REGULAR visitors to the Fisho site will recall the odd story about anglers who’ve come close to catching the “holy grail” of dusky flathead – a metre-long fish!
Unfortunately, despite many second hand reports and rumours about metre-sized lizards being taken by anglers it’s rarely if ever that we’ve been able to confirm these captures – except, perhaps in our most recent report.)
In the latest news on the monster lizard front, Fisho this week received some photos of a monster flattie taken by Canberra angler Chris Hollins. Big fish … but was it a metrey?
Chris says he was fishing from his kayak in a river near Mollymook on the NSW South Coast recently slow rolling a 40mm Kato Crank, using a 2-4kg 3-piece travel rod with 8lb braid and 8lb leader.
“We had a little bit of action downstream on bream, trevally and tailor before heading inland for some flatties,” Chris told Fisho.
“We were on the water for about two hours before I felt a sharp bite, followed by what felt like a snag – heavy weight, not moving. It turned the kayak around, and pulled us in over the “snag”. As it slowly came up, thinking it was a branch, it started to move sideways … Then out popped its head from the murky water – a massive flattie!”
Chris says the big flattie than went for a quick run before he could work it back towards the kayak for his mate Stuart to net it, albeit with half the fish’s body hanging out!
“All in all, the ‘fight’ lasted less than three to four minutes, which was lucky as I only had 8lb leader on,” added Chris.
“We quickly took it back to shore for some photos before releasing the big girl. One big kick and she was off, very healthy looking fish which was great to see.”
So what did it measure?
“Not quite a metre, although we only had a 40cm ruler to measure it with. It came in at 97.5cm. It was the first time I left the brag mat at home, so disappointed! Weighed in at 7.5kg.”
Well done Chris, and thanks for sharing your story!
