Flathead and Lightning

[chrisfish]

A nice morning at the Pine this morning, saw a good lightning show over the bay before sunrise, had a full moon so plenty of light to fish by, and landed a 49cm flattie and a 26cm bream. No pike for a change today and not many small ones picking the bait either. Just had the usual whitebait on long nylon trace and also tried a live one I caught in the cast net after sunrise but no hits on that. Home by breakfast time, now off to a working bee at the kids school but at least dinner is in the fridge!!

[parrotfish]

Nice one Chris, im at Mango Hill was gonna take the wife and kids there this morning but cancelled because of the rain.

What size hook were u using and do u always use whitebait. I never seem to have much luck in the Pine.

I need to get some tips fm u mate.

Cheers

Ron

[chrisfish]

I normally have a pack of whitebait with me. I also carry a couple of shallow diving lures, and the cast net in case I see things jumping around. I use a 3/0 suicide hook on a long trace (12lb line) with a swivel and a light sinker. I usually start with about a 2-3 foot trace and it gradually gets shorter over time as I lose hooks and tie on new ones, or notice fraying in the line. I ditch it at about 1 foot, probably out of habit rather than proven drop in performance. It seems to me the long trace lets the bait 'swim' naturally. If you can get it sweeping around in the tide, you'll usually hook something.

I do reasonably well on whitebait in that I frequently catch fish although not monsters. I guess the biggest flathead I've caught on them would be close to 70cm but most often in the 45-60cm range. Any size bream will take them, as do tailor and sole on a regular basis. I've caught small jew on them as well, again around the 50cm mark. The pike love them too which is fun but can rip through the bait in a hurry.

I've finally gotten organised with a camera and have pics from this morning but they are too big to upload so I'm trying to resize them. Once I have mastered this, I'll post them.

[BR65]

chrisfish,
if you havent allready, try the tips section for re sizeing your piccys.
Theres a link there for a bit of software that makes it easy as pie.
brian

[chrisfish]

thanks for the tip, I've downloaded the software. Here's a pic (I hope)

[chrisfish]

maybe this will be better

[chrisfish]

getting better I guess, need to catch some more just for the photo practice The tape measure is in inches

[Bundy_Burp]

Practice makes perfect as they say , but I dont think i'll ever be perfect at catching fish or taking photos

Bundy

[White_Steenbras]

Bet the flatty tasted great, lovely eating size.

[Stinkboy]

Nice catch, I have been struggling to catch any nice flathead in the pine >, however I caught a 37cm squire (no bullshit) and a stargazer off shellys beach both using 3in minnow in pumkinseed. Have you ever caught a squire in the Pine?

[Stinkboy]

In addition, I am going for a fish (boat, pending wind) tommorrow (FRI) in the Pine. PM me if you are interested.

[chrisfish]

I reckon there are heaps of Ausfishers will tell you the pine is crawling with flattie at the moment. I use bait but lots use SPs. There are lots of posts about Squire around Redcliffe - not sure if shelly's beach is there or not. Alas, working tomorrow