Port Hacking

[Yowie]

Headed out early this morning, to the deep water up from Lilli Pilli. Quiet at first until a little bit of light appeared in the sky. The rod with a pillie was doing nothing, so gave it a lift and the flattie was sitting on it. Pulled it towards the boat, not a lot of fight, then a handline takes off. Grabbed that and it was the jewie, so attention towards the jewie. Put the rod down and the flattie decides to wake up and fight, trying to pull the rod out of the boat. Fighting flattie on the rod, and the jewie kicking away on the handline. Attention paid to the jewie due to the fight by it.

A second handline takes off, one of the reddies so grab that, hook up and let it run. Jewie still kicking away on the handline, rod between the legs trying to retrieve the flattie. Jewie netted and dumped into the box, flattie then netted and dumped in to the box, reddie retrieved and no lines in the water for a while. Flattie photoed and released.

Not big reddies, biggest only 32cm, but provided a nice feed (another recipe to keep the wife happy) Plenty of just under reddies as well. Only thing jumping were pillies, not a decent fish to be seen near me. Also pulled up a nice blue swimmer and dropped another. The crabs at this time of year head to the deeper water, but are harder to land due to having to pull them up from the deeper water. If they let go of the bait, they swim off and are hard to locate again.

Headed to South West Arm to look for a squid, and saw quite a few jumping mullet near the mouth. Used a small piece of bread on handline for the mullet, and dropped a bigger one, also small bream taking the bread. The mullet were on the move, around the berley for a short time, then disappearing for a minute or 2 before returning. Had enough so headed home.

[wazatherfisherman]

You need another arm Dave! 3 fish at once is pretty good. Some good eating in that lot!

[Little_Flatty]

What a scene! Legal jewie on one line, above-slot flathead on the other. Each fish on their own would be a notable catch for most anglers, but just a day in the life of you, Dave! Well done.

[linewetter]

Those are some huge fish!  I'm really impressed on the jewie on the handline - on the videos I've watched, they seem like a really hard fight on rod and reel.  The fact that you were able to land it on a handline, I'm shocked.  Really goes to show that you can do it with the right technique.  I've been thinking of buying a handline just to have in my backpack as a backup if I'm somewhere without a rod and reel and you might have sold me on it haha.

[Yowie]

57 minutes ago, wazatherfisherman said:

You need another arm Dave! 3 fish at once is pretty good. Some good eating in that lot!

Thanks Waza. The only trouble with fishing more than one line -  not the first time and will not be the last.

Many years ago, my fishing mate and I use to target the school jewies that frequented the Hacking. Always 3 handlines each, different baits, to see what was happening. A school swam past and the 6 lines took off one after another. We landed the six jewies, but it was lines crossing over, tangles, fish flapping in the line in the boat, more tangles, and a bit of language. 🤣

[Yowie]

59 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

What a scene! Legal jewie on one line, above-slot flathead on the other. Each fish on their own would be a notable catch for most anglers, but just a day in the life of you, Dave! Well done.

Well Mike, it is not easy trying to wind up a fish, rod between the legs, and another fish on a handline that wants to take line. Must look like a circus to others motoring along. 😂

[Yowie]

11 minutes ago, linewetter said:

Those are some huge fish!  I'm really impressed on the jewie on the handline - on the videos I've watched, they seem like a really hard fight on rod and reel.  The fact that you were able to land it on a handline, I'm shocked.  Really goes to show that you can do it with the right technique.  I've been thinking of buying a handline just to have in my backpack as a backup if I'm somewhere without a rod and reel and you might have sold me on it haha.

Thank you. Handlines are easy for smaller fish, however, bigger fish like jewies, kingies, small sharks and large rays are not easy and can panic the inexperienced angler causing the line to break. A large eagle ray going flat chat out from the boat will cause line burn on the fingers, and I mean a small burn mark that leaves a furrow in the skin.

No problem with taking a handline along in the backpack.