Thursday

The rain is moving off but the strong south-easterly winds are persisting. The brief lull in the wind around dawn is the only time to fish. Back to Bribie and the same area as Tuesday. The tide was bigger and higher as we moved towards the new moon. It would be a 2.2 m high, at 5.44 am.

I arrived at about 4.30 am and found local expert – Colin, rigging up with the same idea. We both thought we would get a bit of shelter from the wind in this area and take advantage of the bait that is drawn to the bridge lights. I started on the north side but after 20 minutes, I had not had a bite so I moved to the south.

There was more bait jumping around on the south side, but nowhere near as much as there had been on Tuesday – no idea why. We both cast around for about 40 minutes but neither of us got a bite.

Colin decided to go off and try another spot. I moved a little further to the south. I swapped to a DUO Realis Shad 59 MR – a small suspending hard bodied minnow lure. I chose one with a white belly and blue back. I put in a couple of casts close to the bridge pylons, working the lure back against the wind. On about the third cast, a fish hit the lure on the pause, but did not connect. Three casts later, with the same lure in the same spot, the trebles lodged and I had the fish. It was a small Flathead, a little under 40cm.

Seem to be catching them all in the dark at the moment

DUO Realis Shad MR – beat the soft plastics today

The sun broke through in the end

This bird looked like it had been through a tornado

I hoped there were more but I could not find them. I waded a long way south, past the oyster jetty, casting all the time. I swapped back to soft plastics, as the floating weed kept clogging the hard body. I fished for another hour before the wind became too annoying.

It was a pretty disappointing session but DUO had at least saved me from scoring a duck!