Little_Flatty

@wazatherfisherman I think your posts help others as much as they help you. Obviously the best therapy is to go fishing, but at various points this year, that hasn't been an option for us. Next best option is watching people fish. Then the third best option is to read about other people's adventures. Your adventures in the years go by far surpass anything I would ever have dared to do and probably will never do. So it's great to hear your stories for a different perspective on our chosen sport. I for one could be interested in a book. @mrsswordfisherman as one of the members who has returned after a relatively long hiatus, thanks for keeping the community going. Though I'm a fraction of the fisho I used to be, it is always nice to have this community a few clicks away.

Yeah it's double freedom for me as I've just finished another semester at uni. Restrictions just released in time. 2 postgrad subjects + working from home + 2 kids is a recipe for hair loss, let me tell you... A mate asked me if I wanted to go for a fish and I almost said no on autopilot, then I then I realised...wait a sec...no reason why I can't! So off to the beach this long weekend with a bit of luck...

Magic part of the world. Can't wait till everything settles down and we can visit again.

Hi all, Had a nice mother's day with the wife and kids in the morning. After lunch, I asked the wife what she wanted to do and she said she wanted a few moments to read in peace without the kids 🤣. So I tell her I'm taking the kids fishing and a leave pass was granted. I didn't really want to get my hands dirty, so I mixed up some pudding for bait. 1/2 cup cheese + 1/2 cup flour + a dash of soy sauce + sesame oil, plus enough water and a bit of oil to bind it all together. I wasn't really that serious - if anything, any fish we caught would have been an inconvenience - so I just took the opportunity to experiment with what I had in the house. The idea was to get down to the banks of the Parra, five mins from our place, for my four year old to wave a rod around. This she did happily for about half an hour, but then an ice cream truck arrived and then she lost all interest in fishing. So the rod gets handed to me and I thought...what the heck, let's have a go. In the meantime my one year old (who was sleeping on me strapped to me in a carrier) woke up and wanted to be part of the action, so I turned her around and let her hold the rod with me. Then the little float we were using went under and we were on! Then the drag starts singing and uh-oh...I think I have a reasonable fish on, with a baby strapped to me...I hadn't quite planned for this! I was chasing smaller fish, and for my eldest to be landing them at that! Up comes a decent bream, which was promptly landed and released. Had a few more takes but no hookups. Then it was time to head home and cook dinner. So the kids got out of the wife's hair, my eldest got an ice cream and I got a fish. Winners all round. It's been years since I used pudding for bait. I've put it back in the fridge for another try after work one day next week. Mike

Hi all, There was a bit of pelagic action happening on the parra a few days ago, so I thought it an opportune time to show my dad how to use metals. He struggled to get the retrieve speed up and the lure must have hit the bottom at some point. After not long, he had something on the end of the line but wasn't sure if was a fish. It turned out to be a cockle! The shell was firmly clamped over one arm of the treble. I have had this happen only once before...two times makes me think maybe it isn't a coincidence? Only thing I can think of is that there must be a cockle bed in front of where we are fishing and we fluked the lure onto an open cockle shell. Anyone know more? Cockle was released to live another day...or feed a giant bream. Mike

Hi all, Don't like my chances of anyone needing this, but I thought I would post anyway. My late father-in-law, who I never got to meet, had a Shimano Aero Baitrunner about a 4000 size. My mother-in-law was cleaning out her place and found a spare spool for it, but no trace of the reel itself. Just wondering if anyone wanted the spare spool. It was a rear-drag baitrunner, a fairly ordinary reel in my memory, but it did the job. Oddly enough I had exactly the same reel (which is now long gone) and even odder, I have the newest incarnation of it for beach whiting, which has a front drag and thus is incompatible. Anyone who claims it in the next couple of weeks can have it. Otherwise I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. What do people do with old spools? Mike

Great report. I enjoyed the video. Looked like some fantastic action, right in the middle of town!

I’ve encountered this problem myself. My favourite fishing is done on flats, and this really limits what you can carry. It can be difficult to land fish when you are waist deep in water! It’s not like you can carry a full enviro net/brag mat etc when you are wading. In the end, I purchased a trout landing net (short handled) that just hangs off my wading bag with a clip. You can get varieties that harm the fish less. Alternatively, maybe a set of boga grips might be better? I’ve never used them, but maybe they might help you handle the fish and unhook them while they are still in the water? That’s even more compact. Come to think of it, maybe I might get myself a set next summer.

Eels are perfectly edible, but not everyone's cup of tea. They are quite fatty so they lend themselves to methods like grilling and smoking. It's served steamed in Chinese restaurants with soy sauce, shallots, ginger, dried citrus peel and oil. They cut it into cutlets, put the condiments on and then steam it. It's quite rich served that way, so a little goes a long way. There's a few bones to work through, but it is worth the effort. I know the Japanese serve it filleted (no idea how they do that) and grilled with some sweet (terayaki?) sauce. It's nice like that with a bit of rice.

Thanks for the video Baz, It certainly looks easier than doing it manually, and if I can tie them without carrying a tool, even better!

I went there in the ‘95 as a kid and had a ball fishing off the jetty. The gars were really something else. They were large, numerous and tasty. The silver drummer were also present at the wharf and were a constant source of amusement for me as they would only take floating bread on ultra light line...recipe for bust offs. I also got a reef shark off the wharf one night as well. We did a charter. We got four and kept two around five kg a piece. when we booked to go with it was through the local shop. PM FOR DETAILS Kayaking in the lagoon with lures sounds like a great option. If I ever go there again that would definitely be on the cards. Enjoy the trip. It’s a magical place.

Hi Admis, If I am not mistaken, I think that Rick means to set the bait deeper under the balloon, maybe 15-18ft below it. Obviously you won’t be able to cast it if it is fixed at that depth, so you will need to figure out how to let the balloon run on the line, with a stopper at the specified depth. Hope this helps. Mike

I've seen fish take stationary gulps before. The squidgy prawn was a bit more of a surprise.

Hi all, Went for a fish at Iron Cove this morning. The original plan was to head to the beach to pick up some whiting, but my 10 month old woke me up at 1am and I couldn't get back to sleep, so the decision was taken to drive less and fish locally. So I picked up my dad and we headed to Iron Cove. The fishing was ordinary - just a couple of legal flatties, but the way in which the first flatty was 'caught' was why I am writing this report. Long story short, I decided to take the baitcaster outfit out for a change. Dumb choice, as there was a bit of wind and my first cast resulted in a birds nest which locked up and surprisingly, the braid snapped like cotton, sending my Squidgy Prawn into the ether. It was quite new 15lb braid, so I'm not sure what happened there. Ah well, these things happen. So I re-rigged and put out a second cast. A few hops in, I was ON! It was the usual flatty fight; headshakes, a bit of drag pulling then eventually submission. As I worked the fish in, I notice that there was my lure working halfway up my line. Then as the lure reaches the rod tip, I realise it was the lure I had just tied on, and the fish was actually hooked on some other line I had snagged. Ok, that's strange, I thought, as I started handlining the fish in on this other line. This was when I realised that I had snagged the length of braid that had broken off on my first cast. Somehow, between breaking the line on the first cast and re-rigging, a flatty had eaten my lure and hooked itself! The flatty eventually sawed through the leader as I was trying to land it. I was so gobsmacked that when I tried to explain what had just happened to my dad, I didn't make any sense! In thirty or so years of fishing, this would have to be one of the stranger ways in which I have caught a fish (another that comes to mind was when as a young kid, I hooked a plastic bag that had a little Groper living in it). So the fish were nothing to write home about, but I thought it was a story worth telling. Strange but true Mike

I have a Shimano Raider Travel Shore Spin. I think it's just over 9ft. The four piece construction makes it easy to transport as well Matched with a 4000 reel.