Graham sands and the big beach, 10/05/14

[andyco]

Went down to Graham Sands tonight at low tide with a mate

I was hoping for a few different species to get me started on the species hunt but only got a couple of little tommies. The hooks we're getting cleaned every cast and I pulled in a swimmer crab. Got sick of the crabs after a few hours, so went up the road and fished the big beach right next to the pier.

Sean caught this,

Im fairly sure it's just a flounder, but it did have an obvious bony ridge behind its eyes, never noticed that on flounder before??

Same fish underneath

Sean also managed to blow up his reel spectacularly

 

[toonboymc]

Unlucky Andy but still nice to get out I think it's a flounder mate

 

[L_muslibar]

Yeah it's a flounder mate, flounder usually have that ridge, especially the larger specimens. Plaice have a more distinct set of ridges rather that just the one, and the ridges on a plaice are much more obvious.

Easiest way to tell if you're having trouble is with your finger, just run it up and down the lateral line

Smooth = plaice
Rough = flounder

Dab are easy enough to identify but again if you're having trouble, the whole body of a dab is rough when you run your finger upwards towards the head.

Hope this helps mate. Well done on the catch!

 

[andyco]

cheers mate, ive had plenty of dab and flounder, but never a plaice.

I was fairly sure that this one was a flounder but i thought it was just plaice that had that bony ridge, but when ive looked back at photos of other flounder ive had in the past, a few of them had a ridge like this one as well.

fingers crossed for a plaice this weekend!

 

[Juliogeordio]

Well done mate, I like spinning down graham sands in the summer... Always looks very fishy to me!

 

[Pete from shields]

Excellent description given by muslibar, here's a good read for the different flatties identifications.

Plaice, Dab and Flounder differences - Flatfish Identification Fishing

Nice session and pics btw.