Yowie

Correct. The tail flag is the best method of I.D., however, still confusing some fishos who don't catch many ocean flatties. Some blue spots do turn up in deeper water estuaries.

I was lucky that I was about to drop down when my son pulled up the double header, so I dangled a bait in front of the 3rd flattie and it swam straight to the bait and snapped at it. I hauled it on board before it had time to think about what had happened to it. I suppose like poling for tuna. Like you, a few times I have had another flattie swimming about the hooked ones, unable to grab another line and the free swimmer heads back to the depths.

There are so many flatties in places, even if they are just spikies, but they need food to survive. I would like to send a camera down to have a look. I have found many fish species inside flattie stomachs, though most are partly dissolved by stomach acid, worms, tiny squid, eels but not as long as the one today, tiny crabs. A couple have eaten bristle worms, and when I pulled them out of the stomach, the bristles stuck in my fingers and irritated me for hours. A few have even had 2cm long box fish, the skin dissolved but the hard box body still intact. There is more to see from oceanic species, than estuaries species, but the stomach acid disfigures most food. I found with the tigers today, they would grab a bait but not hook up as I wound the line up 5 or 6 feet, then a short time later the flattie would grab the bait again and hook up. I assume the flatties will travel some distance off the bottom to grab food, I have seen duskies do that up river in clear water. A couple of times fishing outside, in 100 feet or so of water, I have pulled up blue spots and had others swim up beside the hooked fish. My son once pulled up a double header, with a third one swimming beside the hooked fish, so I dropped my line over, the free swimmer grabbed my bait and was in the boat before he could swim anywhere.

That is what surprised me, having that stuck down it's stomach, plus a 6cm fish, partly dissolved but it had a big mouth and looked like a Dory species.

It certainly does.

As the forecast for today was light winds and slight seas, I decided to head out to beat the winds that may eventuate over the next few days. I headed to near Marley, and tried many spots for spiky flatties, and eventually 1 just legal blue spot. I headed out a bit, deeper water than what I normally fish for flatties, and found some Barry Couta, losing one rig just below the swivel. After that, not a bite from anything, so moved back closer to shore. The wind dropped off to nothing, but a slow southerly current kept me moving. I eventually found a patch of fish, 2 drifts produced my bag limit, so I headed home. Several humpbacks in a small pod headed north, a bit late considering that most are already up north. One nice blue spot at 51cm, the others 41 and below. 3 tigers in the mix, with 2 tiger throwbacks under sized. The eel in the photo was down the gullet of the largest tiger just below it, plus a small fish, then it grabbed a large bait. Amazing how the eel could fit inside the stomach of the fish. Happy with a couple of tigers for a change.

Nice fish there, the big ones look very nice, big fillets off them. I've had a small Mako grab my lead sinkers from the bottom, but not touch the baits. He took 2 snapper leads and chewed off both near the boat, the baits untouched.

They are there, just a matter of telling them to take your bait. 😂🤣

Nice fish. Some of the split rings are not up to scratch, you need to change them for something better.

Not bad for this time of year up river, all on hand lines so a bit of fun. Happy with the whiting, very tasty fish.

Good work, salmon are a great sporting fish that go hard on any gear.

Just had to give it a go. At this time of year the water is normally clear and the fish harder to find.

Mud brown, or shite brown, take your pick. 😂

Headed out early this morning, to the deep water up from Lilli Pilli. Water again murky from the rain. Pulled out three jewies, around 50, 68 and 73cm, all on squid strips and all released. Only the one legal reddie, and 3 red gurnard, all on fish strips. Kept the biggest and released the other 2 as they were smallish. Plenty of pickers stripping off all baits, mainly small reddies. No photos of the jewies as they were quickly released. When the tide turned and started running in, I headed to Maianbar flats and pumped some nippers. Not a bite around there or near the ballast heap, so I headed to Gunnamatta flats near the mouth, where I pulled out the whiting. Dropped a trevally boat side and that was it for the bites on nippers.

I prefer the blue spots a fraction over the duskies, and tiger flatties probably out in front a little bit more.

He was. I remember him bringing half eaten lamb chops to work, heating them up and chewing on the bones for his lunch. They were from his dinner the previous night. 😂

I worked with a bloke many years ago when I was a youngster, and after he wrapped boxes of items, he would tie the boxes with string, cut off the end pieces and put those string pieces into a box. The box was labelled "Pieces of string too short to be of any use." He kept them for years. He told me he put a pair of socks into a bucket of water, but lost it for 3 months in his house before he found it again. 🤪 One day I gave him a lift home from work (his car had been stolen, located by the cops who told him where it was, but by the time he made it to that location - 2 days later - it was stolen again). I walked into his house (first and last time), the front gate was standing but the entire fence had fallen down, and inside there was a passage way from the front door to the kitchen. He had collected every newspaper he had read, bundled them up in more string, and stacked the bundles from the floor to the ceiling. An average sized room stacked with thousands of newspapers. The kitchen table was covered with dozens of empty Corn Flakes packets. You would not believe it unless you saw it. He was not married, and had never filed a tax claim in his life, so that when the Tax Dept moved to computer stored info, he was not recorded and was never investigated for anything, as he did not exist on their records and nothing was known about him even after he retired. He died a short while later.

I only use mono, not braid. I use Sufix, picking the one that has lowest diameter for it's stated breaking strain. The company makes a few different grades in the same breaking strain, with the thinnest being the dearest (but not by too much) Platypus now has a better quality mono in a thinner diameter. One thing about fishing heavy line land based in a rocky area, is if you snag the bottom, you will need to be built like Arnie to break the braid, or other wise cut it.

Nothing wrong with a fog, it's just the idiots in boats that don't slow down in a fog, making it dangerous. A sea fog is usually denser than a land fog.

It was about a 50 foot drop from that ledge, before a sudden stop on the rock platform. I looked up from down below, and thought, f### me, the sudden stop would hurt a bit. 😂

Another good story, and those are the dangers of rock fishing. Climbing down ropes hanging over the edge, and crawling along edges and under overhangs, was not my idea of fun. I once looked over a ledge to see the way down, only to find the ledge was about 4 inch thick sandstone, then heard the others yelling at me to back up slowly. Regarding the bream taking the small bait, an old timer told me he used to fish with a large bait on a 6/0 hook, and almost under that was a 2/0 hook with a small bait, and most fish took the 2/0 hook. I never tried it though, as outside I fish with 2 hooks, equal size, same with the bait size.

Well Scratchie. I might give the hand lines a miss as well. The 15 pound line I use only comes in 500 metres spools. 😂

A long way to drop a line. My mate complains about 50 metres.😂 At least there was something to bring home. Makos are selective feeders, picking out the best fish.

I tossed the first one back, only very small, then thought maybe I should have kept him. The second one was bigger, so kept him. I had 2 more hanging at different times, wind them up a little way, they let go, drop the line back to the bottom and a short time later they are hanging on again. They were occies, not squid.

Couple of very nice bags of fish, including the big reddie. Good work.