Landangler's Blog: Bribie Island & Caloundra

Thursday

On Thursday I was relieved to see that the wind would be from the south, but disappointed that it would be up to 20 knots by 10 am. I drove up to Bribie Island for first light, at around 4.30 am and started on the mainland side under the bridge. It would be a big high tide – 2.5m at about 9.30 am. That meant it would run in very quickly, covering my favorite fishing spots in a couple of hours. Most of the places I like to fish are at their best two hours before and after low tide.

I put on a GULP Crazylegs Jerkshad soft plastic in the Black Shad colour and fished it around the rocks, which sit just to the south of the bridge, about 5 pylons from the shore. There was plenty of surface action with the mullet and herring getting attacked under the bridge lights. Every now and then a mullet would skitter by with something fast in hot pursuit. I swapped down to a smaller soft plastic – the GULP 3” Minnow in the Lime Tiger colour. The tide was running in strongly but I did not want to fish any heavier than a 1/8^th oz 1/0 jighead - it is too easy to get snagged in this terrain with a 1/6^th oz jighead. There is a channel that runs through the middle of the rocks and it has produced a few good fish for me. I cast to the south and hopped the plastic along – pretty quickly, with the current, through the channel, back towards the bridge. There was a tug then a pause then a solid, angry bite and I had hooked up. It came straight up and shook its head angrily then swam away again taking some line. It was a good Flathead about 55cm long.

I waded south but again the weed started to cause problems. There is a point when the tide runs in, just as the water submerges the previously exposed sea grass that you just cannot cast without your lure getting instantly clogged up. I had reached that point.

With not many good high tide options available, I decided to drive up to Caloundra and explore the land-based fishing further up the Pumicestone Passage. I parked by the Power Boat Cub and decided to wade north. It was almost high tide, not the best time to be surveying new ground. The big tide had also loosened the weed here. I cast at the edges of the sand banks and after half an hour, I caught a 45cm Flathead on a GULP 4 “ Minnow in the Pearl Watermelon colour.

There were big schools of Mullet everywhere, drifting over the sand banks close to the mangroves. There were also smaller schools of Garfish that followed the plastic right to my feet on the retrieve. I decided to move a further south and drove down to Jensen Park. The park is beside another creek off the Pumicestone Passage and has a small boat ramp. I waded along the shore and found a few more undersize Flathead. At around noon the wind was howling even in this sheltered spot so I decided to give up.