I have predominantly caught Flathead on bait apart from spinning a few on an old 'wonder wobbler'. I have read heaps of stories of monster lizardson trolled lures and would like to give it a go! Any advice on favourite lures, troll speed techniques etc. would be greatly appreciated
Cheers
Blue
i'm no expert but try.
pink lures that dive deep enough to hit the sandy bottom.
past this lure another 10m - 15m or so. run a soft plastic. if the flathead miss the first bait generally they will get the 2nd.
slow troll speeds is the go.
Thanks L_G,
how far behind the boat do you troll the first lure? Any preference in make/model?
Blue
one day i took a pink (deception) lure to the broadwater and couldnt keep it in the water, got a 73cm lots of40+cm a whiting, toads, longtom? and a tailor..went home and bought all his cousins,brothers and sisters at $11.00 each i thought it was the best money i ever spent havent caught a dam thing with them since..but hang on these (halco) with the rattle are doin pretty good..gold,green,browny orange.gotta go to the tackle shop cya. later....
I run mad mullet lures in a brown and yellow mix which is a colour "i" on thier charts. and a pink yellow combo "m"type.
2.5 and three meter deep diving lures are best. You will not miss useing these lures provideing you troll along channel banks and creek and drain entrances.
Hope this helps
Ray
Give the manns 5+ and 10+ grey ghost a shot.
Caught heaps of flatties on these lures but not recently.
Damn weed is a pain in the butt at present.
We need a few big storms to flush the system out.
Just match the lures to the depth you are trolling and travel with the tide for a better result.
Target areas around creek mouths on the run out tide as the flatties will lay and ambush bait fish as they come out of the shallows into the deeper water.
Use braided line to enable lures to get down deeper and increase the hook ups rates.
Cheers Brent
use small lures which run in 6-8 ft of water such as micro mullets, the smallest Halco scorpion, stretch 5+, attack lures, and heaps of others. Run them about 20 m behind the boat as slow as you can possible troll. Work the edges of sandbanks, weeds beds, drains and creeks on a falling tide. Make sure you are working water which is 1.5 to 2 m deep ie so your lures are close to the bottom. I don't think it makes a great deal of difference whether you troll into or with the current myself. Importantly, you need to constantly monitor you lures to make sure they are not fouled with weed as you will not catch a fish on a lure carrying weed.
My advice, spend a few $ and do a charter with Brad Smith (I think he will come out in your boat for a bit less). You will learn heaps and it will cut your learning curve by years.
Jeremy
"The underlying spirit of angling is that the skill of the angler is pitted against the instinct and strength of the fish and the latter is entitled to an even chance for it's life."
(Quotation from the rules of the Tuna Club Avalon, Santa Catalina, U.S.A.)
Apathy is the enemy
Use soft plastics
lol JB. short but sweet.
Yeh the hard bodies are for the oldies lol
Jeremy,Originally Posted by Jeremy
Thanks for the advice. Do you have a particular colour preference?
Where does Brad Smith operate, do you have contact details?
Cheers
Blue
I like the soft plastics call - don't know how they troll though LOL. I've never had much sucess trolling for flathead, even in areas that I have caught them by casting lures. I put it down to the noise of the outboard and that flaties can be easily spooked at times.
Remember that flathead very often live in very shallow water. I saw one bloke targeting them very effectively in some of the southern Hinchinbrook creeks, with bow and stern mounted electrics on a punt. He was moving along the edge of the sandbanks, just tossing a Rio prawn along the bank in 20-50cm of water.
I have had many hard bodied presentations followed by flathead, while they just seem to scoff a plastic.
Gday Blue,
I've caught most, if not all, of my flathead trolling lures. I use Micro mullets by lively lures, in any colour (preferably pink) in about 6ft of water. Some lures have trouble staying in the water even though we are trolling as slow as possible, micro mullets have no probs at all. They have great action and seem to get less weed on them. Best of all they catch fish. I honestly would not waste my time/money with any other lure anymore, but thats just me. If you have to get a different type, Manns 5+, Manns stretch 5+, Manns 10+ and Manns stretch 10+
Where are you based and where do you plan on chasing your lizards? I'm actually going to be in the 'pin area tomorrow, I'll be doing some trolling, but mostly I'll be back working at my soft plastic technique... gotta get it right, I'm still after my croc
Good luck,
Dane
Heres a smaller one caught by the lure hooked to the rod in the background - guess what it is
My best results have always been trolling with the current and probibly the best time at or near dead low tide. I fish very shallow water from 500 to 2500. Best size catches have been on small immitation squid hard bodied lures of only about 40mm, favourite colour green. Just let out enough line so that the lure only bumps on the bottom every now & then. If the lure is dredging and you can stop this by slightly lifting the tip of your rod thats about perfect. I trol as slow as I can go with a 15 hp motor on 3.8 punt. Unreal how many and varied fish species you can catch in the shallows. I think the small lure to catch the big fish is called the jelly bean factor.
Try pink Tilsan Bass, grey ghost Mann's stretch 10 or pink Micro mullets, 6lb fireline and troll channel edges at low tide and on top of flats at high. Don't forget to try mangrove creeks inbetween.
Neil
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