Shallow drifting techniques...baits and soft body lures.

[deckie]

Howdy...last few yrs i've been experimenting with drifting soft plastics over my usual flattie areas in water between about 2-15m..mainly when the wind picks up later in morning or on the way home. Baits still seem to well outfish in general but occasionally i pick up the larger variety lizard on a big soft plastic. Most i try tend to be thin tail/whispy tail types that i've always thought might offer more action at a slow steady pace, either worm like or minnow. Personally i'm thinking about not bothering and just throwing an extra bait out, but got a mate that keeps saying he gets his best fish on them...i use the same lures and get sweet FA but the guy isnt the type to bullshit.

Got 4 questions to ask i suppose...any answers to any q's, tips or results of your own experiments greatly appreciated.

1. In v shallow water in sunny weather (say 2-5m) do you think there's any truth in the boat scaring the fish away ahead of your offerings ?..i.e. the shadow passing over bottom or the hull itself making them nervous instead of ambushing a bait/lure. Obviously not easy to conquer this IF true, but wouldnt mind feedback either way.
In water maybe 3-4m or less i tend to turn the motor on the drift to kind of zig zag a bit in the breeze, but i'm starting to think thats a waste of time too.

2. Are there any particular soft plastics you've had decent results with on the drift ?..rigging techniques appreciated...or do you simply think its a waste of time compared to bouncing a bait ? Been thru a variety of types,colours and tried a few things like action discs to create more "interest". Any tips or even just ideas to try greatly appreciated.

3. For as long as i;ve been fishing i've always heard/read/been told that for flatties a sinker bouncing ahead of the bait simply attracts their attention...in reality after 40 yrs of fishing i doubt this very very much, and on many days i think it might even make fish like flatties scoot away. Any possibility this could possibly be one of those old wives tales that just keeps on getting repeated ?

4. I wont influence answers by saying what i've found regarding trace lengths/weights...so last question is would you rather a v long, short, or no trace at all between any weight and the bait/lure when drifting shallowish water ?

Bit of an epic..tx for any feedback
Steve.

[Chas & Clarry]

Interesting thread, hope it gets answers.. No time to give mine now but will be back tonight hopefully

[Richo1]

Hi Deckie,

One of the best plastics we have found is 4" Snapback white in colour - pretty basic profile but the flaties love it. We use a reasonable size jig head enough so that it hits the bottom easily, in shallow water 2-4m with best results where you can just see the bottom - not crystal clear water. I'm a believer that the 'Puff' of sand that the jighead makes does get the flatheads attention, and they will often chase the it all the way to the boat. Usually drift till we find a patch, then anchor up until the bite stops. Works in the brisbane river mouth area anyway.

Hope that helps

[2BNVS1]

I fish the Pin quite regularly in my mates 4.2m tinny... we fish a particular area that is about 1m deep. water very clear can see every detail, we've caught dozens of flatheads a few different ways.... 1, actually working the plastic around a few different spots, and 2, just letting the drift do the movement and every so often just twitch the rod and that landed me a 58cm one lol, ( i was actually doing that while rigging another rod)

obviously in 1m of water u dont need much weight but usually use a 1/6th just to keep it on the bottom, usually have about a rod length of fluro as leader. also i downsize alot in line there as there is no real structure so often use 4lb braid, 6/8lb leader...

bait worked bugger all for me and that was a few years ago since then havent touched the stinky stuff ( unless its a livey)... 3" grub, 3/4" minnow, 2/3" shrimp, my favs

ben...

[tunaticer]

I am a firm believer that a curl tailed minnow or grub performs best as a dead sticked plastic. But in saying that they also perform best when the rod is in a nearly vertical position rather than laying close to the horizon. A vertical rod creates much more movement and action on the bait because as the boat rocks the tip of the rod moves more. A rod laying down gives much less action. Maybe you should take notice of the rid holder type your mate uses?? It could be as simple as that.

100mm Squidgy Wrigglers in the blood worm or drop bear colours are probably the most efficient flathead and snapper takers I have noticed. The snapbacks catch many more snapper than flathead in my experience.

Yes the boat can and does scare off flathead, but they will return to that edge of the drop off or channel pretty quickly because that is where they feed, you won't find them where they are not going to be feeding.

[Chas & Clarry]

100mm Squidgy Wrigglers in the blood worm or drop bear colours are probably the most efficient flathead and snapper takers I have noticed. .

I'd add the 100mm squidgy wrigglers in red rum to that for flatties in shallow flats. We have landed quite a few in 1.5 to 2.5m deep flats in the pine river on those (and to a lesser degree of flick baits in yakka)...drifting but not dead sticking...adding a double twitch haven't caught many really close to the boat have assumed that is because the boat does disturb them.

Have tried casting ahead of the drift but am crap at that technique.any advice on that would be welcomed.

Tim

[Si]

shhhhh, dont let the secret out mate.

i think its a deadly technique on flattie and normally revert to smaller lighter jig head sizes then you would normally use (1/8 1/12). if you are tending to snag up on the bottom then your jig head is too heavy or your not paying attention and dragging the lure across the bottom. in shallow water yes i think the boat does scare them a bit, but sometimes doesnt at all. doesnt pay to make noise though as they can spook. in deeper water it wouldnt scare them at all i dont think.

i hardly ever anchor when fishing for flatties. i love doa shrimps on the drift because they are a little lighter. I also like berkely saltwater powerbait shrimp (hard to find). but really the type of plastic doesnt really matter that much, just as long as its near the bottom.

technique - depends on how fast you are moving with the current. i sometimes employ a homemade sea anchor to keep me on the river path to limit me repositioning with my motor. a couple of short tap taps up with the rod and then let it sink, repeat over. sometimes yo yo it.

i personally find that flathead dont bite as much in the dead of summer time. i believe they are affected by water temp and tend to go off the bite quite quickly.

leader length i'm not too sure it makes a difference or not but i like to keep them longish, but invariably they keep getting shorter with snags and stuff

[goat boy]

My favourite haunts in the Tweed the last 3 years has been shallow water drifts in 30 - 200cm depth. I had gone out quite a bit to these places and many times had an ex-guide (from Weipa) with me. Everyones experiences and even experience differs so I'll give my 2c worth on your Qs

1. never noticed the boat scare any fish and quite often fish would be taken very close to the boat (flathead and whiting mainly in these areas). I preferred when the water was clear, dunno if any correlation but the muddier/cloudier the water the more pests seemed to be around (small Bream, toads etc). This included sometimes running the motor as the wind would push me away from where I wanted, again, never noticed any difference but generally after I completed a drift I would take a long berth around the area to start again.

2. Curl tails worked a treat, the more soft the lure, the curlier the tail action. My preference was for stuff in the 'nuke chook' colour but caught them on all kinds. The guide I went out with never used anything other than stick baits (various sizes) in any of the 'watermelon' style colours. He was always more successful than me but my experience is limited. Definitely noticed days where either plastics worked or small vibe lures worked better. Again, I can't prove it but definitely noted it on more than several occassions that if softs weren't working than try small vibes (large ones never had much success with in these areas) and vice versa.

3. I always went as light as possible jighead or sinker wise. Again, dunno why but that more natural 'wafting' movement seemed to work better. never fished much with bait in these areas but my fave jighead was 1/16 or maybe 1/12 if a faster drift. I'd get annoyed if conditions didn't suit either of those and would usually go elsewhere.

4. I always used about a rod length of FC and as many people say, the lighter the better (Once again, dunno if there was any proof but def seemed to note more success on lighter FC. 6lb or 8lb was my preference, sometimes changing to a spool of straight 4lb FC. The ex-guide bloke didn't seem to care much for trace and would only ever put a meter or so on and used it right up to 20cm or so, dunno if that was laziness or he 'knew' it didn't matter, I never asked him, now I wish I did.

Thats my experience, as i said, I'm no expert but I fished shallow drifts regularly for 3 years and took notice of what (seemed to) work and what didn't. Someone else fishing that same area may have a completely different story

[deckie]

drift rig.jpg
tx for the feedback...seems everyone will have their favorite soft plastic, i've found flatties dont care a great deal but the thin tail types and curly tail ones give me some results..still not as good as baits which i guess is why i'm asking if i;m doing anything wrong in presenting them on the drift. Best flattie till now was actually taken spinning an old gold "wonder wobbler" (remember them ?) about 25 yrs ago. Caught them on those old bright yellow double tail "mr twisters" 20-30 yrs ago as well...the more recent types though do make me want to use them more and more and now hoping to use them as much or more than baits on the drift. Come a long way from a prawn on cane springers.

Trying to learn this wizz bang drawing stuff on the puter (paint) so excuse the dumb picture...but will hopefully show the two rigs i generally use anywhere between 1m-15m.
The first rig is more for deeper water and drop offs (3-15m) or faster drifts, and uses a trusty old favorite, a surf popper which i use for deeper drifting...i dip them in tuna oil and its bouyancy i always thought would give the trailing bait/sp more action and keep it just bouncing along and off the bottom with a small jighead on the sp. Often the better flatties hit that instead, but regularly gets attacked by little choppers and lose a few poppers cut off clean. Get all sorts of things hit it occasionally though and tend to put them out in dirtier water with more pink/flouro type clour sp's. No idea if its better/worse than any other rig so if you think its dumb just say so...we all get into habits.
Second rig in the pic shows just the simple running sinker rig with an unweighted SP i've been using for slower drifting and v shallow water....instead of having a jighead i always thought better to have a more natural "wafting" type trailing behind on a longish trace. Dont ask me if its better/worse coz i dont know...do you reckon better to have the weight at the sp (i.e. a jighead) ?

hey tunaticer...great tip re the more vertical rod in the holder. Makes perfect sense. Might even try that with a softer tip rod for more action on the lure.

Wish i knew if the bloody boat itself was actually the main enemy of drifting v shallow water...need some eyes under the boat...always seems to be conflicting views if it does matter. Not that there's much anyone can do about it anyway except trying to zig zag a bit using the motor as a keel in the breeze.

Any and all feedback much appreciated
Steve.