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Bate Bay


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Now back in Sydney after a month away. Waiting for better weather and it was today.

Headed out this arvo with my fishing mate in his boat. Drifted south of the bombie for the flatties, and 2 red spot whiting. Felt like a few more whiting picking at the baits, but hard to hook on 3/0 with a decent bait. Only a couple of spikies caught, but used them for bait. 

A light breeze from the south-west, not too much swell, and a rather slow drift of around half a knot.

Before sunset, we headed to a reef spot and anchored up. Burleyed away which attracted many yakkas and 1 slimie. Only needed the slimie and a couple of yakkas for bait, used as strip baits.

Pulled up some reef rubbish, pike, small reddies and one reddie just over size. Nearing full darkness, a few tailor came on the bite, with a few bite-offs from them. Not a lot biting at the reef, however, enough to keep us occupied. I also pulled up 2 squid, which missed the photo, both grabbed fish strips and hooked themselves - a small calamari and an arrow. Biggest flattie at 45cm, and biggest tailor at 37cm.

Thought I heard a whale bellowing, but none sighted, also heard a few penguins squawking after sunset. The cooler weather has now started.

fish.jpeg.447_files_files_files.jpg

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Nice catch Dave!

Good mix of fish and a couple of squid too. Whales have started their migration - saw a huge one fully breach in bate bay a couple of weeks back.

ive never caught those red spot whiting - I use 5/0 hooks when out on the drift to weed out the spikies.

I might try and get a feed of them one day just to try them out. What do you recon for bait? You think thin strips of fish on a long shank would work or am I better off with worms. Maybe thin squid strips would work too. 

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43 minutes ago, Larkin said:

Nice catch Dave!

Good mix of fish and a couple of squid too. Whales have started their migration - saw a huge one fully breach in bate bay a couple of weeks back.

ive never caught those red spot whiting - I use 5/0 hooks when out on the drift to weed out the spikies.

I might try and get a feed of them one day just to try them out. What do you recon for bait? You think thin strips of fish on a long shank would work or am I better off with worms. Maybe thin squid strips would work too. 

Thank you, happy with our catch. While I like squid, I need some squid baits for the freezer for future outings.

If you are to target red spots, you would really need something like a size 4 hook, however, you would end up hooking a decent flattie or 2 and they would be harder to pull up and probably drop off, bend the hook, etc.

The red spots live in deeper water. We were fishing in 170 feet, and I have caught them deeper again. Around those depths there are fewer spikies to be hooked. I usually just fillet them, and the little fillets can be crumbed, fried and eaten as finger food. I have purchased them in fish and chip shops, and they are very popular if available.

As Mike stated, try them fried whole - only need to scale and remove gut and head.

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51 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Nice one @Yowie. I'm guessing Mrs Yowie is going 'here we go again...fish for dinner'🤣

@Larkin you're handy with the fryer. Try the red spots fried whole in salt and pepper.

Thank you. Yes, the fish are back on the plate again. 😂

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15 minutes ago, Isaac Ct said:

Good stuff Yowie, really good bag of fish there. 

Well done.

Thank you Issac. The Hacking is rather coloured at present, with more rain on the way. Have you been pulling up a few fish?

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39 minutes ago, Yowie said:

Thank you Issac. The Hacking is rather coloured at present, with more rain on the way. Have you been pulling up a few fish?

Unfortunately not, been deterred by the rain as my last outing in the dirty water produced nothing, have also been busy with sport and school.

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2 hours ago, Isaac Ct said:

Unfortunately not, been deterred by the rain as my last outing in the dirty water produced nothing, have also been busy with sport and school.

Ok. Water cooling off, and the fish start thinning out at this time of year.

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5 hours ago, kantong said:

a nice mixed bag of fish, well done on getting out there.

Thank you, knew the weather was going to be ordinary, so picked the best day we could, and it paid off.

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1 hour ago, jenno64 said:

Good to see you getting amongst the singing flathead Dave🤣 A very nice mixed bag overall, welcome back!

Thanks Rob. A few flatties there again, no sigh of toads which is good.

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