Maybe the end of a long lean summer

Finally got some fresh fillets in the fridge.
Went solo to the pine river yesterday. Being a gentleman, I left home at a respectable 9.30am and had my bag of flat ones by 1pm. Kept flicking softies till 3pm. All up I landed about 12 fish with some legal sizes thrown back after reaching my limit. Keepers were nothing fancy and all between 44 and 48cm. But small fish taste sweet according to the wife.
Been a long time since I did any good over the top of the tide but it all fired yesterday with a couple of new spots I tried. Hopefully this breaks my horrendous summer drought.
Just gotta work out how to post photos from my phone .. if it's possible.

Cheers
Reg

Hey Reg. Good going. Still one of my fave eating fish.

As far as uploading phone pics see below. Hit the symbol circled in red.

Then hit upload file. It might take a while to resize the photo depending on internet speed.
Attachment 38587

Great to hear you got a good feed

Whoa, the dam has broken top darts

Should only get better in the Pine and Hayes in the next 4 months mate. I found a few including a big girl last Sunday arvo walking the bank down here

Nice work keep that spot if you got a heap of males that big girl or girls are there somewhere keep flickin

Nice work Reg, top effort that. Great to hear your starting to work it out. Onwards and upwards from here. I believe in tides, rather than times as well, give me a tide topping out and then the runout, anytime. But I don't fish weekends or school holidays.

Maybe I should apply that rule to golf as well:rolleyes:

Nice work. That 45-55cm size window is the only ones I will keep. Agree with your wife.

Thanks guys. Isn't it amazing how fast word travels. I suddenly have to feed 2 sets of relations out of my little pile of fillets. S'posed to cook it for them too! And drop over a feed for the in-laws. And I now have 3 deckies urgently wanting a trip.
After all the harsh ribbing they've given me about my poor results lately I'm suddenly popular again.
Just gotta do the loaves and fishes thing again I guess. They better bring the beer. (Unlikely... they all ignore my sign out front that says "If you didn't bring a beer, you obviously don't want one")

Ya just gotta luv it. Haha.

Cheers

good going. Were you fishing upstream or more towards the Reddy bridges ?
I took my young bloke up one of the feeder creeks a couple weekends ago to retrieve some crab pots, no rods in the boat and we saw 2 of the biggest flathead ive ever seen sunning in the shallows.

Hi kingcray. The biggest flatty I've seen caught from the river came from up behind westfield about this time of year. It would've gone close to 90 I reckon. Mate caught it on a plastic while we were castnetting prawns up there some years back. But I fish downstream from deep water to the reddy bridges.

Well that was a lot of fun. The wife finally got sick of me complaining that I didn't have enough fish to feed her freeloading rellies and sulkily told me to go get some more. So off I went feeling quite smug that my plan had worked.
Finally got the anchor down at 11am (yep.. I had to complain for that long) at one of the spots I fished the other day in the piney with about 12knots of wind. 10 minutes later it's blowing 29knots. Chased my hat up the river twice before stowing it. Made some record breaking casts with the wind at my back. Then it died away to almost calm for about 30 minutes. Pinned 4 flathead with one keeper as I moved along the dropoff. Then the wind came back again. Perservered for another hour with another good keeper and 2 tiddlers that were so small they still had the yolk sac attached. Gave it away when the big grey clouds chased me home.
NOW we have JUST enough fillets.
Was interesting again to get flathead at that stage of the tide in those conditions. I usually don't fish the run in for flattys but I might have found another sweet spot for them. Opens up more fishing days.

Cheers
Reg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thegurn

Well that was a lot of fun. The wife finally got sick of me complaining that I didn't have enough fish to feed her freeloading rellies and sulkily told me to go get some more. So off I went feeling quite smug that my plan had worked.
Finally got the anchor down at 11am (yep.. I had to complain for that long) at one of the spots I fished the other day in the piney with about 12knots of wind. 10 minutes later it's blowing 29knots. Chased my hat up the river twice before stowing it. Made some record breaking casts with the wind at my back. Then it died away to almost calm for about 30 minutes. Pinned 4 flathead with one keeper as I moved along the dropoff. Then the wind came back again. Perservered for another hour with another good keeper and 2 tiddlers that were so small they still had the yolk sac attached. Gave it away when the big grey clouds chased me home.
NOW we have JUST enough fillets.
Was interesting again to get flathead at that stage of the tide in those conditions. I usually don't fish the run in for flattys but I might have found another sweet spot for them. Opens up more fishing days.

Cheers
Reg

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I love fishing the run in. As the tide rises it provides more escape routes for bait and as the bait moves up the flatties push up close to the edges and wait in ambush. A solid mangrove line is always a good place to target as the water rises and starts to provide access to the root systems for bait.

Thanks for the tip funchy. I dunno if it's a location or skill thing or both but I've flogged the mangroves and drains and stuff and never seem to do any good down here. Seems the 1 meter or more dropoffs and bank ledges over the last half of the tide work better for me. And only after summer.
I just reckon you're one of those guys that can catch fish on a wet lawn.
But I'll keep trying. Please feel free to offer up more tips. I'm being pressured by the son who lives up there to get my backside up that end of the passage and find some fish.


Cheers
Reg

The way you are going Reg, you will be vying for the title of legend soon.

The next 4 months should be good going by previous years. But I doubt I'll dent anyones reputation. Thanks anyway. Geez you've had some shyte weather up your way 3macks. Patience is a virtue but I'd be going stir crazy long ago. Hope it improves soon for you. I can't wait for the high pressure systems to move up the continent a bit higher. Bring on winter!

Went out this morning nice and early. Got two keepers. A 64 and a 46. Both from the edge of the mangroves after the tide topped out and had just turned.

dinner sorted

Go on.
Rub it in.
Maybe the early start is the go.
Just wait til mondays report.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Thegurn

The next 4 months should be good going by previous years. But I doubt I'll dent anyones reputation. Thanks anyway. Geez you've had some shyte weather up your way 3macks. Patience is a virtue but I'd be going stir crazy long ago. Hope it improves soon for you. I can't wait for the high pressure systems to move up the continent a bit higher. Bring on winter!

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Could fish the inlet or the Barron. Never caught much in either but might be worthwhile now after the net ban. Still got my doubts about the Barron, sewage, farm chemicals and PFAS. Be ok if you are not chasing a feed.

I hear you mate.
It's a bit offputting when you want to catch a feed and the local ramp on the river has a sign that warns you not to come in contact with the water after heavy rain. I still go fishing tho.
It might explain why my kids are the way they are and I'll probably grow a second head one of these days.

But a man's got to fish.