Flathead and Barramundi on a Day Trip South of Townsville

Went for a lovely day trip with Bob and Ward yesterday. The plan was to fish the beach for some Flathead in the morning, and make out way home as the day progressed. We left Townsville at about 6am, and were fishing by 7.30. High tide was early, so we were going to fish the full outgoing tide. Bob and Ward fished fly, and I fished my favorite soft plastics.

Soft plastics turned out to be the winner here. I released about 6 undersized flatties, as well as keeping two. One Flag-tail about 38cm and a Dusky about 49cm. But Bob did take out the prize for biggest fish, he tagged and released a 55cm Dusky. A good fight on his light 5-wt fly rod.

Next was a try for some big Tarpon at a lagoon close by. But as it was late in the day, and in the middle of a cold snap, the fish didn't want to play at all. So we didn't give it long. Next was lunch, then off to a freshwater creek to tempt some Sootie Grunter. I finally got to get my 4wd on the sand here, and it was heaps cool. But again, like the Tarpon, the fish were not biting for anyone.


Last stop was another freshwater lagoon. This was a last ditched effort for a fish in freshwater. With the cold water we didn't expect much, and though we would be on our way home pretty quickly. But after a few cast we managed to raise a couple of small Barra. Then all of a sudden Ward comes up with a 38cm fish. The biggest was have pulled out of this spot, so we stuck at.

Over the next couple of hours we managed to tag about 20 fish. Ranging in size from 30cm to the biggest 42cm. Fly worked well on these small lagoon fish, but again the little plastics dominated. Of the fish landed, over 3/4 were on my little squidgie fish!

As the sun went down we were all suffering sore backs from standing all day, so it was off home to see what the Wives had cooked up for dinner.

Rest of the pics from the day....