Biggest Flathead?

[_Dan_]

Hi all,

Just wondering whats the biggest flathead recorded or caught on film?. A mate of mine has a photo of a large flatty caught in the logan river which i will post tommorow,

Estimated size was around the 1.2 meter mark.

Anyway i will post the pic for you all to check out, but i have never seen anything like it. Also it was safely released back immediately after..

[marlinqld]

No pics, but 40 years or so ago, when we lived and holidayed around Culburra, on the Crookhaven River, there were regular catches of flathead up around the 12 - 15lbs mark.

Flathead were in plague numbers back then. So were the bream etc.
I remember an uncle had an old timber fishing boat. He went out one day near the Joseph banks, with Dad and a few other uncles. They cme home with a thousand kgs.... thats 2000lb of Yellow tail kingfish...try and catch like that these days - you would get hung for bringing home huge catches like that these days.

Mike

[Truck]

I used to go on family holidays to Iluka (NSW) every year as a kid and I remember the old photos of all the big flathead that have been pulled out of the river there....... there were some of the biggest flathead I have ever seen!! They didn't look too much longer than 1m but they were so fat!!

[_Dan_]

Here is the pic, poor qaulity but it gives you an idea of the size. Its taken next to the guy who caught its leg for an indication

[Noelm]

biggest I have seen was caught by a pro in Lake Conjola on the South Coats of NSW it had a full 13" bully Mullet in it's stomach and was bigger than the beam of his net boat, est weight was guessed to be well over 10KGS, and thinking back I think it was that big at least.

[S.S.]

Nice fish. You can see the quality just by looking at how fat it is all the way through to the tail. Awesome

[fishyfrost]

I remember an uncle had an old timber fishing boat. He went out one day near the Joseph banks, with Dad and a few other uncles. They cme home with a thousand kgs.... thats 2000lb of Yellow tail kingfish...try and catch like that these days

Maybe this is one why the fish aren't around like they were 40 years ago..... because people went out and took more then they needed.

For the biggst flathead... biggest one i have caught was about 80cm long bout 3.5kg. but we get regular catches of over 4 kg in the local river.... i've seen a picture of one my uncle caught it weighed in at bout 12 pound

[maxwellson]

yeah i agree leeann awesome fish !!!!

is it you i hear on 88.9 radio of a friday with the Squidge ??

apologies if not

cheers Maxi

[Matthias]

Biggest dusky flathead recorded (sourced from a fishing world mag) was 130cm and 15kgs. Didn't see the pic though.

Pete.

[Steve_O]

I miss those big fatty flatties, hav'nt seen a quality lizard for a while but when i was a kid we'd pull in a few some nearly as big as myself, well it felt that way at the time

[bdm56]

When I was a kid down around the creeks and rivers of the Coffs harbour region there were reguarly photo's of 18 - 20 lb duskys in the local paper.

Mostly caught on poddy mullet live bait.

Long time ago though. this was the same era we used to catch 20 - 30 x 1 - 2 lb tailor in an hour off the breakwall at Iluka. Seems crazy now but a lot of people did it then.

Thank heaven we look after our fish stocks better now.

[S.S.]

From what I've seen in my twenty years fishing down the pin the number of bigger flathead we're now catching has increased and overall i believe numbers are better. Something to do with the size and bag limits probably.

[_Dan_]

I think its the change of peoples perception of catching big fish, to be honest i rarely keep any of the fish i catch.. I usually take a photo and let them go back, call me weird but i like the feeling when they swim off ready for another day..

[R_K_HILL]

Check these out...

http://www.ausfish.com.au/forum/YaBB.cgi?num=1154424623

[AdrianK]

Dangerous position - wouldn't like to be holding a mackeral that way!