Fat Flatty!

[Try Hard]

Gday guys,
Haven't done a report up in a little while due to work comittments but now that I'm on school holidays, it's 100% fishing! I opened my holiday account with a quick session in the upper reaches of the Pioneer River - wasn't a bad way to spend a few hours either.

Check out the first cast of the morning...a fine 59cm fish.



Went on to smack about 14 other flatties between 40-55cm to keep me entertained untill this fat bugger decided it liked the look of my stiffy

Look at the head on this thing....






Straightened out the Owners....



Although she only went 61cm on the tape, she carried incredible condition...must have been hittin the herring a little too hard



Cheers Isaac

[BrissyBreamer]

Isaac,

You always seem to be using your Stiffy, I imagine it must be pretty beat up by now.

Excellent work on the Lizards, love the creativity in the pictures too. Are you going to chase them on plastics any time soon?

Thanks BrissyBreamer

[Try Hard]

lol, I think i have about 6 stiffys now man...they're all looking a bit how ya goin but still catch a lot of fish as you can see.

I over catchin em on plastics mate...although i must say the better quality fish seem to come on plastics. Oh well, i just love the way they clunk hardbodies!

[Barramag]

Nice Flattie,good way to start the holidays.
Paulo

[chook]

nice work and good size flattys.

[blue_mako]

They like Cherry Bloods. So do Barra over 40cm, haha. I couldn't bring myself to use 2-4kg on such a regular basis up there, especially when I rarely use it down here. I'd rather doughnut on 5-8 :P . Have you fished for the Sootys just up from there much?

I think I saw your mate chillin' on the side of the road chatting up a smoking hot biddy while I was up there. How small is this world!? Haha. Any ideas on who the chick was? LOL.

You pull out of a lot more Flathead on hard bodies then plastics I've found. I guess light line might keep the hooks in a bit better though.

Troy

[Try Hard]

Troy - I think I'm getting to the stage in my life when I'm over catching bream and flatties and other stuff like that. Sure they're fun every now and then but I'm almost getting sick of them. I think I'm gunna ditch the bream gear soon and start concentrating on what north QLD is famous for...barra. Heck if you pair of southerners can nail em in the depths of Winter, so can I!

As for the sooties. Sure do mate, they're mad fun up at Marian. We always target them on surface lures in Summer when its stinkin' hot...just and excuse to get in the water really. They dont get that yuge in the wild though, a 45cm fish at Marian is a pretty good fish. But the country ya catch em in is pretty special.

LOL, you probably saw Joel on his break from work mate...as for the sheila, I wouldn't have a clue as to who she is :P. Probs just another bird Joely's on the tune with!

We still pull a truck load of hooks using HBs on flatties mate - usually mid-way through the fight too. One way we tried to correct this issue is by using larger trebles on the Stiffys. Doesn't work too bad if your target a bigger class of flatties, you only reduce the by-catch of bream thats all so no great loss.

Cheers Isaac

[blue_mako]

Troy - I think I'm getting to the stage in my life when I'm over catching bream and flatties and other stuff like that. Sure they're fun every now and then but I'm almost getting sick of them. I think I'm gunna ditch the bream gear soon and start concentrating on what north QLD is famous for...barra. Heck if you pair of southerners can nail em in the depths of Winter, so can I!

As for the sooties. Sure do mate, they're mad fun up at Marian. We always target them on surface lures in Summer when its stinkin' hot...just and excuse to get in the water really. They dont get that yuge in the wild though, a 45cm fish at Marian is a pretty good fish. But the country ya catch em in is pretty special.

LOL, you probably saw Joel on his break from work mate...as for the sheila, I wouldn't have a clue as to who she is :P. Probs just another bird Joely's on the tune with!

We still pull a truck load of hooks using HBs on flatties mate - usually mid-way through the fight too. One way we tried to correct this issue is by using larger trebles on the Stiffys. Doesn't work too bad if your target a bigger class of flatties, you only reduce the by-catch of bream thats all so no great loss.

Cheers Isaac

Have you tried lure singles? They'd give a better hook up on Flathead for sure. The main reason they are always hooked in the face and lip with trebles is because the hooks always manage to catch on something on the way into their mouth and it's not always a great a hook up, usually lightly pinned.

Even with the Cherry Bloods we pulled out of a few with trebles 3 or 4 times bigger then that of a Stiffy Minnow. The reason I like the trebles for the Barra is I've heard a bit about how they attack from the side mostly then from directly behind the lure. The only ones I saw come from under it were the rats we were sight casting in the sticks, even then a lot hit from the side. Plus when we were using trebles we didn't seem to lose many, if any, to them so we just stuck to them.

Singles give Flatties a better chance to get it down further as there's less smaller hooks to lightly pin them. The gape is bigger on a single then that of a treble that covers roughly the same area. So you have more grab so you can pull harder and not be as worried with pulling out. It's pretty much the reason plastics dominate on Flathead. One big single hook will get swallowed with ease.

I can't get over how much better they are on Threadfin and Jew. I won't go back to trebles. I watched Matt lose a big 80-85cm Jewie last night to another treble. The way Flathead hit lures should mean you won't miss too many either. Bream will be pretty poor at hooking up id imagine as they tap it. Like you said, Flatties do just a solid 'clunk'.

I know it takes a lot for people wanting to stop Bream fishing. I know plenty of people who love chasing them and the main reason they keep doing it is because they don't want to waste time figuring out another species. Which in turn can mean a couple of doughnut sessions. Especially when they can be out fishing for guaranteed Bream. You've just got to over come that :P .

But it looks like you know a few spots for Barra, even if they are small. Once you suss them out and start catching the good ones you'll wonder why you even bothered with Bream. It's what I'm like with Threadfin, Jewies and Giant Herring, I'll never go back, haha.

What's your PB wild Barra anyway?

Troy