Illawarra Flyfishers Club

14th September 2002  

Minnamurra River

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Steve Chatterton and I fished Minnamurra River in Steve’s 4.75M Quintrex in fine weather conditions. We arrived around 7:45am and I was surprised to see there was no other boats or fishermen around. The tide was dead low and this made fishing unproductive initially, as there was no movement in the water at all. We fished for over an hour or so before the tide started to move quickly when I hooked my first ever flathead on fly. I was impressed as it measured 45cm and Steve was just as happy as I caught it on his Estuary Fly (pictured below, recipe here).

I caught two more smaller flathead when Steve decided to put on another of his new creations. It was a crab fly and yes it did look like the real thing. A real bugger to cast but when you are fishing the drop off to a sand bank, you don’t have to cast far. It was not long before Steve caught a whopping 55cm flathead.

Steve Chatterton with a 55cm flathead taken on a Leather Crab fly	Leo Harding with a 45cm flathead taken on one of Steve's Estuary Flies

I was using an 8wt outfit with a floating line and a long leader and Steve was using a 6wt with an intermediate line. We mainly used the electric motor to put us in the best fishing situations to sneak up on the unsuspecting flathead. We also found that fishing in the really clear water was unproductive.

Leo Harding