Targeting Flathead, which SP's are best?

[~Johno~]

Howdy all, hope your doing well.

Recently, ive got myself into the art of working sp's for flathead. I bought a pack of 3" Pumpkinseed Gulps and headed down into the mouth of the Pine River off the sand in knee deep water at low tide. Caught my first fish on the sp's on my 2nd cast and picked up a undersize flattie, then picked up 3 more with another being undersized, and taking home 2 keepers.

Small fish were smashing the tails off fairly quickly, and i noticed they do this at the start more often, when the scent is strong, cutting down the size of the gulp in half.

So my question is, which would be a better choice for targeting flathead so im not losing my sp's to smaller unwanted fish? Should i go for the larger Pumpkinseed minnow? Or should i go for the biger Gulps like the ones that look like herring/poddy mullet?

Cheers, Johno.

[alleycat]

Hi johno, i always used 3 inch berkley minnows in flathead country with a no/2 tt head, i found this rig was great for flathead and also the bream loved them, use whatever weight you need to get you down or for cast distance, use braid if you can, 4-6lb crystal firline would be fine with 12lb leader, cast your zone left, right and in front then move 20metres and repeat. good luck.

[Noelm]

the best Plastic for Flathead I have found, are the cheap little "twin tail" in about a 2" to 3" in a really sad Brown looking colour, they are cheap as chips and work a treat but not very glamorous to look at.

[B_E_N]

try the berkley powerbaits, stronger so the little fish wont bite thru them and work just aswell as the gulps, i also think they have a better action than the gulps

[punta]

Berkley powerbait 3'' power hawg in black with a gold flick in it.It's my favorite flathead lure and doesn't seem to attract the pickers.Target the drop offs and the run off area's as the tide goes out and fish as slow as possible moving your lure a couple of feet and then slowly winding up the slack then repeat....Hope this helps.....Punta..

[Ozwald]

I'm with Alley Cat - we've always done well with berkley minnows.

[elliven]

i have been having good success with 2inch gulp shrimps,catching largish(70cm -84cm)flatheads on them in the new penny colour.

[imnotoriginal]

Lots of lures will catch flathead, I've caught good fish on most of the lures mentioned here, as well as 5" gulp jerk shads in nuclear chicken and plenty of shad types. I reckon it's more important you get it near the bottom and cast near them, they're lazy buggers most of the time. Good luck.
Joel

[TIMMY 666]

If you're after something tougher try snapback jerkbaits, thery're much harder to tear than usual plastics and gulps especially, they work for me. I've only used the 5" ones.

Tim.

[Crumbo]

I'm with Alleycat and Ozwald on the berkley power minnows. 3' in pumpkinseed is my favourite and it has accounted for many flatties, bream and trevs.

[~Johno~]

Thanks for the replies everyone, ill grab a mixed quantity of different kinds and see how i go.

Cheers

[baitmaster]

hey im good mates with keechie and we both agree that u can catch fish on basically any plastic

[NAGG]

I rarely target flatties ...... but catch heaps as by catch!
I dont really think that it makes much of a difference in what plastic you use ..... as long as it is hopped along the bottom!
If you want to avoid the short takes & destroyed plastics use the non gulp ones ..... in bigger sizes & bigger hooks (100-120mm .... shads , or if you can find these Gambler 4" Ugly Otters 29303 A mate did really well on them down the South Coast over the past 6 months
Over the past few weeks .... Ive caught plenty of 40-50cm jobs on Atomic prongs & the Squidgey Pro lobby ...... I reckon the 4" Prong could do the trick .... + account for some bigger bream:P

Cheers

Nagg