PB flathead, Drummoyne

[Mike Sydney]

Arrived at the Drummoyne boat ramp bang on high tide just after 8pm. A couple of young blokes were rigging up some prawns and I decided to start with the ecoGear ZX blade which I’d had pretty good luck with both at this location and on flathead generally. 

There was a chance for some whiting too with this lure proving itself last year as a very tempting offering for these fish. 

Not so tonight as I pulled up nothing but slime and ribbon weed. Every cast ended with the tiniest of tag-ends bringing back huge globs of slime and weed. It was time to reconsider the lure.

Figuring soft plastics would meet the same fate - or any lure that spends time on the bottom - I tied on a 50mm Jerek Tango Shad . This is a floating diver though it does seem to have a fair bit of ‘hang time’ or suspension before it floats back up. To me it seems almost a hybrid of a pure floating crankbait like a Hardz and a suspender like the double clutch.

Either way I was able to get it down deep without quite touching the bottom and catching up the weed.

Due to the boat ramp activity I moved west along the park , casting every 10 meters or so parallel to the footpath and only a few meters out from the wall. 

The first fish bites , but I’m late and lazy on the hook set and it’s off a couple of seconds later. I cast back in the same spot hoping to entice a second strike but the fish has tasted the hook and wasn’t interested in a second go, despite liberal use of scent.

A dozen or so casts later and BAM! A big fish jumps on the lure and begins screaming away.

The fight was powerful but this time I had really set the hook with gusto and this fish wasn’t going anywhere.
 

Thankfully despite the darkness a jogger appears and agrees to my pleas to take landing net duties.

He did a magnificent job, clambering halfway down a steep and slippery bank to get the net in the water and haul up a magnificent flathead.

Measuring in at 70cm she was the biggest I’d landed after a bunch of 60-65s. 

The lure was deep and some classic flathead surgery was required with the lip grips and pliers to remove the lure which had been gulped down and had both trebles in. Thankfully it came out relatively quickly and with no damage and I was able to return her to the water quickly. I’m sure it would’ve made the passer-by’s week as they had no idea there were any fish let alone fish of that size in the bay. 

The night had started out looking like a donut with all the pestering slime and ribbon weed but a change in tactics paid dividends. 
 

Some average photos as I was in a hurry to get her back in the water. She was beautiful though!

6lb braid / 6lb leader / Jerek Tango Shad 50mm (black)

[Little_Flatty]

70cm is a whopper @Mike Sydney, well done!

Sometimes it's a matter of quality over quantity, particularly on night sessions.

[Isaac Ct]

Beautiful flattie mate, well done in the PB! Some passby's are really nice, others not so much, you got lucky. Well done again.

[jenno64]

That is a cracking flatty and a nice surprise at night! Well done on the PB!

[Rebel]

Great reoprt. Well done.

Super Flattie.

[Mike Sydney]

2 hours ago, motiondave said:

awesome fish catch for sure, looks like you might need a long handle net

 

The issue though is lugging it around. There was a topic in chat a few months ago about this with a few alternatives. 
The short handle net fits in my backpack, but is so rarely used that I even lost a similar flathead recently as I pulled it up by the leader - forgetting completely I even had a net on me.😩

[Restyle]

Awesome fish! nice to see some big girls cruising about. That 6lb would've been thrashed

[Yowie]

Nice fish for light gear.

[masterfisho7]

Top flathead well done 

 

[big Neil]

Great result on 6lb gear, congratulations on your PB Flattie.. bn

[61 crusher]

Great effort on your  PB with the light leader, lucky for you the jogger had the right skill set to help you out 👍