Narrabeen Lagoon flatties

[Jo5hC]

With exams finally over, I had an unbearable fishing itch, so despite the terrible weather, I convinced George  (@GC_Fishing) and my dad @expositer to go for a session to Narrabeen after school. goal was to get some flathead especially for George as he has been trying for his entire fishing journey (only maybe 6 months).  Reached there at about 5 and put two poddy mullet traps out and pumped some nippers. We fished at the caravan park drop off again and there were surprisingly a few people there, but once the rain really started pelting, they all left. I do find it quite relaxing fishing in the rain, probably just cos no one else will be there. 

I had a holt prawn 3 inch on and first cast after putting on scent, hooked onto a fish that took a pretty solid first couple of runs then just had very violent headshakes, indicating the target species - Flathead. A few minutes later, My dad hooks onto another flathead which seemed slightly smaller on a pillie cube, and we bring both back to the sand spit in the middle of the flat to measure. When measured the bigger one (lures) at 48cm and the smaller one at 42cm. However, as we were about to put the fish back in the bucket, the smaller one made a mad dash and we were not able to stop it from sliding off the mat on the sand and back into the water. Pretty annoyed as it was an easily avoidable rookie mistake on our part. 

By then the rain had been pretty consistent and the raincoats had pretty much stopped working and were pretty drenched. George and I went back to the shore to pump more nippers and to check on the mullet traps. Somehow none of the mullet traps had anything, despite taking the advice and placing them in much shallower water (50cm) or so. We pumped a few more nippers and then headed back onto the flat. As we were walking back, we saw my dad hooked on just as we got back and George was able to help him with the net job and land our third flatty also on a pillie cube, redeeming for the previous lost one. We weren't making the same mistake again and just left both flatties in the bucket to measure when we got back to shore. Not many more fish apart from undersize whiting and bream. Also a considerable amount of surface action, some big mullet jumping and also what looked to be other fish feeding off the surface, but casting the holt prawn at them yielded no results. 

We called it a day at around 8pm and headed back in as we were all cold and wet, with the rain easing but still drizzling. We measured both flatties and the second one was 42cm. In the photo, the flatties are very different colours even though coming from the same body of water. I think they are both duskies too. Overall pretty happy with the session, Narrabeen has been producing the goods the past few times. 

P.S, I am kinda at a loss with the poddy mullet trapping. Is it just not the right time of year, or something else? We even burleyed around the traps with bread too.

[ireallylovefishies22]

Probably just not in the right area for poddies. If you put the traps where there are a few and burley up a bit you're sure to get some.

[TheFishyFisherman]

Great work. Hopefully your friend gets on his first flatty soon 

Edited Saturday at 04:42 AM by TheFishyFisherman
Spelling errors

[Jo5hC]

1 hour ago, ireallylovefishies22 said:

Probably just not in the right area for poddies. If you put the traps where there are a few and burley up a bit you're sure to get some.

We did see fish eating the burley but didn’t see exactly what fish as we didn’t want to spook them. What are features that I should be looking for that makes a spot the ‘right area’ for poddies?

[ireallylovefishies22]

51 minutes ago, Jo5hC said:

We did see fish eating the burley but didn’t see exactly what fish as we didn’t want to spook them. What are features that I should be looking for that makes a spot the ‘right area’ for poddies?

Personally, I prefer catching poddies in the upstream areas of estuary systems as opposed to where they flow into the ocean, where the sand is a bit softer and there is more ribbon weed. They seem to like hanging out in the small stretches of sand between the lake shore and patches of weed which grow along the bank. When I tried going for poddies at the caravan park, I had no success just as you did, and I only caught some small bream and toadfish. Give Bilarong Playground a go, the last time I went there my traps were full of small poddies within 5 minutes. Good luck!

Edited Saturday at 07:14 AM by ireallylovefishies22

[Yowie]

A few fish for the rainy effort.

The colour difference depends where the flatties have been living. Deeper dark water, they are are dark colour. Shallow sandy water, a lighter colour. Flatties move about, maybe living in deeper water for a while, then moving into shallow water - the darker colour will remain for a while until the skin colour changes to match the sandy bottom.

Poddy mullet traps in water less than 30cm deep. Too much bread burley outside the trap will feed them and they will not enter the trap.

[nedskins]

Too much fresh from the rain need a few days of sun then try again 

[bessell1955]

Well conditioned Fish.

[Little_Flatty]

Nice work Josh, I like fishing in the rain as well. Makes crowds scarce!

As for the poddies, I’ve trapped them before in that spot. What kind of trap are you using?

I was using one of those cheap net style traps with entries on either side. Now, I’m no expert, but I did notice the poddies stick to the surface. So I set up the trap so that the trap entrances were one third out of the water. Then I was finally able to trap some.

[Koalaboi]

Trapping poddy mullet can be really frustrating. The first thing I learned was that if you can’t see any swimming around you won’t get any there. Look to find a place where you can see some in the water before deploying your trap. Second, add some breadcrumbs to your trap as well as pieces of bread.

I find that poddies disappear from the eastern shore of Tuggerah Lake over winter and that they return around now.

Sometimes the plastic box traps made from tupperware style containers work well but I find the commercially produced cylindrical traps the most reliable. They are however very fragile and you need to be careful using them that you don’t snap off the plastic lugs etc.

Some days you can see plenty of them buzzing around your trap but they are trap shy and just won’t go in no matter what you do. Last summer I had incredible difficulty getting poddies and ended up, after many hours, not bothering. I hope this summer is better.

I was chatted by an off duty fisheries inspector one day as I had more than one trap out. I was not aware that only one trap is allowed. 

Good luck

 

[Robbo from Sydney]

5 hours ago, Koalaboi said:

Trapping poddy mullet can be really frustrating. The first thing I learned was that if you can’t see any swimming around you won’t get any there. Look to find a place where you can see some in the water before deploying your trap. Second, add some breadcrumbs to your trap as well as pieces of bread.

I find that poddies disappear from the eastern shore of Tuggerah Lake over winter and that they return around now.

Sometimes the plastic box traps made from tupperware style containers work well but I find the commercially produced cylindrical traps the most reliable. They are however very fragile and you need to be careful using them that you don’t snap off the plastic lugs etc.

Some days you can see plenty of them buzzing around your trap but they are trap shy and just won’t go in no matter what you do. Last summer I had incredible difficulty getting poddies and ended up, after many hours, not bothering. I hope this summer is better.

I was chatted by an off duty fisheries inspector one day as I had more than one trap out. I was not aware that only one trap is allowed. 

Good luck

 

All these flash traps - as a kid it was always an oyster bottle with some bread in the end. We would put it on the bottom in shallow water on the sand flats in Kogarah Bay and catch heaps. Best I remember was 7 of them absolutely jammed on each other in the bottle and unable to get back out because they can't swim backwards

[Pickles]

Well done Josh, lots of good feedback, re poddies, when you do crack them, they also make good frozen baits.

[nedskins]

And try for the lano or sand mullet normally around rock pools in ocean longer slender head compared to bullly mullet short n fat easier to keep alive and better results good luck isn’t easy but worth it 

[nedskins]

Live mullet last trip at swr

[jenno64]

Nice catch and well done on persevering through the weather! Nice eating size flatties too. try you poddy traps in shallower water, I usually only have about 50mm about my trap entrance.

[Jo5hC]

11 hours ago, Little_Flatty said:

Nice work Josh, I like fishing in the rain as well. Makes crowds scarce!

As for the poddies, I’ve trapped them before in that spot. What kind of trap are you using?

I was using one of those cheap net style traps with entries on either side. Now, I’m no expert, but I did notice the poddies stick to the surface. So I set up the trap so that the trap entrances were one third out of the water. Then I was finally able to trap some.

I was using a 7L plastic tupperware with a circular hole cut out in the top

[Ivo W]

Solid fish! The humble flatty, always there for us even on the slower sessions.