Flathead at DY wide and a bit of trolling

[saltrix]

Decided to chance a trip this morning despite a variable forecast, but a final check early gave a good forecast.

Launched a bit late about 6 at Tunks to a perfect calm morning.

Trolled around Dobroyd where my mate  caught a whopper salmon which gave a good aerial display.

Then over to North Head where I got one bonito but it was a bit rough to get in close

Then out to DY wide where the flathead were mixed with lots of spikeys and things were quite as there was almost no drift and no wind.

We caught most of the fish on cuttlefish which I purchased from my local fish shop as a special.  Our pilchards were ignored.

I forgot to put the measure in the picture but the 2 marbled flathead were measured at 34cm and the bluespot were all a good size.

The bite was better later morning when theNW picked up a bit and we got a good drift.

We fished a paternoster rig with 1 lb sinkers, hardly sports fishing but we got a feed.

The trolling was done with deep diving plastic lures.

 

[TheFishyFisherman]

Nice flatties. Sounds like you had a really fun day!

[Yowie]

Enough there for a couple of good feeds, nice flatties and a good salmon. The lack of wind and drift gives the spikies time to grab the baits and hook up.

When the drift slows to almost nothing, I sometimes drop the rig over, hit the bottom then pull up a few feet immediately. Jig the line up and down a bit just off the bottom. Some spikies will still rise to have a go at the baits, but not always hook up. The larger blue spots will readily swim up to the bait and have a go. More likely to hook them than the spikies. A strip of spikey fillet 6 to 8 cms long can make the spikies less likely to hook up.

Edited 19 hours ago by Yowie

[bessell1955]

They are great Flatties, well done!

[saltrix]

Thanks for the tip to avoid spikies. They do slow down the chance of a good bluespot or marbled as it takes time to come up, get them off , rebait and get backdown.