Tag Archives: land based Flathead fishing near Brisbane

Bribie Island – Oyster Jetty Flats – 3 Sept 2011

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Saturday

I have been catching fish but not catching dinner. A few trips to unfamiliar fishing locations and my inability to land anything decent , closer to home, has left the fridge empty. I decided to head up to Bribie Island for a land based fishing session on Saturday.

Unfortunately the weather was not kind. I arrived around first light to be greeted by a 20 knot southerly wind which showed no signs of easing off. I tried to fish the mouth of the lagoon in front of Buckley’s Hole but the wind made it too hard.

I crossed back over to the mainland to fish on the flats around the old oyster jetty. You get a bit of shelter from the southerly wind here. Low tide was around 6.30 am and the water was slowing, as I waded along the exposed flats. The sea grass beds are just beginning to grow up through the ‘snot ‘weed. Hopefully in a few weeks it should start to disappear.

I waded south casting along the edge of the weed banks. I fished for an hour or so, with only a couple of bites, which I think were Pike. I stopped for a chat with a fellow fisherman, who was also not having much luck casting soft plastics. Around 8.00 am, just as the tide started to run in properly I felt a good bite and dropped the rod tip. A few seconds later I lifted it and had a fish hooked. It was a small Flathead that was just about legal size. I decided to let it go.

I was fishing with the GULP 4” minnow soft plastic in the pearl watermelon colour. This lure is about as close as you can get to a replica of a small mullet or pilchard and often seems to produce a fish when nothing else can. I was fishing with a 1/6th 1/0 jighead and 10lb fluorocarbon leader. I fished on for another hour but I could not find anymore. The fridge remains empty of fish!

Bribie Island – More Flathead from around that jetty – 31 May 2011

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Tuesday

When you are catching fish in a particular spot, it is difficult to tear yourself away. So at sunrise this morning I found myself back to the south of the old oyster jetty, on the mainland, opposite Bribie Island.

I started at about 6.00 am, just on first light. High tide would be just after 8.00 am. The wind was a very light south-westerly. From 6.00 am to 8.00 am, all I could find were a couple Pike. I often find the last hour of the run in tide is difficult. I think the fish need a bit of current to get them in feeding mood. When the water is completely still, at high tide, they just stop biting. Around high tide I was also limited by the water depth, to within 30 metres of the Mangrove fringed shoreline.

Around 8.30 am, as the tide started running out, I caught my first Flathead of the day – 42cm long, on a 1/6th 1/0 jighead loaded with a GULP 4” Minnow soft plastic in the Pumpkinseed Colour. As the run out tide grew stronger and the water level dropped, I walked further and further south, catching Flathead all the way along the big sandbar. I turned around when I reached the green channel marker and waded back up the Passage, casting into the run out tide. I swapped between the Pumpkinseed and Pearl Watermelon colour soft plastics and both caught fish. In total I caught 11 Flathead, of which 7 were over 40cm – the biggest was 61cm. I caught 4 fish on the sand right next to the green channel marker. All the fish were caught in less than a metre of water.

I finished up back at the bridge by about 11.00 am. All the fish caught today were released, so get out there and catch them!

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