flathead fishing, confused

[Th0m]

Hi, this is my first post. i recently got in to a bit of fishing cos its a great way to get outside the house for a while n relax. most afternoons i just head down my local warf cos its only down the road, this old fella i was talking to got me on to the atomic chicken squidgeys. i used them last week and was amazed by how much my fishing imporved, i caught a decent blue swimmer crab. dam no landing net got away but did land a nice flathead that i took home and battered and it was great. but seems this week as quickly as it improved it seems to have gone again haha, this week ive had nuthing but little leather jackets just nibble away my soft platics away. with no decent strikes at all from bigger fish. the weather and tide has been pretty much similar. just the luck of the day i guess?
i mostly go down in the afternoon catching the bottom of the tide. the area is sandy and weedy and not very deep on the lowwater. prob 500mm to 1M deep would i probably be better off taking the extra 5 min pushy ride down to the bridge/channel further down the road?
what else to flathead seem to like im thinking of going back to fresh bait because the plastics arnt super cheap.
i guess if nothings happening after 20mins it time to try some different bait or tackle ay?
thanks for any tips/ input

[Kleyny]

mate try doing a search on this site for techniques or what the flatty likes, tides/where/when.
I'm no expert but try finding a drain or structure to cast near on the going out tide.

seems to work for me (on ocasions)

Trail and error mate

neil

[littlejim]

Thom,

we fish for flathead from a boat, but maybe there isn't much difference. Normally we are using the innards from squid, we have eaten the other bits. At the local fish pool they eat bread thrown into the water. They also like eating bits of other flathead. From the boat it appears that if they are there and hungry they eat anything on a hook. Squid innards and 'anything' seem cheaper than plastics if they are getting munched off.

[nuggstar]

i have a lot of fun catching heaps of mid size flattys working the edges of ribbon weed beds. i useualy use a squidgy fish in the 60mm/110mm sizes in garry glitter or killa tomatoe colour and use a 2g/6g jig head. i just wade out in the weed and work the edges with the old jig jig pause jig jig pause rod work. i catch large numbers of flatties doing this but the size of the flattys on the ribbon beds never gets verry big (the bigger ones like a different enviroment)

[Flex]

As kids we used to get heaps of flathead using pilchards or any other sort of white bait.

The trick I found that works best is bait it up through the nose. cast out over a drop off or fishy looking area. And slowly wind in, so your bait is draging along the bottom.

If a flathead is close usually you'll feel 1-2 hard tugs then nothing.. as the flathead hits and then stays still. count to 10 and then slow strike to set the hook.

I have fished that technique for years and it seems to be the best way of picking up flathead.

[Th0m]

thanks heaps for the tips. yeah when i caught my first flatty on a SP i wasnt even holding the rod i was talkin to my brother n just had it sitting out there in the weeds, so i guess playing it much slower is a great way to go
ive read the flatties like to bite on the low end of the tide because all the things they eat wash in to the channels were there sitting. is this nessisarily true? i get the impression that if the foods there, theyl go for it no matter what the time of day.
is burley really needed for flaties?, again from what ive read they seem to be a lazy fish who just sit in the channels n see what floats by
thanks

[revs57]

Yeah Thom,

You're onto it. Flatties are predatory, but would seem to not move around a lot. I caught a tagged fish last year not far from where it was originally caught at The Pin. And I've never tried to burley them up, but sought to hunt them out.

I guess my only tip would be to work your SP around and area, not just cast it and leave it for toads and LJ's to chew it up. As you said, they can get expensive.

You don't need a lot of water for flatties, as some have said the edges of weed beds, but they also hang on the edges of dropoffs and channels and feed off whatever floats or swims by. They will ambush anything that comes withing 150 mm of their nose. Thats why you need to work an area over casting each time in a fanning pattern to cover all the territory, with a slow twitch and wind to put some action into your SP.

They are also a lot of fun in the surf, fishing the edges of gutters on the shallow run outs.

All the best with it

By the way, welcome to ausfish!

Cheers

Rhys