Jervis Bay - June 4-5 2022

[YZ250]

Headed to Jervis Bay on the weekend for a long overdue weekend away with my Partner.  Obviously I don’t need to remind anyone living in these parts that the weather has been atrocious seemingly forever so when we booked it was always going to be a lottery as to what we got, and overall I think we were reasonably lucky.   The wind was the main issue as it was blowing 15 to 20 knots or worse and that is a bit much for my liking.  The principal concern however for fellow Canberrans is the state of Nerriga road – which since I last travelled it has deteriorated into a seemingly contiguous stream of potholes large enough to swallow a small car.  I am not joking when I say I have never in my life travelled a bitumen road that is as bad as this.

Anyway after too much fun at the Husky Pub on Friday night it was a slow start on Saturday.  My partner wandered off for coffee and bacon and egg rolls and I took the opportunity to have a few casts at the waters edge near our accom.  I couldn’t believe my luck when the 1^st cast resulted in a beautiful dusky flathead of about 36cms.  I put this one back and then nearly fell over when the second cast, in the same spot, pulled one in at 40cms.  And so it went – the partner came back with Coffee at some point and I got her a rod and between us we landed 9 Flathead and lost several more.  The smallest was the first at 36, the majority were 39 to 42cms and two of them were over 50.  We kept 4 of the 40cms ones for dinner and sent the rest back. 

The main point of interest was how aggressive these fish were – If you’ve fished JB much you’ll know the water is gin clear, and especially so in winter.  This weekend was no exception.   As such, I could see to the bottom very easily and this was a wonderful insight into the world of flathead fishing.  I was able to watch my lure hopping around, and watch the flathead follow it – and then strike.  Mainly the fish would take the lure as it lay on the ground, however on other occasions they would leap up and belt it as I hopped it up.   On one occasion, I hooked a fish 3 times before I got him in.  Each time he managed to spit the hooks, I would pause, twitch the lure, and he would hit it again.  This was one of the 50cm ones that I let swim away. 

The bite didn’t stop – we left it raging as we wanted to put the boat in.   So we did that and were soon on the water in the bay.  I tried to get out and chase some Kingfish but yet again I was thwarted at the heads when the size of the sea proved no match for my confidence in a small boat.  So I spent an hour or so drifting for fish and my partner got an enormous red scorpion fish that looked like it has escaped from the pits of hell.  I got a small pinky which remined me just how hard Snapper fight when compared to the old flathead but that was about it before the wind had turned the bay into a sea of whitecaps and I decided to abort.  The boat, a Haines Hunter V16R, performed really well as I punched directly into the wind and waves.  I was holding between 35 and 38kmh comfortably and it was good for my confidence in the boat. 

Out of curiosity, when we returned to our accom I went back to the flathead hole from earlier and started throwing some vibes around on dark to try tempt some trevally I had seen that morning (which had absolutely zero interest in my soft plastic).  I got a flathead first cast, then got smoked by a trevally, and then my partner joined and we picked up another couple of flathead which all went back.  I dropped another Trevally and then called it a day to go and have dinner – this little session was maybe 30 mins and like before, I left the fish on the bite – they were certainly in the mood.

The next day, the wind was worse, but we went out again.  I tried (and failed) to catch squid which annoyed me because I really wanted one for dinner!  We got blown off and went back in as some brave soul in a Tinny with a Dog went past us and out to Bowen Island… must have bigger stones than me that’s for sure!  We finished the day near Woolamia boat ramp where we picked up some small bream and trevally on the falling tide.  My god those trevally go hard for their size – such a good fight in them.  That was it and we bounced our way back to Canberra, relieved to make it with the trailer still in one piece although minus the spare wheel which rattled off somewhere on the way. 

I love Jervis Bay – cant wait to go back , and hopefully get through those heads!

[big Neil]

Thanks for sharing the account of the trip to JB for the weekend. The roads are pretty bad in most places where there has been plenty of rain. I don't know how there's time to effect repairs before they're damaged again. It would have been interesting to watch the fish stalking your lures, an invaluable insight into their habits which we seldom get to see.

Good for you both that you still managed to get on the water AND get some action, when the weather was so unkind.

Lovely pictures too. Cheers, bn

[Isaac Ct]

Great stuff mate, if you get the chance next time head to Sussex Inlet and St Georges Basin as it can offer some amazing fish as well. 

Great report, Well done.

[masterfisho7]

Nice report and love the photos well done 

 

[LuckyFil]

Great pics and an interesting report. I wonder what turned the fatties on like that. I had a similar session in Brisbane Waters last year when I caught 15 fatties in a couple of hours on plastics (most returned) after previous sessions when I struggled to get a fish in the same areas?!

Apparently scorpion fish (red rock cod) are lovely eating if you're game to risk the sting from their spikes when cleaning them.

[YZ250]

Hi Fil, 

Yes no idea.  There was lots of fry around,  and huge schools of silver trevally in the area too so something was obviously going on. I've never had a session like that on flathead. The seafloor must have been carpeted with them. 

I have heard that about scorpion fish too, and have always been keen to try one, but I lost my nerve when I saw this lump.  

[YZ250]

1 hour ago, Isaac Ct said:

Great stuff mate, if you get the chance next time head to Sussex Inlet and St Georges Basin as it can offer some amazing fish as well. 

Great report, Well done.

Hi Isaac,  yes that's a fave spot of mine too. I normally get a few there.  We got a really nice mixed bag last time. Im yet to get onto one of the giant flurries though and absolutely struggle on the artificial reef there. Do you ever pull anything off the reef balls?

[Isaac Ct]

27 minutes ago, YZ250 said:

Hi Isaac,  yes that's a fave spot of mine too. I normally get a few there.  We got a really nice mixed bag last time. Im yet to get onto one of the giant flurries though and absolutely struggle on the artificial reef there. Do you ever pull anything off the reef balls?

I have only been outside once with one of my friends and their mum and it was a bit choppy so we drifted around 20m and pulled up 8 legal flatties. We were probably 200m of the island and we drifted over a reef and pulled up 2 Sergeant Baker a legal snapper, red rock cod, sweep, trev's and a double hook up on bigish bream. I wouldn't know coordinates but I think there is a thread with cords and you might be able to find some in there.

[Isaac Ct]

The GPS marks can be found under the boating section, then GPS marks. There are a heap there but maybe you could find some useful ones?

[Yowie]

Sounds like an interesting weekend. Watching flatties have a go at lures or bait is the way to learn about their feeding habits, especially when they race up off the bottom, a metre or more, to grab a sinking bait.

[bessell1955]

What a great session you had.  The flatties must have really been on the chew!

[Rebel]

Great report.

Super photos.

There is always next time.