The pristine waters of Hervey Bay offer a diverse range of fishing opportunities. Whether it is chasing baby black marlin or our famous golden trevally on the flats of Fraser Island. Long tail tuna in Platypus Bay or barramundi and threadfin salmon in the Great Sandy Strait. There is certainly something on offer at any time of year. For anglers looking for once in a lifetime trophy fish.
I am lucky enough to live in Hervey Bay. After moving here in 2008 to start a family with my beautiful wife. It was not long till I rekindled my childhood passion for fishing, purchased my 440 Quintrex Renegade and started exploring. Despite all of the fishing opportunities on offer. I still find flicking soft plastic lures for bread and butter species. Such as flathead, the most relaxing, rewarding and at times, challenging style of fishing.
Where I Fish For Flathead
The western side of Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Strait. In particular offer an endless labyrinth of creeks, sand bars, mudflats and mangroves to explore. After 7 years in Hervey Bay and hundreds of hours clocked up on my 50hp Evinrude Etec. I reckon I have only explored a tiny percentage of the locations on offer.
Like most keen fishos I have racked up a sizable collection of, not so secret, fishing spots. When I am not taking the family out for a swim at Pelican Banks. I follow a couple of well-worn navigation routes in the search for trophy fish and of course something for dinner. Prompted by a request from my gorgeous wife. I recently set out for an early morning fishing session. Chasing flathead for dinner, and to fulfil this rather timely request I used a simple but highly effective plan. Which has bagged me countless flathead since I started fishing the waters of Hervey Bay.
Flathead Fishing Tactics
I believe every fishing spot has a secret code. A mix of the perfect tide time, wind direction, water clarity, lure type, fishing technique, species feeding habits etc. And breaking this code is what I find the most satisfying aspect of fishing. I will spend hours researching a fish species. Pawing over charts and Google Earth for likely locations, reading magazine articles, online blogs and watching fishing videos. More recently, making my own lures and jig heads as part of my journey to break the code.
For these reasons and after many hours on the water. When chasing flathead in Hervey Bay I prefer to fish the low tide. More precisely I prefer to fish the period two hours before a low tide and two hours after a low tide. Preference is to target a selection of the many creek mouths which drain from Fraser Island into the Great Sandy Strait. I generally time my run so that I can fish each creek mouth up until low tide. This means that I have a two to three-hour window to jump from creek to creek. Fishing for 15 to 20 minutes at each one before moving to the next. Effectively chasing the low tide time along the inside of Fraser Island.
When the tide finally turns I simply reverse my run. And use the two-hour window of the flooding tide to fish the same creek mouths. On what is effectively my return journey.
The Detail
Making my way into many of the creeks near low tide is made infinitely easier through the use of my 55lb Minn Kota electric motor equipped with I pilot. I simply cannot express how useful an electric motor is. Especially for navigating narrow, shallow water, stealthily moving into a location without spooking fish. And of course holding the boat in location with the spot lock feature while with my hands free, I pepper a spot with as many casts as I can. I can even record the track into and out of a narrow creek mouth so that when I arrive for my next fishing session I simply hit play on the wireless remote and the electric motor takes over, without fail following the same track into and out of the creek, it is truly amazing technology.
Many hours exploring on the water is what has allowed me to target specific creek mouths for flathead. I look for simple indicators of a likely fish rich creek, such as yabby holes, edges where white sand changes to mud, weed beds, broken shell. Any form of structure in the shallows, especially coffee rock and of course schools of bait which tend to use the deeper, narrow channel of the creek to move in and out of the creek mouth with the tide. Flathead are awesome ambush predators and with their incredible camouflage will lay dead still, often in very shallow water waiting for a tasty morsel to pass close by before exploding on its prey with deadly accuracy.
A Picture
Figure 1 depicts how I usually approach fishing a creek mouth at low tide. I will always switch off the Evinrude Etec well short of the creek mouth and motor the last hundred metres into position using the Minn Kota electric motor. Once I am within maximum casting range I use the spot lock feature to hold me in location as I pepper both sides of the creek entrance.
Maximum casting range means that I fish using light gear, on this occasion I was using 5lb Platypus Platinum+ braid spooled on a 2500 Daiwa Certate mounted on a Molla Focus II rod. A double uni knot connected the 10lb Platypus Stealth Fluorocarbon leader to my 1/4oz homemade shad style jig head poured using a Do-It Mold and Eagle Claw size 1/0 hook. At the business end was mounted a homemade 3.75” paddle tail soft plastic lure, poured using a Do-It Mold, scented with s-factor and in blood red colour.
Slowly Does It
As I move into a creek I look for likely ambush locations, little eddies on corners, any form of structure, such as coffee rock. Grass beds, deeper holes, and of course for any bait fish skipping along the surface. I cast, and using a slow hopping action bring the lure back to the boat. It is so important to be in contact with the bottom when fishing for flathead to provide every opportunity for the fish’s senses to detect the lure. Be it the vibration of the lures tail, colour as it flashes through the water, or the thump of the lure landing on the bottom, the intent is to offer the fish an easy meal that they simply cannot resist.
I let the lure sit for about 5 seconds before a slow but firm lift of the rod tip. I find that flathead usually hit the lure on the drop and you can always tell when it is a flathead as they always hit with a definite, strong thump followed by weight on the line and a second or so later multiple head shakes as the fish realises that it is hooked and makes a run for freedom.
Fishing light means that you need to use the drag on your reel to perfection and do not be afraid to let the fish run, especially the big girls, from my experience flathead don’t head for structure like some other species, but at the same time you need to maintain tension as any slack line will gift the fish with the opportunity to throw the hook or worse, cut you off with their gill spikes. If the fish does head for structure you also need the line tension and awareness of your drag setting to regain control quickly and turn the fish away from any line busting snags.
Target
As figure 1 and 2 depict, I always aim to get as far up the creek as I possibly can. Navigating the deeper channel to prevent the boat from becoming stuck. My goal is to get within casting range of the creeks exposed banks. As I usually find flathead sitting in the shallows either side of the narrow but deeper channel. Right at the point in which water starts to spill out onto the shallow flats. As figure 3 below shows, on a recent trip this is precisely where I found flathead, in each location they were sitting right on the edge of the channel and all but one struck the lure aggressively and became hooked immediately.
A Few Tips
Occasionally I find flathead seem to be a little hesitant in their bite, they can pick up the lure but don’t inhale it enough to allow the hook to set. This is the reason that I have learnt to use a slow but firm lift of the rod tip. If there is weight on the line I always wait for a few seconds before applying more pressure, sometimes the fish will drop the lure. DON’T PANIC, just let the lure drop and leave it for a few seconds and then lift the rod tip again.
If the fish wants it, they will grab it again, and trust me, you will know when they are finally hooked as they will shake their head and make a run for it. For some fish I have had to do this 3 or 4 times before they have finally become hooked. It is quite a spectacle in shallow, clear water when you can see the fish stalking and then attacking the lure. But this has been a hard lesson as on occasion. I and many others I have observed, have been overly keen to rip the rod tip up in an effort to force the hook to set, only to miss the fish and then go through that awful period of time in which you wonder, ‘what if’.
Wrap Up
Dinner on this particular evening was fresh flathead tails with a handful of fish landed, most released and two 60cm specimens joining us at the dinner table with a side of chips and homemade mayonnaise.
I must admit, I think I am fairly lucky to be married to someone who requests me to go fishing to catch dinner, either that or I am failing to see the real reason that she doesn’t want me around the house!
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