The Entrance and Swansea sessions

[Little_Flatty]

Hi all,

Just got back from a weekday break at The Entrance.

Reading @LandBasedKeith's report about prawns running and @Toby_fisho's reports of flatties on the flats, I went up there feeling confident I could find some fish. Thanks guys for your reports and intel 

Day 1 we drove up to Swansea for lunch at the RSL. After lunch I wandered down to some flats I had scouted out to see if I could snare a whiting on a sugapen. They were there, and they certainly weren't shy - I actually had one by the nose for about five seconds - but I struggled to work poppers due to the huge amount of weed on the surface. I gave up after half an hour. Changing to a gulp 3 inch minnow found me a couple of pike:

Would have kept them for bait, but didn't have an esky on me, so they were sent on their way.

Returning to The Entrance that afternoon, I had a cast around the flats and got myself a legal bream for dinner.

The next morning waiting for the sun to come up, I was casting in the deeper water west of the bridge and hooked up to something huge. Whenever it ran, I was powerless to do anything, but when it stopped, I found that I could let the line go slack. Something told me that it was a foul-hooked ray, but seeing as I could gently turn it every now and again, I thought I would play along to see if I could get it to reveal itself to me. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) the hook straightened after about ten mins and I was free to pursue something else.

Once the sun was up, it was out again on the flats. The tailor were busy chasing prawns like every other fish in the lake. It was actually difficult to get a plastic to the bottom without it getting butchered, hooking up to a just-undersize tailor or both. Was good fun, but it did get old (and expensive) after a while.

When I finally got a lure to the bottom, I was lucky enough to snare a 53cm flathead:

My final session the next morning saw a repeat of the first morning, with the tailor even thicker than the previous morning. However, I managed to catch myself a legal flounder:

All in all it was a few good sessions, was glad to be up there.

About to whip up a thai fish curry with the flathead now

Mike

[Rah]

Great report and pics Mike! Not a bad couple of days! 

 

Cheers

Rah

 

[Richard Warren]

That's what I love about this website. You get information that inspires you to get out and have a go. Well done on the catch and on the other fish raiders who helped motivate you to get out there.

[kingie chaser]

Great work 👌

But do yourself & the fish you have to return to the water a favour & get yourself a measuring mat over the tape measure.

[Toby_fisho]

Well done mate 👍

[lakelad]

On 11/3/2019 at 9:36 PM, kingie chaser said:

But do yourself & the fish you have to return to the water a favour & get yourself a measuring mat over the tape measure.

But how can you measure the 3m flatty's on a brag mat? 😁

[Rob81]

Just need to factor in that Brag mats shrink and expand. The last one I tested was 2cms off so if you use one, you should take factor the give or take before deciding if something is legal. The tape measures are great but they can rust over time.

[Rebel]

Great report and photos.

[kingie chaser]

5 hours ago, lakelad said:

But how can you measure the 3m flatty's on a brag mat? 😁

 

Don't get to far ahead of yourself young fella 😂

 

But just suggesting you respect the fish your keeping OR returning mate, not hard to do 

[Pickles]

Great report Mike, terrific pics too