Narrabeen Lagoon Plastic Session

[Jake]

Hit Narra Lake at a cruizy hour of 9am with the electric purring for some light tackle spinning. Nice conditions.

Went with a shrimp pattern as it was the lead up to the dark moon. Thought the flathead might be coming up to the shallows too with the warmer water arriving.

Anyway within the first 20 mins had that great feeling of twitch, twitch thud! when you know you've hit a semi decent flathead. Hit just at the drop off in only a metre of water. Performed beautifully with multiple line burning runs. Result this 68cm girl. Caught on 2-4kg pflugger, 1000 stradic, 4lb fireline, 8lb vanish leader, 1/16th nitro jig and 2 inch gulp new penny shrimp

After a decent swim sent this breeder on its way to go populate the lagoon once more.

Then later hit the deeper water with heavier gear and jig head as the sun was high in the sky. Got this flathead at 49cm on a 100mm wriggler. Beer battered that night for dinner.

Along with some tailor, bream and a big long tom is was a fun and satisfying half day on the water.

Cheers

[brendong]

Well done mate.. great effort on the light gear...blood worm squidy wrigglers, my fav flathead sp...spewing the 140mm aren't being produced anymore.

Nice work with the release too.

[Bream Mad]

Nice croc there mate

good work on releasing her as well

cheer

bm

[Hodgey]

Well done mate Good effort to land (and release) that lady on the light leader I agree with your suggestion about the fish being up in the shallows. We saw numerous BIG flatties up in the shallows last weekend, and had most interest in the prawn profile plastics. Great report and photos mate

Cheers

Hodgey

[bjneville]

Nice big girls there PM!

Where do you launch at Narra? Any probs on a low tide?

Ben

[Jake]

Nice big girls there PM!

Where do you launch at Narra? Any probs on a low tide?

Ben

Thanks fellas.

I usually launch at Jamison Park. No problem on low tide, although I have a v-nose 3.5 metre punt which can handle shallow conditions. I wouldn't take a massive boat out there anyway, doesn't suit it.

The only issue is getting to the grounds north/east of Jamison Park because of the main weed beds in front. It's very shallow there at the moment. I used my electric to try and guide me through the shortcut but it was tricky.

Might be better off at the moment to power over to wakehurst parkway side and go around the channel that way. Longer distance but easier, deeper water. Of course if your heading west from Jamison Park you will have no probs.

[glennmreid]

Great work on the flatties. Well done mate

[andrew399]

Some nice fish there mate! I have always wanted to fish the lake by boat, if you ever want some company shoot me a PM!

Nice work, i imagine its only going to get better with the water warming up!

[Jake]

BY FAR the two best flattie and bream sp's i now carry the most around the lake are a gulp 4" worm in pumpkinseed and my personal favorite flattie lure is the standard 3" power minnow in pearl blue. Colour doesnt matter much tho on the flatties tho i reckon. Tend to fish both on 1/32nd heads and often no weight. Found that 1/16th tends to be the cut off for my fishing and its mainly for casting distance rather than presentation coz i wade.

I use 2kg mono and 1m of v light vanish leader coz i dont mind losing the odd one when they saw thru it...get more hits tho the more naturally it is presented.

One thing i found is that whilst the jigheads work well...dont be afraid (esp when using the worm patterns) to use an unweigted sp with a small split shot about 2-3ft up a vanish leader.

From EP's to the humble bully. I might invest in a portable S/W temp gauge to test the temp theory this yr instead of going by feel and guessing.

G'day boomer. Great to hear your thoughts and ideas.

Yeah the 3" minnow is hard to beat, but never tried that colour in the lake, might give it a go. Handy because it's a good size and shape for both bream and flathead. I agree colour is the least important factor with flatties.

Everytime i think i've found the best flathead lure i try another size, shape or colour and find that works almost as well. I think the best lure often ends up being the one you use the most.

But when times are tuff i end tying on either a gulp 3" pumpkinseed grub, 2" new penny shrimp, 3 or 4" minnow in smelt (mullet look a like), with the 80mm squidgy fish in silver fox for the deeper parts. I've found natural colours, sizes and shapes imitating the natural food sources in narra lake to work best, more so than other sytems i fish. With prawns/shrimp, mullet and biddy/herring type things making up most of the bait these lures really "match the hatch".

I've often thought about trying the worms. I've shyed away from using them as i thought it wouldn't give enough impact on the bottom to get the flathead fired up. Bream would be fine. I'll try them now for sure, cheers.

For the shallows i agree, i don't go heavier than 1/16 oz and i often go weightless or use the 1/50oz type jig where it goes fully into the plastic. Especially good on the bream up the back with 3" gulp power minnows and with the 2" gulp shrimp on flathead. I've only recently been hitting the deeper parts with heavier jigs (1/3 oz - 1/8oz) after Hodgeys recent advice on winter flathead. It's really worked for me, especially with the squidgy fish type plastics.

All my big flathead have come in Spring, which makes sense as they're the big breeders. Less in qty better in size. I agree, when the water warms up you get a lot of 40-45cm flathead (gooe eating size). Funny I've had my best fishing (especially for bream) in morning and especially arvo sessions (but maybe that's just because i fish those times the most). Tide doesn't seem to be such a factor in the lagoon compared to most systems, probably because it's minimal tidal movement, especially up the back.

Interseting you use mono. Not tried braid? Heaps of fun on that light gear though hey.

I used to do a bit of saltwater flyfishing in the lake with crazy charlies and the like for flathead and bream. Would like to get one of those big bulley mullet but i've heard they're pretty hard to coax onto a bread fly.

Have heard of EP's in there but never caught one, only in sydney harbour. Have you got them and where/when? I've even heard of mangrove jack and giant herring in there, now that would be interesting.

It's such a nice place to fish. On sunset up the back, even on weekends, you feel like you were a million miles from Sydney. And in summer it feels "alive" with fish.

[arpie]

Well done Plastic Man on such a fine catch & release!! One Big Fat Momma!!! Always a bit scary till you get them 'landed', eh?

Also to Boomer - what a terrific amount of info you have posted for fellow Fishraiders to run with! Very generous of you on your first post! It is a terrific fishery down there!

I started flattie fishing in my yak with Squidgies in Spring up here in Spring back in about 2003 - have had success with the power minnows too

Looks like some top fishing is still to be had!

Cheers

Roberta

[yakfishing]

Awesome info guys, I'm hanging to hit the lake again soon in my yak. I do a lot of drift baiting but Ive been wanting to do a lot more with the placcies. The only reason I dont is that Im not confident on getting bream on them. I can get the flatties fine on plastics, but with the bait I still think I have the best chance for a bream or a flatty (and it works quite well so its hard to get away from it). But youve definitely given me some inspiration with the plastics, and im in the perfect craft to creep around the shallows and flick around.

Cheers

[yakfishing]

Along with some tailor, bream and a big long tom is was a fun and satisfying half day on the water.

Cheers

Only just noticed this - I think you just answered a question Ive been scratching my head over for the past year. I had this strange looking bugger with a big beak on the end of my line at the mouth of deep creek. Made some good runs on 6ib circling all around the yak, then must have sawed thru the leader cuz I lost him. Ive been curious ever since, but a long tom fits the bill. Thanks mate!

[Jake]

Only just noticed this - I think you just answered a question Ive been scratching my head over for the past year. I had this strange looking bugger with a big beak on the end of my line at the mouth of deep creek. Made some good runs on 6ib circling all around the yak, then must have sawed thru the leader cuz I lost him. Ive been curious ever since, but a long tom fits the bill. Thanks mate!

No prob's. Yep that would be the culprit for sure. Unless it was the mysterious giant herring!

I've only caught two before in the lake, the other one was up the back around from pipeclay point. Not bad on light gear hey. Destroy the plastic though!

There are also some decent garfish in the lake at present, might be worth a shot in your yak with bread. Been catching some big ones in Pittwater recently too.

With the bream you are in the perfect craft. I used to yak fish the lake for many years before i got the boat 14 mths ago. I must admit i've probably had my best fishing for bream with nippers in the lake, but it's a lot more satisfying to get them on lures.

Your definitly in the perfect craft to get them on poppers late in the summer arvo's. Just do long casts over weed/sand flats in about a metre or less of water, guaranteed hits. The bushy stiffy popper in clear with blue spots is working for me at present.

With plastics for bream I find using light jig heads the best, around the 1/24 oz and lighter. Just slight twitches. The 2inch gulp shrimp is great, with a tiny treble stinger really helping on the smaller fish. Up the back of the lake at either ends i get a lot on 3" powerbait minnows in pumpkinseed or the 3" gulp minnow in smelt late in the day. Try and find the small shrimp fleeing the surface, guaranteed bream. Or just look for the little boils. A lot easier to cast to feeding fish. Up the back there its less than a mtere of water so i often go resin head or weightless jigs that go into the powerbait minnow plastic completley. Great hits and great fight in shallow water.

Finally, funny enough up the back, compared to the eastern parts, i often get the bream on relatively open flats with no weed. It's almost like they've gone pelagic chasing down shrimp bait balls

All the best.

Roberta - Too true, it's always heart in the mouth with those big girls. You try and have a sneak peek when your fighting them to see (and pray) the you've hooked her in the corner, not in the throat

[yakfishing]

Gday Plastic Man, thanks for the info

Yeah the longtoms are a good little tussle, I was spewing when he got away I wanted a good look at him and I was already gutted from loosing a really nice bream about 10 mins before. Just one of those days.. .

I get a lot of bream drifting the flats from pipeclay pt to deep ck, where I deliberately drift for the lack of weed. its impossible drifting the shallower parts where the weed is more prominent. I always figured I was catching them traveling from one side of the lake to the other, cuz there aint much out there.

Ive been waiting for an excuse to try poppers too so I'll have to give that a go. What sort of retrieve do you use? Also, are snap swivels an option for lures or do they stuff up the action? Making things easy on the yak is always a good option, as Im sure you know, and being able to change lures in seconds would be very appealing.

Cheers

[spence]

Hi all that's a great read on the lake. I fish there regularly too in a tinnie but more so in the channel in front of the caravan park and near the woollies bridge. Naturally enough I find live poddies work best and definately the bigger flatties in Spring as lately they have all been smaller which is better to keep anyway as they taste better and I let most big ones go.

After reading these posts I think I will also try plastics up the back. You guys have been very liberal with your info. I have caught some small and massive long toms all over the lake. The first one was massive and leapt out of the water and I shat myself. They just keep going round and round the boat in a clockwise circle and they fight hard. They have hit my live poddies and I have had them follow soft plastics to the surface but not take them.

No doubt I will see some of you out there this summer...

spence

[Jake]

Ive been waiting for an excuse to try poppers too so I'll have to give that a go. What sort of retrieve do you use? Also, are snap swivels an option for lures or do they stuff up the action? Making things easy on the yak is always a good option, as Im sure you know, and being able to change lures in seconds would be very appealing.

Cheers

Hodgey did a how to guide on bream poppering which is defintley worth a read. Has all the detail and info you need.

But basically i cast out, let it sit for a few seconds, then do 2-3 short blooping tugs, let it sit for aprrox 3-5 seconds then 2-3 more blooping tugs, sit for 3-5 seconds etc etc. Most often they hit on the 3-5 second pause. If I see a boil or slight tap on the popper but no hook up, I let it sit and just slightly twitch the popper without moving it forward, this usually draws a strike.

I never use snaps anymore on all my lures. With softies i use a uni not that's not drawn down all the way to the jig head so it leaves a loop. When the fish hits the knot draws tight, so it's the best of both worlds. Then you can pull the knot back again to create the loop. With poppers i tie a locked blood knot all the way to the tow point, i like the direct feel without the loop.

Yeah when i used to yak fish i used the snaps for hard bodies, just for ease of change over. But with the small lures you use in the lake i think it does effect their action.

Cheers

[mitch]

Nice work Plastic man,

nice flatty you got there. There are a couple of good spots in the lagoon where you can chase EP's succesfully. there are also a couple of spots where the jews get when it opens up. I have seen a few come out of the lake but no size.

I am actually trying to figure a way that I can finish work around that part of Sydney in the afternoon so I can get there for a flick.

I hope you keep gettin 'em

Mitch

[luderick59]

nice flatties

you may pick up some school jew in the next month especially with all the bait fish prawns in the lake at the moment and big bream up to 1kg

peter

[Jake]

Is the lake open at the moment Pete?

Best to chase the Jew in the deeper holes in the week leading up to the new moon? I'm still yet to get a jew in the lake.

Cheers

[luderick59]

yes the lake is open i fished the high this morning for nil

no blackies but heaps of baitfish herring mullet and small tailor

i have caught my jew in 6ft of water on tailor fillets

the 2mt tide on saturday may attract a few big fish to enter into the lake

also the beach at the opening would be worth a throw

good luck peter

[flatty hunter626]

Well done mate.. great effort on the light gear...blood worm squidy wrigglers, my fav flathead sp...spewing the 140mm aren't being produced anymore.

Nice work with the release too.

the 140mm's are the no 5 wrigglers right???so there not making them anymore>>???!....they are my absolute fav lure! in blood worm of course......