todays flathead

[hookerbruce]

Did a quick trip in the hacking this morning hoping for a king. Didn't see any or any surface action. 

Anchored up and berlied caught a few small red bream then one got hit on the way up glanced over the side saw a shape put the rod in the holder quickly got a line in the water for what I thought would be a king. The fish hit the reddie again I looked over the side to see a flathead with a tail hanging out its mouth tried to set the hook but fish pulled out and flathead swam away.

First time I've had a large flathead come to the surface in 12m of water. The reddie was 20cm long and well scaled.

The flathead eventually took a very small pilchard cube on a no. 4 hook floated down the berley trail. Put up a good fight on the little 2kg outfit wouldn't stay still for the photos and was back in the water in short time. Measured 77cm. 

Home by 9 am   the kings will have to wait for another day. 

[Blackfish]

Nice fish Bruce and a good story to go with it.

[Keflapod]

Hey Bruce. Very nice flattie. I hav seen 2x flatties do that but not hooked them. I've had one  chase a little red but miss it on the surface. Another one chased a half eaten piece of chicken breast as I was pulling it back near the surface. But again no cigar. Well done on the release. Reminds me of the Finding Dory quote is Brucey the shark "fish are friends not food" . That's why the flattie was released😄

[LittleNipper]

Nice fish ! 

I'm heading to port hacking for the first time this Friday

Going to launch at Yowie bay

Any suggestions on where to fish? I'll be fishing 2 hours before the up and 2 hours after

Cheers

[Oscarthebeagle]

Nice fish and well done releasing one of Yowies pets.

[Yowie]

1 hour ago, Oscarthebeagle said:

Nice fish and well done releasing one of Yowies pets.

I had a look at photos of flatties I released this year, and none of them match this one, so I will catch him some time. Maybe.  

Looking at the photos, the flatties have various spots of different sizes and shapes, but they are in similar places for each fish. The examination of the spots is a way to identify each fish.

[Yowie]

Nice fish Bruce.

My grandfather told me a story of a BIG flattie that grabbed his smallish bream and it chewed off half the bream each time. Always missed the hook.

[Welster]

Great flattie Bruce.   Well done.

[Rebel]

Great Story.

[yting]

I went out on Saturday arvo also looking for a King or a Salmon. Got neither and the surface action was few and far between. I did however see a monster flatty in shallow water, cruising around in circles for several minutes teasing me. I threw a few different lures at it but it was laughing at me. I was kind of glad really that it wasn't easily tempted as it gave me faith that it will still be around for a while without anyone catching and keeping it. It was easily bigger than my best of 79cm. The females must be active at the moment.

 

 

[LuckyFil]

Good story Bruce. I had the same thing happen years ago when I caught a small reddie in Pittwater, halfway up it suddenly grew. I slowly brought it up to the surface and big John Dory opened his mouth and let the cockney go - wasn't happy...

[hookerbruce]

1 hour ago, LuckyFil said:

Good story Bruce. I had the same thing happen years ago when I caught a small reddie in Pittwater, halfway up it suddenly grew. I slowly brought it up to the surface and big John Dory opened his mouth and let the cockney go - wasn't happy...

This thing came right to the surface and had 3 goes at the reddie with the fish hanging on the rod. But it would not take a half pillie on the other line next to the reddie . It didn't seem to care about the boat. 

For me this season seems to have a few big flathead Last week at SWR I did 5 trips in the river and managed 5 flathead 60-74 cm .

Sometimes offshore a flathead will follow a hooked one to the surface  you look over the side and see 3 fish and know you only have 2 hooks in 30 m of water 

Already planning my next local trip  maybe Friday 

[Holls]

Yeah, the really big crocs love to take a caught fish on the way up. Dragged one huge flatty up beside the kayak, around 90cm before it spat out a 25cm pinkie in disgust. A question, you mention "red bream", is that a little snapper by another name, or a different fish? Here's one that choked in our lake.

[LuckyFil]

14 hours ago, Holls said:

Yeah, the really big crocs love to take a caught fish on the way up. Dragged one huge flatty up beside the kayak, around 90cm before it spat out a 25cm pinkie in disgust. A question, you mention "red bream", is that a little snapper by another name, or a different fish? Here's one that choked in our lake.

Yeah "red bream", or for the real little guys "cockney", are  terms for smaller snapper . You don't hear these names as much these days.

That's a great pic of the big flattie that got too greedy. Which lake was it found in?

Fil

[campr]

The same day I caught one of my pb flathead at 97cm ( released ) I had a similar experience.  I was bringing a nice flatty to the boat when a huge flatty well over a metre came and grabbed it.  A few minutes into the fight the big girl spat the little one out and swam off.  I then landed 1st flatty which was half scaled and 41cm long.  Ron

[onearmedfisho]

On 12/1/2019 at 7:56 AM, LuckyFil said:

Yeah "red bream", or for the real little guys "cockney", are  terms for smaller snapper . You don't hear these names as much these days.

That's a great pic of the big flattie that got too greedy. Which lake was it found in?

Fil

Burill lake south coast