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Headed out early this morning to Maianbar flats, arrived about half light and started pumping nippers. A bit quiet at first, then some whiting turned up. Fairly constant bites until the tide slowed (run up). Not big whiting, biggest at 34cm and some just over the limit. Half a dozen or so released just under the limit. 

That was enough for me for a few feeds, so I decided to head home. Looked at the clock and it was right on 7am, so an early trip back to the ramp.

I caught them all by wading in the water, less than knee deep.

fish.jpeg.462_files_files_files.jpg

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1 hour ago, jenno64 said:

Very nice catch Dave! Good to see the tings are coming on!

 

Thanks Rob. Surprised by the number of them, though not big ones, plenty of fillets.

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Some nice fillets! Your wading technique seems to do the trick. I think the sand being kicked up can attract them too.

I Must of just missed you at the ramp - was there at first light.

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3 hours ago, Larkin said:

Some nice fillets! Your wading technique seems to do the trick. I think the sand being kicked up can attract them too.

I Must of just missed you at the ramp - was there at first light.

Thank you. Pumping the nippers, and wading about stirs up the sand, attracting a few, though I do find some up current as well, where there is no sand being stirred up. 

Saw your van there after I returned, parked not far from me, so I guessed you were not far behind in launch time.

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Nice one Yowie, that’s a great haul. Sounds similar to what I do on that sand flat - if find yourself interested in some company you’re welcome to flick me a message.

Are you fishing the yabbies unweighted? I’ve been fishing them with a sinker to get additional casting distance from the Spit.

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4 hours ago, SpeedyGiraffe49 said:

Nice one Yowie, that’s a great haul. Sounds similar to what I do on that sand flat - if find yourself interested in some company you’re welcome to flick me a message.

Are you fishing the yabbies unweighted? I’ve been fishing them with a sinker to get additional casting distance from the Spit.

I use a size 0 ball sinker running free, helps with the casting. I have tried unweighted nippers to float along in the current, but not for a while. The seagulls can fly down and grab the floating nippers, then the fish are scared off.

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On 10/4/2024 at 11:24 AM, Yowie said:

Headed out early this morning to Maianbar flats, arrived about half light and started pumping nippers. A bit quiet at first, then some whiting turned up. Fairly constant bites until the tide slowed (run up). Not big whiting, biggest at 34cm and some just over the limit. Half a dozen or so released just under the limit. 

That was enough for me for a few feeds, so I decided to head home. Looked at the clock and it was right on 7am, so an early trip back to the ramp.

I caught them all by wading in the water, less than knee deep.

fish.jpeg.462_files_files_files.jpg

Yowie, Im Betting your retired , what a nice way to live, catch your feed and enjoy the water ways , this is living .

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2 hours ago, Basil D said:

Yowie, Im Betting your retired , what a nice way to live, catch your feed and enjoy the water ways , this is living .

Yes Basil, retired since 2010. Have been fishing The Hacking since about 5 years old, that is 40 or 50 years ago, well, may be a bit longer. 😂

Certainly like fishing there.

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9 hours ago, Yowie said:

Yes Basil, retired since 2010. Have been fishing The Hacking since about 5 years old, that is 40 or 50 years ago, well, may be a bit longer. 😂

Certainly like fishing there.

How do you find the fishing compared to 40/50 years ago 

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8 minutes ago, Basil D said:

How do you find the fishing compared to 40/50 years ago 

The jewfish are not in numbers like they use to be. My fishing mate and I would find them in a few different spots, though we had one favourite spot (which I fish at different times of the year) where the best catch was 42 in a late arvo/night time session. We would keep a few each for home, and swap a couple with neighbours for beef, lamb, fresh eggs, cakes - the barter system. 

Release what we did not need. At this spot, on full darkness the jewies would swim up under the boat, about 15 feet from the boat, and grab any bait that was dropped over - you could not get down to whatever else was down there. 20 or 30 a night. They were a bloody pest in those days. 😂 The increase in minimum size to 70cm (used to be 45) and 1 only is a good idea. 

At this jewie spot, I pulled some trags over the last couple of years, just over and just under size, so not big fish, but none in previous years. For a few years, small hammerheads were in numbers, only 2 to 3 feet long, angry little buggers that tried to bite me when unhooking them, then not seen again. Over a couple of other years nannygai were on the bite, then never seen again. They were between 1 and 1 1/2  pound each, bigger than any I have ever caught outside.

Tailor are not in the numbers either. I remember it was normal to catch tailor every month of the year, not so now.

Various small tuna species visit at times. I saw a photo some years ago of a 26 kg yellowfin caught in South West Arm, and when I was a kid fishing at Yowie Bay wharf, a tuna jumped out from the wharf, it was 4 to 5 foot long.

Other fish come and go in numbers. Yakkas are about in places, but the big schools of slimies are not there, not many caught up river at all, though outside there are the big schools.

Still whiting, bream, jackets, flatties, flounder, kingies, mullet, garfish, reddies (biggest at 58cm), blue swimmers and others to be caught. Nearly 20 years ago, I pulled out a spotted mackerel near Lilli Pilli, also a few cobia.

Still many pesky rays, shovel noses, banjo sharks, big black rays, eagle rays, toads to be found.

Various sharks are there as well. Many years ago, a workmate used to do a bit of scuba diving fixing various moorings in the deep water. He had a small tiger shark swim past him. 

One day I pulled up the anchor, a bit of mud on the anchor, and there was a tooth from a grey nurse shark in the bottom of the boat. It was very old tooth, but indicates grey nurses sharks must have been up there at some time.

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