best flattie sp's for beginners

[woody74]

Hi people's, taking the kids and ball&chain :o to the gold coast in a couple of weeks for some well earned R&R and am keen to have a go at some flatties on sp's. I have never used sp's before and was wondering how do I go about them? What lures to buy, what size jig heads,ect. Will be landbased and don't know anywhere to fish either. Don't want secret spots or anything, just a couple of places to catch a fish or two. Hope someone can help. CHEERS woody.

[alleycat]

Use berkley 3 inch minnows and whatever weight suits head with no 2 hook and from pointing at water try 3 jerks from there to vertical and repeat keeping lure near bottom.

[Jeremy]

I also like the 3" powerbaits with 1/8 oz jighead, but honestly if you ask 100 people about their favourite SP for flathead, you will probably get 100 different answers. Truth is most SPs work well for flathead and most colours.

Work the SP slowly so it moves slowly and stays close to the bottom. Leave it rest for a few seconds at a time. Don't strike instantly if you get a bite. Let the fish suck it down for half a second or more. Close to rock walls and around bridges should hold flathead, best time is sparrows.

Jeremy

[shayned]

Mate go and get the berkley sp dvd, great flat head info on here. If you are new start with gulp 3'' grub tail minnow in pumpkin seed and squidgy silver fox paddle tail 4". Mate these to 1/8 jig head with either #1 or 1/0 hook the 1/0 gives better gape for the squidgy.

These 2 options will cover you for most water and flathead love them. Leave the stick baits until your confidence improves. These 2 have an inbuilt swim action to help overcome any technique probs you may have.

To find flatties walk the flats at low and look for the lie marks go back as the high is starting to fall and work the areas. Also find some big yabbie banks work out where the water drains off here and work the deeper water on the edge of these areas on a dropping tide or right after the turn on low. Failing this the edges around weedbeds on the run up to high and just after, concentrate on the sides offering shelter from the tidal run. Find the thread "I hate soft plastics" some generous people offered me some brilliant advice on it. I think you'll find Jeremy popping up there a couple of times as well. Good luck with it. Find fishing dan's website he's written some good plastic advice here.

[last_cast]

Woody,

Everything above is good advice. Have caught plenty of flathead on Berkley 3" power minnows (pumpkin seed colour has always worked for me) on 1/8th jig heads. However my absolute favourite is the 125mm Squidgy Wriggler in Bloodworm and a 5 or 6 gram round squidgy jig head. The larger jig head gives you extra casting distance and lets you stick to the bottom if there is a current which can be important for land based fishing. I like the tail of the Squidgy Wriggler as it gives some movement at rest in the current to get a flathead's attention. There are many similar plastics that would do the same thing like Atomic Fat grubs in 5 inch. Cannot help you with locations sorry. Good luck.

Cheers

[nabs12]

It is probably best to stick to lures with inbuilt actions like grub tails.
I would reccomend using squidgy fish or shads with a 1/8 or maybe 1/4 jighead just so you can get further casts and so its easier for the kids.

For me the squidgy fish in gary glitter has worked well. Also worth a try are the 3inch gulp minnow grubs.. basically anything with a paddletail will be best as all you really need to do is slowly retrieve it along the bottom.
Hope this helps..