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Land-Based Mixed Bag

By Sean Bekkers

It’s pretty hard to beat the simplicity of grabbing a rod combo, a small amount of gear, and walking the banks in search of a fish or two. The humble flathead is often at the top of many an anglers list when walking the edges, but often there’s plenty of other species to catch when fishing land based. In this article I’ll talk about my soft plastic presentations for not only targeting flathead, but a wider range of species as well.

Land-based locations are really going to come down to what is available in your local area. For me, it’s a mix of walking creek banks and open flats, so these will be the two area that I’ll focus on. Like all fishing, having a successful session often means finding the bait and, in the creeks, this could be a back eddy behind a rock bar, edge or drop off, or even a small drain.

On the open flats, areas that hold bait can include weed banks, drop offs into deeper water and even the undulations in the sand, which all count as viable structure. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen bream and whiting holding in these little undulations. For me all the areas mentioned above have delivered great fish on their day, with the one thing they all had in common being bait. This is where I believe that your presentation needs to be on point to have a great session.

Some days the bait can be prawns, while other days small baitfish, so it really just depends on the day. Identifying the bait holding in the area can be a little bit tricky, unless there are some telltale signs of baitfish being hassled on the surface or prawns cruising along the edges. It can sometimes be a best guess with regards to selecting a presentation that will get the bite.

My go-to presentations for this style of fishing are the ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ, 2.5” PrawnZ, 3” MinnowZ, and 4” DeiZel MinnowZ. I know I have all but the kitchen sink in this list, but to target everything from bream to mulloway you’ve got to have options, right?

Although there are a handful of plastics in the list above, I can pretty much split them into two groups, depending on what sort of session I’m going to have. If I’m targeting bream, flathead, grunter, and even a trevally, then I’ll take a selection of smaller presentation that cover me for that session. Alternatively, if I’m targeting larger species such as mulloway, I’ll scale my presentations up accordingly.

My go-to plastic when I’m not sure what to tie on first is a ZMan 3” MinnowZ. The reason being is that it’s a great size for everything to eat. It’s small enough to entice a decent bream as well as having enough body profile to draw the attention of a Mulloway cruising past. From there, if I haven’t had a hit after a few casts, I’ll start cycling through colours and presentations until I find one that works. In my tackle box section at the end of this article I’ll drop all the details in terms the jighead / plastics combinations that I like to use the most.

Covering Ground

Once I arrive at the area that I want to fish, I fan my casts up and down the bank, systematically casting and retrieving to cover the entire area. On each retrieve I try to contact the bottom each time I pause. By doing this I’m giving myself the best possible chance of finding a fish, across a mix of species. It’s also worth mentioning that I’m usually fishing anything up to four metres deep.

If the fishing is slow, don’t be afraid to mix up the retrieves though. I try to figure out early on what sort of retrieve is going to work and will often switch between a standard hop and pause retrieve and a slow roll (slow wind). Commonly one of these is going to be the standout for the session.

Factors to Consider When Selecting a Presentation

Factors that influence my decision, when it comes to plastic colour and jighead selection for a particular area, include bait and tide, along with wind and water conditions. My preference is always to match the bait as closely as possible. If this is a school prawn, I’ll rig a natural coloured ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ such as Opening Night for example. If I don’t get the hits after a few casts, I’ll start changing the colour. This could include a UV-reactive type plastic such as Blood Oil, or even a Gold Rush colour when I’m trying to create more of a solid silhouette in dirty water or darker light conditions.

Water depth and wind strength will help you decide how heavy your jighead is going to be. For example, if I’m fishing shallow and the wind is behind me, I might rig a 2.5” Slim SwimZ on a 1/8oz HeadlockZ Finesse jighead. On the other hand, if the wind is blowing straight onshore then I’ll commonly opt for a 1/4oz TT DemonZ jighead for increased casting distance.

Likewise with the larger plastics, when targeting deeper holes, I’ll opt for a 3/8oz if there isn’t much current or wind. On the other hand, if the wind and tide are hectic then I’ll step up to a 1/2oz jighead to ensure that I hit the bottom on each retrieve. The additional weight also assists with distance on each cast, which can be handy when throwing a 4” Deziel MinnowZ.

Rod and reel wise, my go-to of late has been an Okuma Epixor Squid 8’3 rod, matched up with an Epixor XT 30 spin reel loaded with 6lb Platypus Pulse X8 Braid for my smaller presentations. Although this is designed as a squid rod, the extra length of the rod, matched with the light braid, is excellent for punching those longer casts from the bank. This means I can cover more ground on each cast.

I did set this combo up specifically to cast lighter presentations when land based, however I do still use my other 7’ combos for this type of fishing, especially when throwing a larger and heavier presentation.

The most important thing I have found for successfully catching a mixed bag of species from the bank is identifying the bait and then matching it a closely as possible. Once you’ve dialled in on the presentation size and colour, it then comes down the how you work the presentation. Don’t be afraid to mix up the retrieve or give it a longer pause on the bottom. Often, it’s the subtle changes that the fish can’t resist.

Hope you’ve been finding a few lately and thanks for reading.

Screaming Dragz, Sean

Sean’s Tackle Box:

Rod: Okuma Epixor Squid Spin Rod - EPI-S-832 8’3”

Reel: Okuma Epixior XT Spin Reel – EPXT-30

Braid: Platypus Pulse X8 – 6lb

Leader: Platypus Hard Armour Leader - 10-12lb (Supple)

ZMan Slim SwimZ - 1/8oz 1/0 TT HeadlockZ Finesse & 1/4oz 1/0 TT DemonZ Jigheads 

ZMan 3” MinnowZ - 3/8oz 2/0 TT Big EyeZ & DemonZ Jigheads

ZMan 4” DeZiel MinnowZ - 3/8oz 3/0 TT Big EyeZ & DemonZ Jigheads

Scent: Pro-Cure Super Gel Scent