Best tides to fish the Jumpin Pin for Flathead?

[breakthelines]

Just got the new boat and have never fished the Pin before, just wondering if i can get some advice on general areas and tides to flick lures for flathead.

Thanks, Jay

[aidbox]

Best time is on a runout tide for sure. Cast over dropoffs with the tide around green banks and short island. What sort of lures are you using?

[mitchdemeanor]

sorry guys excuse me for being naive (or just a pom) but where exactly is the pin?

[breakthelines]

Soft plastics mate.

[Noelm]

doesn't make much difference where you are, Flathead are Flathead, where you catch them in one river/creek/lake you will find them in any other place, best spots for the beginner is to look for small side channels that drain into the main one, on the runout tide, all sorts of small Mullet and other baitfish are forced to vacate as the water drops, the sneaky old Flathead knows this and will lie in ambush just near the area the water is draining into, work this sort of area well. Next is along weed banks and rocky outcrops, Flathead will hide around these places to grab and easy feed and prawns and small fish feed in the weed and rocks. Any dropoff is also worth a few casts, especially if there is a lot of baitfish activity up on the shallow sections, I guess what I am saying is, think like a Flathead, he is an ambush feeder and will not chase food for any distance, they lie in wait for it to come to them.

[Pero]

doesn't make much difference where you are, Flathead are Flathead, where you catch them in one river/creek/lake you will find them in any other place, best spots for the beginner is to look for small side channels that drain into the main one, on the runout tide, all sorts of small Mullet and other baitfish are forced to vacate as the water drops, the sneaky old Flathead knows this and will lie in ambush just near the area the water is draining into, work this sort of area well. Next is along weed banks and rocky outcrops, Flathead will hide around these places to grab and easy feed and prawns and small fish feed in the weed and rocks. Any dropoff is also worth a few casts, especially if there is a lot of baitfish activity up on the shallow sections, I guess what I am saying is, think like a Flathead, he is an ambush feeder and will not chase food for any distance, they lie in wait for it to come to them.

I don't profess to know much about catching fish. I spend all summer chasing prawns with a castnet. I have caught numerous flathead. In most cases it was on the outgoing tide in front of drains and areas that hold prawns. Last may a friend and I spent a morning chasing prawns. We concentrated on mouths of drains. We caught a couple of kilo of prawns and 5 flathead (with a castnet). They definitely sit and wait in ambush.

[Noelm]

see, there you go! A good lure to start with is the good old Prawnstar, from that you can try all sorts of retrieves and methods to see what works best for you, Flathead fishing is a "SLOW" retrieve, jerky and slow, falling tide seems best, but on a rising tide, you need to think in reverse, Flathead will be right up on the flats waiting for unsuspecting Mullet and whiting to get their lunch of small worms and nippers and stuff, so that's the place to fish on a rising or high tide. Think like a Flathead and you will have success anywhere you fish, same goes for other species, you need to understand their feeding habits and the sort of food they eat.

[Kdog]

sorry guys excuse me for being naive (or just a pom) but where exactly is the pin?

Gday Mate,

The Pin "Bar" itself is an area between North and south Stradbroke Islands, a lot of us call the "Pin" as any area from there back toward Short Island etc, Its quite a large area.

[Deadstick]

This time of the year the fish are moving out of the river systems & slowly making their way to the bars around Sept to spawn. most people are having success fishing the middle water between these places ATM.

If you have a beacon to beacon or similar have a look at the areas around the channel between the pin & tipplers as well as the surrounding flats. Also in and around whalleys gutter & on the northern side of Crusoe island.

As Noelm said on the higher parts of the tide get up on top of these banks & target in and around the weedy patches. as the tide starts to drain move back to the edges & look for runoffs & drains leading into the channels. on the low tide drift the main chanels & bounce along the bottom. if you see any concentrations of bait work these areas over as they wont too be far away.

As far as plastics go i like the Gulp range. 3" shrimps on the shallows & 5" jerksahds in the deep. Jigheads between 1/4 - 1/2 in most places.

Good luck hope you get amongst them.

[sandbankmagnet]

A lot of people rave about lures and soft plastics, but don't underestimate the live whiting or mullet on a drift across the edges of sandbanks. Nothing swims like a livie,, like a livie.

[GBC]

Of course that'd be a legal whiting, because flathead just hate a 10cm model......