G'day everyone
Fished the Gold Coast Broadwater today with fishing guide Brad Smith.
We started the day by trolling hard bodied lures. Within the first ten minutes the first fish was landed, a small trevally that felt a lot larger than it was as it was foul hooked in the side.
We then began trolling for flathead, however the first fish to be tempted was a toadfish, which had a go at a lure about 50% of its own size and got a treble through the top lip for its trouble.
A little while later the first flathead of the day was landed. It was only about 30cm but it was a start. It was soon followed by another undersize flathead.
Brad decided on a change of location and it wasn’t long before the first legal flathead of the day and first of my life (about 46cm) was on ice. It was closely followed by another about the same size.
Brad then decided it was time to give the soft plastics a go. After a quick lesson from Brad it wasn’t long before I had my first fish on a plastic (a bream of about 20cm) and then my second (a flathead of about 30cm). Brad meanwhile was providing a good advertisement for the softies hooking a bream, flathead and even a winter whiting.
We then went back to trolling hard bodied lures and as I was not paying attention I let the lure run out a long way behind the boat, however we decided to leave it go. As it had been out for a while Brad suggested I bring it in and when I picked up the rod there was a fair bit of weight. Thinking that I had fouled on some weed I retrieved the lure only to find the third legal size flathead of the day, which also went on ice. We must have been towing the poor bugger for quite a few minutes.
A bit more flicking the soft plastics around the weed beds resulted in my third fish on a soft plastic, a just legal bream, which was the darkest bream I have seen. Obviously it had been living in the weed for some time.
After a short break for lunch, the afternoon was spent trolling hard bodied lures, with more flathead, some of which were keepers but went back anyway, a small tailor (my first of this species), a couple of bream, a reasonable sized summer whiting and a yellow finned pike (and yet another first) all taking a liking to the lures.
Anyone looking for a fishing guide on the Gold Coast to get them on to some fish should give Brad Smith a call. A day with him is well worth it. I came home with 3 flathead but could have got my bag limit of five and kept a few other fish if I had wanted to.
All up we landed about 25 fish, including over a dozen flatties. Brad was keen to get me on to as many fish and fish species as possible and was prepared to cover a lot of territory to get them.
Regards
Chris
A great guide. 
