Tuesday
Strong northerly winds were forecast, but not until around 10.00 am. I decided to fish at my new favorite spot – Caloundra – at the northern end of the Pumicestone Passage, about 1 hour north of Brisbane, on the Sunshine Coast.
High tide would be at 7.40 am and it would be a nearly full moon. There would be plenty of power in the tidal flow and it would come up very high. I arrived at first light, just after 4.00 am. I started fishing at the mouth of the Pumicestone Passage, at the southern end of Bulcock Beach, on the rocks. The wind was blowing and it was already fairly choppy. The tide was rushing in, so I focused on casting my soft plastic lure at the eddies, behind the rocks. After a few casts, I caught a 45cm Flathead on a GULP 3” Minnow lure, in the Lime Tiger colour.
It was too windy to stay in this location so at about 6.00 am, I moved south along the Pumicestone Passage to Golden Beach, to fish the weed banks in front of the Power Boat Club. This is a good spot on high tide as the Flathead move up over the weed beds, looking for something to eat. After half an hour of casting I found one, another 45cm Flathead on the same lure. I was fishing with a 1/8th 1/0 jighead and 1.5m long 12lb fluorocarbon leader. I let the fish go and few casts later I got a better one. This time, on a GULP 5” Jerkshad soft plastic., in the Satay Chicken colour. As soon as I felt the initial bite, I had dropped the rod tip and counted to 10. The waiting nearly killed me but when I jerked the rod tip up, the lure lodged firmly in the fish’s throat. The fish was too big to grab in waist deep water so I had to tow it all the way back to the sand – about 100 metres. Luckily, it stayed on and did not saw its way through the leader.
I fished for a few more hours, wading up and down the weed banks. But, by about 9.00 am, it was just too hot to carry on, so I put the fish on ice and went for a swim.
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