And the flats were looking perfect:
I tied on a trusty 80mm wriggler and started doing some prospecting. The fishing was slow to start off with but I was just happy to get away from the city and spend some time with my mate:
After about half an hour of fruitless flicking I had my first real bite, and after a short but spirited fight this little guy appeared:
It wasn’t a monster, but it was a start. I chucked him back, had another cast, and my plastic hadn’t even hit the bottom before I was on again:
2 in 2 casts - can't complain. I thought I might be in for a blinder of a session, but after that the fish went quiet. The sunset was nice though:
I headed back to my car, found a quiet place to spend the night, and hit the hay ready for an all out assault on the flats first thing in the morning. And when I woke up, the weather was mint:
There were flathead lies everywhere:
And it didn't take long before I came up solid to my first fish of the morning:
A beautiful flatty around the 40cm mark - nice. I changed over to a chubby and second cast, I landed another:
Over the next 45 mins I landed another three nice flatties on the chubby, ranging from about 30-45cm:
Until a larger fish (60+cm) decided to keep it - goddamit. I tied on something slightly bigger (a dunk) in case there were any more big girls around, and it didn’t take long before I came up solid again:
Another nice flatty, and a great way to end the session. By now it was almost 10am and I was starving, but on the way back to the car Luna decided to swim across a channel:
I think it was a bit further than she thought and she wasn't coming back. So I stripped the clothes off and went and got her - trust me, it was cold. Lucky I love ya Luna:
So after we finally got back to the car we had some breakfast and headed in to Orbost to get some supplies. I was keen to head back to the flats for the low tide in the evening, so in the meantime I decided to go for a drive and explore the fresh water parts of the Snowy. I ended up following a 4WD track that started getting pretty gnarly:
I um’d and ah’d about whether the old girl could make it through this, but she handled it like a boss:
At the end of this trail there was this lovely campsite:
I went for a bit of an explore in the river but it didn’t look too fishy (wide, shallow and devoid of structure), so after a few half hearted casts I just decided to go for a swim with Louie and enjoy the scenery. After the swim we had a late lunch, bought another two chubbies from the tackle shop, then headed back to the flats. And sure enough, it didn’t take long before I had another beautiful, 50cm+ flatty on the shore:
I caught another little flatty around the 30cm mark a couple of casts later, before running into my mate Goody. Thank god he showed up, because after this the fish shut down and it would have been batshit boring without someone to talk to. After trying just about every lure I own I eventually reverted back to the trusty 80mm wriggler and, sure enough, I finally came up solid:
A mullet - not the most impressive catch, but it was a fish and the first mullet for me on a lure. After some more fruitless flicking I went back to a dunk hoping for a big flatty when it got absolutely smashed! This was a better fish, and after a really spirited fight, up popped this guy:
A bream - finally! It was just shy of 40cm, but super fat. Unfortunately this bream must have been on its lonesome because we flogged the water until dark for zilch. We reluctantly called for last cast and amazingly, I had a hit:
Another nice flathead around the 40cm mark - it's amazing how often I catch a fish on the last cast (probably because my 'last cast' often lasts a while). By the time we’d unhooked and released her it was dark and we were getting eaten alive by mozzies, so we said our goodbyes and went our separate ways. I’d planned to stay another night and fish the morning, but a cold front had started to come through and I was hanging for a warm bed. I think I like this Marlo joint..
Cheers!
