Larkin Posted July 26 Share Posted July 26 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. 21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james Cutler Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 Top report & great photos. Love the Whale. Good haul. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little_Flatty Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 27 Author Share Posted July 27 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little_Flatty Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 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 🤣! 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
big Neil Posted July 27 Share Posted July 27 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 28 Author Share Posted July 28 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. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kantong Posted July 28 Share Posted July 28 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted July 30 Share Posted July 30 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! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted July 31 Author Share Posted July 31 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted August 2 Share Posted August 2 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. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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