Flathead catches are ramping up

JUMPINPIN Bo Sawyer

Welcome back everyone, I hope you’ve all had a fantastic month. We’ve seen some great bites time of year to fish for flathead. They have been a little tricky lately thanks to the wind, but I expect them to really ramp up again in the coming weeks.

Fishing soft plastics in the 2.5-4” range will get you recently, however they’ve been more confined to the morning periods before the wind picks up. Try to fish the dawn/dusk times that line up with a tide change wherever possible.

Overall, the water quality in the Pin has been much better. Temperatures should start dropping soon as we get into my favourite time of the year for fishing. The long-term weather forecast looks far more favourable for 2023, but until BOM can predict the correct weather on the same day I’ll remain cautious.

Now, let’s look at the fishing!

Let’s start off with whiting. Some great catches have been rolling in on live yabbies and worms. The deeper water off the lagoons and Gold Bank all the way through to the Logan have been fishing really well. You can also try Tiger Mullet channel and any sandbanks out from Jacobs Well. As I always say, lightly-weighted baits with 4lb fluoro are the best tools to get the job done. If the bite is slow then feed line out to keep your offering moving with the current. You can also slowly wind your bait on shallow flats. This will usually drive the whiting crazy.

Despite what a lot of people say, summer is probably my least favourite the numbers, and 5-7” for the big girls. You can also troll for them on small diving lures along sand and weed edges. For bait fishos, live mullet, herring, prawns or cut-up pillies are the go. Try fishing the northern side of Crusoe, lagoons, Gold Bank, Tipplers and the mouth of the Logan.

We’ve been landing some nice jewfish on lures in the past month from the Pin bar all the way up to southern Moreton Bay. You’ll need to do some sounding for them if you are using plastics or vibes. Live mullet, pike or legal tailor are the go for bait fishos. I’ve lost some monsters recently, and I think we’ll see some more bigger models lurking around soon.

Some of our charter clients have been lucky enough to tangle with some nice mangrove jacks on soft plastics and vibes. Dawn and dusk are definitely the pick for these fish (like most others), and you really want to focus on the structure rather than location with them. Overhanging trees, rocky bottoms and drainage points with heavy structure are all great jack haunts. There are plenty of them around in our area.

Plenty of smaller bream are around the system as well, however we should see the size returning over the coming months. Try using whitebait, cut up pillies, mullet flesh, yabbies, worms and prawns. Personally, I’ve been catching them on small 2.5” plastics smeared in scent using 4-6lb fluoro leader. You will also get a lot of Moses perch as bycatch.

I’ve sounded up a ton of prawns in the Logan recently but haven’t seen the cast net army anywhere just yet. There are plenty of mud crabs around throughout the whole system as well guys.

Dates for the King Of The Pin comp have been set for the 9-11th of June, and it looks like it’s going to be a cracker of a competition so make sure you get your entries in. You can find out more at www. kingofthepin.com.au. com.au, we’d love to have you out on the water. Brett from Jacobs Well Bait and Tackle has plenty of fresh bait in stock as well. Tight lines.

That’s it for me this month everyone. We’ve got some dates available for charters which you can check out on www.capnscharters.

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