Little_Flatty Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 This morning I decided to move one suburb east from my local waters and try Morrison Bay. Arrived on the water about 5:30am, to a nice high tide and started casting with a 3 inch bass minnow in pumpkinseed. On a previous session, I noted that there were good bream right up against the shoreline on a high tide, just under the edge of the rock wall. So that was what I targeted. On the second cast, in the shallowest section of the bay, I came up tight on this: Next cast, hookup straight away, but then it comes off. Acquired a new MMD splash prawn the other day, thought if the bream were feeding like this, they might have a go at a surface lure. So tied it on and covered most of the back of the bay with it. No hits. It was useful to get me moving along the shoreline though Back to bass minnows, but miss several good hits that don't stay on in spite of pulling drag. Hooks were sharp (I checked again and again), don't know what was going on. Interestingly, when I tried downsizing to a 2 inch bass minnow, the hits stopped. When I upsized to 3 inch again, they started again. Must be something specific they are feeding on, or maybe there is a glut of 2 inch bait around (I've seen them) and they want something more substantial. But for some reason I didn't land any more fish this session. Got snagged a couple of times, then had to leave. So the fish were biting, just couldn't catch them! Every now and again I have amateur hour sessions like this. That's fishing I guess. On another note, I haven't seen a flatty for a good two weeks! This is something for someone who normally doesn't catch much else, in the spots I fish. Could it be the amount of fresh in the system? 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 Great report. Nice bream. The flatties will turn up. Cheers. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bessell1955 Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 I would chalk it up as a success. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted January 11, 2022 Share Posted January 11, 2022 One fish is better than a donut, so good job there. Do you use a bit of scent on the bass minnows? Usually they go good on bream due to their slim profile, though sometimes I experience sessions like yours where the fish are only hanging onto the tail of the plastic, especially if that school has been fished or spooked earlier. If you released the bream you caught, that may have been enough to make the other fish wary. The flatties could be out in the deeper water spawning. At least down my way I get them out deeper around now. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little_Flatty Posted January 12, 2022 Author Share Posted January 12, 2022 16 minutes ago, motiondave said: @Little_Flatty , no I dont think its because of the fresh water. A while back, after the BIG floods that ripped through the hawkesbury , once the rain settled, I went for a shore fish at Balmain, absolutely brown as, bottom tide, by chance I nailed two keeper flathead, and they did not taste salty at all, almost a fresh taste when cooked up. I think flathead, bream will survive fresh water (I know bream do as I caught a few in fresh water recently) . More than likely the flathead were either not interested or not in the area. Thats fishing for you Yeah my thought didn't make sense to me either. But it's all I have as a theory and thought I'd put it out there to the brains trust . First, I can't catch bream, only flathead. A month later it's the complete opposite! 8 minutes ago, Green Hornet said: One fish is better than a donut, so good job there. Do you use a bit of scent on the bass minnows? Usually they go good on bream due to their slim profile, though sometimes I experience sessions like yours where the fish are only hanging onto the tail of the plastic, especially if that school has been fished or spooked earlier. If you released the bream you caught, that may have been enough to make the other fish wary. The flatties could be out in the deeper water spawning. At least down my way I get them out deeper around now. I was using S-factor. I do have Pro-Cure bloodworm in my bag as well, might try that next time. The bream was released, so the spooked fish theory is a possibility. They are also very flighty because they are sitting right on the edge of the shoreline, in plain view. I wasn't actually sight casting to fish, but I was trying to put my lure in the vicinity of the shore. So a stealthy approach was required (longer casts into water where I probably haven't been spotted yet). Interesting, I didn't know that flathead go out deeper to spawn. Does this mean deeper water in the same area (estuary) or in other locations altogether, say closer to the mouth of the system? 2 hours ago, motiondave said: Id say, you had success, as you figured out what the fish were biting on, and you got one, that's good. 2 hours ago, bessell1955 said: I would chalk it up as a success. I probably should be more grateful for that fish! It was an enjoyable session. I guess I've been getting spoilt by the hours on the water I've been getting this summer. Frustrating to miss all those hits though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
61 crusher Posted January 12, 2022 Share Posted January 12, 2022 Good theory on working out what they preferred, another idea on the flatties not being on the chew is that they come on the bite later in the day & into late afternoon because there full from the night prawn run (dark) as mentioned to me by a local up my way 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted January 12, 2022 Share Posted January 12, 2022 28 minutes ago, Little_Flatty said: Interesting, I didn't know that flathead go out deeper to spawn. Does this mean deeper water in the same area (estuary) or in other locations altogether, say closer to the mouth of the system? When I say deeper water, I mean water deeper than around 3 metres and anywhere in river, not necessarily down towards the mouth. I really like chasing flathead up in the shallow stuff, but find the better class of fish head deeper from around the end of December. That being said, they'll definitely move back up onto the flats during low light periods if there's prawns around. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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