kiwicraig Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Bit of a delayed post. I went out very early on Saturday morning because that was the only time I could manage it - the rest of the weekend was jam packed with family and friends. It was a day of exploration and discovery. I wanted to go and sound out a new area in Brisbane Waters that I had read about here on FR but had not fished before. I was up at 4 and launched just after 4:30am from Woy Woy. I motored up through Paddy's Channel and headed over the sand bank very, very slowly. It was about an hour after high tide I didn't want to risk running it too shallow in the dark. I found the edge of the bank and anchored just off it in deeper water. Given that it was still full dark I didn't want to be drifting. I put out a bait behind the boat and then started working a fairly hefty plastic along the edge of the bank in the hopes that there might be a big flattie or even a Jew hanging along the edge. The plastic didn't get any interest, but just as the sky was lightening the bait rod went off and I pulled in a nice table size flathead that went 55cm. I dispatched that into the ice slurry and went in search of another to round out the family dinner. As soon as it was light enough I started drifting over the same area and I got a few hits but not many, and did not get a hookup. Since I was in exploration mode I decided to scout around the area a bit more. First I set up a drift that took me hard along the deep side of the sand bank drop off. I was expecting that to be a good drift but all I picked up was a small snapper ~ 24 cms. That was the start of a run of undersized fish. It did not seem to matter what I did - I just could not find the big ones again. I tried working the top of the sand bank, the entrance to Paddy's Channel and drifting out with the tide through Paddy's. I caught lots of fish, but couldn't get a second keeper for dinner. I landed 3 whiting, 6 snapper, a bream (possibly a Tarwhine - hard to tell sometimes) and a second flattie. One of the whiting, a snapper and the second flattie were all just short of legal. If the bream was in fact a tarwhine than it would have been legal, but I don't tend to keep just legal bream anyway, I like them a little bigger get a decent fillet off. I don't care - I was still having a ball and catching is always better than not catching! Eventually I ran out of time and had to head back in to get back to real life. That night I did the flathead on the BBQ. Just tossed the fillets in a little flour, salt and white pepper and the cooked it on the hotplate. My wife and I enjoyed that. The kids had sausages. Everyone was happy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flickn Mad Posted February 6, 2017 Share Posted February 6, 2017 Still sounds like a good day on the water. Damn real life getting in the way again. I have never fished Brisbane waters before but have herd it's a bit of a nursery at times. But hay, where there's small fish there should be some big ones trying to eat them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiwicraig Posted February 6, 2017 Author Share Posted February 6, 2017 Oh yeah - there are plenty of big ones in there as well. I've pulled some respectable fish out of there and on a couple of occasions I have hooked into and quickly been outclassed by big fish on light gear. Just long enough to go "Wow, that has some weight to it..." *ping* To a degree it is part and parcel with checking out new areas as well. You have to try things to learn things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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