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Wondabyne Flatties


MainframeJames

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Hi Raiders,

My father-in-law has it "on good authority" that flathead are abundant around Wondabyne, particularly between an hour each side of high tide. He's asked me to go fishing with him there on the weekend. He's 67 and not a fisho, so not 100% sure why he suddenly has the itch, but I said yes. 

So now I'd like to ask for advice. Has anyone fished Wondabyne? Particularly land based? What was your experience?

For bait I'm taking the usual suspects of SPs, and I'm going to try to collect some poddies beforehand. Any other suggestions are welcome. 

As a backup plan I'm planning on taking some bread, I've seen lots of mullet there from the train.

Thanks in advance everyone!

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Hi MJ, can't help with SPECIFIC location advice but bait wise prawns and mullet work well on a lot of species. Of course, if you can catch some small mullet they're ideal bait. I think it's rather nice that your F I L wants to go fishing with you when he's not an angler. He must like you. Maybe he'll get the urge to become an angler if you have a good day. Good luck, I think you'll do alright. bn

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2 minutes ago, Berleyguts said:

Had a look on Google Earth and Maps. It looks pretty isolated there with no road access. Are you taking the train? Hard to beat live poddies for flathead.

Yep, taking the train. During the day there's about 1 train per hour. It's the only train station in NSW inaccessible by car. 

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45 minutes ago, MainframeJames said:

Yep, taking the train. During the day there's about 1 train per hour. It's the only train station in NSW inaccessible by car. 

Yep, I read that. So, maybe your F-I-L is a train enthusiast? I read that you need to alert the guard in the rear carriage if you want it to stop there.

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I can confirm flathead activity. They didn't touch live poddies at all. But they liked SPs and really liked vibes/cranks. Lots of takes but I paid the snag tax pretty heavily. With a little more practice I think it would be quite possible to bag out on flatties there.

Plenty of Taylor, perfect size for jewie bait, if such things were legal. 

The water there is called Mullet Creek, and with good reason.  There were dozens if not hundreds of mullet swimming around in schools of all sizes, from see through all the way up to 30cm+. They put on quite a show jumping for us, sometimes only 2-3 meters away. 

A local turned up and he reckons the spot is dynamite for jewies, hairtail, and eels at night during a high tide. He's been fishing it for 5 years now so there might be something to it. 

Pic is the one I took home, measured at 49cm but his head was as big as my hand. He started head shakes before I could even see him. I knew I had a decent flattie on so I’d kept him low in the water. Did pretty good damage to my 12 lb leader. He’s getting fried up as soon as this is posted.

8B387398-D8C4-4C46-8B1F-EB90BB970CA8.jpeg

Edited by MainframeJames
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Nice one James good to see you catch the target species. I go past that jetty twice a day on the train and have often wondered what fish are there. 

What species of flathead is that?

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Good outing there, and a good flattie. I've thought about trying there many times. Are there many shore based spots you can get to, or is it pretty much that one jetty?

How long did you fish there for, and what phase of the tide was it?

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12 hours ago, seasponge said:

Good outing there, and a good flattie. I've thought about trying there many times. Are there many shore based spots you can get to, or is it pretty much that one jetty?

How long did you fish there for, and what phase of the tide was it?

There's literally kilometers of easy access to the water along the shore there. The flathead like to sit along rock walls so it's pretty ideal. The downsides are that you can only get there by train and a lot of the shoreline is quite close to the train line. 

I fished there for 2 hours. From one hour before high tide to one hour after.  Not the ideal time for shallow water flatties because they're less concentrated and harder to target compared to when the water is low, but I had at least one, usually multiple hits on every cast.

The amount of baitfish in the water was unreal. There wasn't a single moment the whole time I was there that I couldn't see fish in the water, and that goes for along the rocks as well, not just around the jetty. I don't have polarised glasses, either. 

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Nice report. I tried going there a long time ago. I got off the train and as I sat down on the wharf I noticed a no fishing sign, so i tried to find a land based spot, only to be told by a local that you aren't allowed to be too close to the train lines so I ended up packing and leaving. I always wanted to get my boat there but I've never had the time, and I've seen mullet jumping from the train as well

 

 

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I noticed the sign as well. While we debated, one of the locals came down and started fishing from the wharf. He said don't worry about it, but it does say no fishing. 

To be fair, it's a very small wharf and you only get about 5 meters of extra casting distance, which you don't need because the fish are probably up against the rocks anyway. 

I know it's illegal to cross tracks outside of designated crossings but I don't know what the minimum distance is from the train lines if you're just nearby. Googling didn't turn much up. Anyone know?

Edited by MainframeJames
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