Saw plenty of good size flattys

[blackjew]

Gday fellers
Went for a fish last weekend at moonie beech river,just north of Coffs,8 lb braid and 20lb leaders 2mtr in length, well the maiden voyage for the new second hand tinny we bought ,the water was clear ,a lot cleaner anyway than the Clarence has been. After watching the prawn star in action ,on
numerous you tube videos they looked like the goods,I rigged my missus with a natural colour,my daughter with a light red i think its called blood,and i had the new you beaut Ranga ,assuming all bases were covered.I also had a bushy stiffy popper,and a bushy stiffy minnow in tassi tiger colour .going up the river slowly on the other side away from the flats and every now and then having a drift back down the river .The tide was still slowly coming in so i thought we had timed our trip perfect ,we slipped the anchor over the side and saw 5 flattys make a burst from a weed bed ,wow look at that we might get a nice feed today,man was i wrong.
Well thats it was the words of the little lady im bringing prawns next time ,these bloody plastics dont
work ,lol .After what seemed like casting forever not one hit even though i saw probably 20 fish ,did i use plastics no,maybe that was my mistake We got back to the ramp and had a chat to 2 blokes that said they got 2 nice flatys on blades,hmmmm my lovely said have you got any of those mmm yes i have 2 but i wanted to try these ones today .I was hardly using the motor just drifting and casting to the weed beds,were
the fish were coz i could see them now and then ,the noise of our daughter saying im bored faded in the distance when they paddled away on the yak.
was my leader to heavy what are you guys thoughts please .

[blackjew]

Gday out there
just wondering why 150 people take the time to read my thread but not one can give me there thoughts on what i was doing wrong .Cheers Rob.

[Si]

Gday out there
just wondering why 150 people take the time to read my thread but not one can give me there thoughts on what i was doing wrong .Cheers Rob.

sometimes the answer aint clear and that what makes fishing what it is. i have found flatties do go off the bite and then other times go berserk. it's just the luck of the draw and you probabaly were not doin anything really that wrong. in terms of prawnstars, they are good lures but make sure you rig them correctly otherwise they may spin and look unatural. maybe the flatties were just not intersted in them at that specific time and place and some other lure choice would have been more effective. where the hard bodies running close to the bottom? why not try next time some gulp or berkely soft plastics and rig them on 1/4 and 3/8 jigheads with 2/0 or 3/0 hooks depending on current strength and depth, jig them slowly across the bottom. You should eventually get connected to some.

cheers

[smokindrag]

Try using a lighter leader to start! say 10lb @ 2 metres long, only upsize your leader if you are getting bitten off on a consistent basis!

Generally speaking if you are spooking the flatties with your boat you are too close (this is not always the case tho!) try positioning your boat a decent cast length away from where you intend to fish your lures.

prawnstars are a great lure, but i will always use berkley gulp plastics as an 'exploration' lure to find where the flatties are. your plastic must also be in regular contact with the bottom.

hope this helps

Dan..

[oldrustyhook]

hey mate sorry to here about the bad session.
I'm no expert only recently turning over to the darkside and using almost solely sp's and hards but i find if there not biting then switching up your lure is the best thing you can do especially if your sighting them but then not even getting a sniff.

for eg i was casting off the bank the other day with a 2inch gulp shad and wasn't even getting close to a hit. After 20-30 casts i switch it over to a 3inch gulp prawn and second cast got jumped by a 62cm flicking in exactly the same spot as the other casts. my mate next to me see's me hook up and switches to the same sp and hooks into a 40-50 cm model after a few casts also.

Trying to match what other bait is in the water is key if theres plenty of bait fish then a shad style sp or a hard body and if prawns are about use your prawn lures.

In my opinion if your chasing lizards you really cant go past a gulp soft plastic in any style colour and size they absolutely love them and dont be afraid to switch them up if ya not getting a hit have a few different styles on hand. Also a heavier jig head so you know your bouncing close to the bottom all the time.

good luck next time your out and hopefully hear of some better luck next time

oh and like dan said above change your leader 20lb is massive overkill. i'll often drop right down to 6lb if i feel like pushing my luck and hoping to get the odd bream by catch but 8-12lb is a safe option.

[004dam]

I would be dropping my leader down to around 10lb fluorocarbon or around a 6lb if your chasing other species as well at the same time. Just remeber with the lighter leader is most the damage is done when the flatties head is above the water.

I find a squidgy fish 70 -80mm in black and gold a killer on flatties.

[Mullet Musketeer]

Black Jew - have a look at the recent blog post on fishing for Flathead in the Clarence at Browns Rocks. I found lots of little ones there last week ( around 20 in a session) but only three were keepers. There are plenty of posts on here and on my blog which talk about plastics technique for flatties but I have to confess I have never got the hang of prawnstars - follow the link below

[blackjew]

Awesome thanks heaps fellers,muchly appreciated,
Come to think of it now the only bait i saw was a few 4 to 6 inch whiting ,so ill be dropping my leader size,I get a bit sus when i see the thickness of 6lb hmmmmmm but i fully understand what your saying , upping the size of my plastics,Yes the stiffy minnow i was using was dragging through the sand ,and the prawn star was swimming like a prawn ,so i must have had that rigged right .OK thanks Mullet Musketeer,i only just saw that thread on the Clarence,and thanks for the link to your blog.
Thanks smokindrag most of the time i went upstream a fair way then drifted back over the flats ,casting at the weed beds,and that's when i was seeing them scatter of the beds ,but maybe the shadow of the boat ,and the constant winging of our 9 year old being bored didn't help Cheers for you great info.
004Dam thanks mate for your great tips ill be trying them soon.
Thanks to you oldrustyhooks ,ill be taking your great info on board as well Cheers
Thanks Serola ilandi for your great info ill be making some needed adjustments.
.