Out wide of port hacking

[Larkin]

Gday raiders, decided to go for a troll out wide yesterday. Trolled out and along the 200m mark close to the southern canyons in an area I tend to find bait stacked up. Temp wasn’t right, sitting at 17-17.3 degrees. 18-18.5 is what they’ve been getting the fish at. Listening to the radio only one bluefin caught, out of the 15 or so boats who were chatting. 
 

Had a visit from a minke whale / never seen one of these before. Was about 6m long and very curios. Spent about 5 mins swimming around and under me. Even popped up a few times next to me. Looked just like a mini blue whale.

 

With no luck out wide, hit up yowie’s whiting spot on the way back in. I used a twin circle hook whiting rig - which worked extremely well with tiny strips of slimie just as Yowie recommended. Rig would hit the bottom, 10 seconds later I’d be bringing up one or two fish. Circles kept the fish attached on the way up. One flathead in the mix too.

These small red spot whiting are excellent on plate and well worth targeting. Will be flouring & deep frying them whole - the meat peels easily off the bones & has a beautiful crispy skin. Plan to match with a dipping sauce or tartare.

[Yowie]

Nice haul of fish there Chris, they certainly taste very nice, even though only small. A long way to haul up from 200 feet.

Some years back, 2 whales swam past the boat, similar to those in size but could not I.D. them. 

[james Cutler]

Top report & great photos. Love the Whale. Good haul.

[Little_Flatty]

All this red spot talk is making me hungry! Alas I don’t own water craft and I do own an air fryer!

Good job for making the most of what is available.

[Larkin]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

Nice haul of fish there Chris, they certainly taste very nice, even though only small. A long way to haul up from 200 feet.

Some years back, 2 whales swam past the boat, similar to those in size but could not I.D. them. 

Thanks Dave - that area saved me pulling up a heap of tiny flatties in between. 
 

Amazing what you see out there - most wouldn’t realise we get so many species of whales off Sydney. I had a few visitors yesterday - an albatross, a pod of common grey/white dolphins, a seal, and the minke whale.

2 hours ago, james Cutler said:

Top report & great photos. Love the Whale. Good haul.

Thanks James - had a few different sea creatures visit. The minke whale definitely the highlight. 
 

2 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

All this red spot talk is making me hungry! Alas I don’t own water craft and I do own an air fryer!

Good job for making the most of what is available.

Haha thanks Mike! if you lived closer I’d drop some off

 

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, Larkin said:

Haha thanks Mike! if you lived closer I’d drop some off

Might be time to move down your way…and sit back in my hammock instead of partaking in this super expensive fishing activity 🤣!

[big Neil]

Hi Chris. Can you explain the process/target, etc in the statement "trolled along the 200m mark" please? Having never seen the process I have no idea what it means.

Good pics of the whale too.

Cheers, bn

[Larkin]

5 hours ago, big Neil said:

Hi Chris. Can you explain the process/target, etc in the statement "trolled along the 200m mark" please? Having never seen the process I have no idea what it means.

Good pics of the whale too.

Cheers, bn

Hi Neil, I was trolling skirts and profidgies (large heavy soft plastic lures) along the 200 meter depth line along the top of the continental shelf, for tuna. See pic. you can see the depth lines go up and down the whole coastline.

from around the 130m mark (where they tend to place the wide FADS) the depth starts to drop more rapidly to around 250m-300m. 

Past the 300m mark you reach the canyons where the water depth drops dramatically down to around 1600m over roughly 10klm. This area is where a lot of the game boats fish for tuna.

I’m looking for changes in water temps when out there - I’ll check the current & seatemp maps before heading out. Usually the radio chatter will indicate what temp/depth the game boats are finding the fish at.
 

[kantong]

nice bag of fish there. The very few times I've had the opportunity to see a whale, it's always been a memorable experience.

[jenno64]

It amazes me that red spot whiting are out there that deep, considering their cousins can be caught in 10cm of water - nice feed! Amazing sight of the whale there Chris!

[Larkin]

On 7/29/2024 at 9:09 AM, kantong said:

nice bag of fish there. The very few times I've had the opportunity to see a whale, it's always been a memorable experience.

Thanks Kantong. I see plenty of humpbacks out there, but first time seeing a minkie. Was definitely a very curious whale.

On 7/30/2024 at 1:07 PM, jenno64 said:

It amazes me that red spot whiting are out there that deep, considering their cousins can be caught in 10cm of water - nice feed! Amazing sight of the whale there Chris!

thanks Rob, plenty of those school whiting out there. There’s a lot of flathead out there too - but it seems that they each have their own patches. 

[Pickles]

Great report Chris, bad luck about the Bluefin (would really give you a “hurry up” if you hooked up on the ‘ski). I had a whale pop next to my boat a few years back and exhaled - it stank.