Blackfish

As Ryder said, definitely a Flounder. If you caught it in Sydney, then I reckon it’s a Largetooth Flounder. There’s two common ones in Sydney, Largetooth Flounder and Smalltooth Flounder. Pretty hard to tell in that dark colour mode but Largetooth for me.

A mate I’d fish with in Sydney for Bluespot Flathead, his wife would think the Flathead were just ok but was really excited when he bought home a flounder.

That’s a great story, well written with some great fish especially the Whiting.👍

23 hours ago, Derny Driver said:

The fisheries officer did measure mine to the tip. Unfortunately due to 2 hours bleeding in the ice bath it still came up a centmetre short.

 

The thing that annoys me is that these guys obviously know fish shrink when they are in an ice slurry - but he blamed me for having a dodgy measuring mat. 

@Derny Driver have you measured you Measuring Mat with, say a good tape measure just to confirm was it the measuring mat or shrinkage.

8 hours ago, Hoods said:

Yeah!! What IS Best,

Best/biggest fish/most species/best weather year round/access - what is BEST?? cannot fish if you caanot launch/too much wind/hard to access or low number of species.

A great question which requires a very considered respone.

How about somewher in SE QLD where the southern & norhtern waters meet gives you the best of both wolds??

Otherwise best location is 1 helicopter trip from Home Base!!

Great point Hood.  I suppose it’s a personal point of view to, meat on table, catch and release, scenery, environment, limited human activity giving you that feeling that  “ I’m the only one for miles” 

Also on another note you mentioned SE QLD, lots of Mosquitoes and Sand flies and I mean LOTS in the warmer months but more chances of different fish.

Excellent write up there LW and it certainly sounds like a great outing with both fish and catching up.

I count 6 different species for you. Great job.

If you go the gum boot way make sure you have wet weather pants to go over the gum boots otherwise the boots will fill up with water.
I found shorts and wetsuit hard soled booties were the go but a good wet weather coat was a must.

The wet suit booties you can walk in mud and they won’t slip off as well as finding rocks/oysters/ glass submerged in mud and not damage your feet.

NOTE … this is for estuary fishing only and not off ocean rocks.

I’ve also heard of small Soldier crabs but never met anyone that has caught a fish on them or uses them.

Maybe someone has, I’d be interested to hear.

You were the head guide Neil so it would be expected that you wouldn’t out fish the guests.

Your  a kind and thoughtful man, sounds like a great fun family day.

Bloody Toads Grrrrrrrr 😕

That looks fantastic. Bloody yum.

1 hour ago, whiskey299 said:

Nice catch Zoran.

I believe that’s a reef ocean perch you’ve caught there. Is that right @Blackfish

Goes by a few common names but “Bigeye Ocean Perch” I recon.

Sounds like a great day out with plenty of fun banter … and that’s what makes it special. Oh and a few fish.😄

Yikes 😬

Also the other good thing about Barbless hooks is they are easier to get out of your hand and the body.

That’s a great catch YK01. I did see a couple of Long Tail frames at the boat ramp yesterday at Port. Car park is full of Cars and trailers down there today.

Shame about loosing that fish, though it seems a lot of the time this is what makes as come back for more.

The first fish is a Fanbelly Leatherjacket and the second is a Gunthers Wrasse. Congratulations on a couple of new species 👍

That is a great Sampson fish for Sydney, great capture.

Maybe a Serpent Eel, hard to positively ID because of it decomposition. 

Seas have been up when I have the opportunity to go……. But maybe next Tuesday 🙏

Stay tuned BN.

That’s a great achievement and congratulations.

10 hours ago, EnOz43 said:

Another important factor when rock fishing is wave period. There is a big difference between 1.5m swell with 5 second period and 1.5m swell with 15 second period. Long-period swell accumulates energy and travels faster resulting in larger swell when it comes to average wave height.

A very, very important part of the equation.  Good job bringing this up.

A mate was diving yesterday South of Port Hacking and saw a big school of Trags, they weren’t big but a big school it was.

Good effort anyway Yowie.

Good call @noelm the Blotched also have those spots but only recorded down to Narooma, so Red Bigeye would be the one. 

It’s a “Bigeye” but not sure if it’s a Blotched or Lunatail as I can’t see the Caudal (Tail) Fin which is the easiest way to distinguish.

Hopefully somebody else has a better idea.

If you had a photo of the Tail that would be great.

Great lot of photos to go with the trip. Looking forward to the next instalment.

What I have found is the big thick worms seem to be more at half tide up to full and the thinner ones (Slimeys) more towards the low tide mark.

NOTE … I’m certainly no expert.