Bate Bay

[Yowie]

(no photo, something stuffed up)

 

Headed out early this morning, south east of the bombie and found a few spikies, used them for bait. Moved out a bit further and found some blue spots. The first one at 42cm, then all around the just over and just under sizes. Kept a few at the 34 to 37 cm mark, just none of any size. A tiger flattie came up as well as a 32cm flounder.

Once I drifted to the deeper water, guessing around the 200 foot mark, the bites stopped, so I dropped over another rod - small hooks and small baits. Was hoping for a red spot whiting, could feel them picking at the bait but no hook ups, other than from baby tiger flatties.

Moved to the centre of Bate Bay and drifted there for a few more blue spots, again small sizes and throwbacks. When the bites stopped, I dropped over the small bait rig. More little tiger flatties and one red spot at 22cm. A few small taps on the baits, but no hookups. Guessing the red spots were rather small - one of the blue spots spat out a red spot whiting about 8cm long. Some time between bites.

Headed home after 3 to 4 hours drifting about. 10 flatties, 1 flounder and 1 red spot whiting.

A few whales about, but they were close to the Merries reef area.

[james Cutler]

Top report & a good haul.

Well done.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, james Cutler said:

Top report & a good haul.

Well done.

Thank you, more fish for the wife.  😂

[zmk1962]

Nicely done Dave. Roll on summer for some better conditioned scale. 
cheers Zoran 

[Yowie]

2 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

Nicely done Dave. Roll on summer for some better conditioned scale. 
cheers Zoran 

Thank you Zoran. A little bit of bounce but not too much, short chop being deflected from the National Park shoreline, drift also not too fast.

Edited July 11 by Yowie

[Little_Flatty]

Though there wasn't a lot of size to the fish, still a very good feed there Dave. Well done.

[Yowie]

6 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said:

Though there wasn't a lot of size to the fish, still a very good feed there Dave. Well done.

Thank you Mike. A few feeds in there. A fairly pleasant day just drifting about, not too many other boats out.

[Larkin]

Nice feed of flatties Dave!

where I was finding the whiting it was void of blue spots too - did find a tiger like you did.

were you using a paternoster rig? 
I’ve thought about using a standard running sinker rig - might work better on whiting - but would need a heavy sinker and only on a day with low drift. Keeping the bait closer to the sand and easier for the whiting to grab.

ive even thought about attaching a set of small assist hooks like they use on whiting lures.

[Yowie]

40 minutes ago, Larkin said:

Nice feed of flatties Dave!

where I was finding the whiting it was void of blue spots too - did find a tiger like you did.

were you using a paternoster rig? 
I’ve thought about using a standard running sinker rig - might work better on whiting - but would need a heavy sinker and only on a day with low drift. Keeping the bait closer to the sand and easier for the whiting to grab.

ive even thought about attaching a set of small assist hooks like they use on whiting lures.

Thanks Chris. 2 feeds for us and some to a friend.

The red spots could be in shallower water (150 feet or so, though the spikies tend to grab the bait as soon as it hits the bottom) however, do not catch spikies at 200 or so feet depth. 

I was using the paternoster rig, size 2 hook with only a small thin strip of fresh spikie fillet, about 1.5cm long, threaded on twice onto the hook. Needed 8 ounce lead sinker to hold bottom. Was thinking of a smaller hook, but only had size 6, no size 4 left in the tackle box. Size 6 too small for out there, as it was I hooked a blue spot at depth on the tiny bait. The little tigers were hooked on the small hook and bait, the larger baits only caught a legal tiger. The whiting appear to rise to the baits on the paternoster rig, so will keep using it.

3 of the blue spots had partially decomposed prawns in their stomachs, about 10 to 12 cm long. Cannot ever remember finding prawns inside blue spots before, so the prawns are out there at 150 feet depth or more. I usually examine what I find in the stomachs of fish I catch, and blue spots eat just about anything that they can catch - small fish, small sand eels, starfish, crabs, baby box fish about 3cms long, and some things that don't look like edible food.

[Larkin]

14 hours ago, Yowie said:

Thanks Chris. 2 feeds for us and some to a friend.

The red spots could be in shallower water (150 feet or so, though the spikies tend to grab the bait as soon as it hits the bottom) however, do not catch spikies at 200 or so feet depth. 

I was using the paternoster rig, size 2 hook with only a small thin strip of fresh spikie fillet, about 1.5cm long, threaded on twice onto the hook. Needed 8 ounce lead sinker to hold bottom. Was thinking of a smaller hook, but only had size 6, no size 4 left in the tackle box. Size 6 too small for out there, as it was I hooked a blue spot at depth on the tiny bait. The little tigers were hooked on the small hook and bait, the larger baits only caught a legal tiger. The whiting appear to rise to the baits on the paternoster rig, so will keep using it.

3 of the blue spots had partially decomposed prawns in their stomachs, about 10 to 12 cm long. Cannot ever remember finding prawns inside blue spots before, so the prawns are out there at 150 feet depth or more. I usually examine what I find in the stomachs of fish I catch, and blue spots eat just about anything that they can catch - small fish, small sand eels, starfish, crabs, baby box fish about 3cms long, and some things that don't look like edible food.

Sometimes I find these tiny crabs jump out/off them that scurry around like blowflies.

a mate of mine is out on the flatty drift right now - was down south past coal cliff, said no one was catching anything down there this morning. 

[Yowie]

6 hours ago, Larkin said:

Sometimes I find these tiny crabs jump out/off them that scurry around like blowflies.

a mate of mine is out on the flatty drift right now - was down south past coal cliff, said no one was catching anything down there this morning. 

Should have been good drifting out there this morning. A westerly breeze, then I saw an easterly breeze in the flags at North Cronulla late morning. After lunch I headed to Wanda for a body surf, dead calm as far as I could see - waves increasing a little so a few good waves, water about 18 degrees - then wind to the south about 2.30pm just after I walked out.