Spring Dusky Flathead

Flathead are one of the bread and butter species targeted by anglers in the estuaries and beaches of Queensland. At the moment good numbers of both larger fish with plenty of smaller school flathead have moved into our coastal waters to feed and breed over the next few months providing anglers of all ages hours of fun.

Flathead are fairly poor swimmers and tend hide out in areas of lower current strength or will burry themselves in the sand in an ambush position with only their eyes showing.

They lay waiting for small bait to swim over them and with a short burst swallow the bait fish with their large bucket mouth.

 A combination of week swimming ability and ambush feeding style helps us as anglers to locate areas that we believe to be good flathead habitats. The best locations to try your luck in the estuaries are along rock walls, bridge pylons, snags, under pontoons, bends in the river, change in depth along the river banks and sand/mud bars. Areas of low current behind structure are where baitfish congregates. Try to fish on the down stream side of a structure or banks when the tide is running out for best results.

 Drifting in kayak or boat over water with varying depth is also a great way of catching flathead. One of the best things about these fish is that will eat almost any bait that drifts past their nose. My preferred baits are live herring, whitebait, small W.A. pilchards and larger green prawns. Flathead readily take lures of all shapes and sizes so it is well worth throwing or trolling a lure around an area that you believe to hold flathead.

So far this season me and my work Darrin have had great results from the mud flats in the middle reaches of the river using soft plastics. The best results were achieved when working the edges of sand banks and channels as the tide floods across them. We used an array of plastics with the stand outs being:

• Berkley Powerbait in 3" and 4" in Rainbow Smelt, Glow Scales, Clear Gold Fleck scales and pumpkinseed.

• Exude 5" Saltwater RT Slug Rootbeer/Goldbeer Black Flake and Native Shrimp - these work really well on bigger dusky flathead and seem to monstered by a lot of big females flathead over the 70cm.

Drifting with soft plastics and small baitfish like white bait, blue sardines, frogmouth pilchards and hardy heads is a great way to target dusky, as you will cover a large surface area. Drifting allows you to cover a huge surface area including sand bank drop offs, yabby banks, channels and holes, which are all flathead haunts. The flathead are here to stay right thought the spring and summer months so make sure you take advantage of there feeding habits and bag a few.

Where are the fish biting?

Noosa: A few snapper to 3kg this week on north reef. A few whiting along Teewah beach.  Mangrove jack and trevally between the lakes. Whiting at dawn and dusk in the river mouth, Noosaville reach and Munna Point. Trevally to 3kg, mainly on live bait in Woods Bay. Flathead between the river mouth and Munna Point.

Maroochydore: Good flathead to 58cm from Bli Bli bridge and the river mouth. Sand whiting to 450g throughout the lower reaches on the ebb tide and off the bank opposite Yinni Street on dusk. Chopper tailor in the cod hole. School mackerel on trolled whitebait around Old Women Island.

Mooloolaba: Sweetlip and small snapper from Murphy's and the Gneerings. Cobia, amberjack and snapper on Caloundra wide and 12 miles reefs. Bream, flathead and trevally throughout the lower river. Dart, bream and tarwhine along the beaches with the odd big golden trevally in the deeper gutter near the Kawana surf club and in the corner of point Cartwright.

Caloundra: A few school mackerel have been caught on lure out from Moffat head. Tailor to 3kg from the tip of Bribie and a few choppers in the bar. A few good elbow slapper whiting along the Golden Beach stretch. Flathead around the bar and along golden beach.  Trevally from the boardwalk and in the canals.  

Father and son team Hayden and Chester Bertoli-Simmonds are at it again with several quality trevally in Woods Bay this week. The biggest weighed in at 2.7kg and took a herring bait.

Don from the Maroochy RSL fishing club had a bit of luck earlier this week fishing on the edge of a yabby banks situated at the bottom of Goat Island and hooked this 58cm dusky flathead on a live yabby.

Jason had an over night session in the Maroochy River Cod Hole using mullet for bait and scored a 3.5kg school jew for his efforts.

Lawrence Bills is enjoying a spot of fishing with his dad while on school holidays and had some luck using fresh green prawns from Picnic Point and scored this pan sized dusky flathead.