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hi all when is the best time for Flathead on the gold coast which months

Good Afternoon Everybody. I went for an evening fish last night, approx 8 PM, and was using 2.5 inch grubs. I landed a bream which was just legal and a the same for a flathead. Then I didn't seem to get a hit for 30-45 minutes before I this happened. Cast into 1 - 2m deep water between pontoons. Rocky and oyster infested bottoms. letting is drop slowly then a quick jig and small reel back in. Within a few seconds of sinking under the pontoon I wen't to flick the lure off the bottom, however, it felt like it was snagged, after trying a bit to get it 'unsnagged' I felt a few head shakes. The battle began, reeling it in but away from the oysters. It didn't give to much of a crazy fight but was quite weighty. Got the flathead to to the surface, only having a headtorch on but I could clearly see this was a new PB for me, it was well over 60cm. I saw the hookup was good so my only option was to try and lift it out of the water onto the pontoon, then tragedy struck, my 10lb fluro leader was snapped/shreaded, knots were fine though..... So, this is the 2nd time in a month I've had a decent flatty and not landed it. I'm privileged enough to live water front in Sydney and have access to approx, 150-200m of sea wall/water fronts my neighbours have allowed me to fishing along. I'm lazy and only have a big landing net I use mainly for on the tinny and for jews. Carrying it around back and forth gets annoying. I'm wonder if you have any suggestions for smaller nets I could clip onto my pants and let it hang from my shorts I could quickly grab off and scoop a fish out of the river?? All suggestions are greatly appreciated, I'm devastated I lost a great fish and am looking for ways to ensure this isn't likely to occur again. Regards, Peter

I'm interested in giving land based fishing at hays inlet and its nearby area a shot, I'd like to target dusky flathead on plastics or lures. usually I'd head up to Bribie island, where just yesterday I smashed out three 60cm Dusky Flathead and one small Bartail (all luck, no skill), but sometimes I don't feel up for the drive and it can be quite a gamble, the hour of driving is not equal to tiny fish I usually catch. Hays bay is much closer and I think it would be quite nice so please drop any spots or reviews below. Thanks!

Hi Brains trust.. Has anyone on here had experience fishing Coombabah Creek or Coombabah Lake? ive got my 2 boys BEGGING me to take them fishing tomorrow but I don’t like the wind forecast n this pocket looks little sheltered....

Being a newbie to fishing, trying to catch flatties. I'm asking whether it is a good idea to have a swivel/snap at the end of the leader. This would facilitate changing lures, rather than having to cut the old one off, retie and shorten the leader. This would mean you have a swivel at the end of the spooled line and another at the end of the leader. What do you think?

I have been meaning to do a bait-free session for ages. I used to do this occasionally years ago, but since I retired I have spent more time fishing with other people and it has been mostly bait with token attempts at lure or plastics, or a combination. So, with @ellicat not being here to reinforce my lazy ways, and because it is still snapper closure, I decided today was the day. No sense making it too hard for myself so flathead was the target species. I also decided to go light (4 lb braid with 6lb fluoro) and only take the one outfit (Samaki Zing Extreme 1-3kg with a small 1000 size Twinpower). Launched at Port of Brisbane about 2 hours before low tide and hit up a bank where I have caught plenty of flatty on plastics in the past. Decided to have a troll but had no luck so moved to a different bank and had instant success, pulling in around 10 flathead but they were all around that just legal size so all released to do their thing with the breeding females who were no doubt close by. Changed to casting up onto the shallow banks as the tide started the run in. Got a few more and lost a couple of big girls close to the boat. Started wishing I had bought a slightly heavier outfit, but had a lot of fun anyway. I kept 2 for a feed, then changed to a Samaki vibe in deeper water as the tide got bigger. I could see lots of action on the sounder and pulled up a couple of decent snapper in the mid-40s which were released boatside. Overall, a fun little session that has inspired me to do more bait-free sessions, but didn’t stop me pulling into Mr Bait on the way home to stock up for a snapper session next week.

It's been some time since I have posted a report. Someone else initially claimed reporting rights and I subserviently agreed. A number of factors have contributed to the lack of report from my beloved @Kat. I find myself with no choice (and her permission), but to blurt before the memories become a little obscure amidst the stress of the daily grind, commitment to children and the unabating will to always love her forwards. We ended up (by sheer unusual circumstance) with a Sunday that we were free to fish on our terms. So we did. The tides were such that Kat's once beloved yabbies could be gathered at a convenient time. A suggestion of purchasing blood worms (as the very friendly and proficient provider was open from 0430hrs) was also thrown into the mix. Both options were employed. Worms were purchased and the boat was launched. Yabbies we're pumped by myself and (begrudgingly) @Kat. Time to fish. The fish were not exactly at the X's we had painted on the water surface last time we were there, but we got a few. Kat is laying claim to numbers, I maintain that quality trump's quantity . Kat did not use a single yabby until the worms were gone and we were heading home. It would appear that she has changed religions... Here's a few pics.

Hi all This morning I snuck out for a quick fish to one of my spots that I hadn't been to in quite a while. I convinced my Dad to give me a lift, but first stop of the morning was to catch bait. Unfortunately, my bait spot didn't really have anything at it, so after spending fifteen minutes there we headed to the main fishing spot. I was there a bit before six, and the tide was still rising. This was good, because it meant I could catch a couple silver biddies and a Chrissy tree of anchovies. I sent some baits out on sunrise, and kept throwing my net in hope of a few more livies. No success was had, and by 7:00AM when I had only received a few picks I was starting to feel the pressure. I had a few mates coming from school who weren't fishos so was hoping I'd be able to put them on some fish. Sure enough, at 8:00AM, I had some tailor bites which didn't hook up, then the next cast wound in a 48CM or so model that provided some solid aerobatics. Tailor I sent a bait back out, but it went a bit quiet again (released the tailor). Luckily, Michael arrived to the jetty as well, so I had some company. My mates from school like to sleep in, so I wasn't expecting them anytime soon. I guess that's a shame for them, because I pulled in two more tailor over the next hour or so, the best being 53CM (new PB!). Nice We kept both of these with a plan to cook one up on the jetty, and after a rather uneventful bite period Michael got some more tailor hits. Unluckily, it didn't hook up, but we were hopeful of a few more fish. There weren't anymore livies about either, but we persisted with a mix of dead and live bait. Tailor were caught on live biddy/fingered biddy/live herring. My mate Nicu eventually arrived, but it was mid way through a particularly fast run out tide so we weren't expecting many fish. Luckily, it was nearly lunchtime, so after some casting practice, we filleted and cooked up the fish. This coincided with my other two friends arriving, so once everyone was there we all had a feed of some fresh tailor (which was very tasty). The bite remained quiet throughout the day, and even with a mix of live and dead bait we failed to hook anything big. Eventually, around 1:00PM, the boys headed off on a shopping trip to pick up lunch. It had been very slow fishing in this time, with hardly any bites or bait turning up either. Luckily for me, sometime after they had left, I baitchecked one of my rods which had a piece of tailor belly as bait. As I started winding in, I thought to myself, 'This is on', and sure enough as I began to bring the weight up to the surface it took off a few times. Thinking it was a ray, I pulled it in quite roughly, and even though it was running a fair bit I kept winding. I was very pleased to see a rather large flatty surface, nice! After a good netting job from Michael, we had the fish on the jetty. A quick pic and I sent the 75CM model on it's way to get caught when it was even bigger. New PB Flatty After that was sorted out, everyone was a bit more hopeful a bigger fish would cruise through. It was well into the rising tide now, and my mates eventually returned with some pizza for everyone - they should've stayed! We all dug into the feed, and with the last of the livebaits lobbed out were hopeful of a fish. Apart from another guy fishing, John, pulling in a sand crab, it remained quiet for the rest of the arvo, much to the disappointment of my mates. By 3:00PM, we'd all had enough, and after cleaning up the jetty of all litter from the previous night we were out of there. A ferry and train ride home saw the end to a pretty fun day for me - hopefully next weekend I'll be able to put my mates onto their first decent fish from the river if they come out again. Stats of Trip: Tide: 6:15AM, 1.8M, High, 12:30PM, .5M, Low, 7:30PM, 2.5M, High Moon Phase: 84.5%, nearly full moon. Lots of run. Bait Caught and Used: Live anchovies, live herring, live silver biddy. Fish Caught: Tailor x 3, Flathead x 1 Tackle Used: Shimano Baitrunner DC 8000 on Kmart Rod, Okuma Coronado CDX 55 on Silstar Crystal Powertip Rod, Shimano Sedona 6000 on Abu Garcia Nanotech Nexus. 30 pound braid mainlines and 50 pound Black Magic trace. Size 4 star sinker and 6/o circle hooks. Air Pressure: 82% Humidity: 1024 Notes: No prawns or trawlers, potentially suggesting they have left the river/were not there. Not much bait either so would make sense why there were no threadies or jewies chasing the baits. Also a fair few small queenfish around. Overall Success Rates: 70% - fun day Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. Cheers Hamish

Put the tinny in at the port of bris to fish the last couple hours of run out tide this arvo. Lucked into couple flatskulls in ambush mode hanging round a little drop off. Zerek fish trap did the damage . Bit of crumbed flatty tails for tea tomorrow night and my old neighbour will appreciate a couple bream fillets for his dinner tomorrow night. Cheers.

Hi all This report will be about my last three sessions in the Brisbane River fishing and prawning. They were each relatively successful, and I will start off with my session on Saturday. I got to the spot at about 5:30AM and after setting up started cast netting. I was pleased to catch a good amount of nice sized prawns first up, which were deployed on the lines. I also caught someone's car keys, but the first catch on line for the day was a stingray (unusual catch for this spot). By about 8:00AM, the prawns disappeared, so it was lucky I already had a bucketful for the days fishing. Also, around this time, I had a screaming run on one of my reels baited with a live prawn and live herring combo, but unfortunately it didn't hook up. Michael arrived shortly after, and we continued fishing in anticipation. Bait Unfortunately, apart from a few fast runs on Michael's rod that for some reason did not hook up, and a couple of inquiries on mine including one decent hook up which shook the hook, it was a quiet day. A few catties were caught, but there was hardly any bait around for the majority of the day's fishing. We called it quits at about 1:00PM, after going through lunch without any bites. Stats of Trip: KF Tide: 3:15AM, .5M, Low, 8:40AM, 1.5M, High, 2:35Pm, .3M, Low Moon Phase: 7%, New Moon Bait Caught and Used: Live prawns, mullet, bony bream, herring Fish Caught: Catfish, stingray Tackle Used: I used a Shimano Baitrunner DC on Kmart rod with 30 pound braid, 50 pound leader, size 2 snapper sinker, 6/o circle hook, Shimano Symetre 4000 on Sentire rod combo, same rig, Shimano Sedona 6000 with 30 pound braid and Abu Garcia Nexus rod, same rig as above. Air Pressure: 1019 Humidity: 83% Overall Success Rate: 40% - fun session with some good prawns That night, I was back at it again with Dad trying our luck for some prawns. The first spot we went to was a new one, and there were already a couple people there. Unluckily for us, the prawns didn't get the memo, but we eventually found a spot we were getting 1-2 a cast. We probably could've kept them for ourselves here but gave them to another guy having no luck, as we were mainly there to suss the place out and then move on to a different spot. I think he must have felt like the luckiest guy ever, two strangers came down and started catching prawns for him. The next spot was a bit more lively, and we ended up with a bit more than half a kilo after a short period of time. Being quite tired, we headed home at about 9:30PM. I packaged the prawns up in bags, and decided to use these ones as bait as there hasn't been a whole lot of bait in the river recently. Stats of Trip: RD, KP Tide: 9:00PM, 2.3M, High Moon Phase: New Moon Bait Caught and Used: Prawns Air Pressure: 1019 Humidity: 86% Overall Success Rate: 70% - got some I gave the fishing a miss on Sunday, but luckily today I had a pupil free day from school. This could only have meant one thing, so I loaded up some gear and got the train and ferry to a spot I haven't visited for a while. Story Bridge before sunrise (this is Riverside ferry terminal) There was no one else at the spot when I got there, and I was set up a little after half past six. I chucked some of the prawns out from the previous night, and got to cast netting. Bait was really slow at first, and apart from a couple herring and silver biddies it wasn't looking good. Likewise, the fishing action didn't seem too promising, with a rather large jenny sand crab coming in first, followed by a dead seagull that had been caught in someone's snagged fishing line (seagull and line was binned, not good to see). Luckily, at about 9:00AM, having caught no fish and only getting a couple of picks, I managed to get a couple schools of prime size poddy mullet in the net. These would prove to be a bit of a lifesaver, and I lobbed a lollipop size one out on one of my rods. Now feeling a bit more hopeful, I sat down and had a bite to eat. Unfortunately, my mullet came back in scaled and barely alive, so a bit before ten it was lobbed out again ready to be munched. Sure enough, fifteen minutes later I saw my rod getting a subtle bite, and I was pleased to hook up to a decent opponent. A few strong headshakes later and one fast run under the jetty, a very solid Brisbane River flatty (about 65CM) was sitting in the bottom of my dilly. Nice! Flatty I've been seeing a lot of these caught lately, so was pleased to nab a decent one for myself. Despite my best efforts, the fish was quite badly gut hooked, which made getting the hook out difficult. By the time I did get it out (I wasn't too keen on releasing the fish with the hook in its throat as it was a rather large one that wouldn't rust quickly), it must've been too late, because I swum the flatty for twenty minutes and it wasn't going anywhere. A little later, another guy rocked up. We both got our lines in, but there was still no bait or real bite activity. After a couple hours, we were pleased to see a school of tailor come through, which chomped two of my livies before I landed a 45CM model, which came in with some solid aerobatics. This was kept, and shortly after, the other guy fishing managed to land a 55CM model, which put up a great fight. I ended up not being able to catch any more livies after having a legal buck sandcrab eat my last mullet and drop off as I was pulling it up, so called it quits shortly before two. Tailor Stats of Trip: B Tide: 4:15AM, .7M, Low, 9:40AM, 1.8M, High, 3:30PM, .5M, Low Moon Phase: .7%, New Moon Bait Used and Caught: Live mullet, biddies, herring, dead prawns, herring, anchovy Tackle Used: Shimano Baitrunner DC 8000 on Kmart rod, Okuma Coronado 55 on Silstar Crystal Powertip 6-8KG, Shimano Sedona 6000 on Abu Garcia Nexus 6-10KG, all had 30 pound braid, 50 pound trace, size 4 star sinker, 6/o circle hook, barrel swivels. Air Pressure: 1020 Humidity: 77% Fish Caught: Flathead x 1, Tailor x 2, Sand crab x 2 Overall Success Rate: 90% - I told my dad I wanted to catch a decent flatty today and got one! Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed. It was good to catch a couple of fish on the last day of the weekend after a couple of uneventful sessions. Probably need to start getting used to wearing the buff again after getting burnt decently today as well. Cheers Hamish

Hey everyone Went out to Tingalpa Creek to check out the area and was hoping to try and catch some bream and flathead and ended up with a little Jewfish. This is my second jewfish ever and first on a plastic caught from a boardwalk near to the mouth of Tingalpa Creek right near the canoe club. Didn’t expect this fish, was not going for this species at all and it certainly put my new light rod to the test. Was only small for a Jewfish 58cm but with 8lb braid and 6lb leader I didn’t think the line would hold. Now I’m wondering if people regularly catch them in here or was I just lucky and if so how big can they get in this system ?

Hi guys, what rod should i get for an exist 2000. I want something 7ft 1 or longer or 6ft 10, preferably longer. Also i want it super sensative and can bend very easily. Thanks guys

Hey, so I just bust a guide on my trusty egihead rod that I would use for light jigheads and really need to use something more specific for the shallows. I want to use my ci4 2500, and feel like it should be in the 2-4 or 3-5kg range, single piece around 6'6 for use on tinnie-jetski. I'm mainly looking to chase flathead, maybe the odd squire-snapper and grassy around Cleveland -Peel area. Been a while since I've been buying rods so I'm a little out of touch, any recommendations? Thanks

Hi all Planned a trip to Shorncliffe Pier on the high tide last night. Very disappointing results, but on the way I popped in at Deep Water Bend to check it out for future reference. It's a really nice spot and obviously easy to fish. So nice that my wife might even like to come along, walk the wildlife areas, have a picnic and read a book while I'm trying to get off the doughnut. Trouble is, I came home and did some research, and I could hardly find any fishing reports on it later than about 2013, and the ones I did find were not optimistic. Some went as far as to say that there are no fish there, others said you might get some flathead and maybe bream if you fish close in to the rocks, but any sort of positive report was hard to find. It gave the distinct impression that most serious fishermen/women had given up on it in the last 10 years or thereabouts. Others said that the fishing had gone off since they refurbished the area, which makes it more frustrating to be only finding old reports that predate the refurbishment. Does anyone here fish Deep Water Bend with any regularity and actually catch fish?

https://www.fishingworld.com.au/news/nsw-introduces-flathead-slot-limit?fbclid=IwAR12Nnk_z53xduzRrFRyNSsGJgt1yHteTojl5dcLKy85s0dwYDgKuoes3io NSW now has introduced 36 to 70cm on Flathead just like QLD has had for a while now. I have not been privy to the science but if it makes it a healthier fishery and we all get to eat flatties I am all for it. Many years ago, before the slot limits and before I knew about flathead changing sex, I caught and ate a 97cm version. Full of roe.... Skin was tough as nails and the meat was hard and not very tasty. I have eaten large whiting (45cm) and it was similarly not very delicious. I don't do this now. Anyone got info/opinion on the breeding of big female flatties and if slot limits are doing their job? @Daryl McPhee

Hi All, With a couple good weather windows this weekend I decided to go for a fish. Unfortunately I couldn't get out in the bay so I decided to go for a stroll down the local flicking plastics for flatties. At the beginning the fish were very timid, but after hitting every drain n ledge I could find, the fish started to play the game with a couple surprises chucked in. I started to get a couple of very small flatties which i like to call encouragement awards, but then I found a few slightly larger models. Ended up with 10 Flathead with six of them ranging between 47cm up to 62cm and this was all in about 3 hours. In between the commotion of the flatties I hooked something that hit harder and was fighting a bit different, to my surprise it ended up being a giant (little) herring which went 52cm. Pretty stoked with that as it was my first one. I was just about to leave and on my last cast I felt weight but it wasn't really fighting. When I got it to the surface, it turned out to be a rather large sandy which I dragged up the bank and popped straight into the esky. As I explained to my mate it takes someone with extreme skill to feel a hit on a plastic from a sandy and even greater skill to hook and land it. He promptly responded with it takes someone who is extremely full of... (u can fill in the blank) to jag a crab on a plastic. As this is my first report, I hope you all enjoy.!

Hi, I live a long way inland but going to Murramarang near Bateman's Bay in a few weeks. Plenty of experience with trout, redfin, cod etc in the fresh but have done bugger all salt fishing, so have a few noob questions to get me started: I have a beach rod - what line and leader should I spool it with for fishing the Durras area, and what bait? What rod and reel for estuaries/rivers in this area? I have plenty ranging from small trout spinning rods up to big Murray Cod baitcasters. And again, what bait and lures? Pretty keen on having a crack at Bass. Also considering taking my kayak to try on Durras lake. Thanks!

Hey guys sorry that i do not upload my catches lots I have been moving into boarding for a while and have only been home for 3 weekends this month did not go for jacks but did explore the seaway more had a little session first weekend when i had my grandparents over and managed to get a big flatty in the arvo did not fish anymore that weekend then i went out and went for a flick landbased next weekend right on sunday night also did not fish much had to be home collecting extras but on the 3rd weekend we had a hour seaway session inside the walls and got tons of bigeyes pretty fun. Gonna have a jack session soon hoping for this one to be the one number 8 is a lucky number I have a 200hg curado on a bass raider 3-6kg which i use for plastics and topwater and a 4000 with 30lb on it on a 5-10kg rod for livies like some smaller mullet and a big 5000 reel on a 10-15kg rod with 40lb for big mullet gonna just go landbased at a secret spot and see how it goes. Have not gotten into the hard body and jerkbait game yet lookin to get into it when i upgrade my boat gonna get a new minn kota riptide and a better, lighter casting deck for my tinny thinking about getting a dobyns fury 10-17lb rod with a bait caster on it Im looking for a reel around the under 400$ mark I know the curado just looking for a more optimal reel for fishing hard bodies in the canals

Hi guys. Where do you guys reckon is the best place in brisbane/gold coast to catch big flathead and mangrove jacks. Ive been to alot of places people say are good for mangrove jack but havent caught any. Quite keen on getting a few.

Hi guys and gal's, I have been off the water crook since before Xmas so haven't been out on the water for a while. The Coffs coast is packed with tourists holidaying, so it been massively busy up the creeks and rivers with boats, jet skis, swimmers etc. So I went exploring some spots away from the crowds. Went for a float in the kayak down a small shallow creek, fishing light only expecting to be playing around with under sized bream and flatties, which was correct......at first. Then I hooked what I thought was a tree branch and was slowly dragging it in when the branch gave a head shake. Ended up being an 85cm flatty that gave my small net a bit of a workout. I was pretty stoked, after not being able to fish for nearly a month, to catch and release this big girl in such a small non tidal creek on 8-pound leader and light gauge jig head. Hope you all had tight lines over Xmas. Cheers,

Hi all. Here's a quick report for Wednesday the 21st's trip out to the flats (Redcliffe region). A few nights beforehand, @AUS-BNE-FISHO, another mate Jarvis, and myself planned to chuck around some lures during the outgoing tide on the flats around Hays Inlet. Our target species was flatties, however anything else was welcome if the fishing was quiet, primarily due to the fact that our lures of choice were good all rounders. At around 10:30 we set off on the train to Kippa Ring, and caught a bus out to the hornibrook pier end of the Hornibrook/Ted smout memorial bridge. Note it was around 12:15 when we arrived at our spot. We fished the pier for a short time; Hamish knew someone who's good at cleaning up the flatties there however we had no luck. However, this time was somewhat beneficial as it gave us some time to kill while we waited for the outgoing tide to make the flats walk-able. It was a nice day. We began to fish in the cleaner water up near the bridge, walking out and wading so we could cast into the deeper channels. To start, Hamish used a 3.5 or 4 inch baitjunkie grub in the 'voltage' colour which is a similar colour to like nuclear chicken, if you're not familiar. I used a 3.2 inch baitjunkie minnow in watermelon pearl colour, which was a nice natural pale and sandy green with little red flecks. Jarvis was using some sort of powerbait plastic which I believe was a nemesis minnow. While walking we came across some nice flatty lies, ranging from 40-50cm, so this was promising. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Within around 25 minutes of fishing I was onto the first fish; a micro flatty which I didn't bother measuring, but I'd say was about 25cm or so haha. We continued to fish as a group and moved a little further up the system every few casts. Soon after my first fish I was onto another flathead at around 30cm this time. Hamish and Jarvis were still yet to get off the donut. We continued fishing for a little while and by this point we had reached the less clean water, closer to a distinguishable pipeline which came from out the mangroves. Jarvis called out to Hamish and I and told us he was onto a fish. It seemed to be putting up a decent fight from what we could see from afar, so we suspected it was a good flatty. Keep in mind Jarvis is only just getting into light tackle lure fishing so he was quite excited. To our surprise, he pulled in a 40cm or so catty , of all species, especially those that would actually eat a plastic most of the time. Although he'd caught many of these fishing the brissy river, he was still a happy man, as he had caught his first fish on a lure! Hamish and I were happy for him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By now the tide was pushing back in again so we figured we had better start walking back to get our bags of the mangroves before they got washed away and before we had to wade all the way back. For some last chance hookups though, we all punched out some hopeful casts on the way back. On my last cast before I called it quits, I actually thought, "as if this will catch anything", as i had casted perhaps 8 metres out into 40cm deep water from the bank. Haha. To my surprise, my polarised sunnies presented me with a nice view of a flatty jump up from his lie, swim over in a split second, and munch my lure as SOON as it splashed into the water. I was able to bring this one onto the sand, so I claimed a picture. Even though small, I had still gotten 3 fish here at my second time trying out the spot, so i was satisfied. Small On the home stretch jarvis came across some line tangled within a little drain into the mangroves where there was some crab pots. On the end, there was a nice atomic hardbody of some sort connected to a rotten carcass of another catty. Seems like they were more common around here than initially expected. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This was pretty much where we ended our session but we did have some fun on the train ride back gambling our tackle with each other flipping a coin. We all ended up 'winning' some new lures and hamish got that Atomic which I'm sure he will enjoy throwing for some jacks off the kayak during an upcoming trip we're going on. --- Cheers, Charlie. Hope you have had a nice christmas day today. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tides: 12:20 PM, 1M (arrival). 2:17PM, 0.6m, LOW. Moon: About 95% moon, increasing. Tackle: Charlie: 1-3kg Abu salty stage, 2500 diawa exceler. 10lb braid, 14lb fluoro. 3.2' baitjunkie minnow, Prolure Clone Prawn 92mm. (all fish caught on baitjunkie minnow). Hamish: Abu veritas, 2500 diawa tierra, 10lb braid, 10lb fluoro. 4 inch baitjunkie grub; voltage. 3.2 inch baitjunkie minnow; gudgeon or motoroil colour. (correct me if I'm wrong) Jarvis: Unknown shimano 6'6 rod w/ abu blackmax reel or something, 8lb mono straight-through. Powerbait nemesis minnow, savage gear 3d minnow. A fairly successful day for some.

Hi all, I managed to escape for a few hours yesterday for an arvo session before the rain kicked in. I was fishing a small creek near Arrawarra NSW that is not always open to the ocean a few hundred meters from the beach. I was hoping to upgrade on the 43cm jack from last week, but it was not to be. The creek is very shallow, about a meter deep with a few small deeper holes. Lure of choice was the 4" paddle tail plastic rigged on a weedless weighted hook, no jig head. No monster fish caught but hooked a couple of small jacks, nice trevally and a small flatty so was still a great afternoon on the water. I haven't caught many trevally and don't know what type it is, hoping someone here can give me an ID on which species this trev is (trevally is at 3mins on vid). Thanks.

@Kat and I had organised a session on the Bay for Monday, but the forecast turned a bit dodgy, so we canned it Sunday. Then @Old Scaley sent me a text seeing if I wanted to join him for a river session. I felt a twist in my arm and accepted the invite. Launched at Port of Brisbane ramp and went and deployed 4 crab pots, before heading down to the wharves to throw some plastics for a jew or threadie. No love after a while doing this and with the wind above forecast (glad I wasn't in the Bay) we headed back up the river to the pipeline. We threw more plastics here but again no joy. Decided to head further upstream and drift some baits. Not much luck doing this either. The thought of the dreaded donut entered my head. Then finally around midday they came on the chew and I landed a nice legal squire, followed by Steve with one too close to call so was let go. We did a few re-drifts and picked up some more then Steve was onto a weighty fish that wasn't playing like a snapper. Sure enough up comes a beaut flathead. High fives all round as we haven't seen a legal flattie for quite awhile. Shortly after he did it again with a slightly smaller version. Then one of us got another squire but I can't remember which one of us. Despite a few more hits and misses we decided to call time. Checked the pots for a nil score, then headed back to the ramp well satisfied with the day. Thanks for the invite and day out Steve. Best day on the water for some time.

I'm hoping to sneak up on a few flathead inside bribie in a few weeks, aiming to get my 1st on plastics. Taking a handful of zerek prawns, different sizes and colours, and a few vibes and minnows. Anyone have any other favs/recommendations be it lure or technique? hoping some local knowledge could give me an edge.

Yeah was just wondering where's the best spot to target flathead on low tide and how to hold the flathead properly.