thecosbykids

Went out fishing yesterday to one of my local spots and I noticed an abnormal amount of bait in the water around low tide. In some spots, every cast would result in bait skittering at the surface when the lure hit the water. There seemed to be a lot of activity from larger fish as well around the bait. But despite the promising signs, the day was slow and I couldn't get anything decent. Does anyone have any thoughts on how an abundance of bait will impact the bite? I speculate that more bait in the water means a quicker feeding time for any predatory fish, which would mean you get less time to entice these fish to bite. The very few decent tugs I got on the line felt like a fish that was not committing fully, perhaps it wasn't enticing enough with options around? Would love to hear peoples thoughts

Launched the kayak at low tide on the mud flats looking for flatties, hoping the recent rains hadn't pushed them to deeper water. I find that when the water is looking like willy wonkas chocolate river, bait seems to get left alone. So flicking plastics was the plan. I spent an hour gently drifting up the flats along the edges with not much success. Moving towards the mouth of Narara Creek, there is a very narrow channel that runs inbetween thick weed beds on either side. The beds are up on the flats which are 1-2ft deep and the channel drops off to about 6ft, so fish get forced to go through the channel to go out to open water. If you go trudge through the weeds and try not to spook the fish, you will hook something almost every time. I cast out into the drop off and flick up off the bottom a few times until I feel some weight. Nothing is happening so I assume I just hooked the kelp. Until the 'Kelp' Wakes up, and the drag starts screaming. Very powerful headshakes and there is sheer weight on the rod. The amount of drag being let off I knew this had to be a good fish. For the next 10 minutes I gently tried to work it away from the weed beds and close enough to net. Bringing it close to the kayak I could confirm it was a flathead and a good one at that. The next two minutes were spent trying to net it but with no avail, it was just too small for such a fish. I carefully pulled out the lipgrips and finally got it in It's very hard to measure in the kayak, but 74cm was the determination. Absolutely demolishes my previous PB of 63cm. The lure was a little far down, but I was able to get it out and safely release her back into the water to wreak havoc on the local poddy mullet population. Caught two more flatties that were also released as they were on the small side (34 and 38cm). Also got a tanky bream, but he also went back as I don't really like the taste of Bream from the flats (the beach is a different story however) Overall smasher of a day, even though I didn't bag anything and got rained on for half the day. Totally worth it!

Veterans hall wharf and the public wharf down View Parade have produced flatties for me on soft plastics on many occasions, but both those locations might be packed with people due to the holidays. If you are willing to drive 20 minutes, I would head down to Ettalong and flick either on the wharf or along the beach. The sandy bottom is killer for flatties, so much so that many of the fishos around there are sick of catching them. Lobster beach is also crazy for flathead and other bycatch.

I think the polite release size for a dusky is 70cm, but I wouldn't feel too bad about keeping one around this size. Interestingly enough these big girls are equivalent to a grandma and rarely, if at all release viable eggs. Good paper here that explains the reproductive senescence of large flathead: https://escientificpublishers.com/oogenesis-oocyte-atresia-ovarian-development-and-reproductive-senescence-in-the-dusky-flathead-platycephalus-fuscus-teleostei-AVAS-01-0004

Hey Guys, It's been a pretty windy couple of days around Sydney recently and I was wondering if anyone had any tips on flicking soft plastics or using hardbody lures during moderate wind? (15-25km/h, Landbased) Specifically: - Advice on keeping tension in the line when using small soft plastics and jig heads while the wind is blowing; Is this even possible? - Should retrieval strategy for soft plastics (flick, double flick etc) change when the wind picks up? - Would a deep diver hardbody lure function during moderate wind? I have a shallow diver hardbody that seems to cast okay during the wind, but it only stays near the surface. I would love to be able to target a deeper depth as slow/fastrolling these lures when the wind is blowing seems to be viable strategy. - General tips/advice The only solution I seem to be able to find is either using google maps and wind forecasts to find a more desirable location, or forget plastics altogether and use bait with a large sinker. Any advice would be greatly appreciated Cheers!