Brisbane waters report 5/11/22

[XD351]

G'day Raiders,

Just a quick report of my day at Brisbane waters today - sorry no photos - I was just too busy enjoying myself and forgot.

After having God knows how many planned trips ruined by bad weather i finally got out today with a couple of mates for a fish and we did alright with the final tally of 15 flathead and one bream,

Flatties were mostly smack on 40cm but i did get one a bit bigger around 45cm and the bream was 28cm all caught on Hawkesbury prawns and drifting in a boat. The water was 18.1 deg so still a little cold for my liking but there were still fish to be caught. The fish were caught on the last hour of the run in then we had a quiet period until the tide turned and started to run out then it fired up again until the current got too strong at mid tide. The area is between the rip bridge and half tide rocks but i wouldn't be surprised if the bigger fish were still holed up in the main body of water waiting for the water temps to rise and trigger the spawning run.

The rig was a simple sliding sinker rig using a swivel as a stop then down to a 2/0 long shank hook, the other two guys were using this as well but i add a sliding sinker clip for easy sinker changes as I use bomb type sinkers and a fluoro bead to cushion the sliding clip on the knot. One mate didn't have a great day which meant i got to catch more fish, he was using a short leader of 300mm or so and it was really killing his chances! I use 1-1.5 m of trace and the 3rd guy was up around the metre mark and he had no problem catching fish either, I will replace my trace when it gets down to half a metre as it is something I have noticed that seems to affect the bite rate. It always amazes me how something so simple as leader length can affect your fishing! I did tell my mate his leader was too short - on the way home 🤣

I did see one Mulloway being cleaned at black wattle boat ramp, A nudge over a metre and by the size of their boat i would say they caught it in Brisbane waters, probably around the rip bridge - stomach contents of small prawns and whitebait sort of confirmed this although they did go to great lengths to try and lead me down the garden path.  

It doesn't matter if you are a bait soaker or lure chucker get out and give it a go, I feel this flathead season might be something special!

 

 

[Yowie]

A bag of flatties is worth the effort getting out there. I have drifted many times with a small ball sinker directly above the hook, however, the idea is to keep lifting the bait a small distance off the bottom, like a slow jigging process.

[LuckyFil]

Love the detailed report and also your tip on leader length, will definitely give that a go.

cheers

Fil

[Rebel]

Top report.

Well done.

[Isaac Ct]

Good day out, well done. Couple of nice fish, nothing wrong with that.

[Little_Flatty]

On 11/5/2022 at 7:15 PM, XD351 said:

I feel this flathead season might be something special!

I sure hope so!

Good to see you getting into a few fish.

[Pickles]

Great report @XD351, thanks for the detail - great day on the Flatties - 40’s are the ideal size. 

[XD351]

40-45 cm are the perfect size for a feed 🤤🤤🤤.

One thing that surprised me was how few boats were out there , usually it is chockers but there were only 2 other boats out there where we were. I would have thought that after all the horrible weather we have had there would have been a lot of fishos chomping at the bit to get out on the water . What I need now is a beach trip to rectify the imbalance in my soul - hopefully this weekend will be a go for that 😀

[bessell1955]

A very successful outing. 

[Bennyg78]

Great effort and report,

I was up there Saturday as well in a kayak competition. We launched from Woy Woy lions park boat ramp and had some success around paddys channel/saratoga on flatties. A few other guys went to rip bridge and got flatties and bream.

There seemed to be heaps of Tailor about in the area atm too.

[XD351]

2 hours ago, Bennyg78 said:

Great effort and report,

I was up there Saturday as well in a kayak competition. We launched from Woy Woy lions park boat ramp and had some success around paddys channel/saratoga on flatties. A few other guys went to rip bridge and got flatties and bream.

There seemed to be heaps of Tailor about in the area atm too.

We launched when you guys were there ! Never seen so many Santa’s in one spot 🤣

How did you go ? 

[Bennyg78]

8 hours ago, XD351 said:

We launched when you guys were there ! Never seen so many Santa’s in one spot 🤣

How did you go ? 

Mate I went ok but I was luckily paired up with a very experienced angler who caught us a big 64 cm flattie at paddies channel that won us the flathead division . 
it was a heap of fun and was raising money for Movember I’ll have to keep an eye out and say hi as my family have a house at Davistown and I’ll be taking the yak out around there a lot in the summer months