Flathead offshore

[re-tyred]

Well had a lot of interruptions to fishing since xmas. Grandies stayed for 4 weeks, then had a wedding to go to and the weather has been rubbish. Seemed every nice calm day I had something else on.
Well the stars aligned today. Yesterday's wind was forecast to settle overnight. Run in tide on the bar at 8 till 2 pm. Have relos over for BBQ tonight but I could just squeeze in a few hours offshore.
Loaded the boat and launches at 7.30 am. Slipped out on the last of the run out tide, bit bumpy between the piers but not to bad on the western side. Headed west on the beach as my time was limited. 3nm down and pulled up in 10mtrs. After about 10 minutes there were a few little bites and I hooked up a 32cm Bluespot flathead. Few more bites and a few more small ones brought up and let go.
Moved out to 12mtr and a nice 40cm one on the first drop.
Had my gummy rig out with a 5/0 hook and whole pilchard. Next thing wack on the lighter flathead rod, nice and heavy bit of head shake , up comes a just undersize gummy. Checked the bait on my gummy rig and redid it. Then another good flatty on the smaller rig. As I am unhooking it and putting it in the esky I hear that bizzzzzzzzzz of the gummy rig. Look around the rod is bent double and the real is screaming out. Heart skips a beat as I grab the rod and tighten the drag. man there is some weight there. So much it is dragging my tinny backwards. Couple of good head shakes. If this is a gummy it's big one. Went for a minute or two couldn't get any line in but had it stopped. Then slowly started to gain on it. 2-3 mtrs more. Big swell comes through and I gain some more. Yes gonna get this up. Then twang! followed by some rather colourful words....
Wind it up and have been bitten clean off at the hook. My guess is a small bronzy.
Oh well back to the flatties.. ended up with 8 keepers 32cm-50cm. back in by 10-30am.
Life is great when you get a feed.
Guess the freeloaders will get some BBQ flatties tonight.

[Lightningx]

Nice report with a great feed of flatties mate! :thumbsup:

[Seemu]

Nice review mate!! Great catch of flatties mate!!

[Mattblack]

Great report, it had me on the edge of my seat....I say better luck next time, but it looked like you did pretty well as it was

[Kadmium]

Worst feeling not knowing what could have been! Nice report!

[dazz999]

well done some very good eating there

[Nude up]

sounds like a good mornings work nice read while i am on nightshift

[kingo9999]

Great report, nice feed! Weather has been garbage since you got out.
Just curious about your preferred rigs, I'm guessing your gummy rig is a heavy mono leader below a running sinker? How about your flatty setup?
Weather is on the improve, might be able to get out soon, fingers crossed. :water:

[Nuscani]

Great review mate, unlucky with the gummie, but looks like you've done well with the flatties!

[re-tyred]

Great report, nice feed! Weather has been garbage since you got out.
Just curious about your preferred rigs, I'm guessing your gummy rig is a heavy mono leader below a running sinker? How about your flatty setup?
Weather is on the improve, might be able to get out soon, fingers crossed. :water:

I use running sinker on both rigs. Just a lighter rod and lighter leader on the flathead rig. Gummy rig has 50lb braid with 30lb leader clipped on. 5/0 hook
Flathead has 15lb braid with 10lb leader and 2/0 hook.
A few people have commented about using lighter leader than the main line. The reason is that when I fish out on the hard bottom if the hook fouls the bottom I can break it off without loosing the sinker and swivel/clip.
I prefer the running sinker rig for two reasons.
Less gear loss
Easier to tie a pilchard in a manner that makes it look natural (pass the hook thru the eye pull it thru and hook into the tail, then put two loops of line around the head to keep it straight in the water.)
Disadvantage is you need to cast out rather than just drop it down. Dropping it down will mean the sinker goes first and the leader wraps around the main line.
If you have a number of people on board casting becomes a pain in the butt. So go back to paternoster when in a crowded boat.
Paternosters are a pain on gummies as they twist it up.