Fresh water Flathead

[MitchCalcutt]

[ATTACH]Attachment 16176[/ATTACH]I had trouble convincing myself this should be in fresh report, but I did catch them in fresh.
I know Flathead can live in fresh but have never caught one until now when I landed 2 and hooked a third. All fish were of an identical size and colour, dark green and solid. I did set out to catch a Giant herring, GT or Bass. Yes a strange target group, I do live on the gold coast that should explain a lot.
The Swans didn’t like us fishing in their part of the world and attacked my boot straps as long as we fished.
Mitch

[tazza_505]

Interesting...
almost look like they have algae on them.

[bdowdy]

hi mate nice flatty for freshwater. cheers bdowdy...brett

[TheSaint]

are you fishing the Robina lakes?

[Bronson]

good effort mate do you recon they fort better then all the saltwater flatheads

bron

[Little grey men]

That's one thing I love about fishing.....you never know what your gunna get

[Hardb8]

Hi Mitch,
Could it be possible that there is a layer of brackish water beneath the fresh water above?I'm unclear of the water ya fishin,So I can't say.Would you think this is a possible scenario?Is there any tidal influence in the system where ya caught it?

Cheers. B8.

[Cammy]

nice flattties mate, there is another name for fresh water flatties, it's Tupong. but thats only for southern species in nsw,vic,tas. plus they look very different, but good to know bout them anyway.

http://www.nativefish.asn.au/tupong.html
some info about em

cam

[MitchCalcutt]

Hi every one,
Thanks to everyone who read my thread’s
Where I got the Flatties was a man made lagoon that initially had been filled by flooding through the Canal system. This explains the variety of salt species in it, I believe in some of the big Christmas tides it may overflow the loch. At this point in time I cannot taste any salt whatsoever. Apart from Giant herring, G.T’s Bream, Jacks and of coarse Flatties there are Gar, Herring and mullet. I’m still hopping for a Bass to make it complete. The fish I caught didn’t fight any different to most 48cm Flatties, it was rounder than any flattie I have ever seen and stunk like an Eel.
And No not Robina lakes, much smaller.

Mitch

[Bris_Vegas]

There have been a few flatties (one to 62cm) coming from the fresh in the upper brissy yet. Not a bad by catch

[oztrav]

youll probably find that with those species in it it probably isnt freshwater a freshwater pond

with the lack of rain the tide and the salt has pushed all the way up to the mt crosby weir

[MitchCalcutt]

youll probably find that with those species in it it probably isnt freshwater a freshwater pond

with the lack of rain the tide and the salt has pushed all the way up to the mt crosby weir

Where is Mt Crosby Weir?

[Kev_McC]

They can go ok in freshwater if they have to, as long as the acclimation process is slow. I've caught dusky and bar tailed flatties in total fresh water out of a farm dam some 40km from the coast. While working on a fish farm the owner told me that he'd been dropping a mixed batch of juvenile and post larval fish species into the house dam for years. Upon fishing it (combo of bait, lure, and heavy mesh 16' cast net) I also caught yellowfin bream, sand and diver whiting, gold spot cod, as well as the other known fresh species like big eye trevally, tarpon, and bass. I think there were some others but it was 14 years ago so the memory is a bit fuzzy ... the noticable thing about all of the salt species out of the dam was that they were skinny and stunted - they were obviously not doing their best but there were fish that had survived in it for many years.
cheers