Flatty Classic Report:
Blade N Tails
Danny Sands, Scott Gregory, Lyndsey Lazarro
Overall Position: 2nd
3-Person Team: 2nd
Then the heavens opened six days before game day, dumping 300mm of rain on Mt Tambourine and adding to the big tides turned the Broadwater into a brown mess. Northerly winds and the Flathead Classic go hand in hand but this season most of the winds were from the South which cleaned up the Broadwater very quickly.
This year we fished under the Wilson brand of rods as Team Blade N Tails with mates Scott Gregory and Lyndsey Lazzaro. Pre game day we went out in the afternoon to check out what was going on with the water clarity. We found some clean pockets of water in the holes around the Tipplers Passage area and couldn’t resist having a quick flick resulting in three flatheads in five casts.
Day 1
Game day Lyndsey had a bit of a sleep in, a quick phone call from Scott sorted this out. I decided to start where we caught a few flathead the day before in Tipplers Passage. Everything looked good, the banks were exposed, the tide was just about to turn but the water quality was terrible due to the overnight thunder storm. Instead of moving we stuck it out and we had a pretty good start landing 8 legal flathead in the two hours while we were there.
The tide pushed in over the banks and the flathead turned off pretty quick. We decided to lift the electric motor and move. While travelling Gold Bank resembled Palmy Reef on a busy season of mackerel fishing with boats everywhere. Our game plan was always to move from shallow to deep banks and back to the shallows in the afternoon to catch the runout tide. The next 2 hours we produced another 6 legal flathead to 76cm and Lyndsey produced most of the fish in the morning.
With the big tides at the Jumpinpin Bar, the water was crystal clear and too clean for my liking and the flathead fishing was pretty tough going. We tried a few areas that I did well in the pre fish, but it was quiet.
We moved back where we started to catch the run-out tide. The water was still over the banks and the water was very clean. The fishing was quiet for all the boats in the area and most of the boats moved on but we stuck it out.
We started to get a flathead every 15-20 minutes. Patience was the key waiting for the water to drop exposing the banks and with that the water changed colour. Then the light switch was turned on landing another 13 legal flathead and a plague of undersize in the mix.
After day one Team Blade N Tails scored 52 flathead for the day and Lyndsey almost had a 1000 points to himself.
Day 2
We followed the same milk run on, as per day 1. But this time there were 42 boats fishing on Gold Bank, the only trouble on day 2 was that we found we were going to miss the low tide bite as stop fishing was 4pm and low tide was 5:20pm. Team wise we still caught another 25 fish for the day.
Day3
We had a team meeting while drinking a coffee and decided to start at the Seaway with the other 30 boats. I love sharing but not in a competition so we moved to the South Wall, which we had to ourselves. We landed 3 flathead over 60 with a few 50s in the mix. The water was crystal clear on the push in and the flathead went off the bit.
We made the trek north and the plan was to fish areas that had good water quality. The water was terrible all the way to Gold Bank and yep, you guessed it, it was a car park with a 45 boats. We still managed 28 flathead for the day.
Thanks
I would like to thank a few people firstly team mates Scott and Lyndsey for an entertaining few days. These guys fished the house down and it was awesome to watch Lyndsey smash them on the first day. Secondly my son Cooper helped in the pre fish to find new spots but the only trouble was he didn’t leave many big flathead for game day for us.
Lastly, I would like to thank everyone at the Wilson Family who have given us massive support, both on and off the water. We used the RLFBT01 and the RLFBT17 models in the Blade N Tails range for those long days. They cast a mile and have the perfect action for small to medium soft plastics and soft vibes. On the deeper edges of the Jumpinpin we used the RLFBT03 and the RLFBT18, which are perfect for bigger plastic with heavier jigheads and the larger soft vibes.
This year was the first year our crew fished together in the Flathead Classic and we were pumped to go so well together.
Bring on 2023….
