Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Saltwater-Estuary » The Mighty Flathead
The Mighty Flathead
By Sean Bekkers
Ever since I can remember catching a flathead was the constant. Sure, some days we might head out to target mackerel, however if the day was slow it more than likely turn into drifting the flats in the hope of nailing a flathead. Flathead are a highly sort after table fish that in many regions you can catch just about anywhere. They are readily caught in the upper reaches of the creeks, in less than a metre of water also encountered in 50 metres of water 100km offshore. Basically, if flathead are available in your region, just about anyone has a chance of landing one.
Some species of flathead can hit the one metre mark and for most anglers they won't know there are one metre fish lurking in the estuary system. If you keep an ear to the ground you are sure to come across the urban legends of big flathead being caught. Let's face it though, any flathead over 60cm is generally regarded as a good fish, especially when caught on plastics. Add size, teeth, razor sharp spikes and a reputation for ambushing they're prey and when targeted on light tackle this quality table fish just became an excellent sports fish.
When
This will vary depending on what state you live in and a bit of research will go a long way. As for south east QLD, I like to target flathead during the winter months, although you can pretty much target them all year round. The best fish ever landed in my boat, with emphasis on my boat lol, was caught in March and I'll never forget it. A few years back I took a mate out fishing who had never caught a flathead and I decided to take him to a bank where I had caught my personal best, a respectable 79cm model.
We set the boat up for a drift as the tide was pouring from the shallows into about 3-4 metres of water. He tied on his favourite hard body lure and kinda lobbed it about a metre or two from the boat... just to make sure it swam right. As I glanced at the lure the holy grail of flathead shot up from the depths and inhaled it. The fight was unreal, mostly because neither of us were ready for it and when we eventually landed the fish it went 93cm and had a head on it like a front end loader. I was stoked he had caught his first flathead and I turned to him and said "get out"... LOL, absolutely stoked for him and bummed for myself. See urban legend.
Where
As I said earlier there are plenty of places that you can target a flathead, whether it be land based or from a boat. My go-to tide for targeting flathead is the last two hours of the run out. This is because there is the least amount of water for them to hide in and you can concentrate on fishing a stretch of bank. Flathead, being an ambush predator, love cover. Deep drop offs, weed bank edges, rocks, oyster leases and so on and so on. Most of them you can see without the aid of a sounder. Drains are an identifiable hot spot for fatties... they're like a drive through KFC with fish, prawns, crabs and more all getting flushed out into the mouths of the waiting flathead.
Hot tip: Work your lure in the direction that flathead are likely to be lying in ambush. There is not much point working it in a direction they're not likely to see it coming.
Top of the Tide
I find that you have to go the extra mile on the top the tide as there is a lot more water between the fish. The same rules apply though and they love cover and food. Flathead will usually be lying in an area that is providing them with an awesome ambush advantage, such as weed banks, mangrove edges and deepish gutter that the bait fish are likely to be using as a freeway.
Hot tip: Have a good set of polaroid sunglasses as this will allow you to pick out the structure that the flathead are likely to be hiding in. They don't mind sun baking in super shallow water either.
Go-to Gear
Gone are the days of using massive heavy leaders to catch big fish. Nowadays super light rods are capable of landing big fish and light braid, leader and reels mean you can cast all day and not get tired. My go-to for chasing flathead in particular is a 3-6kg rod, like an Okuma Helios matched up with a 2000-4000 size Okuma spinning reel, loaded with 10lb braid. There isn't too many fish that you won't stop with that.
Some of my go-to ZMan plastics include 3" MinnowZ, 4" DieZel MinnowZ and 6" SwimmerZ. I know you're thinking a 6" plastic, what the hell! To be fair, I usually land flathead on those when I'm targeting jewfish and the flathead are a by-catch. A 30cm flathead will smash a 6" plastic, so don't be afraid to fish a larger presentation. What colour to use... seriously some days you need all of them, however my standout colours at the moment are Hot Snakes and probably Pinfish.
When it comes to jigheads, go as light as possible when up on the flats, factoring in the wind and water depth. I find a 1/6oz TT Lures jighead to be perfect for the skinny water stuff, in either a HeadlockZ Finesse or HD.
Hot tip: Something else to consider, especially when slow rolling weed banks or a grabby bottom, is to go weedless. Just rig your plastic on a TT Lures SnakelockZ jighead and match the hook size to your plastic. You can even take the head off the SnakelockZ if you need to go lighter.
http://tackletactics.com.au/Rigging-Guides
Retrieves
As with anything these days, there are tonnes and tonnes of videos of people showing different techniques and retrieves. You may have even stumbled across the Tackle Tactics 101 vids, if not take a look and adopt a retrieve to suit the situation that you're going to fish.
The tide, weather conditions and time of day is all going to be a factor when thinking about what sort of retrieve to use. In saying that, I'm a creature of habit and my standard is a double hop approach, with a little pause. Most of the time the flatties will grab it on the drop and when you go for your next hop the rod will load up. A quick set of the hook usually seal the deal.
Hot tip time: if you're not hitting the bottom on the pause you're not knocking on their door. Flatties are ambush predators. I have seriously watched a PB fish follow my plastic for 30-40 metres and with every hop it moved and with every pause it stopped. I jiggled the lure, dragged it, rolled it at one stage I even began the flathead whisper... as soon as I lifted the lure a fraction too high off the bottom the fish swam off. I guess you don't get that big by eating anything.
I hope this gets you started or sparks an idea for your next session. Good luck.
Cheers, Sean