Cracking day in Broken Bay

[kiwicraig]

I was looking at the conditions for Sunday on Saturday afternoon and it looked so awesome.  Light winds, little swell and high tide in the middle of they day.  I texted a mate of mine who lives south of Sydney and said if you feel like a drive come up and we'll get stuck into some blue spot flatties.  He's got a nice new boat but has not had much luck landing legal fish in it.  His response was a bit of a surprise.  He called me and told me he was actually in Newcastle and had been out all day Saturday.  He'd burnt through over 80 liters of fuel for a donut - ouch!  I said that since he had to come past me anyway he may as well come and have a fish with me.  He agreed to leave Newcastle about 7 and I would launch roughly the same time.  My plan was to troll lures around the heads and the edge of West Reef, then head out to the flathead grounds and find some fish. 

I rigged a couple of heavy rods with big hard body lures.  One deep diver, one shallow.  Hoping to find a king.

I launched on time and motored out to Box Head.  Dolphins were breaching nearby - so that was nice.  I followed the coast line towards the north end of West Reef, then looped back and ran back along the inside edge of the reef.  I picked up 3 Tailor, but no kings.  One was little and went back.  The other 2 were kept for bait later. 

I headed out to the start of the flathead grounds and started a drift in about 43m of water.  After 20 mins or so I had not had a touch but I heard from my mate that he was just getting bait and ice in Woy Woy and would on his way soon.  I used Google maps to send him a link that give him access to track my location (you can turn it off again when they find you) and headed a bit further out.  I had been drifting out there for about 20 mins an had had a couple of bites but nothing landed.  I decided to make a coffee because that always makes the fish bite.  It did, but unfortunately I dropped it on the way up.  I rebaited and dropped it down.  I was dreading telling my mate that it was slow.  I saw his boat in the distance and watched as it closed in on me.  Then when it was about 100m away I hooked up.  Could not have timed it better - just as he pulled along side I was pulling in a nice 53cm flathead.

I followed that soon after with a couple more legal fish, then both rods went off at the same time.  Even my mate and his boys landed a few - so he was pretty happy.  It came to an end when I got the mother of all tangles bringing up my sixth when it wrapped round the braid of the other rod.  After removing the flattie I had to cut the leader off one rod just so I could get the other untangled enough to wind it in.  When I did get it in though it had a slimy on it so that was a bit of a bonus.  But I had to put that rod aside to sort out on land.  My mate had motored up drift again so I went to join him.  I pulled up and was chatting with them then I spotted a huge shark cruising around his boat.  The dorsal fin must have been 30cm out of the water.  My mate had a game rod on board so I threw him one of the tailor.  Unfortunately by the time he had it rigged the shark had vanished.  That could have been interesting!

We were both plagued by little flatties.  I must have thrown back 30 or 40 undersized flathead - but that was then end of the legal flathead.  The only other excitement was a flyover by a couple of fighter jets - that screamed overhead really low.  Through the day I  tried a range of cut baits - tailor, slimy, sgt baker.  But the flatties were only taking the good old servo pillies.  When I ran out of those I said cheerio to my mate and headed back in.

We already had dinner plans for tonight so I vac packed it all to restock the freezer - putting away 3 packs of fillets and one of wings. 

[zmk1962]

Great writeup and result. Wish I had been out there this weekend the forecasts were very inviting.

Cheers Zoran

[GoingFishing]

Great report there mate and a nice bag of flatties. 

[masterfisho7]

Nice report some top eating fish there well done

[antonywardle]

great write up @kiwicraig. I'd have loved to be out there too. I was out the day before and got some flatties before the wind made it too hard to hold the bottom

 

[Scratchie]

Good report Craig! Always good to get a mate onto some fish especially if they’ve been getting donuts! You would have looked like a pro with a bent rod when he turned up! 

Cheers scratchie!!! 

[61 crusher]

Hi kiwi Graig great write up as usual I’ve been bagging out on the flatties lately and have found the better models in the 50 to 60m depth and I’ve occasionally been plagued by the little ones if that’s the case I move out till I find the better ones. Maybe try that spot where you got the gummy that morning I’ve occasinally got good ones in close, out of curiosity is there a size limit on gummies in NSW, cheers 

[Yowie]

A nice bag of fish.

Have you tried cutting up a small spikey flattie and using the fillets for bait? Works for me and no size limit for the spikies.

[Scratchie]

4 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Hi kiwi Graig great write up as usual I’ve been bagging out on the flatties lately and have found the better models in the 50 to 60m depth and I’ve occasionally been plagued by the little ones if that’s the case I move out till I find the better ones. Maybe try that spot where you got the gummy that morning I’ve occasinally got good ones in close, out of curiosity is there a size limit on gummies in NSW, cheers 

91cm for gummy in NSW

[Berleyguts]

2 hours ago, Yowie said:

A nice bag of fish.

Have you tried cutting up a small spikey flattie and using the fillets for bait? Works for me and no size limit for the spikies.

Hi Yowie,

I’ve seen you refer to “spiky flathead” a few times. I wasn’t aware of that species. Can you post a photo or two next time you catch one for identification? Thanks.

[blaxland]

I normally fish out of sydney was thinking of giving broken bay and reefs ago permit for bayview boat ramp is now $173 pa or $40 a visit,  free from accuna bay but no place to buy anything.   Do you think a non local can catch fish up there?

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by blaxland

[Yowie]

45 minutes ago, Berleyguts said:

Hi Yowie,

I’ve seen you refer to “spiky flathead” a few times. I wasn’t aware of that species. Can you post a photo or two next time you catch one for identification? Thanks.

The fish is Platycephalus grandispinus, though I have read a report some time ago referring to them as  Platycephalus longispinus.

Grow to about 34cm, the biggest I have caught was 32cm. Only a small flattie, but the bigger ones have small but quite tasty fillets. The spines on the side of the head are exceptionally long for it's size, and very sharp (spiked again today by one of the little bastards) and the front dorsal fins have a poison that causes a bit of stinging to the fingers if you get spiked (hard to remove from the hook at times)

will take a photo next time out.

 

Edited November 12, 2018 by Yowie

[kiwicraig]

12 hours ago, Yowie said:

The fish is Platycephalus grandispinus, though I have read a report some time ago referring to them as  Platycephalus longispinus.

Grow to about 34cm, the biggest I have caught was 32cm. Only a small flattie, but the bigger ones have small but quite tasty fillets. The spines on the side of the head are exceptionally long for it's size, and very sharp (spiked again today by one of the little bastards) and the front dorsal fins have a poison that causes a bit of stinging to the fingers if you get spiked (hard to remove from the hook at times)

will take a photo next time out.

 

Thanks Yowie. I always thought these were just juvenile blue spot and therefore had a size limit of 33cm so I've always just chucked then back.  Will have to do some research and look closer next time.

[kiwicraig]

19 hours ago, 61 crusher said:

Hi kiwi Graig great write up as usual I’ve been bagging out on the flatties lately and have found the better models in the 50 to 60m depth and I’ve occasionally been plagued by the little ones if that’s the case I move out till I find the better ones. Maybe try that spot where you got the gummy that morning I’ve occasinally got good ones in close, out of curiosity is there a size limit on gummies in NSW, cheers 

Thanks for the tip.  I have a bad habit of getting impatient and giving it a go in about 45m.  Next time I'll hold firm.  Would make sense if as Yowie says the spikes are a different species.  I've been working on the theory that they were juvie bluespot and big ones would be in the same place.😂

[PaddyT]

13 hours ago, blaxland said:

I normally fish out of sydney was thinking of giving broken bay and reefs ago permit for bayview boat ramp is now $173 pa or $40 a visit,  free from accuna bay but no place to buy anything.   Do you think a non local can catch fish up there?

 

Launch out of Brooklyn

[Yowie]

8 hours ago, kiwicraig said:

Thanks Yowie. I always thought these were just juvenile blue spot and therefore had a size limit of 33cm so I've always just chucked then back.  Will have to do some research and look closer next time.

When you look at a small blue spot beside a spikey, you will see the difference.

[kiwicraig]

This thread has lead me to do some more research so I thought I would share what I have found.  

As usual @Yowie is spot on.  From the DPI website's section on Bluespotted flathead lists the following under "Confusing Species":

Quote

Longspine flathead have a pale blue caudal fin, where as the southern sand flathead has a grey-black colouration. The blue-spotted flathead has a single large blotch below five horizontal bars edged with white on the caudal fin. The southern sand flathead has one to two blotches below smaller blotches.

Caudal fin is a fancy way of saying "tail" - and I do remember most (if not all) of the little ones I pulled up having a pale tail. I'm going to make it my mission to go and get some photos of both to share. 

@61 crusher - you are also correct. I'm not going out far enough.  The same site also says:

Quote

The blue-spotted flathead is rarely caught in depths of less than 25 fathoms.

That's just under 46m.  So the best advice is what @antonywardle has been saying to me all along.  Head out to the 50m mark for Bluespot.  Closer in you are likely to get tons of little spikeys.

[Berleyguts]

39 minutes ago, kiwicraig said:

This thread has lead me to do some more research so I thought I would share what I have found.  

As usual @Yowie is spot on.  From the DPI website's section on Bluespotted flathead lists the following under "Confusing Species":

Caudal fin is a fancy way of saying "tail" - and I do remember most (if not all) of the little ones I pulled up having a pale tail. I'm going to make it my mission to go and get some photos of both to share. 

@61 crusher - you are also correct. I'm not going out far enough.  The same site also says:

That's just under 46m.  So the best advice is what @antonywardle has been saying to me all along.  Head out to the 50m mark for Bluespot.  Closer in you are likely to get tons of little spikeys.

Interesting. Earlier in the year, I bagged out on blue spots every trip, in 38m off Port Stephens. However, that was when the kingfish pens were in (the flathead were fat and appeared to be grabbing a good feed of pellets missed by the kings). Last trip out a couple of weeks ago, I only managed small flathead in the same area (don’t know if they were spikies) - the pens are not currently in, having been towed to Newcastle for repair and now currently stored at Oyster Farm Cove, apparently. So, maybe the blue spots were only there for the pellets? I’ll try further out next time!

[Yowie]

8 hours ago, kiwicraig said:

 

That's just under 46m.  So the best advice is what @antonywardle has been saying to me all along.  Head out to the 50m mark for Bluespot.  Closer in you are likely to get tons of little spikeys.

My main area for Blue spots is around the 30 to 35 metre mark. Have also caught them in 15 to 20 metres at times, and, the occasional one out from Lilli Pilli in 10 metres of water. Not big fish near Lilli Pilli, but most of them a bit over legal size.

[kiwicraig]

37 minutes ago, Yowie said:

My main area for Blue spots is around the 30 to 35 metre mark. Have also caught them in 15 to 20 metres at times, and, the occasional one out from Lilli Pilli in 10 metres of water. Not big fish near Lilli Pilli, but most of them a bit over legal size.

Well there you have it - whenever you find a fact on the internet there is an expert to contradict it 😋

[GoingFishing]

On ‎11‎/‎12‎/‎2018 at 7:06 PM, Berleyguts said:

Hi Yowie,

I’ve seen you refer to “spiky flathead” a few times. I wasn’t aware of that species. Can you post a photo or two next time you catch one for identification? Thanks.

Hey Baz

These images and descriptions might help. Spikey flathead are also known as Long spined flathead. It is number 199 on the identifier sheet.

[GordoRetired]

Nothing beats a good feed of Flathead. 🙂
 

[kiwicraig]

On 11/12/2018 at 7:49 PM, Yowie said:

The fish is Platycephalus grandispinus, though I have read a report some time ago referring to them as  Platycephalus longispinus.

Grow to about 34cm, the biggest I have caught was 32cm. Only a small flattie, but the bigger ones have small but quite tasty fillets. The spines on the side of the head are exceptionally long for it's size, and very sharp (spiked again today by one of the little bastards) and the front dorsal fins have a poison that causes a bit of stinging to the fingers if you get spiked (hard to remove from the hook at times)

will take a photo next time out.

 

Picking up this thread as I was outside today and had a few spikey flathead in with the bigger models.  Here's a photo of a spikey.  @Yowie is quite right really easy to spot the difference when you know there is one. This one was fairly badly hooked so his fillets made some good baits.

 

[Yowie]

19 hours ago, kiwicraig said:

Picking up this thread as I was outside today and had a few spikey flathead in with the bigger models.  Here's a photo of a spikey.  @Yowie is quite right really easy to spot the difference when you know there is one. This one was fairly badly hooked so his fillets made some good baits.

 

As you can just see in the photo, the head spikes are much larger compared to other species of comparable size.

They stick out like dog's balls, and leave a nasty cut to the hand/fingers if you get spiked.