FLATHEAD VIC

When I go fishing there is nothing specific about the type of fish I am trying to catch, if it swims, I’d be happy to have it. I freely admit that I am not a great fisherman, although I do enjoy watching people who know what they are doing. We saw a few examples of expertise on the coast recently, all very different ways to fish. Vic Henry, a 76 year old gentleman we met at Woody Point, N.S.W, fishes exclusively for flathead, a bottom dwelling fish. Vic knows where to find em, his art has been perfected over 50 years, he can actually feel them sucking the bait into their mouth, ready to strike, as he dances from rock to rock like a sprightly mountain goat, casting here and there, in and out, “You’ve gotta make it look alive”, he says, and, “You’ve gotta find them, they wont come lookin’ for you”. That’s all he catches! He went out in the morning and came back with three great flatties, filleted them there and then and gave us enough fish for dinner. Was lovely fish and a pleasure to meet such an energetic guy who is a cunning angler. Thanks for the fishing tips Vic! A younger guy went skin diving around the rocks, had a look around at what was there, then went and got his rod and caught the huge flathead he had found earlier. Another fella was fishing off the rocks, a pretty hairy place to be with the large surf crashing over the rocks as the sets of waves rolled in over the sea. He caught a great size tailor, about 8 kgs, using a lure made from cutting a 6 inch piece of broom stick handle painted silver with a stainless steel rod through it! Unbelievable eh? Quite a few people saw him pull in this monster fish and went over for a look. One of the first guys there said,” Whoa, that’s a horse!”. The fisherman replied, “Yeah, she’s a bit of a chopper!” As we watched him fillet it on the rocks a group of pelicans noticed the goings on and made their way over hoping for a feed. He cut the massive fish skeleton into 5 bits and let the kids throw them to the big beaked birds. “Watch this”, he said as he threw the triangular shaped head to one of them who caught it in his beak, turned it around and swallowed it whole, like a snake swallowing a dog. Funny to see.