Flathead on Soft Plastics and Fly

Went for a fish the other morning with Ward for some Flathead. We left Townsville at about 6am and drove South to one of our favorite beaches. We fished the last of the outgoing tide and the first of the incoming. I was using soft plastics on a light bream stick, and Ward was fishing fly on his 7-wt fly rod. Initially soft plastics were looking to rule. Things were quiet, but I managed 3 fish before Ward had so much as a look in. But his first taker turned out to be a beauty. For some reason this large fish came if quite quickly and easily, but just at the edge of the sand it shook its head and took off, breaking the light leader. Ward estimated the fish to be over the maximum 70cm. Then a couple casts later and he was on again. This time the fish was successfully landed. At 48cm it was a nice keeper. We didn't see much more after that, I missed a few small hits, but nothing solid.


On the way home we stopped off at a freshwater creek to look for some Sooties. We were only there for about 30mins. I managed one small Sootie, and a small catty. Nice morning without having to worry about putting boats in and cleaning up!