Dusky flathead: the water matches the logo again

The sea off Newcastle read 20.3 degrees this morning, 12 November. Yesterday it was 19.9. Four tenths of a degree, about what a cup of tea loses while you look for the car keys. It's enough to put the ocean back inside the water temperature band the site treats as good for dusky flathead. Back, because it already spent a few days in there in October, before the rain came.

I should declare an interest. In September I redid the look of this site, and the fish at the top of every page is a flathead. A flattie, flat on the sand, both eyes up, waiting. I picked it because I like flathead more than anything else in this water. It doesn't jump, and it won't tear line off like a kingfish. It lies on the bottom and lets the food come to it.

So I was pleased this morning in a way that has nothing to do with data.

The short version:

• The ocean is back in the flathead band. Two mornings, 19.9 to 20.3. Second visit this spring.
• Lake Macquarie got there before the ocean did. The lake sits at an estimated 21.3 degrees today, up from 20.9 yesterday. That's the site's seasonal estimate for the lake, not a direct reading.
• Lake Mac's top pick today is a flathead pick. Swansea Channel Training Walls, dusky flathead.
• Peak season proper is still weeks off. The site has it running December to April. We're on the early edge.

Newcastle's pick swam off

Yesterday Newcastle's top pick was Horseshoe Beach Drop-off for dusky flathead, one of the four spots the site lists as a go-to for the species.

Then this morning, the day the ocean came back over the line, Newcastle's pick moved to Nobbys Breakwall for yellowtail kingfish. The fish on my logo got its water and lost the pick on the same day. Probably just wind and tide on a Thursday.

One warm morning isn't a trend. The ocean has stepped over this line once already and stepped straight back. Two readings either side of the line, and sea temperature moves with every wind change. Turn or blip? I need more weeks. And if you've been pulling flathead off the Stockton side for a fortnight already, you knew all of this before the thermometer did.

I'm watching whether the ocean holds above that line this week, or ducks back under on the next cold water from the south. If it holds, Newcastle's flathead spots should start turning up in the daily picks again.

I'm shutting the laptop and going down to the water.