Category Archives: 1770

1770 – Middle Rock – Flat Rock – Deepwater National Park – 15 May 2011

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Sunday

On Sunday morning the weather was beginning to change. The breeze was moving round from the south west to the south east. It was much warmer and conditions were good as the south easterly was still light. I had worked out that low tide presented the better fishing opportunities at Flat Rock and Wreck Rock and so, with high tide a few hours after dawn, I headed back to Middle Rock and more specifically the set of rocks in the middle of Middle Rock.

Middle Rock - an hour before high tide pre-dawn

Jupiter and Venus had been bright and visible in the eastern sky just before dawn, all week. Since about Thursday, Mercury was also clearly visible. Venus was so bright that it cast a clear light across the water. It had been similarly bright when I was fishing down at Iluka, in NSW, last month and I wonder if it has an effect on the fish.

I was fishing with the heavy rod – the Daiwa 9’ 6” Demon Blood, matched with a Shimano Stradic 6000 reel, loaded with 20lb braid and a 30lb fluorocarbon leader. I was hoping to encounter some bigger fish at dawn and thought that the cold snap would have got the Tailor going. My camping neighbour had caught a few off the beach to the south of Wreck Rock, the evening before. They had taken cut up Pike baits about an hour after sunset.

I rigged up with a GULP 5” Pumpkinseed Jerkshad soft plastic lure on a 3/8 oz 2/0 jighead. I cast all round the rocks in the pre-dawn light. I could not raise a bite so I dropped down to a ¼ oz 1/0 jighead and 16lb Fluorocarbon leader and cast around again. Third cast, in very shallow water, only a couple of metres from the beach, I had a fish. It was a Bream about 30cm long. I released it and cast back in the same spot. I hooked up straight away – it was another Bream – slightly bigger at around 34cm. I carried on but all I could not find anything bigger so at 8.00 am I went back to camp for breakfast.

Middle Rock Bream

Whilst there were fish around it was becoming clear that this week was right in the middle of the changeover between the dominance of the warm weather species –Tuna, Mackerel, Dart, Whiting and the emergence of the cold weather species – Tailor, Bream, Flathead. The air temperature had been bitterly cold but the water was still very warm. It was hard work trying to figure out what to try next!

After breakfast I decided I would fish the run out tide at Flat Rock. The moon was almost full so the tide would be very low. I arrived just after 10.00 am and the long rock was already exposed. I waded out and climbed up onto it. I was back to the light spin rod, using a 1/6th 1 jig head, 12lb leader and 2” and 3” GULP Shrimp and Minnow soft plastics. For the next few hours I walked all the way along the rock to the northern end of the beach, casting out over the edge. There was no shortage of fish but the problem was size. Everything seemed to be under 30 cm long. I caught Whiting, Flathead, Bream, Stripy Perch, Dart and Long Toms, but nothing was worth keeping. By 2.00 pm the wind was getting up and the tide was running in so I gave up.

Another Middle Rock Bream
Middle Rock – an hour before high tide pre-dawn
Middle Rock Bream
The middle set of rocks at Middle rocks just before high tide
Looking north along Flat Rock at low tide
Flat Rock exposed as the tide runs out
Flat Rock Bream
The front of Flat Rock at low tide
Another Flat Rock Bream grabs a soft plastic
The Flat Rock fishing platform
Flat Rock Dart
Flat Rock – Stripy Perch
Flat rock – Bar-Tailed Flathead
Looking south along the 2.4 Km Flat Rock

Wreck Rock & Middle Rock – Tuna & Trevally – Deepwater National Park – 14 May 2011

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Saturday

On Friday evening the keen fisherman camped nearby told me he had hooked up to a freight train Tuna, off the beach, in the early afternoon and unfortunately pulled the treble out. He had spent the rest of the day running up and down the beach trying to get his metal slug back in front of the fish but they just never came close enough. I decided to try the slugs in the morning down at Flat Rock where I had also seen the Tuna working. As the sun came up I cast and cast and cast in the direction of the feeding Tuna – but they just never quite came close enough.

Flat Rock beach - with the rock just covered - just after dawn

After a couple of hours I gave up and went back to camp for breakfast. I was greeted by my neighbour whose persistence had paid off and finally he had a good size Mac Tuna. He had eventually caught up with a school that came into less than 3 metres of water, only about 25 metres from the shore, about 1km south of Wreck Rock, along the beach. He had followed the birds and dead Whitebait that littered the beach until he saw a boil of feeding fish on the surface close in to the beach. He hooked up on his second cast and hung on. I was delighted for him, but he looked almost as tired as the fish. Who said angling is a sedentary sport?

Mac Tuna caught off Wreck Rock Beach on a chrome slug - May 2011

Mac Tuna off the beach - does not happen very often - full marks to this fisho for putting in the hard work

Now I was really fired up but I needed to have a look at some other spots, so that afternoon with a high tide due for about 6.00 pm, I jumped in the car and drove along the track to Middle Rock. Middle Rock, predictably sits between Flat Rock and Wreck Rock. It is a set of three rocky promontories that are almost completely submerged on the bigger high tides. It was approaching high tide when I started fishing there just after 5.00pm.

I was using the light spin rod and was casting out a 1/6th 2/0 jighead loaded with a GULP Jerkshad in the Pumpkinseed colour. I was hopping the plastic over the submerged rocks pretty quickly so that it would not get snagged. Suddenly a fish smashed the soft plastic lure ran with it for a few metres, then dropped it. A few casts later and I was in contact with a fish again. It took off and took plenty of line. The light rod has no real strength so I had to wear this one out with the drag and use the waves to bring it in. It put up a good fight but it was solidly hooked and I soon had a 50cm Trevally at my feet. I think it was a Big Eye – but I am never quite sure as some of the species can look pretty similar. The sun had gone down by now and the south-westerly wind was chilling so I gave up for the day.

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Wreck Rock – Deep Water National Park 1770 – 13 May 2011

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Friday

Having seen the Tuna working just offshore, all afternoon the day before, at both Wreck Rock and Flat Rock, I decided to spend dawn on Friday casting slugs from the southern tip of Wreck Rock. The tides where getting bigger in the run up to the full moon. Low tide would be at 11.10 am, so there would be plenty of water close into the rocks, at dawn.

The south end of Wreck Rock at dawn

The southern tip of the Wreck Rock bay has a couple of rocky outcrops and submerged bommies. At low tide there is only about a metre of water in front of them, but at high tide, this can increase to almost 4 metres. South of these rocks is a long, almost completely uninterrupted beach ( Rules Beach), that runs all the way down to the mouth of Baffle Creek. At the moment, the big seas and storms through the summer months have created a very steep, sloping beach with a few nice wholes and gutters. This means there is good deep water on high tide, all along this section.

Looking south from Wreck Rock - towards the mouth of Baffle Creek

It was another bitterly cold morning, the sky was crystal clear, but there was a light south-westerly wind blowing. As the sun came up I was casting a 90g slug from the rocks. I then tried a River to Sea – Dumbbell Popper and various heavy blades and big hard bodies. I could not interest the fish. I could see the Tuna, in small groups, smashing into the bait fish and the birds diving in to get a free breakfast, but they stayed at least 800m away the whole time.

Wreck Rock bay - just after dawn


I switched from the Daiwa 9’ 6” Demon Blood rod, which I use for slugs and poppers, to the light spin rod and rigged a soft plastic on a ¼ oz 1 jighead. I chose the GULP 2” Shrimp in the Banana Prawn colour. After about 30 minutes I had caught two tiny Dart and a Long Tom. At about 8.30am I headed back into my camp to thaw out with a hot cup of tea and some breakfast.

Mackerel, Trevally, Tailor and a few reef species all cruise around these rocks at the southern end of Wreck Rock bay


I considered my options and spoke to another keen fisherman who was camped nearby. He too had seen the Tuna and was planning to spend the day casting slugs at them. As low tide approached I decided to head out the rocks on the southern tip of Wreck Rock bay. The Tuna were there but always just out of reach. They would swing in tantalizingly close and I would cast slugs at them then they were gone again. As the tide dropped I moved as far as I could out onto the exposed rocks to the south. I cast out at about 45 degrees to the shoreline and as my slug landed a huge circle of bait scattered around it. Then ‘zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ….fftt’ and the fish was gone. I wound the line back in and it looked like a clean bite through the 40lb leader. I presumed it was a Mackerel or some other toothy species. I rigged a wire trace and carried on, but after twenty more casts I was still without a decent fish.

The bait that shelters around this bommy at Wreck Rock, attracts all sorts of predators

I switched from the slug rod to the light spin rod again and rigged a GULP Jerkshad in the Lime Tiger colour. I wanted to cast a bit of distance, but I also wanted to make sure the lure wafted around in the strike zone for as long as possible. I settled on a ¼ oz 2/0 jighead and downgraded to 16lb fluorocarbon leader. First cast was hit on the drop but then the fish dropped it. Third cast and I had a solid hook up. The fish took line in a couple of fast blistering runs then swam round in front of the rocks into a good position. On the next surge I tightened the drag and pulled it up to my feet (getting soaked in the process). Then I grabbed the leader and pulled the fish clear. It was a Giant Trevally around 50cm – no monster, but a decent fish. Cold and wet, I decided I had enough – it was just after noon.

Finally a decent fish - 50cm GT at Wreck Rock

As always when fishing an area that you have not been to for a while, you need to spend a few sessions figuring out what works and where the fish are. It was my fourth day and I finally felt I understood when and where to concentrate. I headed back to camp for some fish cleaning.

1770 – The Catwalk, Wreck Rock & Flat Rock – 12 May 2011

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Thursday

Looking North from the 'Catwalk' at 1770

I had to try at another morning on the Catwalk at 1770. It was seriously cold again but with a completely flat sea and a 2- 4 knot south-westerly whisper of a breeze. The water is still not as clear as it usually would be, after all the recent rain, but it is still pretty clean. I fished from 5.00 until 9.00 am and the results were similar to the day before. The soft plastics got munched by the resident Groper and the slugs and poppers did not raise any bites. I finally caught a small Bream on a GULP Lime Tiger Jerkshad. It was a perfect morning and a fantastic sunrise, but there were no fish.

The great thing about this area is that there are always lots of other options. I went back to camp for some breakfast. Low tide would be at about 10.00 am so I decided to fish the Wreck Rock bay, directly in front of the camping area. This is a small beach framed by two rocky headlands. For about an hour either side of low tide, you can walk right out to the tip of the rocks on the north side and fish into some relatively deep water. Your feet get wet and however hard you try to avoid it, the occasional wave will slap against the rocks and give you a good soaking. I put on a ¼ oz jighead and loaded it with a GULP Lime Tiger Jerkshad. I had now upgraded to 20lb leader, as there are often some bigger fish around this area. There were a few hits from the small dart and then I hooked a small Stripy Perch. I put it back and carried on casting.

I could see fish busting up on the surface a few hundred metres further out and then I saw a few jump and realised they were schools of Tuna feeding on the small Whitebait. I tried a few different plastics but came back to the Lime Tiger Jerkshad. I felt a couple of solid bites in close to the rocks and cast back, as close as I could, to the same spot. The lure had hardly hit the water and ‘zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz’ a fish took off with it. The light spin rod is a 2-4 kg Nitro. It is strong, but not strong enough to just pull this fish directly out of the rocks. After a bit of back and forth, it had wedged itself behind a bommy. A big surge lifted it clear and pushed it more or less to me feet. All I saw was a thick dark back roll over in the water and then it snap , and it was gone. Could have been a Tuna or a big Tailor, I will never know. I could not find another and the tide was now running in and making it to difficult to remain in that location, so I moved off.

The Dart are very aggressive and will try to eat anything

I went back to camp and dried out in the sun and considered the options for the next session. I decided to try Flat Rock again and drove down there at around 3.00 pm. The rock was now covered by the run in tide. I walked a kilometre north along the beach to the point where the rock starts to break down. This is the spot where the water rushes in to fill the gutter between the beach and the rock and is often a good spot for Dart. Over the next hour I caught plenty with the biggest being just over 40cm long. I was fishing with a 1/8th 1 jighead and using the 10lb fluorocarbon leader. I used a variety of GULP plastics that all seemed to work on the Dart – the Turtleback Worm, the 2” Shrimp the 3” Minnow and the 3” Minnow Grub. I fished until the sun dropped behind the sand dunes and then the cold forced me back to camp. I kept the four biggest Dart and ate two for supper.

Four of the bigger Dart from Flat Rock

1770 – The Catwalk and Flat Rock – 11 May 2011

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Wednesday

On Wednesday I got out of the tent and boiled the billy at around 4.30 am. It was seriously cold but there was virtually no wind. After a thawing cup of tea and some breakfast I jumped in the car and drove the 15kms north to 1770 and clambered out over the rocks to the famous ‘catwalk’.

For those of you who don’t know it, it is a sloping rock ledge about twenty five metres long that forms an ideal casting platform. It is just south of the tip of the 1770 headland and is a favourite spot for land based game fishermen who wish to get a shot at catching big fish, from the shore. It is most popular when the various tuna species pass by, from about October to March, but there are fish to be had all year round. This morning I had it to myself which was probably not a good sign!

I started in the pre-dawn light with big soft plastic Jerkshads on ½ oz jigheads. After about 20 casts I was on to a fish. It was slow and heavy and first I thought it might be a turtle. After a couple of slow runs there was a huge swirl on the surface and then ping it was gone. I realised it was one of the enormous resident Gropers. I switched to an 85g slug and over the next hour, as the sun came up, I put in over 60 casts in every direction. It was a beautiful sunrise but there were no fish around so at about 8.00 am I headed back down the track to Flat Rock beach again.

I arrived around low tide at 9.00 am. By now the rock was uncovered and I waded through the gutter and up on to it. I then walked north along it, casting along the edge, in front of me. There are lots of drains and over hangs and other good structure to focus on. I was fishing with my light spin rod again but had upgraded to a 14lb leader to give me a chance, if a big fish appeared.

Long Toms - seriously ugly fish


The first predators to appear were the Long Toms – every now then one would leap clear of the water chasing the lure as it landed. They particularly liked the GULP 2” Shrimp soft plastic in the Banana Prawn colour.I walked up and down the face of Flat Rock for the next three hours and caught fish all the way along. I caught Bream, Whiting, Dart, Stripy Perch, Flathead and lots more Long Toms. Most were small but I kept a couple of the better sized Dart for supper. As the tide started to run in and the water lapped over the rock I gave up and headed back to camp.

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1770 – Deep Water National Park – Flat Rock – 10 May 2011

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No – the Stonefish did not kill me. I have been away for a week of land-based fishing at the town of 1770. I was fishing the rocky headlands, beaches and bays of the Deepwater National Park. The park is reached via a sandy four wheel drive track that heads south from Agnes Waters.

There are three main access points to the water, off this track – at Flat Rock, Middle Rock and Wreck Rock. I arrived last Tuesday and set up camp at the Wreck Rock camp ground. It is basic, but beautifully positioned in the Banksia covered sand dunes, behind the beach. It has a composting toilet and access to bore water and an outdoor, cold water shower. There are about eight secluded camp sites.

I arrived at about noon and needed to catch dinner, so I set off for Flat Rock beach with my light spin rod. There was a light, cold, south westerly breeze blowing but the bright sunshine took the sting out of it. I started fishing at about 2.00pm. Flat Rock beach is so named because a long flat rock formation runs parallel with the shore, for about 4 kilometres. On the highest of high tides, it is covered by about three metres of water and on the lowest of lows, it is completely exposed. It is a great fishing platform to walk along, around low tide and it is also a great fish holding structure, on a high tide.

Flat Rock - covered by high water

The tide was only a little way into the run out phase, so the rock was completely covered by water when I walked out onto the beach. In these circumstances the rock forms the eastern wall of a huge gutter all the way along the beach. I rigged a 1/8th 1 hook jighead with a GULP 3” Minnow in the Pearl Watermelon colour and started walking north along the beach, stopping to cast every few metres. When I need to figure out what is biting and need to be sure of catching something to eat. I fish as light as I can, so I was using an 8lb Fluorocarbon leader. I soon got a couple of bites and grabs and quickly hooked a 25cm Whiting. I threw it back hoping for something better. I caught a few more that were around the same size. I swapped to the GULP 2” Shrimp in the Banana Prawn colour and after a few casts I found a patch of slightly bigger Whiting. It was now about 3.30 pm and I needed something for dinner so I kept four of the bigger Whiting, that where about 30cm long.

Dart will have a go at almost any lure - fish light and you will catch them

When I reached a break in the rock, where the water was draining out to sea from the gutter, I switched back to the GULP 3” Pearl Watermelon Minnow. I got a couple of more aggressive hits and finally hooked a Dart that was edible size. I got a few more and kept the two largest. Then I caught a tiny, but very well camouflaged Bartailed Flathead, only about 20cm long. The sun was dropping and it was getting seriously cold so I headed back to camp to clean and then eat the fish. Nothing spectacular but I had a caught dinner.

Nice camouflage - Bar-tailed Flathead