North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Got out on a relo's boat earlier this week for a low tide reconnaissance mission to a nearby river. Neither of us had fished this place before and the skipper wasn't keen but after a bit of pleading to avoid the filthy big Hunter River we headed north in search of somewhere a bit quieter with less toxic run off.

Typical for a N.S.W. summer it was 20 degrees and drizzling though the water was a balmy 24.
I'd done some research the night before looking for reports from the area and found one tip on a certain set of oyster racks that held a few nice flathead this time last year, we headed straight from the ramp to this spot and out went the miniscule softies on 1/8 ounce jig heads with 6lb braid and I was feeling very nervous about this ridiculously light tackle.

3 casts later and a double hook up landed out 1st legal flattie and his little mate. It was a good little session and we went home with 3 around the 45 mark for tucker and a fair few around the 30 - 40 were sent back to beef up.
Hitting the same spot this week for an early morning low tide and hopefully we'll find some bream this time. It's not bad, but I'm certainly missing the warmth and the action up north.

tasty looking lizards, nice work

mmm nice sweet flathead, luv em

well done 279

looks like your wearing a bit heavier gear than normal though

great tucker those flaties

Nice job Jeremy, I'll be chasing some flatties myself next weekend.

Agent86: too right, 12 degrees and drizzling is no fun at all

Tasty as; filleted and fried up in a bit of oil, my favourite fish by far.

Good luck Bushie, squidgy wriggler's were the winners for us mate

Weren't you the fella that fished the finniss with me a while back?

Yep. Those stonker sooties caught casting at the depth sign in the middle of the road were awseome, was a wicked day.

Just down here for a couple weeks catching up.

Just a tip,
Try going to some thing a little bigger on a 1/4 ounce head to plume the sand/mud a bit more. The gun Combo for us was the 70mm Squidgy fish in Black Gold with TT fine wire jig hook with a bullet head. Do a sharp 1-2 double twitch and let the jig hit the bottom each time. Fish an out going tide from high down (the bottom half of the outgoing is best) and work your way down river stopping at likely spots with drains out of the mangrove systems being the best spots, couple this with a gap in the oyster racks and I can just about guarantee there will be a flattie working the area. Run and gun is the name of the game, with flatties being ambush predators covering ground is the key tactic. Put 20 casts in an area and if you don't get hit, move on. If you do get a hit or land a fish put in 20 more casts and move if you don't get another. This tactic works really well on flathead and allows you to find honey holes without wasting time on dead ground. Remember, Flathead love shallow water so don't be scared to work your plastic though really shallow water. Or as an alternative for the skinny water have a second rod rigged with a small floating minnow (A silver 70mm Yo-zuri Crystal minnow is hard to beat) I have been doing this for the flatties on the Hinchinbrook flats during the Barra closed season and the results have been outstanding. Spectacular visual takes often on the surface in 30cm of water or less have been a real eye opener for me. Work the lure with a double twitch Barra retrieve style.
Cheers,
John.

P.S. Give the Karuah River a go.