Middle Wall Flatties

[kingcray]

Gday

Just spent a week down at Iluka fishing the mighty Clarence River.
Started off chasing a few bream down at Browns Rocks. Landing fish after fish all about 26-27cm got boring pretty quick, so thought we would head up and try find some of these monster flatties they have been raving on about down there.

Well we never landed any real monsters but did lose 2 or 3 close to the boat which looked seriously close to 1mtr fish. Biggest i saw caught over the week went 96. Took about 30 -45mins to bag out on flatties on each occasion fishing the inside of the Middle Wall. Most fish around 40 - 50cm Then the rest were caught n let go. There must be thousands of lizards hanging around that wall.

All flathead were caught between 0.3m - 1.5m on plastics gulp 4" minnows and 5" shads with the Pilchard colour doing 90% of the damage. 3 Packs for $24 at Dizzy bait Iluka - not too bad. Needed every last one too. Awesome fun i must say on 6 pound braid 8 pound leader. Taste alright too ;D

Awesome weather all week, with dead low definitely the pick of the tides. Packed up early this morning n headed home away from a 30 knot wind storm :D Timed it perfect

Also if anybody is down that way, the Jewfish are being caught in huge numbers along the main walls at Iluka and Yamba, i just didnt have heavy enough gear with me to chase em.

Also, the little bloke got his fish fish too, a 25cm bream. He even caught the herring on a bait jig which caught the bream. ;D

Cheers
Deano

[Chas & Clarry]

Sounds like a fantastic holiday! I hope they are still there in May when we are getting down there for a couple of days :)

THe young fella looks pretty focussed on that bream!

Great plate of flatty filets too (yummmmmmmmmm); looks like you scale the flatties Deano, I love them skinned, have you tried doing that?

[Agrav8_and_Lulu]

Great work Deano, sounds like it was a good trip on the water. I love the photo of the bream and flatty a great shot. I'm going down there to visit my parents at the caravan park there on the Queens b'day long weekend. By the sound of it, i'll have to take the boat down as well. Thanks for the report, it 's got me itching to get down there now.

[kingcray]

yea mate i would be really surprised if they werent around come May. haha yeah he was pretty stoked. He was more happy with the herring that the bream cause he said they were small like him haha. I was skinning them all wk but scaled those ones cause my knife was gettin blunt from filleting. Ended up taking them all home with me today and filleted them, had em for dinner, so good :):)

[kingcray]

Great work Deano, sounds like it was a good trip on the water. I love the photo of the bream and flatty a great shot. I'm going down there to visit my parents at the caravan park there on the Queens b'day long weekend. By the sound of it, i'll have to take the boat down as well. Thanks for the report, it 's got me itching to get down there now.

Thanks Darren , We stayed at that Iluka Tourist Park. Very nice little park, very neat and clean well looked after. Only small downside is the boat ramp is very steep, ok for kayaks and very small boats, but theres a great little ramp about a 3 minute drive up the road.
Sedgers Reef Hotel - top pub, good food cheap beers and some great photos on the walls :thumbsup:

[BillyT2382]

Wow deano looks like the easter holidays is peaking for me down there, i'm looking forward to head down those ways on the 9th thru to the 15th so i will be fishing the whole week im there...will be taking the heavy gear for jewies and also the light gear for flatty's woohoo gunna be killing it...Love the pics mate they look like some good fighting and tasting fish.

Cheers
Billy

[kingcray]

Thanks Billy, i may be back down there at Easter too

[malby]

Good on ya Deano,

Thanks so much for your encouraging post.

I go down whenever I'm able and absolutely love that place.

Each time I go I get a few more spots and ideas but am yet to crack the really big jewie's, flatties or snappers that abound down there.

Amazing how things change from time to time also.

I was down there in September and the river was as dead as! No flatties being caught at all and everything else was tough too.

Finally cracked the fish on the rocks with some nice trevours and bream.

I've seen guys pulling HUGE flatties down there in small tinny's near the mouth on livies I'm guessing but never seen the flatties really 'on' at the middle wall. Only ever bream when I've been.

Great news about the Jewies too!!

Can't wait to get back down there,

Mal

[Agrav8_and_Lulu]

Thanks Darren , We stayed at that Iluka Tourist Park. Very nice little park, very neat and clean well looked after. Only small downside is the boat ramp is very steep, ok for kayaks and very small boats, but theres a great little ramp about a 3 minute drive up the road.
Sedgers Reef Hotel - top pub, good food cheap beers and some great photos on the walls :thumbsup:

That's the one we got to. I said to the old boy, I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of car have gone down in the drink there.

[BillyT2382]

We gunna be staying at the "Fishing Haven" Palmers island just down the road from yamba..but i'm not clear on the middle wall i been hearing alot of stories of big fish being caught there but not sure if i know where to go..any info mate to where is the middle wall ?...Cheers

[kingcray]

Gday Mal, i walked up the main wall at Iluka twice over the week and both times i saw jewies (a total of 4) caught around the 70-80cm mark. I also am in love with that river system , and pick up a few new spots and secrets each time i go.. normally go about twice a year... strange how it was so dead in september, although we couldnt find many fish other than middle wall and browns rocks.
The flatties mustve had their noses shoved right up into the rocks, cause they were hittin within cms of the wall. Where did you get the trevs?

[kingcray]

Billy - go to Yamba Bait & Tackle and get all his maps and info handouts. It runs straight up the middle of the river near the mouth. If there is no breeze about you can drift a perfect line along it either side.

[malby]

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I got them at the bluff wherever I could get a line out weather and sea dependent. Frasers and Woody also produce regularly and 40 gram raiders are my 'go to' lure which have produced tailor, trev's, sambo's and whatever is on the prowl on the surface.

I get on high rocks sometimes way back from the ege, fish a 7.5 foot 4-8kg graphite rod See first pic) and a 4000 high speed reel loaded with 14lb fireline and wash them in. Since moving to that combo I can now fish spots I never dreamed of cause I can cast a mile and the fireline seems to cope well with the rocks all things considered. You just need to whip the lure in at the end (keeping it clear of anyone else of course which can be tricky) and use fluro braid for good vision.

For Bream I fish as light as possible with a lead on the hook and mullet or prawns are great.

Attached are some pics of fished scored from the rocks at various spots by my Son's mate, myself and my lad in that order.

Mal

[Chas & Clarry]

Wow deano looks like the easter holidays is peaking for me down there, i'm looking forward to head down those ways on the 9th thru to the 15th so i will be fishing the whole week im there...will be taking the heavy gear for jewies and also the light gear for flatty's woohoo gunna be killing it...Love the pics mate they look like some good fighting and tasting fish.

Cheers
Billy


Looking forward to hearing your reports Billy ;)

[kingcray]

Very cool Mal, thanks for that. I had a look at Woody and Frasers reef but looked to rough to really fish from. I had a little fish from the beach there and up at shark bay i think it was.. but current was far too strong sweeping across the beach.
Thats a nice looking tailor.

[Chas & Clarry]

Bloody hell, this is a mouth watering thread with all its tails of giant flatties and jew....can't wait to get to the Clarrence! Might even have a first ever go at targeting jewies :)

[johnverano]

great report ,
by the way where is the best boat ramp to launch from the Iluka side.
cheers

[kingcray]

John there are only a couple that i know of. The one i used was pretty good. It is situated right at the end of the little bay inside the rock wall. Just back up the road a bit from the Tourist Park. Very boat friendly as it is so calm from being inside the wall, little pontoon and fantastic fish cleaning facility

[gruntahunta]

For a bit of fun, try fishing at night in the trawler harbour....thats where you get the real Clarence river Flathead....... (really giant stingrays that you will not stop)...great fun tho

[softplasticsdude79]

good post,just spent time there myself,watched a mate bag some good jew,missed a few biggins myself,Big Flatties are in 10 metres + of water on 3rd shelf,and you only need 8lb braid/15lb leader and 1-3 kg rod to bag 10kg+ jewies,no need to take the heavy gear unless you want the 20kg+ models.

[kingcray]

good post,just spent time there myself,watched a mate bag some good jew,missed a few biggins myself,Big Flatties are in 10 metres + of water on 3rd shelf,and you only need 8lb braid/15lb leader and 1-3 kg rod to bag 10kg+ jewies,no need to take the heavy gear unless you want the 20kg+ models.

Hey SPDude, i remember your recent posts from there. If i had another few days i wouldve definitely got round to have a decent crack at the jewies, i did have a little flick late one arvo in wat looked like Jew territory. Inside the middle wall, at the western end (freeburn island end ?) enter through the gap in the wall from Iluka side, sharp turn right. Theres a yellow marker there n just before it drops to about 12 meters. Not far from the wall or the bank. Got dusted on a 6" sandworm, wacked it, moved around slowly for a few seconds, then full throttle toward the marker and snapped the lot. Like you said, was hooked on a 1-3kg starlo classix & shimano sienna 1000 with 6 braid n 8 leader (all fish were caught on this). Had the missus and the young fella n it started really pissing down so took off. Never tried there again, jus got addicted to the flatties up around the sandbar that hits the middle of the wall on the Yamba side. Biggest we caught went 73 (although had a few good bit offs from bigger fish) and was caught while my motor was stuck in the sand. No more than 30cm deep.
Cheers

[softplasticsdude79]

yeah,good rush isnt it,i got dusted on a freams 3000,drag set very firm,on 3-5kg raider 8lb fins,it run 30 metres on me.heaps of flatty around rabbit island in the shallows but only to 50cms,that hole your talking about,is a good spot to jig livies,and a better spot for big cod and jew.Will be going down again soon.

[kingcray]

Yea incredible feeling after it all busted up haha. I will remember it next time i go. We got onto a couple around rabbit island and teh sandbar that comes out between rabbit and 'the peninsula' at yamba.

[blackjew]

Awesome Deano great pics ,thanks for sharing them i was up at the middle wall 2 weeks ago well bout the 7th and at the low tide heaps of fish on the sounder and not a bloody bite lol,the luck of the draw hey. The week before i gota nice flatty of 60cm on a tsunami drop bear 100mm slick bait that was fun .Thanks for the heads up on the placcys you were using ,and the look on the young feller is priceless.
Cheers Rob

[kingcray]

Cheers Rob, yea he was pretty proud of himself. He is telling me right now he wants to go to the Tinny show and get some bream fishing gear (he is only 3). The flatties were only going the gulps they tore em to shreds