Little_Flatty Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 (edited) Went down to Meadowbank again this morning to flick some plastics. I was encouraged in my session yesterday getting bream and wanted to see if I could find another. What do I find? Flatties! The first one came as I got snagged. The water movements must have moved some junk into the area as the bottom has been quite clean the past year or so. When I freed it, there was something still on my line. Then it started shaking its head! This was the culprit: ' Get him back in the water and then keep casting along the shoreline. Then decide to change spots, but before I do, I decide to have a couple of casts in the mangroves where I got snagged. Guess what? I get snagged again! But...then the 'snag' starts moving, along with a few headshakes! You can imagine my shock as I came to the realisation that this was quite a large fish. A few times during the fight, it came to the surface and the way it was fighting, I thought it might have been a ray. But when it came closer, I realised this was the biggest flatty I have ever caught. After a few nervous moments, I manage to swim the fish into the net. I rope a kind passer-by into taking a photo for me. Caught in about 50cm of water. What they say about flatties coming into shallow water is absolutely true. I felt a little bit bad as I as the fish fell onto the ground as I was getting it out of the net. I really wanted to give it the best chance of swimming free. Determined to release this fish successfully, I jumped into the water to revive it. It kicked off strongly after a couple of moments to gather itself. I fished on for another twenty minutes but as you can imagine, I was rather distracted! So I came home! Gear that did the damage was 6lb braid, 8lb leader and a 70mm clear squidgy prawn rigged on a #2 1/8oz jighead. Edited January 31, 2022 by Little_Flatty 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squ!rt Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 @Little_Flatty Maaate, that is a cracker of a croc for a morning, you must have some magic way for these flattys, last time i was in this area near the wharf we couldn't get any of the crocs, only small bream. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Green Hornet Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Real nice fish. They're good scrappers at that size. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Ct Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Beautiful flattie mate, congrats on the PB. Well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dirvin21 Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Nice fish mate, you're getting some quality results 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little_Flatty Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 38 minutes ago, Squ!rt said: @Little_Flatty Maaate, that is a cracker of a croc for a morning, you must have some magic way for these flattys, last time i was in this area near the wharf we couldn't get any of the crocs, only small bream. I've haven't seen many flatties near the wharf but I have seen quite a large one caught off the wharf on bait. Plenty of bream though, that very occasionally take a lure. Good chance of a decent one on bait though. I don't like wasting bait on fish I can't eat, that's why I don't target them. I tend to target the shorelines and eddies that I see in the area rather than fishing off the wharves themselves. I'm finding that the fish hold in certain spots, but this can be very tide dependent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
noelm Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Just goes to prove, fish the structure, casting way out might feel good, but, it's not where the fish are. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Burger Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Congrats on the PB! You might need to change your logon name from Little_Flatty now . . . . 🙂 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rebel Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Super report. Well done. Nice Flattie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Little_Flatty Posted February 1, 2022 Author Share Posted February 1, 2022 19 minutes ago, noelm said: Just goes to prove, fish the structure, casting way out might feel good, but, it's not where the fish are. Indeed! On that note, I noticed one of the older regulars who fishes the wharf with bait was going through some contortions to get his bait under the wharf and had dispensed with his 2oz star sinker and wire trace. I think I finally got through to him! Surprisingly in spite of his methods he still caught the odd good fish, but I’m looking forward to seeing him getting more. Explaining his success, he has two other critical variables right; he catches fresh herring for bait and he puts in a lot of time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yowie Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Very nice, a good fish. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooter0069 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Great fish and report well done on your PB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackfish Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Great Flathead LF, your certainly kicking some Goals mate. Well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jenno64 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Awesome croc and well done on landing it in that environment on 8lb! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
masterfisho7 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 That,s one top flathead top effort 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dunc333 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 well played .start calling you mr flatty 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Renegade460 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Nice session. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bennyg78 Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Great fish! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pickles Posted February 1, 2022 Share Posted February 1, 2022 Brilliant effort @Little_Flatty and on 8lb - a top effort resulting from excellent angling skills. (Love the photo) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Larkin Posted February 4, 2022 Share Posted February 4, 2022 They go hard at that size on light tackle! bet that had the adrenaline going - well done 👍 mate. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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