Tag Archives: 3 inch minnow soft plastics

Bribie Island – White Patch – 11 December 2015

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Friday

The flats in front of the old oyster jetty at the Sandstone Point Hotel had not produced much action during my last fishing session. So on Friday I decided to fish somewhere else on Bribie. Wild weather was forecast and it was very hot – 33 C. There was a strong northerly wind blowing and there was plenty of cloud around. A storm seemed likely in the late afternoon.  I decided to give White Patch a try. This is a stretch of shore on the inside of Bribie Island where the 2 to 3 metre coffee rock drop off into the Pumicestone Passage, is quite pronounced. I have caught just about everything here over the years – snapper, trevally, queenfish, flathead, bream, whiting, estuary cod, moses perch, pike, long toms, tailor and jewfish. Flathead, whiting, bream and pike are by far my most common catches.

I wanted to fish the falling/ low tide. As regular readers will be aware, I much prefer fishing a run out tide at Bribie. That is not to say fish do not bite on the run in. I am just more confident of where to find them when the tide is running out. Fish, (especially flathead) move back in surprisingly fast with the run in tide. Both flathead and whiting love to eat soldier and other small crabs. As the tide runs into the shallows, they have a very good chance of finding them. If you are fishing with children over the holidays, soldier crabs are a great bait. They are plentiful, fun to collect and if you slide two or three on to a #4/#6 hook, at the end of a lightly weighted 6 to 10 lb line, you should find a few fish in the shallows.

Low tide would be at about 4 pm. I arrived at about 2.30 pm and wandered down the steps to the beach. The shoreline has a mixture of weed, sand and flat rocky areas. The edge of the main channel is only exposed on the very lowest of tides. I like to fish on top of the ledge, in the shallows before later casting over it, as the tide recedes.

This is a beautiful spot but this afternoon the fishing was very tough. I walked up and down casting everything I had in the tackle bag without much luck. At about 3.00 pm I caught a very grumpy bream who slammed my GULP 3” Lime Tiger coloured soft plastic minnow. I had dropped right down to 8lb fluorocarbon leader in the clear water.

I waded a long way along the shore almost to the south end. At this point there was plenty of bait in the shallows and each time I cast, it would scatter as the lure passed overhead. It was now about 4.30 pm and the tide was starting to slowly run in. There was a big surge about 5 metres in front of me and the bait scattered in all directions. I was now fishing with a bigger GULP Jerkshad in the Cajun Chicken colour. I cast in the direction of the surge. After about five casts something grabbed the soft plastic and took off at a tremendous pace. Fortunately the drag was not set too tight so it could easily take line. It stripped off about 20 metres of line in a solid fast run. Then after just a few seconds, it was gone. It looked like it had just dropped the soft plastic. I suspect it was a trevally, which I have caught in this area before.

I carried on casting but it did not come back. The sky got blacker and blacker, so at about 5.00 pm I decided to retire. Fishing in our estuaries is tough in the summer months but persistence is the key.

Bribie – the oyster jetty flats – 3 February 2014

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Monday

By Monday the weather looked more promising for a fish at Bribie. A few showers but the wind would drop to about a 10 knot south-easterly, early in the morning. Low tide would be just after 5.30 am, with first light at about 5.00 am.

I decided to fish on the flats around the old oyster jetty on the mainland side of the Pumicestone Passage. If the flathead are around, this is usually where they are easiest to find. It rained for almost the whole journey up from Brisbane but it was not very heavy. I waded out into the shallows, under the bridge at about 5.00 am. The tide was still running out but slowing down quickly. I left the area under the bridge alone as I wanted to reach the jetty while the water was still running out.

I was fishing my light rig – G.Loomis TSR series light spin rod, Shimano Stella 2500, 15lb Super PE braid and the new Gamma 10lb fluorocarbon leader. I started with a soft plastic lure – the GULP Jerkshad in the Watermelon Pearl colour.  The wind was negligible so I dropped down to a 1/8th ounce, 1/0 jighead. This would hop over the weed on the shallows, if moved fairly quickly.

It was light enough to see but the sun was not yet up. I was covering the area just south of the jetty with casts. After a few minutes I caught the first flathead, lying in wait, behind a clump of weed. It was a little over 45cm. It destroyed the Jerkshad and I did not have another, so I put on a smaller, 3 inch minnow in the same colour. I cast at the same spot and instantly hooked up again. The smaller plastic had produced a bigger fish – this one was about 55cm long.

I carried on prospecting around the rocky bits of reef and weed clumps that dot this area. I connected with something that turned out to be some abandoned braid. I decided to wind it up. It was probably 50 lb breaking strain and there was plenty of it. I waded up and down, pulling it off the rocks and as it loosened, I could feel something moving in the end of the line. I eventually reached the leader that was also pretty substantial – perhaps 60 lb+ breaking strain. Then I saw the source of movement; two mud crabs – one large, one small, were completely tangled up, but both wriggling.  I took a few pics and gradually untangled them. One looked big enough for dinner but I am not an experienced crabber – so I could not tell if it was male or female. I was also fairly unsure as to how I would grab it! I cut the last bit of line off and they both slipped away. I wound up the remaining leader and found a very substantial – size 8/0 hook on the end of it.

Bribie sunrise
Bribie – great sunrises
Biggest fish on the smallest plastic today
Grumpy flathead
Big and small mud crabs
Like knitting
Some very heavy tackle left behind
Expecting something big
A few just undersized fish
Plenty of fight in this one
45cm flathead
Flathead on a Cajun Chicken Jerkshad
Clear water despite the wind

The sun came over the horizon and the run out tide fizzled out. I moved further south. I kept swapping colours and sizes of soft plastic and caught flathead on the GULP Minnow, Shrimp and Jerkshad shapes. The Watermelon Pearl, New Penny, Lime Tiger, Satay and Cajun Chicken colours all worked. I caught six more fish along the stretch of weed beds that run from the end of the jetty to the green channel marker. They were all between about 35cm and 45cm long.

As the tide turned in I waded back towards the bridge and swapped to my favourite DUO Realis Shad 59MR – suspending hard bodied lure. The loose weed now lifted by the run in tide made fishing with the hard body a bit frustrating. I had a few grabs and snatches which I suspect were Bream or Pike, but I did not catch anything.

At about 8.45 am I could no longer reach the area I wanted to castat and the wind had built up to 20 knots, so I gave up for the day. It looks like a few days of solid south-easterly winds have brought the fish back on the bite.