FLATHEAD LOVING THE COLD TEMPS
HI EVERYONE, hope you have all had a good week. It’s been very cool and a bit wet this week on the Gold and Tweed coast.
The good news for the weekend ahead is we will see very light winds and a small swell giving us great conditions for heading out fishing. With a great forecast on the way let’s check out what’s been on the bite this week.
Flathead seem to love the cooler weather and have started to show up in numbers with fishos landing plenty of good catches. I headed out for a look with my daughters last Sunday around the Jumpinpin area. We had a good day catching and releasing 22 flathead and kept one for dinner. I was using a mixture of Zman 4’ Strekz curl tails soft plastics and Zerek fish trap soft vibes which seemed to work a treat.
There are plenty of small fish around ready to nail a lure and a few larger quality-sized fish as well. You may need to move around a bit until you can find an area worth targeting. In the deeper water keep an eye on the sounder until you can locate enough bait and cast you lures and work the vibes until you get a hit.
On the run-out tide you can work the entrances of drains. If you see pelicans feeding in that area it is a great sign there is bait present and flathead will be there catching an easy feed. Whether you are casting, or trolling keep in mind that flathead are an ambush predator that will tend to lay in wait with their head facing into the tide waiting for the bait fish to swim past. When you cast or troll try to target your casts up current or troll with the current for best hook-up results.
Jumpinpin is a great area to target flathead. Try around Jacobs Well, Neverfails, Whalleys Gutter, Tiger Mullet Channel, Cabbage Tree Point, Canaipa Passage and the mouth of the Logan River. In the Broadwater, some good spots are Tipplers Passage, Aldershots, Brown Island, Paradise Point, Crab Island, Wavebreak Island and the Nerang River.
Drifting baits is also a great way to target flathead. Just remember to use a bit of trace line as their mouths are very abrasive and when they thrash their heads from side to side, they will wear through your line very quickly and bust off.
Reports of tailor around Jumpinpin and the Broadwater has seen fishos landing a few nice catches. Size of the catch has varied from small choppers up to some quality larger fish showing up. Find the bait or birds and you will be in with a good shot. There havee also been some smaller queenfish in the same areas which are great fun to land.
Clean water has held the best fish. I recommend targeting areas closer the open ocean entrances like Jumpinpin Bar and the Gold Coast Seaway. The last two hours of the runin tide will be the optimum time to target and trolling hard body lures until you can find the right signs is a good way to cover ground. Once you locate the fish you can then try casting surface lures, shallow divers or metal slugs at them.
With a good forecast on the way for the weekend heading offshore will be also on the cards for anglers. The cold weather should help with the snapper bite. Fishos have reported some good catches of snapper, cobia, jewfish, moses, trag jew and tuskfish from the local 18 and 24 fathoms reefs.
If you have any great catches or photos you would like to share, please email us and let us know how you went. brett@coomerahouseboats.com.au or brett@fishotackle.com.au