Bate Bay

[Yowie]

Headed out with my mate to Bate Bay this arvo. Anchored up, berleyed away, then a hookup  with the bonnie on a bare hook being retrieved. Used one fillet for bait, the other to be salted. Plenty of slimies about as well.

Only 1 trag each today, though my mate pulled up a very large yakka with a small trag hanging on until it hit the surface. The trag swam around the yakka for a little while then back to the bottom. Biggest trag at 44cm.

The reddie not much over the limit.

Just before sundown, some tailor turned up, a few bite offs until we used ganged hooks. Half a dozen each, though we kept what we wanted and released the rest. The biggest  about 48cm.

Near darkness I hooked up what I thought was a nice gummy, however, at the surface I saw the brown back, then it rolled over to reveal the silly grin of a whaler. Around the 1.1 to 1.2 metre mark. Hook cut off.

Some time between bites. When we first headed out, there were large schools of pillies splashing about, which probably attracted the tailor.

Edited April 16 by Yowie

[linewetter]

Great catch! Sounds like a lot of fun and action hooking into that many fish including the ones released 😁

[Little_Flatty]

Great catch as usual Dave, shame about the whaler not being a gummy.

[Yowie]

8 hours ago, linewetter said:

Great catch! Sounds like a lot of fun and action hooking into that many fish including the ones released 😁

It was a bit of action, and a couple of feeds to be had.

[Yowie]

18 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Great catch as usual Dave, shame about the whaler not being a gummy.

Thanks Mike, a couple of feeds in it.

Not much fight from the whaler, so I dropped the landing net over - mate's net is not very big - had the whaler in it, then it bounced out and took off on a screaming run then under the boat, and eventually come up rather docile again. Cut off the hook in case it became agro again. Told my mate to cut it off so he could get near the pointy end for having a small net. 😂

[big Neil]

Hi Dave. Not much happening in the fishing reports so your post is the pick of the crop. I would love a feed of fresh saltwater fish at present, been a while. As usual you always manage to get enough for a feed, well done.

How do you cook the Tailor?

bn

[Yowie]

42 minutes ago, big Neil said:

Hi Dave. Not much happening in the fishing reports so your post is the pick of the crop. I would love a feed of fresh saltwater fish at present, been a while. As usual you always manage to get enough for a feed, well done.

How do you cook the Tailor?

bn

The recent heavy rain upset the fish up river, though it should be returning to normal by now.

I cook the tailor in a number of ways. A fillet on the bbq with lime juice, crumbed and pan fried and a few different recipes. I posted a couple of recipes in the cooking section - bacon topped creamy fish bake, and lime coconut curry fish - also on a mash of sweet potato and potato:  the tailor fillets covered with mashed avocado, lemon juice, parsley, parmeson cheese, butter and oven baked.

[jenno64]

You picked a nice arvo to head out Dave and some nice fillets, do you ever smoke the tailor🤷🏻‍♂️

[Larkin]

Nice Catch Dave!

Plenty of tailor in close at the moment mixed in with Bonnie’s from what ive been hearing.

Those trag will try and swallow fish larger than their mouths - brought up many yakkas that have trag bite marks 3/4 up the fish where the fish hasn’t been able to swallow the bait.

Enjoy the feed!

[kantong]

beautiful weather and great catches. Yummy fillets!

[Yowie]

7 hours ago, jenno64 said:

You picked a nice arvo to head out Dave and some nice fillets, do you ever smoke the tailor🤷🏻‍♂️

It was good weather, not much swell, light wind.

Have not smoked tailor for quite some time. I had a shoe box sized smoker with wood chips for flavour, however, just plain nothing was still good. Hot smoked and eaten, as opposed to cooking then cooling off.

[Yowie]

4 hours ago, kantong said:

beautiful weather and great catches. Yummy fillets!

Thank you.

[Yowie]

6 hours ago, Larkin said:

Nice Catch Dave!

Plenty of tailor in close at the moment mixed in with Bonnie’s from what ive been hearing.

Those trag will try and swallow fish larger than their mouths - brought up many yakkas that have trag bite marks 3/4 up the fish where the fish hasn’t been able to swallow the bait.

Enjoy the feed!

Happy with the catch.

The yakka was more than 30cms long, the trag in the low 40's. It was swimming around the yakka on the surface, looked like having another go at it. Just a greedy trag.

A few better sized tailor about, a couple at 45cm and a slightly bigger one that was released.

As I reported, big schools of pillies on the surface, so something will be feeding on them.

[Isaac Ct]

Good stuff Yowie, still a very nice feed. Had a mate go out this morning with jigs and caught a few rat kings and trag on them. Also been catching a few kings inside gunammata and buraneer bays, seems the kings might be moving into the river finally.

[Yowie]

2 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Good stuff Yowie, still a very nice feed. Had a mate go out this morning with jigs and caught a few rat kings and trag on them. Also been catching a few kings inside gunammata and buraneer bays, seems the kings might be moving into the river finally.

Thank you. A feed tonight, then more in a couple of nights.

Good to see a few kingies moving about in the river. The water is still coloured, however, the fish should be getting hungry.