Monster flathead in the Logan River
After listening to Dave Downies radio report on Friday, we ducked into BCF on Saturday to pick up a couple of 'dark' lures as per his advice. Found a couple of $5 Kokoda shallow runners that would do the trick. According to Nugget the river mouth after rain was a good place to work these lures for jew, cod and flathead.
Covering all bets we also got some mullet fillets and squid before we headed out on Sunday morning. Decided to head from the mouth of the Logan across to Giant's Grave to try some whole squid for jew on the early morning slack tide. No good. Just one small chopper tailor on mullet and a moses perch on squid.
Headed back toward the river mouth and decided to slow troll the cheap lures across the shallows. Almost immediately 'bang' my son's on and a 45cm flathead comes aboard. Five minutes later and a 60cm (equal PB) follows on my line. I also picked up another chopper and a small grinner.
We now entered the river mouth and trolled slowly along the northern bank in 1.5m of water just off the sand bar. My arm and wrist were getting sore from working the lure on my Shimano Backbone Elite rod matched with a Pfleuger Echelon low profile baitcaster. Just as I started to put the rod down 'BANG' and I'm away again. This time it was a bigger fish. 'Look's like a jew' calls out my son after a big surface swirl. This fish ran hard each time it got near the boat then stopped after taking 10 metres or so of line from me. Finally I got a look. "Big, big flattie" I called "Grab the net!".
The next few minutes were a comedy of errors. The boat was drifting into the shallows, the flattie wouldn't fit into the net and then one of the trebles got caught up in the net. So the fish was in the water, not in the net but hooked up to it! She gives a big head shake and the lure flies free from the fish but is still caught in the net. Luckily my leader has wrapped around the head of the fish. A nervous lift and she comes into the boat. Onto the brag mat - 76cm - a new PB!!
A few pics and away she went unharmed by her ordeal.
We trolled up a couple more smaller models on my son's lure 42cm and 45cm (and another chopper) before he caught a small seven-fingered threadfin on yabbie near the end of the trip. Final score - 7 flathead, 3 choppers, 1 moses perch, 1 grinner and 1 threadfin. All fish were released to fight another day.
Pete
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