Friday

After another terrific fishing session on Wednesday, I had to get back out there, as soon as possible. I had time for a quick morning fish on Friday. Friday was full moon and the tide would be difficult. It would be a 2.2 metre high at 9.36 am. The bigger high (2.6m) is currently at night. We would start with a south westerly breeze, then, a northerly wind was forecast to blow in, in the late morning. Thursday was a great day, weather wise and it was also Anzac Day, so I would expect the area to have been thoroughly fished.

Full moon fishing can be difficult for a number of reasons. It is often the trigger, at spawning time for fish to school up. But the big tidal movement stirs up the weed and debris and can disperse the fish over a very wide area.

I arrived just before dawn and fish around under the bridge. I did not have much success so, as soon as the horizon started to glow, I moved south, past the oyster jetty to try the drain that runs round the corner from Sandstone Point. Unfortunately, there was not yet enough water running through the drain. So, I moved further out in the direction of the green channel marker.

I was fishing with a GULP Jerkshad in the Satay Chicken colour and just before dawn, I caught a small flathead. This one would have been a just under the legal size of 40cm. Once the sun came up, I could see it had been sitting in a sandy patch, amongst the weed beds. I continued in the area and after a few more casts and I soon had another fish on. After brief fight, this one spat the jighead out.

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I was now stuck in the incoming tide conundrum. The tide was coming up fast, pushing me away from the area I wanted to fish – which was the main edge of the weed and sandbanks. This was out of casting reach and there was not yet enough water on the flats for the fish to have moved up.

I swapped to a GULP 4” Minnow in the Watermelon Pearl colour to see if a more ‘natural’ colour would be more effective. I cast around at any area of sand amongst the weed and I caught one more flathead – about the same size as the others, over the next hour.

At about 9.00 am I had to give up. Perhaps the full moon tides had dispersed the fish or maybe they were just schooled up, out of reach. I would be back again soon.