Tag Archives: whiting on soft plastics

Brunswick River – Brunswick Heads – Monster at the Mouth – 20/21 May 2021

Posted on by
2

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.

Another decent fish – the next day

Coffin Bay – The Ledge – 6 September 2016

Posted on by
Reply

Tuesday

Tuesday was my last day at Coffin Bay. I drove round to the ledge and set up in a likely looking spot –  looking back towards the boat ramp in town. I was using my Gary Howard Estuary 9’rod, 6lb fluorocarbon leader, 1/12th ounce, size 2 hook jighead and a variety of soft plastics.

I watched as the oyster boats headed out to sea, one after another and marveled at the clear water and blue skies. The weather was now perfect but I had to leave.

Fishing for whiting requires patience and I eventually found that casting out in to the channel and then leaving the rod alone for about 3 minutes seemed to work best. The problem was the fast moving run in tide. It would bury the jighead in the snags. However, after a few lost jigheads this technique paid off and I took up the slack to find a King George Whiting on the line. I repeated the process a few times and each time it caught another  whiting. None of them were big enough to keep but I felt like I had learned something. The GULP worms in the Green Camo colour caught a few but so did the GULP Crabbie in the Peppered Prawn colour. The usual small salmon turned up form time to time.

As the tide ran out I stepped into the shallows and collected another mussel supper. I had not found the kingfish but it had been a beautiful few days on the Eyre Peninsula.

Bribie Island – Bongaree and White Patch – 22 August 2013

Posted on by
8

Thursday

Clear skies and 10 knot south-westerly winds – it would be cold but quite reasonable fishing weather. Low tide would be 4.17 am, about an hour before first light and the moon had been full the day before.

I decided I would start on Bribie Island at the Seaside Museum drain at Bongaree, again. I waded out into the shallows at about 5.30 am and the big moon was still high and bright. There was a cold breeze and a bit of chop on the water.

There were some cormorants swimming around and there were a few surface bust ups, as the sky gradually lightened. I started with a big soft plastic – a GULP 5” Jerkshad in the Lime Tiger colour. The water was already running fast – it would be a powerful tide, so close to the full moon. I was back to 8lb fluorocarbon leader, as I genuinely believe fishing light can make a difference when chasing bream – which were the main target.

It did not take long. At 6.15 am I had a solid bite and the fish ran with the lure for about a metre, but then I lost it. A few casts later I hooked another. It must have been sitting just below the edge. It grabbed the lure and ran off to the north, with the current. After a few runs, I got it over the ledge and walked it back to the sand. It was a good bream – over 30 cm. I have not caught large numbers of bream in this spot, this year, but almost all the fish I have caught have been over 30 cm.

The tide was getting too high to fish over the ledge so I opted to switch locations. I grabbed a hot cup of coffee at Scoopys and drove up to White Patch. This time I went up to the north end to fish around the weed beds.

The water was clear and it was well past dawn so I opted for a natural coloured, 2” GULP Minnow in the Banana Prawn colour. I chose a fine wire 1/8th ounce, #1/0 hook jighead and stuck with the 8lb leader. It was now about 8.15 am. I was casting into the incoming tide and hopping the lure back towards me. I would put in about three or four casts from one location, then move a few metres south and repeat the process.

Nothings too big if the bream are hungry
White Patch flathead – 45cm
A perfect day at White Patch
Cool and choppy at Bongaree
Another bigger flathead – about 50cm
This 36cm whiting pulled so hard I thought it was a flatty

At about 9.00 am I connected with a flathead and got a look at it, but it wriggled off before I could land it. I stayed in the same spot and methodically covered the area with casts. At about 9.15 am I hooked another fish and this time I set the jighead firmly. I pulled it up to the shoreline – it was a keeper flathead at 45 cm. Using the same plastic, same technique, in the same area, I caught another bigger flathead, about 50cm long, ten minutes later.

Five minutes later, I thought I had another small flathead but it was pulling very hard. It put up a tremendous fight and as it came into view I was surprised to see it was a whiting. It was probably the fattest whiting I have ever caught and measured 36cm.

At this point I had the makings of a good fish pie in my bag, so I gave up and went off to clean my catch.

Deepwater National Park, Wreck Rock & Flat Rock – 12 October 2011

Posted on by
Reply

Tuesday & Wednesday

I continued to fish the beaches and rocks of Deepwater National Park, just south of Agnes Waters, but the weather was quite changeable. I tended to catch a few fish early in the morning when there was a light south-easterly and then things would go quiet in the afternoon as the wind turned round to a northerly.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

I fished the morning high tide at Flat Rock on Tuesday. The rock was covered and I cast from the beach at its inner edge. The Stripeys were sitting under the edge and relentlessly attacked the GULP 3” Pearl Watermelon Minnow. Every now and then I would find a patch of Bream and I caught about four keeper size fish, but none were bigger than 30 cm. There were also a few Whiting. A school of something was moving up and down feeding a hundred meters beyond the rock and the birds where dive-bombing.

At low tide on Wednesday I walked out over the oyster covered rocks at the southern tip of Wreck Rock bay. I have been monstered in this spot on several occasions and also seen the Tuna come in close enough to cast at. The overhangs at the base of the rocks hide plenty of resident fish. I decided to try something new and rigged a GULP 7” Sandworm in the Blood colour, on a 1/6th 2/0 jighead. I lost a couple to the small Dart and Butter Bream and then bang! I was hooked up to a better fish. It headed straight down into the rocks and fortunately I had some 16lb leader on. I pulled it out and landed it with the aid of the wash. It was the best Stripey of the week at about 35cm. This is about as big as they get inshore. I cast out again in the same spot and caught a few smaller ones. I carried on fishing around these rocks for about another hour as the water ran out to low tide. As I was retrieving a cast, in close to the rocks, I felt a thump and then zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. It was a very hard hit by a decent fish, but suddenly the line went slack and it was gone. I retrieved a mashed soft plastic sand worm. It must have changed its mind.

It had not been a spectacular week of fishing, I had fed myself, enjoyed the surroundings and caught plenty of fish. But I had seen evidence of some monsters lurking and witnessed a few big hook ups. As always, there was just enough to convince me that I need to get back up here soon!

Bribie Island – Whiting & Flathead – 11 Sept 2011

Posted on by
Reply

Sunday

The weather was going to be a challenge again. I wanted to fish at Bribie but the tides would be far from perfect. I like to fish my favorite Bribie Island haunts in the 6 hours around low tide. This is because the best land-based fishing spots are most accessible during this period. There are still usually plenty of fish around at high tide but, by then, I cannot reach the structures that form their permanent cover.

On Sunday, low tide would be just after 3.00am and this meant that by first light at about 5.15am, I would probably only have about an hour before I would be forced out of reach of the best areas, by the incoming tide. It also looked like the wind would blow up again soon after dawn.

I decided to fish the area around the old oyster jetty on the mainland side. I soon realized I had made a mistake. The fierce westerly winds from Saturday had obviously stirred up all the weed and sediment and as the water flooded in over the flats it lifted it all up. It was a mucky swamp of weed and mud and I could not cast without catching a large clump of debris.

The lure gets clogged immediately
Weed and sediment soup

I went back to the car and drove back across to the mouth of the tidal lagoon, at Bongaree, in front of Buckley’s Hole. The wind was now howling. The tide had moved up and I could only fish above the drop off, on the sand flats. After a couple of hits in the same spot, I pulled up a very ambitious Whiting – which had attacked my GULP 4” Pearl Watermelon Minnow. I moved further along the sand banks to the south. I was fishing with a 1/6th 1/0 jighead and 12lb fluorocarbon leader. Finally, I caught a 44cm Flathead on a GULP 3” Pumpkinseed Jigging Grub. With the wind now up around 20 knots I decided to give up and head for home.