frankie machine

Absolutely cracking morning. Got a nice flattie (41cm) on a lunker city t-tail in yellow and green colour. Changed to a 4inch gulp minnow in lime tiger. Got a good whack and the drag, which was set pretty loose, starts to fire off. Not sure what I had on the end but after a great little battle landed a trevally (34cm). Never caught one before on SP, so it was a bit of a shock, but after the action I got hoping to crack on to a few more.

Cib, Sounds like you're heading in the right direction. I've only been into soft plastic for the past 12 months and once you crack a few it's addictive. you should have a look at the lure section on the site, there's some great advice there. Any posts by 'Hodgey' are terrific - his knowledge is amazing. there's also some good article on the site by ken alexander. good luck

JB, Started three hours before low tide, most of the action came after 30 minutes - not sure if due to tide changes or change of lures. There was a nice nor easter breeze so was casting with wind and line then drifted back with outgoing tide.

Great flatheads. Sounds like a cracking week. Well donw

Headed down to Dolls Point this morning. Started with a 1/16th nitro jighed and old faithful 3" gulp swimming mullet in pumpkinseed. Fishing for about 30minutes with no enquiries so changed up to 1/8th jighead and threw in a bit of colour with a 4" gulp minnow in nuclear chicken. Fourth cast out felt a bump and pulled in a small flattie about 25cm. Released him and then about 15mins later got a solid hit and pulled in a good flathead, about five minutes later got the largest of three only about five metres from the shore. It went quiet for about 20minutes but then got a terrific thunk - nearly had it on the beach but 'snap' - it had sawn through the 10lb leader . Cast straight out again and lucky enough to get the next one on line. In a two-hour session, five hits: three keepers and one that got away. Absolutely terrific fun. Good luck if you're going out this weekend - I've gotta go to work.

Great bag PeterS. Did you get the flatties with bait or lures?

I'm by no means a flathead specialist on sp's, only been trying the caper for about a year - but I love it. Interesting that everyone is raving about squidgies as I've had little joy with them. My most success has come from gulp 4" swimming mullets in pumpikinseed colour and 3" minnows in smelt. I use mainly a 1/16th or 1/8 gamakatsu jigheads. I'm shorebased around botany bay and find that the mullets cast like bullets from the sand and rocks. Cheers

After yesterday's visit and another beautiful day today I managed to reorganise schedule and went down to Dolls Point again. Same gear with 1/16th jighead and gulp swimming mullet. After 20 minutes was lucky enough to get this 45cm flattie with a flick, pause, flick action. Stayed for another hour, had one more good inquiry but couldn't get it on. Still, another beaut day and looking forward to dinner.

Midweek day off, sun up and kids off to school so thought I see how spring was shaping. Went down to Dolls Point on Botany Bay - first time I've ever been there and it was a beautiful morning. Loaded up the 7' 2'' Starlo Stick with some 6lb Fireline and 10lb mono leader. At the business end had a 1/16th oz jighead with 4" Gulp Swimming Mullet in pumpkinseed colour. Fourth cast out and Bang! Nice old pull but plastic got spat out - reckon it would have been a good size flathead. There was something out there - a bloke about 50 metres up the sand from me had a 20lb leader and he told me he got busted off. Spent the next hour flicking, changed the jighead up to 1/8oz as tide started to swing but apart from a couple of pesky toadies, no more luck. Had an old bag of beachworms in freezer which I took down so changed over to a size 12 long shank with red tube above hook. Plenty of tapping from the whiting - pulled in a couple under 25cm mark and put them back hoping they'll grow and extra 15cm in next month or so. There seemed to be plenty of small whiting around, so hopefully that's a good sign for the summer. No dinner, but a top way to spend a couple of hours.

Great fish Mako. What size and brand of poppers were you using?

Ray, Your photo bought back memories for me. My grandad used to live at Ettalong and I can remember walking with him along the beach as a young fella back in the late 70s. He was a demon fisherman, he pulled plenty of monster flathead out of that stretch of water!

Gday, Aynone had any joy with the Berkley Powerbait Hollow Body? If so, what how did you rig them and what did you catch? Saw them in the tackle shop yesterday and they look okay - big tail would probably give a pretty good action. Cheers Frankie

Hodgey, thanks for the tip. I must say it's great that an experienced fisherman like yourself is so willing to share information. Cheers

I've just joined the site and have already found Hodgey's advice very useful. I mainly do soft plastic fishing for flathead and bream but just oubht a couple of Stiffy poppers. Was looking for some advice on how fast the retrieve should be. thanks