Adsy91

Not to mention stupid...they're a bottom feeding predator that rarely leaves it's camouflage dug out. Literally never heard of someone using flathead for bait...probably coz they don't take undersized fish...not happy.

Sorry mate but I'm a little more pessimistic. This usually happens (and yes there is definitely a pattern) when the hook size on your jig head is too big and/or your twitches too hard. I figure with the heavier jig heads (this is why it's always the big plastics) that they sink in a more vertical movement so when you go to twitch up, if there is slack in the line the jig head wacks the plastic and sets in. Personally I feel if a fish is hitting your plastic hard enough to do that to your plastic it should be hooked so I find it unlikely that this is due to an inhale and spit out. When I do have fish take the lure and spit it it is literally never a flathead or salmon they both tend to hit pretty hard when they do therefore usually hooking themselves but fish like mulloway will give your line the slightest of taps and you MUST strike if you're using lures. When I havent the plastic generally comes back looking the same maybe slightly turned on the jighead or pulled back from the weight a little. Cheers

Just double stressing I'm not having a go and genuinely would like to know how to do it...the reason I never fished high ledges was for this reason (Im catch and release, each to it's own). I've seen people at the wharf in harvey bay tie a gaff point to the end of a rope and pull them up that way but wouldn't work if you want it alive

Not at all having a go here but have you guys thought about what you would do if you caught a decent undersized fish here (a non legal before ppl abuse me haha) . I'd be pretty gutted to watch someone yank a little kingy 10metres up some rocks by its throat/gills...I think spots like this tend to be if you catch it you've killed it.

3 weeks and counting mate haha I've been putting off trying the mouth of the river at the harbour due to me having to do it in a yak but I will give it a shot next week. I know there are fish there and how to find em just a matter of positioning the yak for the drift...the river runs at about 6-7knots most of the time and the whole river is pretty much 10-12m deep so a lot of water moving plus there's the bull sharks, cargo ships and ferries to contend with. Those things aside I should be able to get onto some flatty's and hopefully a thready or two or a jew... Coomera is one hell of a productive spot though, I've fished it twice and both times seen countless bream and jacks, it was just too windy in the yak to be fishing tight structure, I did manage to tea bag a jack with a cicada but this was 6lb and gone in a tenth of a second. The locals reckon there's loads of 80cm+ jacks in the coomera and it's not an issue finding them rather than turning them before they snag you up.

No worries mate, you should get a few there this time of year.

Neil is right, when you are targetting the drop offs and weed beds you will have no benefit from burley and this is mainly due to the way they hunt. When they bury into the sand they generally stay there for quite some time. Here's a little tip though, if you are land based let's say for example you were at Terrigal Haven, the first place to cast an s.p should be directly behind the run off from the clean off tables. Areas like this have charters, tourists and locals dumping fish frames and guts into one place and this is bound to bring them in. It's definitely worked for me in the past when the pelagics were too slow to bother with.

Hi guys, So I've just gotten back from yet another solid yak session this time on the Coomera river and yet again a big dohnut is the result. I know that I can't expect to change states and still catch fish as easily but this is ridiculous. Out of the last 10 trips all over 2 hours long, perfect tide times good light conditions, the right lures and a bunch to swap between I have still only landed a throw back bream and a big fork tailed catty. I am seriously begging anyone in the area (I'm happy to travel up to 1.5hrs) to take me out with them one day. Getting incredibly demoralised by the lack of success and I have been putting in a lot of hours and preparation/research for nothing. Happy to pay my way and always do my best to make it worth while for whoever helps me out. If you're considering it but not sure...it will be a favor I will not soon forget and happily repay however I can. Deets are as follows.. 25yo male Living in Riverhills brisbane Fishing style- lures or livies only. Mostly estuary but pelagics are my favourite. Have yak, unrestricted license (no boat license yet) Hoping someone gets back to me [emoji106]

I recently bought a daiwa aird combo from a discount fishing shop online (it's an aussie one) totalling $100 delivered, this combo is usually sold for around $200 but the site I am referring to regularly put them up as a discount item. If you get an idea of a few different reels your interested in it might be worth checking it out and waiting for the day they put the one your interested in up for discount.

Nice work mate, gotta love the northern species. Good to see someone our side of the border catching fish too, keep it up...I might learn something haha

For hardbodies I find the small 38mm crank styles in natural colours are hit the most followed by the sx40 style divers. The more you pay the better quality the hooks and probably paint job quality but brands like the atomic cranks and berkley are fine you don't need ecogear or jackalls etc. For plastics I agree with all the earlier comments. I will often switch from the 2" grubz to the 2.5" with a 1/20th jighead if having trouble casting in the wind. Bream also love blades, the ecogear blades are amazingly effective in deeper water and are almost always hit on the drop and rarely recquiring a strike to hook the fish so can be a great go to for the windy days again. I prefer the 428 number with the reasoning behind this being that this colour seems to imitate various species of bait with bleeding gills or a full egg pouch and in my experience this leads to more hook ups.

Might be worth mentioning that you can get flattys on the surface as well. My two biggest flathead were out of terrigal lagoon and avoca lagoon on the flats with a walk the dog style minnow. Great way to catch them too as it is awesome to watch them leave their dug outs and breach the surface with a big boof. This also means they will fight harder though as the shallows make them take longer harder runs instead of trying to run deep.

I will admit as a new member my activity was very light and consisted mostly of lurking but this really is the best fishing forum and I think this brings the best out of people. After reading all the positive comments for about a year I felt compelled to contribute more and start being a poster rather than lurker. Although my activity is still minimal this is due to a lack of fish and I try to put my 2 cents in where it's wanted to make up for this. My hope is to get these waters figured out so that I can encourage more northern members to contribute as this is truly where fishraider is lacking (not to the fault of admin). I am 25 and I don't have social media, for me fishraider is everything I'm missing out on that was good about facebook. I originally joined fishraider after a session chasing e.p's at the entrance and had a good chat to Stewy and Donna where they introduced me to the site. They are truly both as kind as they are experienced fishos and I congratulate you both in making this what it is today (with the help of the mods of course). I am however a tapatalk user which limits my use and I agree with Donna that it would be excellent if fishraider had it's own app as I don't tend to jump on the computer very often these days and it's great being able to do live reports too from your phone.

The biggest reason for me is filling that whole...If anyone else has suffered with addiction in the past or have mental health issues fishing is way cheaper than psychologists and therapy/meds. Or at least that's what I tell myself when I empty my wallet on tackle =P Regardless, it is a beautiful sport and I love the environment so hunting new species and cleaning up rubbish when I'm out gives me a good buzz too.

You're definitely onto something with the wind. Other than hardbodies by far the easiest to work in high winds for me. In my experience the darker muddier waters, especially on overcast days and after heavy rain, require darker colours in your lures. Predators like Mulloway can sense the vibrations of the lure in the water regardless of seeing them but to get them to strike the idea is you need something with a strong silhouette in dark conditions rather than something that is bright and shiny. Here is a link some of you may be interested in, it simplifies the science behind how light (and therefore colours) change in water and at different depths.

Those tiny bonnies make great baits if anyone is unaware. Live is best but not the easiest fish to keep alive and still great dead baits. if you get some small ones at avoca chuck em straight back out on a heavier outfit. I've seen marlin big tuna and kings hooked this way at Avoca and one good sized Mac tuna off the point at the Haven last year...the sharks love them too though obviously.Also make half decent slabs if salted correctly.

Any time mate, is it wierd I get stoked on other people catching fish!? Haha

I'm much the same mate, generally won't touch bait as I can't sit still haha but as the fellas said if you use that rig and sink the hook in so the point is not visible you could possibly let it drift around you as you cast lures. Just make sure that drag is set right in the rod holder

Cheers Neil! Still no monster Cod though [emoji6] your posts make me want to move to the bidgee!

Suppose this is a good time to mention my step fathers misfortunes last year (6months ago now). After working on an old timber navy boat for months and having all sorts of work done, while it was moored in Tascott thieves took a dinghy out to the boat, boarded, then proceeded to remove the exhaust and literally everything on the boat that was metal including the old irreplaceable Navy plates. The police were notified and we were told that they have been conducting surveilance in Brisbane Waters for some time now as some losers have been going around to every boat and taking everything shiny and dumping it in the bush on a secluded point for later removal and selling to the reckers. Sorry to hear some idiots done you're trailer in and it especially makes me angry because I'm sure they would be around my age and I am bloody sick of people making a bad name for the rest of us young blokes trying to live a respectful life!

Have you guys ever tried the samaki vibelicous (70mm) soft vibes? The reason I mention them is the action is not compromised when you change the hooks for singles (reducing the chance of snags), they are incredibly easy to use and flathead absolutely smash them. Fishing the Entrance on the central coast one day I wasn't having luck with all the usuals so gave my mates technique a try and literally 6 casts off the jetty and landed 6 60cm flatty. Normally these lures you use a slow lift of the tip feeling the vibrstions then letting it drop but flathead seem to love it when you use really (and I mean really) strong hard twitches the second it hits the bottom. Pretty similar to the techniques used with minnow profiles but much harder strikes.

Forgot to mention my partners friend caught a fish of the same calibre on the gear supplied by staff on a pellet right at the end of our session putting a big smile on their faces. My girl wasn't as lucky missing three fish (my guess is the wind was showing the fish which pellets had line attatched)

Hey guys thought I'd share todays story with you all. The missus has had a friend fly up from Sydney and with me not catching fish I suggested a trip to the Bli Bli Barra park. To my surprise the girls were just as excited as I so we packed the gear and took the drive from Brisbane. As we arrived the wind was howling through and shifting around which didn't look great but with a bit of cloud cover around I was hoping for the goods. We paid our entry fee and proceeded towards the back corner slightly tucked out of the wind. I pulled out the bream gear and set up with some 6lb braid to 6lb mono leader. A small green ecooda shrimp was the lure of choice and as I tied of the final nots I could hear the barra smashing the pellets the girls had just thrown in the water. Although this was in the pond with the smaller fish I can assure you there was a good number of 70-80cm fish in these schools mixed in with the majority of 50's. I positioned myself on the bank nearby and cast directly under some mangroves, let it sink....then BANG....s@$# wasn't paying enough attention! I quickly reeled in and threw several casts back at the same spot but nothing. After the next twenty minutes and a few missed hits I moved to another bank. First cast and a few twitches back from the bank and the hooks sunk in. I was onto a good sized fish. As my reeel screemed and line flew off at an alarming rate I couldn't help but smile....finallyyyyyy fish! The battle went on for about 15 minutes as I struggled to turn it's head being mindful of their raspy little mouths. Finally landing a nice solid Barra (never measure or weigh my fish so your guess is as good as mine on size). This was what I'd been waiting for. I cannot tell you how much it has killed me the last month not catching fish. Moving to Brisbane has been a big eye opener for me realising truly how much most of us really have to learn about this beautiful sport. While I'm sure I'll crack the code on the Brissy river soon, I'm stoked to have places like this around to wet a line...even if it is cheating [emoji6] Their were a few more fish caught and a monster snapped me off on the heavier gear but this first fish was definitely the highlight. Hope you enjoy the read and if you ever feel like you're having a bad run with it, I highly recommend dropping in and giving it a shot yourself. The staff were great and very friendly. Tight lines!

Legend! Cheers man...no place like home haha

Exactly mate, it's referred to in sections.The little pocket next to the boat ramp is the forst pocket (frigate central) where I've literally seen them beach themselves. The second pocket is around half way out to the point, you will see a bit of a drop off from the weed bed to the right of the first pocket. This is where the majority of bonnies are caught and if there are loads of people the lures will often turn the fish before they reach the first pocket. Off the point at the end of the shelf there is a rock sticking out a bit that you can stand on and cast directly across towards wamberal beach (keep it to the beach side of the channel marker and its all sand, a metre to the other way and your on the reef. If they aren't boiling up try the point and let it sink to the sand then rip it in. Seen a few rat kings and even some mac tuna caught this way last year. If anyone has the ability to record some footage I would be forever greatful. The closest I've come to landing a fish in brissy so far (other than catfish) was a big fat jack that smashed my lure and snapped me off in roughly 2 seconds [emoji15]