Lakes Entrance Report

[All ways fishin]

Not a bad days fishing yota !
I Went out fishing at lakes entrance yesterday just for a feed of flathead ( The kids love em ) only out 3 hours and caught 14 flathead between the two of us that were keepers, lots of small ones were put back and also let a 68cm flathead go as well biggest flathead I’ve ever caught. The bar coming back in was a bit rough, but that feed of flathead will do us now until I head to Eden n.s.w for two weeks on 18th jan

[Hosery]

Went out today from Lakes, launched at 4:30, the weather was beautiful not even a wave at the inlet. Prawns everywhere in the shallows on the way out. Didn't venture too far from the inlet, only about 2 Kim's south in 18m. Heaps of slimeys which were used as bait.
Between us we must have pulled up 20 baby sharks, not sure which ones, they definitely had teeth, maybe mako ?
My number 1 decky got a hammerhead just over a meter, still a baby. All sharks released.
Heaps of good size flatties, from 40-47cm. Took some for a feed.
On the way back we saw a boat washed up on the north side beach to the inlet.
We went over to check from outside the breakers but the boat appeared abandoned.
Radioed coastguard and they knew about it.
Shame, looked like about a 7m glass hard top with twin big yammies.
Earlier this week a trawler was washed up on the beach too.
It's all happening at Lakes.

Good work in getting a feed. Gotta love flatties! Interesting on the sharks. I doubt they were makos. I could be wrong but highly doubt it. There have been a number of small school shark getting around but without a photo no idea.
I saw photos of that boat on the beach. Nice looking boat. Be very interested to hear the story on it. Surely a mechanical issue as the bar was like glass from all reports.

[re-tyred]

Not a bad days fishing yota !
I Went out fishing at lakes entrance yesterday just for a feed of flathead ( The kids love em ) only out 3 hours and caught 14 flathead between the two of us that were keepers, lots of small ones were put back and also let a 68cm flathead go as well biggest flathead I’ve ever caught. The bar coming back in was a bit rough, but that feed of flathead will do us now until I head to Eden n.s.w for two weeks on 18th jan

You can keep the big ones from offshore as they are usually Blue Spot,sandies or tiger flathead. Very rare for a dusky offshore.

[smile0784]

Got to love flathead tails

[Yota]

Thanks everyone, yes some of the flatty tails was had for dinner last night, beautiful. Flour, salt n pepper, a little oil and butter in the hot pan and cook for 1 - 2 minutes each side.
Re the boat washed up on the beach, coastguard mentioned something about it getting lost in the fog that morning. I went out about 4:45-5:00 am that morning and it was obviously dark and no real fog that I noticed. It was my first time through the entrance and I could clearly see all the port, starboard and yellow warning markers.
But the boat that run aground was returning. I don't know what time. It may have been there already, and I couldn't see it in the dark on my way out.
Not a nice sight seeing any boat rolling around in the shallow breakers, let alone a big boat with 2 expensive outboards being washed over in the waves.
Attached is a pic of the little bities that were all over us. My number 1 dekky is the hand model.
Let us know what they are, maybe schoolies as Hosery said. They were only babies ranging from 35-45cm long.

[Boonanza]

Definately looks like a school shark :thumbsup:

[Yota]

Not a bad days fishing yota !
I Went out fishing at lakes entrance yesterday just for a feed of flathead ( The kids love em ) only out 3 hours and caught 14 flathead between the two of us that were keepers, lots of small ones were put back and also let a 68cm flathead go as well biggest flathead I’ve ever caught. The bar coming back in was a bit rough, but that feed of flathead will do us now until I head to Eden n.s.w for two weeks on 18th jan

You can keep the big ones from offshore as they are usually Blue Spot,sandies or tiger flathead. Very rare for a dusky offshore.

Re-tyred and All ways fishin - The flattys we got were all sandies, good solid ones too. I think we kept about 7 or 8 and let at least 6 go as we didn't need more.
I also kept a dozen slimeys, geez they are rippa bait. I used about 4 as bait while we were out. Put the leftover in the freezer for the next outing.

[Yota]

Definately looks like a school shark :thumbsup:

Ok thanks Boonanza, now I just need to find the bigger ones, ha ha.
We love eating gummy, are schoolies just the same ?

[Hosery]

Yeah definitely a school shark. Slimies sure are great bait. Basically every thing eats them. They don’t tend to freeze very well though. But better than no bait.

[re-tyred]

Yes a school shark. There has been an increasing number of them last couple of years. Even in the lake. They were the most common shark in Bass Strait until the longliners in the 1950s started catching them in large numbers. when they all changed to mesh netting in the early 60s they reduced them to about 5% of the original population by the late 80s. With the introduction of restrictions to the length of nets and the number of licences they started to make a come back. They added a mesh size restriction early 2000 , that makes it difficult to catch them with mesh nets. (banned 7 inch net) All mesh netters now fish only with 6 inch net and are restricted from deep water on the continental shelf. The result is what you see now, an increase in numbers. It will be slow but in a few years they will become the dominant shark again. They are more easily caught than gummies as they are not fussy about what they eat. Taste the same. They grow bigger than gummies but do not hang around the beaches as much. Mostly caught in the deeper 50mtr plus reefy areas.