jenno64 Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Woke a little late after a late one last night and my lovely wife announced that she would be heading of to her friend's place for an hour or two with my 8 yo son. I quickly loaded the car and headed down to the Georges, up river from the main bridges and launched into good overcast conditions. Armed with hardbodies and blades only, I hit a coupe of reliable run out spots around 10:30am with the hope that the last half of the run out would produce the goods. Scored 5 flatties from 40-50 cm, keeping the 2 bigger ones on a variety of lures but at about midday, the bite slowed down. I changed plans and trolled a new area that drops from 4 ft down to 10 ft. On the first troll, one of my rods took a hit that looked pretty solid. I set the hooks and brought the other lines in. This was a good flatty that came to the yak pretty quickly. I netted her in a pretty green state. She looked a good size and I and slipped the lip grips in as she had swallowed the lure completely. The flatty then launched itself out of the net and twisted a full 360 degrees before landing in the yak at my feet minus the lip grips that had split the bottom jaw! I re-gripped the top jaw, removed the lure and dispatched the fish. I had drifted back a hundred metres or so after the action so I set the lures for one more troll on the way back to the car. Around the same spot, the same lure gets hit again and this time I felt some serious weight as I set the hooks. I quickly got the other line in and started on the fish and it took a couple of zippy runs to the surface, with a silver flank flashing at me, making me think it was a jew. As I got it back to the side of the yak, I got a glimpse of a very nice flathead. By this time I was only a couple of hundred metres from the car so I towed her in slowly and netted her as I beached the yak. A quick measure on the lie detector showed her up as a very healthy 86cm. I yelled out to a nearby fisho who kindly took a couple of happy snaps and I then swam her back to a fiesty release. It was an interesting session and hopefully a sign of things to come over spring and summer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hodgey Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Another crackin' fish to add to the photo collection, Rob All reports indicate it is going to be a very production season. I look forward to seeing some more reports over the coming months mate. Cheers Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
arpie Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Excellent session, Rob!! Well done! Roberta Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr Squid Posted October 14, 2012 Share Posted October 14, 2012 Woke a little late after a late one last night and my lovely wife announced that she would be heading of to her friend's place for an hour or two with my 8 yo son. I quickly loaded the car and headed down to the Georges, up river from the main bridges and launched into good overcast conditions. Armed with hardbodies and blades only, I hit a coupe of reliable run out spots around 10:30am with the hope that the last half of the run out would produce the goods. Scored 5 flatties from 40-50 cm, keeping the 2 bigger ones on a variety of lures but at about midday, the bite slowed down. I changed plans and trolled a new area that drops from 4 ft down to 10 ft. On the first troll, one of my rods took a hit that looked pretty solid. I set the hooks and brought the other lines in. This was a good flatty that came to the yak pretty quickly. I netted her in a pretty green state. She looked a good size and I and slipped the lip grips in as she had swallowed the lure completely. The flatty then launched itself out of the net and twisted a full 360 degrees before landing in the yak at my feet minus the lip grips that had split the bottom jaw! I re-gripped the top jaw, removed the lure and dispatched the fish. I had drifted back a hundred metres or so after the action so I set the lures for one more troll on the way back to the car. Around the same spot, the same lure gets hit again and this time I felt some serious weight as I set the hooks. I quickly got the other line in and started on the fish and it took a couple of zippy runs to the surface, with a silver flank flashing at me, making me think it was a jew. As I got it back to the side of the yak, I got a glimpse of a very nice flathead. By this time I was only a couple of hundred metres from the car so I towed her in slowly and netted her as I beached the yak. A quick measure on the lie detector showed her up as a very healthy 86cm. I yelled out to a nearby fisho who kindly took a couple of happy snaps and I then swam her back to a fiesty release. It was an interesting session and hopefully a sign of things to come over spring and summer! Well done Rob, can i ask where you launched from yesterday. I threw some SP's and blades around the Como bridge yesterday afternoon at the bottom of the tide for no result but that fishing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rjc123 Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Cracker flattie mate! Nothing beats releasing the big girls! Looks like you would have got a decent feed out of the others as well Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmak Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Wow! Those are really good quality flatties plus a really big girl! You've got the HB trolling pattern down pat I reckon! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 15, 2012 Share Posted October 15, 2012 Great job on the flathead Rob and the big jewies are right on track as well. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK. Regards Stewy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brendong Posted October 16, 2012 Share Posted October 16, 2012 Nice fish mate! 86 would have given a good account of itself, nothing better than the sound of a screaming reel!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adkel53 Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 (edited) Excellent big old girl there are some other nice table fish. My last two trips in the bay have resulted in a lot of hits and a lot of dropped fish. According to the Flathead Whisperer (aka Hodgy) we may have been using lures that were a little too big and retrieving them too fast. Hope to get out next week and try some new lures and techniques as there seems to be some nice early season lizards about. Kel Edited October 20, 2012 by kel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 Some good fish there Rob. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted October 20, 2012 Author Share Posted October 20, 2012 Excellent big old girl there are some other nice table fish. My last two trips in the bay have resulted in a lot of hits and a lot of dropped fish. According to the Flathead Whisperer (aka Hodgy) we may have been using lures that were a little too big and retrieving them too fast. Hope to get out next week and try some new lures and techniques as there seems to be some nice early season lizards about. Kel Kel, I reckon the bigger lures attract the bigger fish! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adkel53 Posted October 20, 2012 Share Posted October 20, 2012 Kel, I reckon the bigger lures attract the bigger fish! That is also my theory too Rob. However, the Flathead Whisperer dares to differ! The 80 cm one I got a couple of weeks back took a 70mm Squidgy shad. My mate Greg swears by 2" Gulp shrimps. I tend to gravitate to 80mm squidgy fish and 4 or 5" gulp minnows or jerkshads. I'm going to try a mixture of smaller and larger lures next outing to test out Hodgy's theory as we have been losing far to many fish on our usual plastics recently. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted October 22, 2012 Author Share Posted October 22, 2012 That is also my theory too Rob. However, the Flathead Whisperer dares to differ! The 80 cm one I got a couple of weeks back took a 70mm Squidgy shad. My mate Greg swears by 2" Gulp shrimps. I tend to gravitate to 80mm squidgy fish and 4 or 5" gulp minnows or jerkshads. I'm going to try a mixture of smaller and larger lures next outing to test out Hodgy's theory as we have been losing far to many fish on our usual plastics recently. I'll be glad to hear the results .........I process all info from fatty captures and look for patterns. I've read Hodgey's post for years and he certainly does his fieldwork! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robinsoi Posted October 23, 2012 Share Posted October 23, 2012 What a session mate and well done on getting a few and releasing the big one Great that someone was nearby to take the photo too! Well done Ian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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