Thread: Croc Hunting

Hit the Pin yesterday before the storm came through and had a little success with the target species

For all you southerners, spring is big flathead time with the Pin (Jumpinpin, the estuary system between North and South Stradbroke islands) being one of the best spots in the SEQ region, with a slightly late start (7am on the water) and a low around 11.30am and 5-10 knot winds early it was turning out to be the perfect day.

We started out at the mouth of one of the channels on the edge where the flats dropped into deeper water of about 12-15ft, the soft plastics started to fly and we worked our way along the bank with the first hookup resulted in a nice little bream, further along the bank some small wrigglers (undersized flathead) were hitting the lures, so far things were going ok but better things were just around the corner

On a shallower shelf of about 10ft I sent my little soft plastic to the far edge of the dropoff in about 3ft of water, and flicked it back into the deeper water and about 2 or 3 twiches in the deeper water the lure stopped dead, before my brain processed the fact that it wasn't a snag the line started peeling off my little spin reel in solid powerfull bursts, at first I thought I may have hooked one of the many stingrays we had seen while drifting the flats but as soon as the head shakes started I knew I had a good flatty connected, with only light line (4lb braid) I couldn't do much more than stay connected and follow the fish with the electric motor till she tired and showed herself. After probably 5 minutes a giant brown shape appeared on the surface and then the fun and games really began, flathead are notorious for flicking their heads from side to side when on the surface and this is when many are lost as their tiny sharp teeth saw through leaders quite easy, so the idea is to try and keep them just below the surface untill the net can be slipped under them, not and easy task with light gear and such a heavy powerful fish. With probably another 10 minutes of trying to gently get the fish within net range and not have the hook pull or the line pop, Andrea finally scooped up our prize and lifted it into the safety of the boat and the sheer size of this fish was realised.

Onto the lie detector and measured out to 80cm on the button, one of my biggest flatties and certainly the biggest for me in recent years although Andrea caught a 93cm in the Maroochy 2 years ago and my biggest ever was a 87cm from Pt Stephens about 15 years ago.

Given the size and the fact that she would be a breeding female and the QLD size limit is 40-70cm (either side of these must be released) a couple of quick pics and she was swam away to do her thing and produce a few thousand baby flatties for seasons to come.

With all the boat settled and resorted after that mayhem we recommenced our drift and we picked up a nice 58cm model for dinner

Soon after the wind started making the drift difficult even using the electric to maintain position so we relocated towards the bar and started a new drift on a deeper section of water with about 10 other boats second or third cast I scored a small tailor which destroyed the little soft plastic and we spent the next 1/2 hour fighting the wind to maintain a decent drift for nil result. With the wind strengthening and the storm clouds brewing we decided to call it quits and head for the ramp. All in all it was a great morning although I wished we had have been on the water an hour or two earlier, maybe next weekend

nice lizard