queensland Another 5 from the Pumicestone Passage - 1st Mar

[MulletMusketeer]

Tuesday

Up at 3.45 am and back up to the Pumicestone Passage in search of more Flathead. I decided to start by fishing the Bribie Island side of the bridge, this morning. There is always plenty of surface action in this area with Jew, Pike, Moses Perch, Bream, Tailor, Flathead and even juvenile Snapper all drawn in to feed on the jelly prawns and small baitfish that gather under the bridge lights.

In recent sessions I have noticed the small jelly prawns are everywhere and the Flathead that I have caught and gutted, generally have a belly full of them. I therefore grabbed a bag of the GULP 2†Shrimp in the Jelly Prawn colour and decided to try these out. The tide was running in so I decided to start by casting my soft plastic at the base of the first bridge pylon, on the north side of the bridge and jigging my plastic along the bottom , all the way back to the edge of the rock wall. On the first cast, just as it reached the base of the wall, in about 30cm of water, the lure was grabbed. I was using a 1/8th 1/0 jig head and a 12lb fluorocarbon leader. The fish took a bit of line but I soon subdued it and swung it up, over the rocks. At 42cm it was the first keeper Flathead of the day. It went in the bag and I cast back out. A couple of casts later I had another – this one was just on 40 cm so I let it go. I moved to the south side of the bridge and carried on. I had a couple of bites from Pike and dropped a better fish, which was probably a Flathead and then I decided to move over to the mainland side of the bridge.

I put on a GULP Crazy Legs Jerkshad in the Lime Tiger colour, waded out and cast to the south of the bridge. The tide was now rushing in and a few Pike grabbed the bigger plastic but usually released it just before they reached me. There were some big surface bust ups erupting, in close to the Mangroves, so I cast straight into one and the line came up taught. I brought the fish in - the headshakes were too rapid for a Flathead and as it came close there was a flash of silver. It was either a Bream or a juvenile Snapper, but it spat out the lure so I will never know.

With the dawn I decided to change positions again and I drove round to Pebble Beach. I walked out onto the beach and turned left. I walked to the end of the beach and along the rocky area that fronts the Mangroves. I was cast in to the sandy areas amongst the rocks and although I lost a fair amount of jigheads , the strategy paid off. Over the next couple of hours I caught nine more Flathead in this area between about 25cm and 48cm. I experimented with colour and size and they did not appear to be fussy. I caught fish on the GULP Crazy Legs Jerkshad in Lime Tiger and Pink Neon, the 2†Shrimp in Jelly Prawn and Banana Prawn, the 3†and 4†Minnow in Pearl Watermelon and the 4†Minnow in Vader. The Long Toms were a constant menace – slashing through the soft plastics and often wrecking the last few cm of the leader.

I kept the first four fish over 40cm, to add to the one I had kept at the bridge, so I had another bag full. It was another good session and as there was a Northerly wind blowing the whole time it did not really support my idea that the fish don’t like it!

[uglyfish]

Don't them longtom perform? Nice fish great read and pics mate...Thanks for sharing..

[eg_vtec]

nice report and well done again

[kmcrosby78]

Great read and congrats on the bag of flatties mate. Will have to get up there for a fish sometime - sounds like a few good areas to target.

[madmullet]

awsom man.. keep up the good fishin

[batman]

Awesome dude! Sounds like you think like a flatty! lol!

I have to admit 98% of all the fish I catch are flatties, they are a sure thing.

Well done!

Batman

[Surfingant]

Great report and fish mate well done!!!