Monday
I managed to stay away for Sunday, but by Monday the fish were calling again. It’s very hard to resist going back when you have had some great sessions. Fish don’t generally school up in one spot forever, so having found the Flathead, on the flats opposite Bribie Island – I wanted to make the most of it.
The productive spots I have been fishing can only be reached during the lower half of the tide. This meant I had the luxury of starting fishing a bit later than usual. The wind was going to be a solid 10-15 knot south-easterly, and low tide would 0.9 m at 11.21 am, at Bongaree. I arrived on the mainland side of the Bribie Island Bridge at about 9.15 am.
I waded out to the old oyster jetty. The wind was blowing hard and it was quite cloudy. The area just to the south of the jetty is sheltered from the full thrust of the wind so this was where I started. To locate the fish, I decided to prospect with a GULP Jerkshad in the Cajun Chicken colour. I upped my leader to about a 1.5m length of 12lb fluorocarbon. The 10lb leader is usually adequate, but I had had such a good catch rate in recent sessions that It was getting worn too quickly.
Once again I soon found the fish. I caught the first flathead at 9.24 am – it was about 50 cm and then another, about the same size, a few minutes later. The wind was creating quite a chop now and it was still a little too deep to reach the ideal target area – along the edge of the weed beds. I waded a little further south to the mouth of the drain that runs off the flats, in front of Sandstone Point.
When I first started fishing about 12 years ago, I went out with a guide on the Noosa River. This was the first time I had used lures. One of the lures we used was the RIO Prawn. This lure is a very lifelike resin imitation of the typical Noosa river system prawn. It is Australian made, near Noosa. The guide positioned us over some likely looking hollows and weed beds and cast the lure out, into one of the sandy bottomed areas. He let it sink, raised it up in a long fluid movement then let it sink back down, to the sand. He counted to ten then repeated the process. He did this perhaps three times before the lure pulled up a flathead. I then had a go and managed to catch one, as well. I, like the fish was hooked!
I have caught plenty of fish on RIO lures since, but I rarely use them at Bribie – because of the weedy and rocky bottom. Today I decided I would give them an outing. I chose the 13 gram size RIO Prawn in the red colour. The water was clear and I could see the sandy patches. I repeated the process that I had been taught all those years ago and after a few tries, I was on to a fish. The first was a small Flathead about 45cm. On the next cast I caught another and on the third, I hooked up to another. The RIO Prawn caught about five more flathead over the next 30 minutes. Then I lost it to a 60cm + fish. The leader must have been damaged in some of the previous fights and it snapped just as I was walking the fish to shore.
Next I went down in size to the small DUO Tetraworks Bivi – a sinking bibless vibe lure, in a black /rainbow colour. This small vibe is always good for Flathead. It casts a long way and quickly falls into a tight action. The only problem with these smaller vibes is stopping the fish from swallowing them. This one also produced on its first cast. The fish were clearly not fussy today. I swapped again, this time to the DUO Koikakko tiny squid imitation. Once again this tiny lure caught the biggest fish of the day – a 63 cm flathead.
As we reached the bottom of the tide I pulled out another Charles Talmans soft plastics, which I called a ‘prong’. It is a split tail in a clear/ white colour. It is quite a chunky plastic so I put it on a 1/8th ounce 2/0 jighead and cast it out. After a few casts the fish found it and it pulled in another three or four fish to end the session. If you want to know more about Charles’ plastics drop him an email on ctalman@hotmail.com.
With the wind howling at noon, I walked back to the car. Another great session fishing the flats at Bribie.
Landangler's Blog 
Hey land angler just seen the new post and all i can say is wow nice flatheads you caught on the split tail fish makes me feel good knowing my lure works considering i just got told basically my lures need to be high quality for the market was dissapointed on the feed back i got from the lure company ohh well there loss im only a home lure maker after all dosent matter i also thought i let you know im working on a hybrid hard bodied squid lure it is like my bigger squid lure with the same concept but im making the body in resin and the legs will be made in a soft plastic i have design the tentacles so it will be like a skirt and also two shooter tentacles so far so good next step is molding it once i finished making them i will send a couple up for you to try out.cheers ctqlman
Date: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 08:38:40 +0000 To: ctalman@hotmail.com
Hi Landangler,
You have probably been asked this same kind of question before but what
Would be your go to top five plastics/lures that you use and the colours. Love the blog follow every new adventure amazing how hot the sessions have been for you of late.
Thanks
Jake Gunston