cogo44

Out from Sydney and caught a fish that no one on board had encountered. The beardie was identified by referring to an on board book. The muddy water and strong currents made for a difficult day out from Manly and Freshwater. Nevertheless, eight of us weighed in a mixed bag of 22 kilos (cleaned).

Lovely mixed bag of quality fish from a successful bottom bash.

We generally fished around the 65 metre marks when the whiting were biting. A gully between the reefs is good for flathead and whiting.

We went out on Sunday as well and fished the reefs and sand areas nearby off Freshwater and Manly. The sea was choppy and the chill factor on the westerlies made for an uncomfortable start. The jackets were certainly around but we caught more whiting than those toothy little buggers. In fact the crew of ten landed 34 flathead and 32 whiting as well as morwong, pigfish, a sole snapper and a rare red mullet.The current was very tricky and at times and we did not get much of a drift as the current and the wind were cancelling out each other. Two whales came close to us and we saw a few more closer inshore. The most frustrating part of the day was spent untangling monumental tangles caused mainly by the unpredictable current flows. Whatever, everyone had fish to take home.

The previous weekend off Dee Why and Harbord was a similar story of breaching whales and plenty of good sized flathead on the chew. Winter fishing off Sydney can be very rewarding.

Hope the flatties are on the chew on Saturday out from The Heads and south.

Good quantity but the size did not seem so impressive. What depth were you fishing?

Well done mate! Another convert to catching and eating your own fish. It doesn'y get any better especially when it comes to fllathead.

Yet again, the weather forecast today on the majority of sites was way off. Despite wind warnings it never got over fourteen knots at North Head. Still, we must err on the side of caution and look forward to a future day’s fishing.

Top stuff and a great report!

We went south of The Heads yesterday and found the flathead were fairly shy but there were plenty of whiting around. A patch of reef produced a 3.5 kilo red as well as a one kilo model. Later the biggest nannygai we have seen came on board but it's in my freezer to be weighed later but was well over one half a kilo in weight. Despite the constant drizzle it was a good day for drift fishing.

We went out on Monday with me in high spirits having watched the mighty Roostersvtakebout the NRL premiership. The good times continued as we had our best day’s fishing this year. Flathead were well and truly on the bite off Sydney Heads and further south. The reefs however were pretty quiet.

Correct.

Eight of us went out on Friday in ideal conditions. The snapper were not hungry out from North Head so we went to Rosa Wide. In the past we have had very good catches of flathead in early August and so it proved again. We also saw a young whale slapping its tail with a whale watcher boat close behind it. Green eye sharks were caught for the first time in many years and there were a few jackets around but far more whiting. This was a good sign and by the time we upped lines there were forty flatties in the mix. The best one weighing in at 1.2 kilos cleaned was caught two minutes before we upped lines. If you can find the hot spot aggregations at this time of the year, flathead is the go.

Has anyone used Pro Cure gels on fish strip baits? Any success? Which scents have produced good results?