Brisbane Waters 11/12 Jan

[Mondo Rock]

I haven't posted a report for a while so I thought I should give a quick summary of two days in the boat on Brisbane Waters last weekend.

Plan for the Friday was to be on the water early to catch the last of the low tide so that we could pump a few nippers, move to the flats to flick softies during the run-in for flatties and then move into the oyster leases near Hardy's Bay at high to fish the nippers amongst the racks and rock bars. Backup plan was to anchor in the current near the Rip bridge and drift floaters back into the burley trail for bream (and whatever else would take them).

Needless to say the plan was a bust - the only part that worked was the nippers, of which we got a fair few. The flatties were asleep or dead or something - not a single hit with four people casting for an hour or so, and the leases were as quiet as I've ever seen them. A local guide was also fishing the leases with clients and we didn't see them turn a reel either. Thinking is that the tide was wrong for the flatties (run-out would have been better) and that the water was too warm for the bream to be up in the leases at mid-day. The backup at the Rip was at least interesting as we had a couple of hookups, landed a just legal bream and a couple of undersized.

That night saw me put my head together with my partner in crime to come up with a different plan for the next day. We decided that the system was too warm to fish the shallows and that we should go back to basics in the deeper areas.

So the next day we were back at the nipper grounds with a poddy mullet trap out as well. Quickly got a bucket of nippers and a handful of poddies and motored out to half-tide rocks to start our drift on the incoming. No softies, no HB's, no clever anchoring or stealthy approach - no tricks at all - just running sinker to swivel rig dragging along the bottom with live-bait attached on a short leader.

You can tell where the story is going I'm sure. This method worked a treat - with regular hookups on flatties, bream, small snapper and even a couple of squid. One of the poddies got monstered too by a big mutha that was lucky I can't tie knots well when I'm drunk (the nighyt before). Still not a great deal of size to the catch, with the exception of a 65cm lizard (on poddy) but a complete change to the day before. I think it was the depth - the fish were holding deeper due to the heavy boat traffic, bright sunshine and warm water.

So a good couple of days in the end, even though we didn't 'clean up'. Learned the lesson that when things aren't working it's best to go back to the drawing board and try something totally different.

[gretsch]

I was holidaying at Daley's Point over the Christmas period. We got some good lizards in the deep hole opposite Booker Bay near the rip. The channel behind the Hardy's Bay racks also produced good Lizards.

In all we caught about 60 Flatties over a week. 6 of them were over 60cm with remainder being 40-55cm.

All fish were taken on SP's.

[Mondo Rock]

Actually Ceph - there's a heap of really great flattie spots within the lower reaches of BW, many more than those you have listed. It's one of the better flathead fisheries I've encountered (the best being Sussex Inlet).

Softies definitely do most of the damage - but it can be hard to figure out what to do when the fish are simply ignoring them! That's the position I found myself in last weekend - the technique I use to catch 95% of my flathead was totally ineffective for some reason. Might have been the tide, but who knows.

It was nice to be reminded though that the old methods still work a treat, and to be honest I had a lot of fun using the live poddies. You KNOW that any flathead in the area will be hard pressed to pass up a live, struggling mullet, and when the big ones are being used the anticipation of a larger fish taking them is definitely heightened.

It may very well have been a case of back to the future for me.

[Blood Knot]

Reckon your right there Mondo - sometimes the back to basics approach will get things happening the way they should.

Took interest in your "I can't tie knots well when I'm drunk (the nighyt before)"

How many times have I rigged up the night before after a few beers and a couple of reds to find I have totally missed a couple of guides on inspection the next morning ( 3 is my record so far ) sh..t just realised there is only about 7 on the rod

John

Edited January 17, 2008 by Blood Knot

[mark84]

its always rewarding when you totally change tactics and it works. Oh i can certainly relate to the rigging up after a couple of beers so much that i once rigged up three rods two of them came apart on the first cast and the third on a small fish always the way..

[Ray R]

Just gotta hunt em down, they are always somewhere just gotta find the little buggers, Hutcho and I often find ourselves tracking, moving around until we find the fish.. Good story very enjoyable...