Shallow Water Flatties

[Hodgey]

G'Day all

Just a quick report. The flathead have begun to appear in the very shallow water over the sandbars. Dene and I chased them with 70mm Stealth Prawns in Flash Prawn or Wasabi colors. The strikes in the shallows are very agressive with the rod bucking in your hand like Harry Potter's demented broom stick Quite a few fish manage to throw the hooks this way, as it is hard to keep their head down in a cupful of water

Regardless, we managed to stay connected to 9 of them and keep a couple of reasonable ones for a feed. These fish came from an area reasonably close to the Entrance (WHICH IS NOW CLOSED ) so they should be a lot sweeter than their river cousins.

Time for a change of scenery so headed upriver to play in some of the narrow creeks. I tried plastics briefly, but all I could manage was this little pinky. The lure is a 3" Banana Prawn

Had a great time with Luckycraft pencils over the weedbeds in the creeks. I was hammered by a very good bream, but he was too good for me and he (and my $22 lure) disappeared into the timber. Damn! The bream were pretty tentative today. You had to grab their attention with some brisk 'walk the dog', then let them nail it while it was stationary. Picked up 8 breambos and released them all. It is still very windy here, the dolphins are definitely stuck here now indefinitely, and the water temp is hovering around 19 degrees. The next few weeks could prove interesting! Hope everyone had a great weekend.

Cheers

Hodgey

[glennmreid]

Some nice size flatties there Hodgey, well done mate

[Dreamtime]

Well done Ian. Some very nice looking meals you have there.

Wash them down with a or two.

Healthy looking squire there also - you'll have to find his daddy

Miss the scenery shots though mate.

Look forward to some next week.

Cheers

Carl

[Tiger Cam]

Fantastic feed of flatties there Hodgey Shame about the entrance being closed. Are there any plans to rectify that?

Cheers,

Cam

[Jewhunter]

Top report Hodgey!

Nice mate. Well done.

Might be worth a prawning session near that closed entrance soon.

Cheers,

Grant.

[slinkymalinky]

No doubt about it Hodgey. You've got a magic touch. Nice report and great looking fish mate.

Cheers, Slinky

[jahajo]

Great feed off flatties there

whats happening with the entrance to the river is it being reopened

[doug43]

Good stuff hodgey,

Those flatties would have been great to see flying around in the shallows,

I'll be interested to see the effect of those dolphins and the closed inlet in the coming months.

[DaveD]

Sounds like a pretty active little session there mate. Excellent stuff =D

[brendong]

Well done mate....3 sleeps till we start our trip south....are you up for a popper session on Sunday morning in that pristine backyard of your's, no pressure if your busy....

Plus I was reading my November issue of one of the the Aussie fishing mags and read a great North Qld report from your fishing partner Dene.....he must be stocked with its inclusion.

[Hodgey]

Where the entrance is supposed to be

This popular rock ledge has produced thumping blackies in the past, but 'no run - no fun', and it is devoid of fish life

This one is the same

These are the blokes that will be hit the hardest ... the oyster farmers

The last time the entrance closed, local business got together and bulldozed and dug most of the sand to the sides and then waited until torrential rain coincided with a big high tide, which supplied enough pressure to 'blast' the entrace open. BUT ... you can probably guess where all that sand has returned to

The entrance needs to be dredged, with the sand removed. At $3m estimated cost this is not likely to happen any time soon. The lake/river system is a comparatively small one. I don't believe it can support 3 healthy dolphins indefinitely without having some effect on the fish stocks. There are numerous fishos who blame them for poor fishing already I will keep you posted ....

Hodgey

[james7]

Great report as usual Hodgey. They are nice flatties alright.

Have you thought about organising a "Fishraider Channel Digging Social" down your way?

If everyone brought a spade and bucket ...

Also, regarding the dolphins, rent the Flipper dvd and then see if you can teach them a few "tricks". Maybe they could become bream spotters? Not that you need any help.

Cheers

Peter

Edited November 10, 2008 by peterS

[bjneville]

Good one Pete - like he needs help!

Nice flatties hodgey - they must have been great fun in the shallow stuff.

[Flightmanager]

Good to hear the fish are biting down your way Ian , those lizards look particularly tasty !!

Ross

[jewgaffer]

Well done on the flathead Hodgey. It might be worth a long session at night at the entrance in front of that closed sand bar in a north easterly and fish from the start of a run in tide and keep walking out and casting further till the last of the run out tide

Cheers

jewgaffer

[arpie]

Well done on the flatties, Hodgey - aren't they fun in shallow water! Shouldn't be too hard to open it up just a bit when the next 'big highs' are happening?? The prawns should be easier to net tho!! Maybe some of those big tailor are still hanging around too!! Shame about the loss of your Lucky Craft - some more bling swimming out there!

Shame about the total closure of the system tho! It was still fairly deep when we were wading it the other week!!! We saw the dolphins cruisin' back then too!

CHeerio

Roberta

[Kirks]

Hey hodgey

Excellent work on the flatties mate. Shame about the system being closed. Once it opens up again the fishing will fire as the fish will know that its opened and start to look for food in and out of the river so the entrance is the place to be.

cheers

Steve

[eddyc]

Nice Flathead Hodgey,

Now about the channel;

I would like to offer my time to contribute to digging out the channel might not be much but if we have a few people chipping in I'm sure we could get it done. Might even be worth looking into who would donate some equiptment time for this more than worthy cause.

But if I am the only one who actually ends up doing "The Moses thing" with the sand I know I'll be getting fit doing it