queensland Tips And Spots

[jhedrick]

Hey guys, 

I start my new roster this week and have basically Monday to Friday night off every week. It's sort of come to my attention that when I'm fishing I don't really target one species I just go for what ever I can catch. Which is great but I think that's why I always come back with not a great deal. 

Anyway I am going to try and target one specific fish each week so I can tick it off my list. First one on my list is a nice big flathead. Something that I have to throw back. I was wondering if there was any land based suggestions for this one as I am going to work on my boat this week. 

Basically I live in toowong and can travel almost anywhere from North Brisbane to the Gold Coast. 

Any suggestions for what spots and for what soft plastics or hard bodies I should use. I would probably just be having a flick and not using bait. But if you think I should go the bait option let me know. 

Thanks again guys. This group has been so helpful. 

[jhedrick]

I was thinking about going to boggy creek

[Drop Bear]

21 hours ago, jhedrick said:

Hey guys, 

I start my new roster this week and have basically Monday to Friday night off every week. It's sort of come to my attention that when I'm fishing I don't really target one species I just go for what ever I can catch. Which is great but I think that's why I always come back with not a great deal. 

Anyway I am going to try and target one specific fish each week so I can tick it off my list. First one on my list is a nice big flathead. Something that I have to throw back. I was wondering if there was any land based suggestions for this one as I am going to work on my boat this week. 

Basically I live in toowong and can travel almost anywhere from North Brisbane to the Gold Coast. 

Any suggestions for what spots and for what soft plastics or hard bodies I should use. I would probably just be having a flick and not using bait. But if you think I should go the bait option let me know. 

Thanks again guys. This group has been so helpful. 

Hey mate,

Sounds like a ripper of a plan. I don't know boggy creek sorry.

The winner of the Flathead section of the Wynnum Fishing Classic used plastics around the canals at Wellington Point. The fish was in about half a foot of water. Incoming tides and fishing any areas where you could see fish would use to access sand flats will work. He used a 3 inch grub tail but any soft plastics would work. 

[Old Scaley]

I know a guy who catches truckloads of flathead by wading around the Clontarf area on the last of the run out tide and throwing Zman curly tails around.

[benno573]

hey mate,

only places i have ever caught an oversized flathead land based are moreton island and eurimbula in central qld.  I have caught some decent ones around golden beach caloundra and a few different spots around bribie, i am sure the bigger ones exists in these areas.

 

as mentioned above, anywhere you have access to flats, especially around the mouth of creeks will be a good place to start searching.  Definitely best fishing is in the last of the run out when the bait and therefore predators are concentrated in certain areas.  these areas will change throughout the tide so being fairly mobile is key.  things like small drains, weed patches, sunken logs, rock/rubble etc are all factors that can concentrate bait.  Flathead happily feed in crazy shallow water so don't worry if it is only 1ft deep.

 

flathead respond well to most plastics but curl tail or paddle tails seems to work the best in my experience.  3-5" sizes are generally good but they are pretty greedy things so even a 6 or 7" plastic is not too big for the larger lizards.  colours vary day-to-day, general rule is natural colours when the sun is out and something bright or with a heavy contrast when it is overcast, early AM or if the water is murky.  you will need to keep your plastic close to the bottom so depending on current etc you may need to look at a 1/4oz jighead or sometimes larger.  often a long cast is a good thing, less chance of spooking fish before you have the chance to present a lure to them.  hard bodies lures also work very well but are harder to cast and the more effective lures are generally a heap more expensive, especially if fishing some snaggier areas.

 

best of luck in your quest, hopefully you find a few nice ones.

 

Cheers,

Benno <'><

[jhedrick]

Damn benno good advice. I am sticking to boggy creek and looking for prawns also. I am out tomorrow morning but not that earlier. Will see what I have in my tackle box and hopefully post a video

[kmcrosby78]

I too have caught a couple of decent ones at Golden Beach/Caloundra @benno573 - mine were just inside the bar on the Caloundra side in the sort of melonhole area. Interested to hear peoples thoughts on targeting flatties in the shallows near mangroves at the top of the tide over summer - was reading Sean Conlon's article in the latest Bush n Beach and he reckons the water gets too hot so instead focuses on the drop-offs around low tide.

Good luck tomorrow @jhedrick - keep asking nice specific questions like this one and you should continue to get quality info/responses  

[Old Scaley]

I have done a couple of bay charters with Sean. From memory his advice was not to fish too close up to the mangroves if fishing for flatties because the new mangroves that are just sticking out of the mud are too uncomfortable for the flathead to lie on.

[Drop Bear]

I have fished a lot at Straddie at high tide around the mangroves near Myora Springs. It is a nice thing to do but not that productive. 

Low tide is my preference too. 

[jhedrick]

So all I can say is what an unproductive day... The only decent thing that came out of today was getting better at cast netting from my boat which is great. 

I hit the water around 930 and hit up boggy creek straight away. I tried for some bait fish and caught a few. Next I just hit up spots on the eastern side anchoring up and flicking and flicking with zman pumpkin skin wiggly tail or what ever they are. 

All this produced was an amazing acrobatic display of a mullet spitting the hook mid air. Which was awesome because it was a huge mullet. 

I then went back towards the poo Shute and tried with my livies for bigger fish but the wind and the tide were not in sync which means I need more rod holders on my boat then out the back. 

Sounder saw some amazing size fish along the pipe wall which was sweet. This was around high tide by the way. 

I tried a bunch of hard bodies but the only one that would dive was my stump jumper from my Victorian days so I trolled along the pipes and I had one massive hit which took line and bailed. 

By this time it was too windy so I went back to boggy creek and drifted with a live bait and flicked and flicked. 

In other words I didn't catch my target fish so I'm going to do a land based mission tomorrow. I can't give up. 

Keep you guys updates. FYI no one in that area caught anything today 

[kmcrosby78]

You don't know if you don't go mate and on the plus side you've seen some good fish on your sounder (remember what part of the tide ) and you hooked a good fish so you never know what future dividends todays session could reap you if you learn from it and put things in practice next time. Good luck tomorrow. 

[Old Scaley]

You would not be the only one to score a donut in that area. It can be very hit and miss. Having one big hit means you are doing something right. Next time you might nail it. Good luck.

[Drop Bear]

Glad you got out. Thanks for the report mate

[jhedrick]

Round two today. I'm going to go out to nudgee and try for a flatty there. 

[benno573]

hey mate,

i didn't realize you had access to a boat straight away - that changes everything!

while the basic rules remain the same as my post above, you are obviously significantly less limited with location.  the area to the south of brisbane broadly referred to as "the pin" is a fantastic spot to target flathead.  you can launch from jacobs well, cabbage tree point, horizon shores or further south in the pimpama or coomera rivers.  there are literally hundreds and hundreds of locations to catch flathead in the area, trolling around bank edges on low tide or over the top of banks on a high tide would probably be my favourite way to target them in the area.  i haven't had much success on live bait (other than yabbies), plastics certainly work as do hardbodies worked in the right areas.

 

The main secret to fishing the pin is to find locations where not too many other people fish.  These are usually out of the main channels and can take a bit of exploring to find.  The big ones definitely do exist in these areas, here's a 92cm one as proof.  It took a 65mm hardbody in about 1.5ft of water, right next to a massive bank system on the last of the run out tide.

 

[jhedrick]

Thanks for the tip benno. I might head down there next week. That's my old stomping grounds as I use to camp at the bedroom down there. 

As for today's mission wow it was too windy to use soft plastics most of the day so did a few casts with the cast net and got some livies. 

Didn't really catch much except for a sting ray. In the afternoon when it was less windy but still blowing some decent wind I went up and down the bank toward the mouth and still caught nothing. 

I did however catch a tiny squid the size of my thumb nail and a baby flounder in the cast net. Was a bit trippy. 

Tomorrow I am going to try in the Brisbane River using live bait. Hopefully prawns. I watched some kids catching them next to the story bridge on YouTube. 

Might buy a small packet of bait just in case. But tomorrow should be my last day until next week. Might camp out on the boat next week around south straddie 

 

[jhedrick]

I've decided I might give today a miss. Hight tide sits in the middle of where I need to flip my beef brisket. I might camp out near the pin next week and try again. 

I've always caught flathead because I'm trying to target something else. Who would have thought it would be this hard. Mind you the weather has been average. 

Until next week guys. To be continued 

[benno573]

I'm probably going to take my kayak for a spin on saturday morning in the general pin area.  wind looks good, low tide about 11am.  My plan would be to launch about 6:30am, troll over the top of some banks and then start to work the edges either trolling or casting plastics once the tide drops out a bit.  Then hope there is enough water to take the short cut back to the ramp at about 12pm.  if not, I'll probably just will wait until there is, it's about a 3km detour otherwise!  I'll let you know how I go.

[jhedrick]

Well keep me updated on how you go. I can't hit the shallows too much as I'm supporting a stacer 480 easyrider sports bowrider. Stable as. Bimini gets in the road but 1.5 metres is about all I should take her on.... Even though I've trashed through worse. 

[benno573]

i used to be able to troll from my 5.2m half cab in about 40cm of water.  would never try and drive through that on the plane but with the motor trimmed up and some lures out the back it was not a problem going into the shallows.  your boat will likely float in about 25-30cm of water, you don't need a lot more than that to move along slowly.

[Old Scaley]

Don’t they say that there are only 2 types of booties down the Pin - those who have hit a sandbar and those that are going to?  Hope you both have successful trips and I am looking forward to the reports.

[Drop Bear]

16 hours ago, Old Scaley said:

Don’t they say that there are only 2 types of booties down the Pin - those who have hit a sandbar and those that are going to?  Hope you both have successful trips and I am looking forward to the reports.

So true.