Flathead on Soft Plastics Part 1.

As anglers we love chasing the humble dusky flathead in South East Queensland during the warmer months of the year. And as the water temperature warmed up a few degrees during September, it signaled the start of the season and this is when flathead start to actively ambush their prey throughout the rivers. Although a wide variety of fish species can be targeted using soft plastics in the SE, flathead still remain the easiest species to catch as they are a sucker for pretty much anything that move past their nose. Their readiness to take lure, reasonable fighting abilities and good table quality makes the dusky flathead a great fish for soft plastics anglers of all level of experience to target.

To target these fish using soft plastics you need to think like a flathead. Being a fish that feeds by sitting and waiting to ambush your prey, the flathead will move to different areas at various stages of the tide to allow an easy ambush. A flathead hangs in the deeper holes and channels around the bottom of the tide and move up into the shallower waters around the half of the tide. Look for prominent yabby banks, bridge or jetty pylons that hold bait. tell tail signs include Back eddys, ripples caused by water running off a bank or slack water.

Like bass, bream and mangrove jack fishing with lures where you would pepper a snag with numerous casts, for flathead you should pepper a sand banks with cast. Don't just pepper the one spot, work your plastic along the whole banks with each cast around 20 degrees further along the bank each cast until you've covered the whole bank. This method of casting in a 150 degree area is known as fan casting.  

Most colours work, but a select few will out perform the rest. Trial and error is the only way to work out which is the most successful colour or style in your area at that time of the year. Water colour affects what colour to choose and also what the flathead are feeding on at the time. For dirty water in the middle to upper reaches of the rivers or throughout the river after recent rainfall, use brighter colours with plenty of glitter. In clear water use natural patterns that are more likely to mimic the bait.

Make sure you read next weeks article where I will discuss in more detail the choices of soft plastics, jig heads, leader, retrieving styles and locations in your river.

Where are the fish biting?

Offshore: Snapper to 5kg, long tail tuna to 7.5kg on north reef. Coral trout to 5kg and sweetlip to 4kg on Sunshine Reef. Snapper and grassy sweetlip on Murphy's reef and Gneering shoal.

Noosa: Whiting along Marcus Beach and tailor to 4kg along Noosa North Shore. Elbow slapper and flathead on the sand flats around the river mouth and in Weyba Creek.  Mangrove jack in between the lakes. Trevally in Woods Bay.

Maroochydore: Tarwhine to 38cm, bream, flathead and tailor to 3kg in the cod hole. Quality whiting to 600g on the bottom of the tide along the bli bli stretch yesterday morning.  Smaller whiting averaging 28cm opposite Chambers Island. School jew and giant trevally on live bait in the middle reaches around high tide.

Mooloolaba: Dart and bream along Kawana Beach. Mangrove jack and bream up to 1kg in Kawana Waters Canals. Tailor and bream off Point Cartwright and the Kawana Rock wall. Whiting above McKenzie's bridge. Bream and trevally along the LaBalsa stretch.

Caloundra: Chopper tailor in the bar. Good whiting too 700g along Golden beach and the stretch between Bells and Coochin Creek. Sand crabs at the caloudnbra end of the passage and afew muddies in the deeper holes. Small queenfish, flathead and a 3kg stargazer from the boardwalk.