Sunday

Saturday’s gusty winds were forecast to die away for Sunday morning. When I arrived at Bribie Island at about 5.15 am, the wind was still blowing at about 15 knots and it had just stopped raining. The water was pretty choppy and the wind appeared to be coming from the southwest. It would be fairly hard to fish into the wind on the island side. I decided to drive back over the bridge and fish the more sheltered mainland side of the Pumicestone Passage.

I walked out under the bridge just before first light. The tide was running out and low would be at about 7.00 a.m. As I walked across the exposed sand/ mud, I could see the scaring from the cast nets that had been thrown from the bridge. Netting from the bridge at night died right down with the introduction of the bridge cameras, but for some reason it seems to have picked up again – there are a few squid around – perhaps these are the target.

I fished around the reefy area by the fifth bridge pylon but this did not produce anything. It was a cold but fantastic sunrise. I waded along on the shallows casting a 3” GULP Minnow soft plastic in the Pearl Watermelon colour, all around me. The tide was slowing now and the water was very murky. I hooked in to something slow moving and as I pulled it towards me it squirted a jet of water and grunted. It was a good size squid. My first on a soft plastic and it went in the bag.

I continued south and increased the size of my plastic to a 4” Minnow in the same colour. I fished along the edge of the weed banks but there was no run now, and I did not get a touch for the next hour. I reached the green channel marker and turned around to wade back. The tide had started to run in now and was picking up pace. The wind had dropped and the sun was now out.

I swapped to a brighter coloured, larger soft plastic. The GULP Jerkshad in the Lime Tiger colour, on a 1/8th, 1/0 jighead and I dropped down to a 10lb fluorocarbon leader. The water was clearing with the run in tide. I felt a couple of bites and caught a 20cm Flathead about half way back to the Oyster Jetty.

A magnificent Bribie Island sunrise

A good size Squid

I wasn’t the only one who was cold

The Pike struck first

Eventually a Flathead

The power of a brightly coloured soft plastic

Best fish of the day a 58cm Flathead

Bribie Island Calamari

I slowed everything down, letting the plastic sit for longer between hops. I felt a couple of quick bites and then had a few runs, but I could not hook up. Then I had a fish – it was a big Pike.

I moved a bit further north and at about 8.30 am I finally found a patch of Flathead. I caught two in the same spot, both about 45cm long. I concentrated on the area, casting in a semi-circle and at about 8.45 am I caught another, bigger one – about 55cm long. This was ground I had covered an hour earlier with no result. Either the Flathead had moved in quickly with the tide or the tidal flow had persuaded them to eat.

That was it for the day and the end of the school holidays. Things will get a bit quieter next week – but it won’t get any warmer for a while!