LuckyFil

Just back from a short van trip up to Broken Head (near Byron). Stopped near South West Rock on the way up and back to break the journeys. On the way up - about 2 weeks ago, the water was crazy cold (all the boats were calling it for 16 degrees) and it felt like when I had a swim. It was green and full of red weed, so no surprises I didn't score any fish off the rocks. On the way back this week it had changed and water was around 24 degrees and blue. Plenty of tailor off the rocks at sunset - I kept 2 and either lost or threw back the rest. Next morning had a go with cunje and bread baits and found 2 nice drummer going 45 and 43cm. Two in two casts, nothing in the 20 minutes before and nothing afterwards , but I was happy to get them in any case. They both took the baits aggressively and fought very hard so I enjoyed the session. Having one of them for dinner tonight coated in egg and panko. Don't expect to see another drummer till the cooler weather, but you never know!

Very nice flathead mate, especially off the beach. Yeah forecast is for very strong northerly wind tonight followed by pretty wild southerly change thats going to blow all tomorrow

Good grief - look at the size of the head and shoulders of the fish in the first pic - looks like a different species!

Isn't that flattie perfectly camouflaged when you look at the sand underneath it!

Now that's a croc! Great for your boys to witness that too as they won't see many that size in their lives. Cheers Fil

Either a normal hook or preferably a worm style hook but with no additional weight just depending on the main lead at the bottom of the paternoster rig. It seems to work better if the plastic is on the bottom hook of the rig

Yeah I've found the same thing when drifting for flatties on the south coast near Bawley Point - either plagues of undersized ones or patches with fewer but bigger keepers. I've also found its worth putting a soft plastic wriggler tail (4 or 5") on one dropper hook and bait on the other - get just as many fish on the plastic as the bait!

Great story and pics Craig - looks like you've been getting into the flatties big time lately. The biggest flathead I've caught over 55 years of fishing have all been on bait. I guess they get cleverer as they get bigger and learn to dodge lures! I love using plastics for the active style of fishing but accept that I'll usually get small to mediium sized fish. My Dad and I used to regularly get flatties over 6lb (in the old scale) on yellowtail fillets at his secret spot in Pittwater, with the occasional 8 and even a couple of 10 pounders. Haven't fished there in many years though after we had to sell his boat. Keep up the stories! Fil

are you sure there's a boat under you in that first pic? walking on water eh!!

Great thanks

Great story Craig - new technique (for the old man) some excitement (big flattie and the salmon) some drama (dickhead mooring on top of you), a great victory (esky full of fish) a disaster (lose esky into water with all your fish) a partial recovery and I guess some humour when you look back at the busted esky! Do you mind telling me what plastics you were using? Cheers Fil

Got an early mark from my chores on Tuesday arvo and went for a quick flathead hunt . Put the old tinny in at Pretty Beach ramp and prospected the edges of the mud flats near Wagstaffe and Hardys Bay. I was flicking a Squidgy curly tail 110ml. Conditions were good with the last of the runout tide and overcast skies. Tried one side of a bank for zip but on the first cast to the other side I was on to a decent flathead - the usual head shakes and a few short runs when he got close to the boat. I was fishing alone so netting a lively fish can be tricky especially as I was only using 8lb leader but I managed to get him head first into the net. A nice fish of 55cm. Next cast and another fish, similar fight and this one was a little smaller at 47cm. I was hopeful of a hat trick but it was another 10 minutes before a third fish came along also at 47cm. Things went quiet so I moved 50 meters up the channel and soon hooked another flattie, this one 45cm. Also caught a tailor of around 30cm but threw him back - would have been excellent jewie bait but I wasn't set up for it. By far my best flattie session in years - 4 good fish in an hour on the water! We have a mob of friends coming over for dinner tonight so the menu's been changed to flathead fillets. Yum! Cheers Fil

You're a good Dad and obviously have a great relationship with your daughter. I'm sure she'll pay for your chiropractor when she's older... I was in SA in October (York Peninsular) and have never seen so many snakes in my life - browns, blacks and tigers. Great pics as always. Cheers Fil

That's a decent drummer, especially in what looks like fairly calm conditions!

Thats a nice big girl! You seem to do well using the poddies. I struggle to get any in my trap. Can you give any tips on catching them i.e. what sort of trap you use, how deep do you set it - that sort of thing? Cheers Fil

Sorry for the slow reply - thanks for the feedback. Next big trip is Kakadu and Broome but that will be a while off. Probably just do a few small trips next year - Hat Head and Broken Head are our favourites and maybe Seventeen Seventy if we've got time.

Great lizard there mate and that beard is pretty impressive too- ha ha!

Well done boys, sounds like a fun session with a few nice fish and plenty of action! Sounds like the lake is fishing better now that the entrance is open after last weeks deluge. Were you up the back of the lake? Cheers Fil

Arrived home last week after a 3 month trek into the red centre and surrounds (Uluru, Kata Tjuta, Kings Canyon, West MacDonnell Ranges, Coober Pedy etc). Magnificent scenery, hikes and a few bike rides made it a wonderful trip . Everybody has to do it once in your life (I'm 61 so its taken me a while to tick it off the bucket list). On the return we went via SA and down to the York and Fleurieu Peninsulas, which was the first chance to wet a line. Not so much fishing as squiding as I find it hard to catch anything other than squid off the shore in SA. Pretty much all of the wharves are good for squid any time of day but especially at night. My first was a monster by Sydney standards and I had to lock the drag up on the little Daiwa 2500 to lift it the 3 meters out of the water . I reckon it weighed 2 kg or more. My mate and I managed a few most days for dinner with one night catching 13 as our best (not large but more average sized)- we were eating calamari for days even spread across the 6 of us in our group. We then headed into Victoria to The Grampians - again a top spot . Mainly hiking and riding there. Went trout fishing in a stream one arvo but only turned one trout and he threw the hooks. Next stop was a campground near Bright in the Victorian high country where we fished the streams below Mt Hotham. Spectacular countryside and very pretty streams to walk - just watch out for the snakes as there's plenty of blacks, browns and tigers at this time of year, safer to wade the stream than walk the scrub. I had a few flicks in the stream near our campsite soon after setting up and hooked and lost a small rainbow on my first cast then shortly after caught a small brown, which turned out to be the only brown of the trip. During our week there we did plenty of hikes and cycling on the off-road trails and fished for a few hours most afternoons. We always managed a few fish mostly small that were returned but one session my mate landed a nice female rainbow of 40cm and I landed my PB - a male at 45cm . It took a lot of persistence to get him as he was only vaguely interested in my celta spinner, turning away from it several times in the pool he owned. I changed to a little diver lure with a very twitchy action and he got more revved up. I must have cast it past him 20 times before he finally got the shits and smacked it - yippee! - a few jumps and he raced up and down the stream and I finally guided him into the shallows and onto the bank. I've only been trout fishing a few times (I'm more a salt water fisho) so I was very happy to get this one. I went back several times to the same pool as there were at least 2 other large ones I'd seen but they were too clever for me. After that we stopped on the south coast near Batemans Bay. I did a few beach and rock sessions but struggled to get much, landed one salmon and a couple of average sized drummer. Back home and finally finished unpacking and cleaning the van and car - now planning my next adventure. Cheers Fil

Thanks for that info I'll tell the other guys in the crew what it was. Interesting you caught one on the same style of jig I was using, which incidentally was very popular with many species up there - it was only small with a 1/6th head but everything had a crack at it. Did you also find the bluewater fishing was quiet? Other reports I've read from May /June also complained about the winds. Fil

A few more pics, including a weird fish I think may be a Stargazer(?)

Did Weipa in August this year (usually May or June) . Very windy this time and water cooler than usual (26 instead of 29 degrees) and offshore water was quite cloudy at times - the locals put this down to the ongoing windy conditions whipping up a lot of chop and at times a fair swell coming up from the bottom of the gulf. I say all this as the fishing was pretty ordinary compared to what it can be. All previous reports had indicated the tuna were scarce so we hadn't expected to find any but luckily picked up a few, with one good session of them working the surface and we all landed a couple and losing others to pulled hooks or sharks - yes they're still around and in big numbers, possibly due to the shortage of tuna! The longtails were the usual size averaging 8-10kg and we'd all forgotten how hard and fast they pull - finished that session with big grins and lots of chatter about how much fun it was. Pera Rocks were holding queenies, some quite big, but not turned on so hard work to get them interested. Steve nabbed a nice one of around a meter and I picked up a smaller one. Plenty of small mackerel snipping our lures which was annoying. Denis managed a very nice spanish amongst the tuna school and extracted him from a large whaler on its heels. That fed us for several days and has to be one of the top table fish in my book. Due to the windy conditions and lumpy swell we couldn't get down to the Norman River but did have a few sessions in the creeks in Weipa Harbour, managing some queenies, fingermark, javelin fish (grunter) and even a couple of small barra. We fished the inshore reefs around Boyd Bay most evenings with one crew landing a nice bunch of fingermark and I picked up my PB tusk fish which went 60cm (and nudged the scales at 5kg. As usual it was a real tussle to extract him from the reef and the 80lb leader was shredded but held on long enough to get him in the net. Again a top quality table fish. Had a funny experience while reef fishing that could have ended up quite nasty. Denis was leaning over the gunnel removing the hook from a trevally when I heard a chop on the surface beside us. I looked over in time to see a mackerel leave the water heading straight at him. I yelled 'look out' and he jumped aside just as it landed in the boat between us. As you may know all mackerel have razor sharp teeth so we were dancing around the boat trying to avoid getting bitten. Who needs a rod and reel to catch fish! Included a few picks below. Cheers Fil

A great story (nice pic too). I remember a couple of years ago fishing for pigs off a south coast ledge and getting a few average sized ones then I hooked up to something else in the wash - a totally different fight, and up comes a nice snapper of around 40cm! Always fun when something unexpected lands on the line and this was obviously a real challenge on 12lb line and an Alvey!! You'll b telling this story for years.

That 75cm model is real beauty and well conditioned - I bet he gave a you a good tussle. On the light string as usual? Great pics and good conditions for a long run.

Sounds like a fun session. Good on ya for teaching your mate to beach fish and having caught a few willing sambos should have him hooked!