Through late August the weather was bright and sunny but the swell was still pretty difficult to manage on the rocks. I focused on fishing in the Brunswick River. I also had a few dawn sessions, fishing on the beach at New Brighton.
Most of the time I was fishing with my Samaki Zing Gen III 562SXL ultralight rod. But when I cast a lure into the surf (looking for tailor) I moved up to my Daiwa Crossfire CFS1202L. There was not much rain in August and the Brunswick River was fairly clear, even on the low tides.
I had a few sessions around the mouth of the river and caught a few small flathead on minnow soft plastics. On a couple of sessions I trekked up river on the south bank and caught plenty more small flathead. The star performer was the GULP Pulseworm soft plastic in various beige/ camo colours.
Upstream on the Brunswick River
I had hoped to find some tailor from the beach on a few morning sessions. I have some new Samaki 40g Flash Minnow hard bodies which I think will be great for tailor. They are solid, sink fast, cast well and have a great action. I think they will be great in rough seas but this time I only caught flathead with them during my dawn sessions.
Found flathead instead of tailor in the beach gutters in August
May 20th was a Friday. The tide was low at 9.50 am and the moon was 6 days away from being full. I was once more fishing midmorning in the Brunswick River, starting at about 10.15 am.
I started down by the river mouth on the northside. I caught a bream on a minnow soft plastic and then the bream pulled it off the jighead, as they so often do. I opened a packet of GULP 4″ Pulseworm soft plastics in the Moebi colour (beige) and put one on my 1/8th ounce, size 1/0 hook jighead. I was using my light spinning outfit and about 1.5 metres of 12lb fluorocarbon leader.
To my surprise the next fish was an ambitious whiting. I released it and moved slowly up river. I lost my plastic again and put on a GULP 2″ Shrimp in the Peppered Prawn colour. The next taker was a small flathead, about 35cm long. I let it go. The tide was now beginning to flood in.
A few small teasers to start the session
I moved further up the river bank and cast my soft plastic at the sandy patches in between the rocky bottom. I lost a jighead, snagged on one of the rocks that was out of wading distance. I put on another GULP Pulseworm and carried on casting.
I was now keeping the soft plastic moving fairly quickly across the bottom as I did not want to get snagged again. I was fishing in about 30 cm of water. I felt the plastic stop dead and assumed I was snagged again. I pulled hard and there was a little bit of give, so I pulled harder. Suddenly my drag was screaming and a fish was swimming away. It was a big flathead that had been sitting in the shallows between the rocks.
Every fisherman loves that sound
It made a couple of long slow runs. I left the drag alone. I only had a 12lb fluorocarbon leader and a very light rod so I was going to have to play it very patiently. When they get this big their head shakes are slower and less numerous and as long as they are hooked on the outside of the mouth, you have a good chance at landing them. I let her go where she wanted to and took back line whenever I could. After about five minutes I pulled her onto the sand. She was a beautiful fish and by measuring her against my rod I estimate she was about 75cm long. I took a few snaps and turned back into the water. I held her by the mouth and let some water run back and forth over her gills and then she slowly swam away.
A solid 75cm Brunswick River flathead
This is by far the biggest fish I have found in the river so far. I am delighted they are there and I hope to tangle with a few more.
The next day I went back to see if she was part of a gang. I tried out the GULP Crazy Legs Jerkshad in my favorite; Lime Tiger colour. I fished around for a few hours in the same area and found another decent 55cm flathead. I also released this one.
Having found plenty of flathead in the Brunswick River in March and April, 2021, I decided to continue fishing the river through May. I wanted to see if my catch fluctuated with the moon, tides and wind direction. In March and April the flathead had been easiest to catch, when large amounts of bait came into the river. They were slightly more numerous in the run up to the new moons than the full moons.
My first few sessions in May were on the 3rd, 4th and the 6th. On the 3rd I fished at the mouth of the river between about 2 and 4 pm. We were a week away from the New Moon and there was a light south-easterly wind blowing. There were a few showers around. High tide was at 2.15 pm, so I was fishing the top of the tide and the run out.
I started with a 4″ GULP Minnow soft plastic in the Watermelon Pearl colour. I was using a 1/8th ounce, size 1 hook jighead and about 1.5 metres of 10lb fluorocarbon leader. I flicked the soft plastic lure around on the bottom, keeping it stationary for a few seconds and then hopping it along the bottom before another pause. I felt a few bream hits and then the unmistakable thud of a flathead bite. I dropped the rod tip, paused and slowly counted to ten. When I lifted the rod tip I had the fish hooked. I landed it, photographed it and let it go.
I carried on casting and moved slowly up river. After a few casts and bites the jighead came up missing the soft plastic. A bream had most likely pulled it off. I put on another minnow soft plastic, this time in the bright yellow and white Chartreuse colour. The water was clear but still a little tannin stained from the recent rain. Four or five casts later I caught another flathead – about 40 cm long.Â
Plenty of small flathead in early May
I moved down to the river mouth and out onto the rockwall. I cast into the ocean side from the rockwall. I was aiming my soft plastic to land in the surf wash, just a couple of metres away from the rocky beach area. This worked. The first fish was a small bream. A few casts later I hooked another flathead that looked just over 40 cm.
On the 4th May, the weather was overcast and I fished from about 1.00pm to 4.00 pm. It was much harder to find the fish. What success I had was on the big GULP Crazylegs Jerkshad soft plastic, which I was fishing with a 1/8th ounce, size 1/0 hook jighead. There were a few schools of whiting cruising the sand banks. I caught one very small (15cm) flathead and then a bigger but still not legal size unit in the river. I tried the beach area again and caught a 32 cm bream.
It was tougher fishing on the 4th May
On the 6th May I fished from about 10.30 am through to about 12.30 pm. It was still cloudy but the wind has eased off and the sun was shining through a few clouds. I was now fishing the run in tide and the water was fairly clear. It was just stirred up a little from some rain we had had overnight. This time I decided to fish further up the river on the north bank. I started a little up river from the highway bridge. I was using a 3″ GULP Minnow soft plastic in the Lime Tiger colour. After about five minutes of casting around I caught a decent bream.
There are always bream in the Brunswick River
I lost a jighead to the rocks and re-rigged with the same colour soft plastic lure. In this area the water drains off the oyster lease through some weed beds and it always looks very fishy. At about 10.50 am I watched a flathead follow the plastic right to my feet before turning away at the last minute. I re-cast and slowed everything right down. I did this a couple of times and then felt the thud. I paused and then set the hook. It was a flathead or perhaps the same flathead. It was just about 36cm long. I released and cast out again. It kept things slow. This seemed to work and 5 minutes later I had another flathead this time a little over 40cm.
Flathead caught upriver from the highway bridge
Things went quiet so I decided to move further down the river to fish in the mouth of Marshalls Creek. This also always looks like a fishy spot. I arrived and put on a GULP 4 Pulseworm in the Moebi colour. I cast this around in the mouth of the creek and I felt a small fish attack. It was a tiny flathead. I swapped back to fishing the main arm of the Brunswick River and cast around on the edge of the main channel. At about 12.15 pm I hooked a small flathead that was just under 35cm.
Flathead from the mouth of Marshalls Creek
I released all the fish I caught in these three sessions, so they are still out there for you to catch.
My last fishing session in April was on the Richmond River at Ballina. It was a Friday lunchtime and I decided to look for some flathead as the tide ran out. The tide was high at about 11.00 am and I started fishing as the run out got going at 11.30 am. I was using my ultra-light spinning set up; 2-4 kg rod and a 2500 size spin reel. I had 12lb braid for main line and a 10lb fluorocarbon leader. The first soft plastic I selected was the GULP 4″ Pulseworm in the beige Moebi colour. I rigged it on a 1/8th ounce, size 1/0 hook jighead. I like the look of this shape it has a ribbed body and a curly tail, and it has caught a few flathead for me.
The weather was cloudy and overcast. March had been a very good flathead fishing month in the local estuaries. We had had some rain earlier in the day and we were due some more. The wind was from the north-east, and the sky was gradually turning greyer and greyer. I started fishing from the rocky shoreline, just down river from the small boat harbour, opposite the Ramada Hotel.
I cast back towards the mouth of the harbour, let the soft plastic sink and hopped it back along the bottom, with the current. Just a few minutes after starting I caught a 40cm flathead. It struck very close to the shore. I cast out again and hooked up again, but the hook did not stick and the fish swam away before I got a look at it.
I moved a little way further along the bank towards the river mouth. I swapped to a GULP 4″ Minnow soft plastic in the Chartreuse (yellow and white) colour. After a few casts with this I caught another good sized flathead. It was just over 55cm. I carried on moving along the bank for another 20 minutes or so and caught two more smaller flathead on the same soft plastic. Every fish had hit my lure less than two metres from the shoreline – so you don’t have to cast right out into the middle of the channel to find them.
The rain started and before long it was torrential, so I withdrew. I love fishing the Richmond River at Ballina. There are a lot of great land-based fishing spots that consistently produce fish and many are only 5 minutes from the centre of town.
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