Flathead donut - a great day but only jewfish🙁

[Pickles]

Hi Raiders, some days are “Cast your net on the right side of the boat” kinda days and the results are disappointing (until divine intervention). Well yesterday was one of those days. My mate Peter came to stay overnight from out west (we do this once a fortnight) with the aim to head  up the Hawkesbury and chase Flatties (bagged out last time and kept 10 each (for the tribes food supply for the week). This time we caught ZERO duskies. Lots and lots of soapie jewfish but not a single flathead. 
We headed to Webs creek, Spencer, Gunderman, all the usual spots, but zilch.

The day started off cold and drizzly, but blossomed into a perfect, warm and clear calm winters day. Black swan joined us nearby, whip birds in the bush and a trio of sea Eagles (usually always overhead) floated around. So we had a “back to nature” day (without the distractions of landing big flathead or Jewies).

The water was 14.8 so pretty cold, but my(very limited) experience is that although Flatties slow down, the colder water doesn’t shut them down completely, but I could be wrong.

I’m not skilled at knowing the best conditions for river flathead, so open to input from other and more experienced Raiders than I - and always willing to take others out to learn or show them my experience with Kingies (my usual target species).

Raider Emil got me started on Flatties last year by kindly showing me how he (very successfully) trolls for Flatties.

Posting this one, because we usually get reports of successful days - and they are not always.

[zmk1962]

Glad you got out Bob ... any day you can get out on the water is still a top day -  definitely beats the cancelled days like I had to pull on you today ! 

Till next time ....

Cheers Zoran 

[Rebel]

A day on the water is better than nothing.

[Squ!rt]

Getting out on the water and wetting a line regardless of a fish or not.....every day's a good day for fishing

[Scratchie]

Good report Bob! We all have those days. But I wouldn’t say catching a few soapies is unsuccessful. Some people chase them for ages and haven’t caught one. Being on a boat, wetting a line and seeing some of the beautiful nature surrounding us, sometimes leaves me in ore! Good luck next trip! 
 

cheers scratchie!!! 

[yo_jono]

G'day mate!

I fish the river ALOT from Del rio too Spencer, but I sort of don't stress too much about heading up there during the colder months.

The soapies have been there since the start of the year, and definately in force! Me and my mate went through a KG of school prawns up there getting a soapie every cast, Which was stopping us from getting any baits down into the flatties. The push from all the upstream water in the last 6 months has created an abundance of freshwater prawns (one big claw) in the river and the soapies sit there feasting on them, we had multiple fish with guts absolutely full of them when removing hooks.

Certain parts of the river up there the current hooks like a freight train, So I always fish lumps/bumps and reefs depending on the tide - And time my fishing for the smaller tides up the river. Keep too the water no deeper than around 6-7 metres on a bright sunny day, And the less boat traffic the better.

The same principles I work on for Flatties up river is nothing different to catching Jew up there. I mainly use livebait and hawkesbury prawns.

 

Cheers

Jono

[Pickles]

Cheers Jono, great advice - love to get together with you and chase some flatties

[yo_jono]

Yeah mate! Definatelty around october we should go for a look. 

May have seen you around up there? What boat do you have? 

[Pickles]

5.1m Quintrex with Blue Canopy (Fishraider sticker on port side)

Edited June 25, 2021 by Pickles
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[yo_jono]

Hmm, Nah not the fella I was thinking of.

Shoot me a PM mate, We can have a yack and organize a fish for when the weather warms up.