheers Zoran 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 37 minutes ago, MoocherMan said: If it’s any comfort I was offshore off Broken Bay all morning yesterday and only got a couple. Sorry to hear. But at least you got out on the briny and had a go. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XD351 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 1 hour ago, Yowie said: A bummer about the hairtail dropping off. Would have made a nice feed with the flattie. It has been 30+ yrs since I last ate one - forgotten what they taste like ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XD351 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 1 hour ago, MoocherMan said: If it’s any comfort I was offshore off Broken Bay all morning yesterday and only got a couple. I seen a few guys at the ramp cleaning blue spots but they weren’t big from what I saw . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XD351 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 47 minutes ago, zmk1962 said: Well done Ian, you always put in a solid effort and great report. Pity about the hairy ... but that's fishing. Reminds me a bit of when you threw away the gemfish at the boat 🤭🤭🤭 Cheers Zoran Thank Zoran! I had a sneaking suspicion that it was going to be tough going as my mate fished there a week or two earlier and caught bugger all . I fished half tide rocks a few weeks back and caught bugger all , the fish had moved from their usual holding spot to a place where we never used to get them - maybe the result of the recent dredging? Also my mate decided to fish a whole pilly and got two flatties while I fished a half pilly and got zip - not even a bite ! Work that one out ! Very strange times up there ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kantong Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 well done on the flatty mate and well done on the early release of the hairtail 😁 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryant fish Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 I was out Saturday tried from 35 mtrs to 60 mtrs for 1 keeper i let go the whole system is quiet I haven’t bothered taking a feed home last few trips but i did score 2 octopus which i also let go on Saturday i think Ive lost my mojo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 (edited) Don’t know what’s worse, loosing a fish before you even get a glimpse or loosing it boatside when you know what you’ve lost. Mate 30 years between catches, can understand why loosing it must of sucked! From everyone’s responses sounds like others had similar results up there Edited February 19 by Larkin 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XD351 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 1 hour ago, Larkin said: Don’t know what’s worse, loosing a fish before you even get a glimpse or loosing it boatside when you know what you’ve lost. Mate 30 years between catches, can understand why loosing it must of sucked! From everyone’s responses sounds like others had similar results up there I used to fish for them back then but sort of lost interest once the cold started to get to me as I got older . I would have devastated if it was a pb flattie 😭😭😭😭 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XD351 Posted February 19 Author Share Posted February 19 18 hours ago, Bryant fish said: I was out Saturday tried from 35 mtrs to 60 mtrs for 1 keeper i let go the whole system is quiet I haven’t bothered taking a feed home last few trips but i did score 2 octopus which i also let go on Saturday i think Ive lost my mojo Just gotta keep at it ! From what i have seen on social media there ain’t a lot of flathead around . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zmk1962 Posted February 19 Share Posted February 19 18 hours ago, Bryant fish said: I was out Saturday tried from 35 mtrs to 60 mtrs for 1 keeper i let go the whole system is quiet I haven’t bothered taking a feed home last few trips but i did score 2 octopus which i also let go on Saturday i think Ive lost my mojo Thinking back it’s been like this with very few flatties since that minesweeper was conducting training mid 2023. That low freq sonar must really play havoc with fish stocks. cheers Z 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bryant fish Posted February 20 Share Posted February 20 Minesweepers and trawlers no wonder its buggered 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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