Fraser Island - Sensational on Soft Plastics

Sean (Skip) Thompson

For 26 years now I have been travelling to Fraser Island, usually a couple of times a year, with a longer trip of 10 nights in late August, accompanied by a group of 6-7 mates. That background is just to set the scene and put in perspective what I am about to say.

“Without a doubt, our late winter 2022 trip to Fraser saw the best flathead fishing on soft plastics that we have ever experienced on the island. And that includes plenty of awesome soft plastic sessions on foot before this…”

This article shares a selection of the tactics we employ when wading Fraser’s flats. We target a range of different structure and cover, which I will discuss in this article, along with our tackle choice. In a future article I’ll go into some of our successful casting and retrieval actions, along with allowing for the wind.

Creeks, creek mouths, drains and deltas

Probably the best known and largest creek at Fraser is Wathumba Creek. This is a top spot for flats fishing with soft plastics, but it is a fair old hike up north unless you are staying at Orchid Beach. Alternatively, there are also a range of smaller creeks that drain out to expansive sand flats on the western side of Fraser, from Hook Point in the south to Awinya Creek in the north, which are also worth targeting.

When fishing these locations, we target both subtle and more obvious changes in structure and cover. By structure, I am talking about scoured out channels, melon holes, deltas, and drains. By ‘cover’, I’m referring to either natural cover, such as mangroves, fallen trees and rocks or manmade cover such as jetties, like those found at Kingfisher Bay and Ungowa.

The main target areas during our trip were the various naturally formed structures around the creeks and associated sand flats. Generally, these natural formations are found in areas of softer darker sand, rather than that barren rock-hard corrugated sand, that is not only featureless but also holds no bait like yabbies and worms.

By using a good pair of polarised sunglasses, you can make out the more subtle changes in structure by identifying changes in water colour (darker is deeper). These are the spots you want to stand back and target as the water drains off the flats and deltas over the last two hours of the falling tide. During this time, the last of the small whiting and baitfish up on the flats, will flee with the falling tide into the deeper water and fish like flathead, big bream, and trevally will be waiting to pounce on them.

Likewise, you should target more obvious changes in water colour as creeks drain out and intersect with the draining flats, stirring up sand and chiselling out small drop offs.

Rocky outcrops and sand patches

Other spots to target with your soft plastics are pockets of sand amongst reef, rubble or weed. In these locations you want to be landing your plastic in the sand patches and working it back toward you, targeting the sandiest route you can find.

Keep an eye out too for concentrations of baitfish around the rocks and gravel. A mate and I spotted a heap of bait around one location, so we literally took position on the nearby rocks and fan casted 360 degrees around us, having an absolute ball on fish of all sizes, including a 73cm fish.

Drop offs and ledges

Another spot that we targeted was drop offs and ledges around some of the sandy beaches, near creek entrances. At times these ledges will hold grunter, however on this trip we scored legal size tailor, trevally, and the ever-pesky big dart!

The Tackle Box below summarises the gear that proved so successful for myself and my mates at Fraser this year. We choose Tackle Tactics products, like Platypus fishing line, ZMan lures, TT jigheads and Pro-Cure scent for a reason, they work and work well!

Tackle Box:

Rods: Light 1-3kg or 2-4kg 7’-7’6” graphite rods.

Reels: Small 1000-2000 size reels

Braid: Platypus Pulse X8 Braid – 6lb

Leader: Platypus Hard Armour FC Fluorocarbon leader – 10lb (for more fish variety) or 12-15lb (for a bit more insurance)

Lures: The ZMan 3” Slim SwimZ is a perpetual favourite, in Midnight Oil, Motor Oil and Pink Glow colours, while the ZMan GrubZ in 3.5” in Pearl colour worked a treat this year also.

Jigheads: TT HeadlockZ Finesse jigheads in 1/8 to 1/4oz weights and hook sizes to suit your chosen plastics.

Scent: Regular applications of Pro-Cure Inshore Saltwater Super Gel Scent gets the fish coming back after missed strikes.

So, there you go. Fishing Fraser’s flats with soft plastics anytime is fun, but with the incredible fishing we had this year, I’ve no doubt the memories and action will keep us coming back for many years to come.

Cheers, Skip

[Sean (Skip) Thompson, is a regular writer for Bush and Beach Magazine and writes feature articles for Fishing Monthly Magazines. He also has his own Facebook Page, Ontour Fishing Australia].