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Summer Flats Fishing

By Justin Willmer

Fishing the flats during summer allows you to cover plenty of water and encounter a wide range of species as you drift or move around the flats with the electric motor. In my neck of the woods summer can mean numbers of whiting, bream, grunter, and flathead, along with trevally, queenfish and other species that move into the system following gar, mullet, and other bait schools. Wherever you are in the country, I’m sure you have some local high or low tide flats that the fish move onto to feed at different stages of the tide. Let’s breakdown what we look for on the flats, along with gear and techniques that get the bites.

Flats

The term flats refers to areas of similar depth that cover a reasonable area and are generally referred to as high tide flats, areas that are covered by water on the higher stages of the tide and often dry on low tide, and low tide flats that refer to areas that have our desired depth of water on them during the lower stages of the tide. When fishing flats I generally look for large expanses with a water depth of around half a metre, to one and a half metres of water. The desired depth will vary depending on your location and target species, with this being my favoured depth range for a stack of species, from whiting, bream, flathead, and grunter, to more exotic flats visitors such as snapper, trevally and queenfish.

When fishing flats, the key is to find flats that are desirable to your target species, based on what is important to them, be it shelter in the form of weed, timber or rubble, water movement or eddies, ambush points, proximity to deep water or available food. Food is a driver for all species and it’s important that the flat offers food that is relevant to your target species. For example, a flat that has weed beds, yabby beds and rubble is likely to attract prawns, crabs, and yabbies, so in turn will attract bream, flathead, and whiting, however it may not attract trevally or queenfish unless schools of baitfish move onto the flat also. A flat that has deep water in close proximity may also be more likely to attract snapper, sweetlip, mulloway, trevally and other larger predatory species that may follow bait onto the flat.

My favourite flats are generally in close proximity to deeper water or a main channel, especially if there is deeper water at each end of the flat, they are made up of a variety of structure, such as weed beds, sand and rubble, and they cover a reasonable size area, such as several house blocks or larger. The larger the flat, the more time you have drifting across it with the wind or tide, before you need to adjust position again. Make note of your drift line, so that you can stagger your drifts to cover the flat, while also making note of bait, structure, and productive areas that you may wish to return to.

Gearing Up

When fishing the flats in the kayak or on the SUP I will have three rod combos rigged with different presentations, while in the boat it could be up to ten. This allows me to quickly alternate between presentations or grab a similar presentation, should I be bitten off during a hot bite. I would suggest at least two combos so that you can have two presentations rigged to make cracking a pattern quicker and easier. This could be two different jighead weights and the same plastic, two of the same plastics in different colours, or two completely different presentations. The important thing is being able to mix things up until you find what works at the time.

I will commonly run a mix of 7’ 1-3kg, 2-4kg and 3-6kg rods based on the presentations being thrown and the expected target species. If I plan on doing a bit of everything, then I will include one of each combo. When finesse fishing with light plastics I will often carry two 1-3kg combos and a 2-4kg for larger presentations and when fishing the flat for larger species and working deeper edges, two 2-4kg combos and a 3-6kg make an effective kit. You don’t need to spend a ridiculous amount of money to fish the flats and I have no doubt that you would catch more fish with three good quality combos rigged and ready, rather than one high end combo that allows you only one presentation.

The 1-3kg rods will generally be paired with 1000 size reels and loaded with 6lb braid, the 2-4kg rods with a 2500 size reel and 8lb braid, and the 3-6kg rods with a 2500 or 3000 reel and 10lb braid. Leader wise I will generally fish 10lb, occasionally stepping up to 15lb on the 3-6kg combo if larger predators may be encountered, or toothies such as tailor. If you are fishing crystal clear water and the bite is tough, you may wish to reduce your leader size. On the other side of the coin, if you are concentrating around structure, targeting toothy critters or in the north, where barramundi love destroying leaders, then you may have to step up to 20lb or even 40lb leader and a minimum of 2-4 or 3-6kg combos. On the northern flats, reef flats or some southern flats, where your targets may be larger and more aggressive, it may pay to scale up the combos to suit, along with the presentations you are throwing, however we are focusing on bread-and-butter river and estuary flats fishing.

Go-To Presentations & Techniques

If I could only have a handful of presentations for fishing the flats, I would run with a few models that I have a 100% confidence in, no matter where in the country I am fishing and what the target species is. If you had these three presentations in your kit, you could catch almost any predatory species that feeds on the flats.

My first pick for fishing the flats would be a ZMan 2.5” Slim SwimZ, purely because of the consistent success that I have had with them and the variety of species that eat them. This plastic is the perfect bite size baitfish imitation, with loads of action on the drop and the retrieve, while also being ElaZtech, which is naturally buoyant to stand tail up when at rest, attracting fish and triggering strikes, and 10X Tough to stand up to toothy critters and aggressive predators.

When fishing this plastic on the flats I will rig it on a 1/8oz, 1/6oz or 1/4oz TT HeadlockZ Finesse 1/0, DemonZ 1/0 or NedlockZ size 1. If I want to fish heavy weed and allow the plastic to fall to the bottom, then I will rig it weedless on a TT SnakelockZ Finesse in a 1/8oz size 2 or NedlockZ EWG in a size 1. When retrieving the Slim SwimZ I will cast long, give it a couple of twitches and then slow roll it just above the bottom. Remember you can alter your retrieve speed or rod angle to control the depth that your soft plastic swims at. If the slow roll doesn’t fire then I will mix things up between a wind and pause, shake and wind, or hopping retrieve, until I find what triggers the bite. Even if you’re catching fish, it sometimes pays to mix up the retrieve as the bream may want a slow roll, the trevally a shaking retrieve and the flathead want the plastic hopped on the bottom.

When drifting with the tide I will cast ahead of the drift, allowing the plastic to sink naturally, rather than being dragged unnaturally with the drift. Fanning casts ahead and across the drift can be effective and cover more water to help locate active schools, bait, and structure. When the wind is blowing, I will cast with the wind and across the wind, to a point that I can still maintain control and contact with the plastic. If the wind is blowing in your face and putting a large bow in the line it can often be difficult to control the plastic, feel the bite and set the hook. In windy conditions upsizing your jighead can also give you improved casting distance, along with more feel and better control of the plastic, so don’t be scared to fish a little heavier if the conditions dictate it.

Another plastic that I include in my flats kit is the ZMan 3” MinnowZ, which I pair with a 3/0 TT jighead in the standard and weedless range of jigheads, including the HeadlockZ, DemonZ, SnakelockZ and a favourite, the Big EyeZ. This is an upsize plastic from the 2.5” Slim SwimZ and so this is selected in areas with larger target species, areas where flathead are a focus and when fishing the edges of the flats with 1/4oz and 3/8oz jigheads. You may wish to fish a 1/8oz jighead on the flats or may be fishing in a metre of water along the edge of the flat with a 1/4oz, however it can quickly drop to three metres or more, where I prefer to run a 3/8oz jighead. The MinnowZ is a brilliant plastic for imitating a mullet or whiting, both of which are popular baitfish snacks for predators.

The third plastic I have locked into my flats kit is the ZMan 2.5” PrawnZ, a recent addition to the range that I am super excited about, and which instantly made the kit. If prawns are flicking on the flats and you cast this plastic to them, hold on because the hits can be instant and brutal. I fish this plastic on a 1/28oz TT HWS (Hidden Weight System) jighead and twitch it across the surface as a topwater lure, rig it on a 1/8oz 1/0 TT HeadlockZ Finesse for general flats fishing, and step up to a 1/4oz 1/0 HeadlockZ Finesse for fishing the deeper edges. You can twitch and shake this plastic aggressively or slowly hop and pause it, the key is its realistic kick and glide, along with its realistic look.

These three plastics should see you hooked up to mixed bag on the flats and make a great starting point. Once you have these three dialed in, other favourites of mine include the ZMan 2.5” GrubZ and ST GrubZ, ZMan 2.75” TRD BugZ (especially in the Hot Snakes colour), and the ZMan 2.5” TRD CrawZ. All these plastics look at home on the flats and more importantly, they all get eaten!

Colour Selection

I run with the three colour theory of a light / natural colour for bright conditions and clear water, dark silhouette colour for dark conditions and dirty water, and a fluoro / high UV reactive colour for when things aren’t happening or if either of the other two aren’t dominating.

A few favourites in each category would include –

Light / Natural – Opening Night, Beer Run, Green Lantern and Bad Shad.
Dark / Silhouette – Gold Rush, Houdini and Purple Death.
Fluoro – Pink Glow, Space Guppy, Chartreuse Glow and Electric Chicken.
UV – The Oil Family (Motor Oil, Midnight Oil, Dirty Oil and Blood Oil).

I would most often have tied on Opening Night, Gold Rush and one of the Oil Family.

Where to Fish

I will generally avoid driving or paddling all over the flat I wish to fish. Move around the outside of the flat until you wish to commence your drift, drift onto and across the flat, then move back around the flat and drift another line across. If I cannot exit on the other side of the flat and need to move back across the flat, I will retrace my last drift or move across further back as to not spook the fish that I plan to target on my upcoming drift.

As I drift across the flat, I will be fanning long casts, while paying close attention to what is going on around me. Cast to bait movement, fish feeding activity, structure such as weed edges, drop offs, rubble patches and timber, current lines, and water movement. Anything that may signal that there is a fish in the area, along with anything that gives them a reason to be in the area, such as food, ambush points, current brakes or channels and areas they may use to travel through. The edges and drop offs of the flat are also worth some attention. It’s amazing how many times I have caught fish by paying attention to what’s around me and even called a fish on that cast when casting to activity on the water or structure that should be holding fish.

The peak bite times of dawn and dusk can be the most productive, so try and line your tides up with these lower light periods as there is often also less boat traffic on the water. In saying that I have had some of my best sessions in the middle of the day, because the tide is right, there’s plenty of bait around and most of the boat traffic is in the deeper water. Flats can fire in waterways that are busy, if it is consistently busy and the fish have become tuned into the noise, such as weekends and holiday times on Queensland’s Gold Coast and other popular holiday spots. In quieter waterways a boat or PWC ripping across the flat that you’re fishing can cause the bite to shutdown for a while and you may need to fish another area for a while to allow it to recover. Luckily the flats that I generally fish are shallow, which deters boat traffic as they stick to the deeper channels.

Scent

You don’t have to scent your plastics, and you could start your session without it, however I have found that Pro-Cure Super Gel attracts more strikes, more aggressive strikes and makes the fish hold on with more commitment, giving you more time to set the hook. It is a game changer when the bite is tough and when the bite has been slow, so many times I have added scent and hooked up on the next couple of casts. I squirt a little scent on each side of the head end of the plastic and smear it right down to the tail end, every thirty or so casts.

There is a wide range of flavours and different anglers will have different favourites. I keep it simple and run Sardine / Pilchard, Mullet, or Bloody Tuna with my baitfish profile plastics, switching to Saltwater Yabby / Nipper or Shrimp for prawn, yabby and creature bait profiles. In saying that, I believe you are better adding whatever flavour Pro-Cure Super Gel you have in your kit, rather than having no scent applied.

Let’s Go!

That’s a quick overview on a style of fishing that has been very productive for many anglers in terms of both fish numbers and the variety of species. I hope it is a starting point that assists you in identifying the high and low tide flats in the areas that you fish, breaking down the available structure and bait, and in turn selecting a few presentations and retrieves that may appeal to the target species that should be residing in the area.

Your flats session could produce a hot bream bite, numbers of flathead, or a concentration of a surprise species. On the other side of the coin, you could have a quick session like my dad and I that produced eight fish, including eight different species, bream, grunter, flathead, snapper, sweetlip, mulloway, giant herring, and a flounder. We also pulled the hooks on a speedster that we believe was a queenfish… what a crazy session on the flats! Remember to cover ground, mix up your retrieves and make note of what works and where the fish are on the day, as this information will help fast track future flats sessions.

See you on the water…
Justin Willmer

Gearing Up:

TT Red Belly Spin Rods - 1-3kg, 2-4kg and 3-6kg
Okuma ITX Carbon Spin Reels - ITX-1000 and ITX-2500
Platypus Pulse X8 Braid - 6lb, 8lb and 10lb White
Platypus Stealth FC Fluorocarbon Leader - 10lb

ZMan 2.5" Slim SwimZ / TT HeadlockZ Finesse or DemonZ 1/0
ZMan 3" MinnowZ - TT HeadlockZ HD, HeadlockZ Finesse or Big EyeZ 3/0
ZMan 2.5" PrawnZ - TT HeadlockZ Finesse 1/0

Pro-Cure Pilchard Super Gel Scent