adkel53 Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 (edited) I've been fishing Botany Bay with lures (mainly plastics) for flathead for about 10 years now. I've had some great days fishing and caught some memorable fish, the best being a fat 92 cm model in October last year. However, I've never experienced anything like what happened out there today. I met my mate Greg at Sylvannia around 6.30 am after the hour long drive in from Camden. The tide was about an hour up from the bottom, a gentle northerly wind was blowing and there was a lot of high cloud. We headed to an area where I had considerable success a couple of weeks ago and began what was to be a memorable session. Things began fairly slowly with two fish landed and two dropped in the first 45 minutes. We moved a few hundred metres and despite the promising looking water we had nothing more to show for our efforts after about an hour and a half of fishing. I suggested that we move a couple of hundred metres where we could see some seagulls, terns and pelicans on the water and the occasional splashes of small tailor feeding on the myriads of small baitfish that were in the area, figuring that the lizards might be hanging around for some scraps. What an inspired decision. We landed at least 10 flathead from 45-58cm in the next half hour! The action continued until around 11.00am by which time we had accounted for 45 flathead between the two of us! Thirty of them are still swimming around the bay somewhere and we shared 15 between us to eat. Flathead fillets are one of the tastiest fish there are in our estuaries and one of the few fish that freeze well in my opinion. A range of lures were used - a Gold Rush coloured Z Mann Minnowz, a Copper Glow Z Mann Minnowz, a yellow and white Gulp crazy legs, a couple of different coloured 3" Atomic prongs and a gold lipless crankbait of unknown parentage. We used 1/6th and 1/4 oz jigheads with a size 2 0 or 3 0 hook. At one stage I landed 7 fish in 7 casts - truly amazing for flathead in my experience. No pictures but Greg recorded a lot of the action on his new Go Pro camera. Just some fantastic mental images to remember from the flathead session of a lifetime. Kel Edited April 15, 2013 by kel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
benm Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 You did great! Which lure of the bunch did the most damage? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bassboy888 Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 Nice work guys, things like that only happen once in many many years! hopefully we get to see some of this footage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Simda Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 Great work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 What a session, well done and good you snuck it in before the southerly that's hit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adkel53 Posted April 15, 2013 Author Share Posted April 15, 2013 You did great! Which lure of the bunch did the most damage? Hard to say. The Gulp crazy legs and the Gold Rush Z Man probably caught the most fish but only because they were used for longer periods of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nich Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 I had the zman minnowz working a treat in the bay a few weeks ago. 1/4 oz 2/0 hook. Great plastic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted April 15, 2013 Share Posted April 15, 2013 A great catch to remember. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tinny1 Posted April 16, 2013 Share Posted April 16, 2013 I've been fishing Botany Bay with lures (mainly plastics) for flathead for about 10 years now. I've had some great days fishing and caught some memorable fish, the best being a fat 92 cm model in October last year. However, I've never experienced anything like what happened out there today. I met my mate Greg at Sylvannia around 6.30 am after the hour long drive in from Camden. The tide was about an hour up from the bottom, a gentle northerly wind was blowing and there was a lot of high cloud. We headed to an area where I had considerable success a couple of weeks ago and began what was to be a memorable session. Things began fairly slowly with two fish landed and two dropped in the first 45 minutes. We moved a few hundred metres and despite the promising looking water we had nothing more to show for our efforts after about an hour and a half of fishing. I suggested that we move a couple of hundred metres where we could see some seagulls, terns and pelicans on the water and the occasional splashes of small tailor feeding on the myriads of small baitfish that were in the area, figuring that the lizards might be hanging around for some scraps. What an inspired decision. We landed at least 10 flathead from 45-58cm in the next half hour! The action continued until around 11.00am by which time we had accounted for 45 flathead between the two of us! Thirty of them are still swimming around the bay somewhere and we shared 15 between us to eat. Flathead fillets are one of the tastiest fish there are in our estuaries and one of the few fish that freeze well in my opinion. A range of lures were used - a Gold Rush coloured Z Mann Minnowz, a Copper Glow Z Mann Minnowz, a yellow and white Gulp crazy legs, a couple of different coloured 3" Atomic prongs and a gold lipless crankbait of unknown parentage. We used 1/6th and 1/4 oz jigheads with a size 2 0 or 3 0 hook. At one stage I landed 7 fish in 7 casts - truly amazing for flathead in my experience. No pictures but Greg recorded a lot of the action on his new Go Pro camera. Just some fantastic mental images to remember from the flathead session of a lifetime. Kel Mate have you got a youtube account ? if not get one and upload your videos to youtube put the link as i do , action like this needs to be shared with the masses ,the Go Pro is one of the best inovations out there !! Well done on thinking outside the square a fair few of us including myself i reckon would have been chasing the Tailor or Bonito , and don't get me wrong they are great fun as iv'e filmed a few great little sessions recently check out (flickinlures on youtube) but to target the bottom feeding flatty fillets at $25/kg underneath all that mayhem is something that i would have never contemplated before reading this great report cheers Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scratchie Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Awesome report! There's nothing like no stop action! And your right about a feed of flatty fillets! Can't be beaten! Cheers scratchie!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erroll Posted April 17, 2013 Share Posted April 17, 2013 Nice work there mate. Those days are diamonds...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adkel53 Posted April 18, 2013 Author Share Posted April 18, 2013 Another great day yesterday fishing the same area with Greg and another mate who is a kingfish fanatic and had yet to be introduced to the subtleties of soft plastics. We fished the same area, which is about the size of a football field, and were immediately into the flatties again on the run-up tide. We ended up with about 40 between us until the wind swung around from the west to the south and with that the bite virtually shut down. Moved to a different area nearby but only a couple of little tackers so pulled the pin around mid day. No seagulls or terns in evidence today and no pelicans feeding on the whitebait and/or tailor that were chasing them on Monday. The lizards were, on average, a little smaller this time but still lots on the 45-50 cm range and one or two closer to 60. We had a ball and it was great to see the kingie man enjoying himself on smaller quarry. We kept enough for a couple of feeds each and the rest are still there to grow a bit bigger and wiser. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted April 18, 2013 Share Posted April 18, 2013 You beat the southerly again Kel! Top session again and you've got a good spot nailed there! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimT Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 just came back from a drive to La Pa. The bombie behind Bare Island is starting to break from almost between the heads............and it's suppose to get bigger overnight........the wind is still almost onshore from SW at about 50-60kph........felt sorry for the 3 wedding parties trying to get photos. Jim........ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dhype Posted April 19, 2013 Share Posted April 19, 2013 Now that is fishing.... hard to beat catching 1000s flatties in a session, and at those sizes it would have been amazing fun. You gotta love Botany Bay... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adkel53 Posted April 26, 2013 Author Share Posted April 26, 2013 (edited) Video now edited. See it here! This is Greg's first attempt at editing Go Pro footage. I reckon he has done a top job. Kel Edited April 26, 2013 by kel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Posted April 26, 2013 Share Posted April 26, 2013 Enjoyed that video. Great effort. Flatties on plastics is always fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now