Best Working Lures. Opinions From Flathead Specialists

[frankie machine]

Hi Everyone.

Good numbers of lighter coloured dusky flathead are coming into the Sydney area. They range in size from undersize fish to larger schools just below legal to around 420-450cms and quite a few flathead around that size have been caught lately. They have been caught namely around the flats in the Hacking, in the usual bays and alcoves off the main river in the lower Hawkesbury, Botany Bay and are in good numbers generally in the lower sections of the Georges at this stage.

After there not being much to show on the jewfish front since the end of Autumnn and after having poor winter results myself, I decided that this year I would get back into old style drift fishing to at least have the chance of getting some take home flathead rather than spending the whole session fishing for jewfish and the bi catch associated with jewfish waters.

At one stage of winter I was considering installing an electric on the transom of my Savage Side Console and only fishing the warmer pockets around shallower water, but now have opted for drift fishing deploying a sea anchor and using a pole push off where necessary.

Sp technology is going ahead in leaps and bounds and I've had advice on how Nuclear Chicken sp/s have been working very well and I have had several confirmations since winter that these lures are a must have inclusion for flathead .

I would like to hear opinions from flathead specialists as to which particular lures they have had their best results with, particularly new hi tech sp/s or blades which they consider as being outstanding and also those bordering on being outstanding flathead lures.

Cheers

jewgaffer

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

[robeebee]

if you don't know mine Byron , i will be upset

[jewgaffer]

Robbie I've got no doubt about those turtlebacks of yours when used with overhang and a bit of finesse

Cheers mate

jewgaffer

[robeebee]

Myself i have never used a s/p in my entire life. Gang pilchard is the only way to go for me.

go ahead and try 'em mate

you wont regret it

my Dad and I gave up bait 2 years ago and we've never caught so many quality fish

just ask anybody here

[yartz]

go ahead and try 'em mate

you wont regret it

my Dad and I gave up bait 2 years ago and we've never caught so many quality fish

just ask anybody here

Couldn't agree more with that.

Never had a great deal of success on bait with the lizards, have always used SPs since I started fishing flatties in Wallace Lake up north. Had a good look for a photo of what has worked for me up there but couldnt find one. We always use a wobbler with two tails, either fluoro yellow or regular yellow.

Cast out over the weed beds with a slow retrieve and I was always kept busy.

Interestingly for me though is the fact that I have not once caught a flattie on a pogy, even though I have heard so many people swear by them. Picked up a couple of sx40s today, keen to try them out

Cheers

[slinkymalinky]

G'day Byron,

I'm by no means anywhere near as experienced with this as fisho's like Hodgey whose opinion and advice I rate very highly, but I have a couple of views that others may (or may not) agree with or comment on.

I've found colour with SPs for flathead to be probably the least important aspect. I follow the principle of matching my fishing speed and finesse to the mood of the fish.

In winter when the fish are much more sluggish and less willing to chase down a meal with any energy, I get more subtle. I'll use lighter jig heads, more 'active' tails (paddle or curl tails rather than 'stick' styles) and I'll slow everything down. Fish veeery slow... the curl tails like a Gulp Swimming Mullet, have action with even the very slowest of retrieves or gentlest of twitches.

When the fish get more active (like now), I speed up... heavier heads, paddle tails or jerk shad style tails, fast erratic retrieves to induce strikes and draw the fish in from a greater distance.

I'll also change tail styles based on the location and method of fishing. If I'm drifting fast and/or fishing in deeper water I may use a jerk shad as it has minimal water resistance so sinks much faster. Shallower and slower I may again change to styles with more action.

The other factor that seems to be more important than colour (to me at least) is scent. I've always found that scented plastics like Gulps genuinely outfish unscented ones by a considerable margin (it's always been about 2:1 when we've bothered keeping track) whereas colour has never seemed to make as much difference as that.

I'm not saying colour isn't important... I'm not experienced enough to be qualified to make that call anyway... but like with a lot of fishing, I think 'how' you fish is critical and sometimes overlooked.

Cheers, Slinky

[Koalaboi]

Hi everyone,

Great thread, We're still waiting for the flathead up here at Tuggerah Lakes. Picking up the odd one on poddies or plastics but no consistency as yet. Maybe the water's too cold.

On choice of plastics. I reckon that I've had most success with the silver fox. I try to match my plastic to the food the flathead would most likely be eating. I've noticed that the poddies change colour a little to match their surroundings and have had good success using a gold fleck pattern squidy fish over sand.

One day the blokes fishing with 3 or 4 dead whitebait to a hook were braining the flatties so i changed to a small clear plastic doubletail grub thing and it worked.

The silver fox in deeper or darker water. Sometimes a pumpkinseed too.

On the days when they're on, they seem to take pretty much anything as long as you keep your lure's action close to the bottom.

Tight klines,

Koalaboi

[Josh88]

I don't target and catch flathead regularly enough to be able to make a good comparison between lures but have definitely found as slinky said that scented lures outfish those without the scent. Gulps of course work well even without great tail action i've found lures like the minnows and even the 6 inch worm has been very successful in catching flatties.

The squigdy x factor scent that you add to the lures i think works better than the gulp flavouring, and although you have to apply it yourself, i think it produces more scent and lasts longer in terms of still giving off a good smell longer than a gulp would.

[jewgaffer]

Thanks everybody for giving me the good oil on the best working sps.

I will be fishing deepwater areas as well as mangroves and sand flats and I will be buying a reasonable variety of larger sizes for deepwater as well as the near weightless varieties for shallow stillwater situations.

Apart from the squid profile jigs and squidgys which I use occasionally in the Hawkesbury as deepwater jigs, rigged to a running snapper lead set up for the current, I'm wondering which would be the best sps to use that come around 125mm - 150mm long and have a good loose paddle tail type action and would still swim quite well with rather heavy jigheads in up to 80 foot of water in a fast current situation ??

Cheers

jewgaffer

Thanks Josh I'll definately be looking into adding one these new high tech fish attractants to artificials and might even try some on bait as technology is improving all the time!

[andrew399]

80ft is pretty deep to be fishing placcies isnt it? U might be better off jigging for them in this depth...Perhaps a large squidgy flick bait or jerkshad would be best, it is more streamlined so will reach the bottom much quicker at this depth...

Apart from gulp and s factor scents you can get the little bottles of garlic scent that you dip the tails in, this works well i find.

Basically any plastic will catch a flattie, as you can see by the massive variety mentioned in this thread!

[love2fish]

Byron the best result for me in the last 2 or 3 months have been the 3 inch Gulp shrimp..any colour will do

[jewgaffer]

Byron the best result for me in the last 2 or 3 months have been the 3 inch Gulp shrimp..any colour will do

Good onya Bill. I caught a small jew on an SP in the Hawkesbury on the weekend. The lure was a green and orange Lime Tiger. I swam it around at the side of the boat first to make myself familiar with swimming a lime tiger and then kept on swimming it slowly along the bottom in an eddy on the inside of a deepwater point where I've caught jew on the run out before.

Cheers

jewgaffer

Bill let me know when that rod comes in and I'll come over with Julius for a Georges session.

By the way, pm me your mobile number mate, I don't have it anymore.

[corupt]

when i first started targeting flathead i found the squidgy in the black gold matched with squidgy 9g/2-0 hooks worked the best. im still using the same combination on the stretch of beach from brighton beach to dolls point and still catching some good number of flatties. and iv still got about 20 packs of the same colour to go through so hopefully the flatties dont just suddenly get turned off that colour.

[A.dawg]

I like podgy 4" also in mackerel also 5" jerk shad in nuclear chicken or pearl white and powerbait 4" also in glow white

[70%ludite]

I dont profess to being a flathead guru but i have caught a few.

I went to a information night run by Ian Phillips (big E).He catches a lot of big fish

and is only to happy to share his knowledge.He fishes a lot of deep water and uses

alot of big plastics and big jig heads but his results speak for themselves.If you ever

get a chance to see or speak to him do it.I had never used a plastic but i took on board

what he said and varied it to my needs and i caught quite a few good fish.I was land based at that stage.

My personal favourite is a silver fox with the tail coloured red or green.But tecnique does help.So does the

right weight jig head for water depth and current.Hopefully i can apply all of this now

that i am a boat owner but i have got the monkey off my back.

[garryl]

Thanks to everyone for their posts and sharing info on SPs. Had my first couple of trips out with them (usually fish with poddys) and managed op land a few flatties and an 82cm Jew (Not a bad by-catch!). I used a lot of the tips out of this particular post and a few of the other similar posts. It's great that some people will take the time to share their hard earned secrets with newbies like me. I really appreciate the help.

For the record the Jew was landed on...

4" Minnow in smelt

7gm Nitro jig head

10lb Mono trace

Braid main line (a bit heavier from memory)

3-6kg light rod (&&*&*& Special!!!!)

Drifting around Half Tide Rocks at Ettalong on the run in tide, about 7:30ish this morning in light drizzle, a good casting distance from the shore.

Other SPs that did the job for the Flatties were 5" Jerk Shads in Lime Tiger and Nuclear Chicken as well as 2" Shrimp and Squidgy Fish in Tomato.

I'll put some photos in a fishing report I'm putting together.

Garry

[craigtempo]

I 2 am no expert but i always seem to manage a good feed of flathead .

the way i fish for them from the yak is i simply put on a 3 or 4 inch plastic ie gulp minnow - squidgy wrigler.

i then just cast it out and stick it in a rod holder and then as im drifting i flick around with another rod chaseing bream or whatever.

i always pickup a flathead on the drift .

works for me

craig

[sanger]

I also like the 3 & 4 inch gulp pogy's in black & white or mackeral colours.

Cheers,

Grant.

I have also found most of my soft plastic flattie succes on 4 inch gulp pogy's in what ever colour i can get thats close to mullet. fished with 1/4 or 1/8 if i can get away with it.

I recently ran out of the juice in one of my packets and they stiffened up a little so i put a little nick in the tail with my finger nail and the tail came back to life with lots more action!!!!

[jewgaffer]

I have also found most of my soft plastic flattie succes on 4 inch gulp pogy's in what ever colour i can get thats close to mullet. fished with 1/4 or 1/8 if i can get away with it.

I recently ran out of the juice in one of my packets and they stiffened up a little so i put a little nick in the tail with my finger nail and the tail came back to life with lots more action!!!!

I like the idea of nicking the tail of those Pogy lures Grant uses to bring the juices back Fishlexic..

By the way that was you who pulled in alongside my car when you called in with a friend to check out Brooklyn boat ramp the other week wasn't it ? Anyway we were there for a fair while after you left and I had an idea you said you would be back in a while to have a chat...

Cheers

jewgaffer

[Jewhunter]

I've got a new fave plastic since I've been chasing jacks. The flattie by-catch is unreal.

3 inch atomic prongs. Guzzlers & rippers. Pink belly with a green back. Also the nipper colours in red & gold.

Got an absolute load of flatties on these before Xmas. They work vey well when the prawns are running.

Cheers,

Grant.

[pburton]

I have a few left and haven't seen them for ages but they are a prawn with hollows for weight(split shot) and hooks or even line. You can push line down them and put a treble on the back, rig them on straight hooks or jig heads, and just hop them around patches of weed... deadly in summer.

Edited February 11, 2010 by softprawn

[anthony f]

Well that read is a sign of the time with plastic making up about 100% of the reply and yes they do catch flatty.

I personally like to also throw hard bodies and have had great success with.

Gold Bombers

The $4.00 gold frenzy Jackel style lure

and Rio,s Prawns

These 3 have accounted for more fish over 80cm than the plastics which I have use most of the mentioned(except the gulps as I have a person issue with them) and in the long run last a whole lot longer and cost you less.

[slinkymalinky]

I've got a new fave plastic since I've been chasing jacks. The flattie by-catch is unreal.

3 inch atomic prongs. Guzzlers & rippers. Pink belly with a green back. Also the nipper colours in red & gold.

Got an absolute load of flatties on these before Xmas. They work vey well when the prawns are running.

Cheers,

Grant.

+1 for that opinion. If I had to limit myself to one kind of lure for the rest of my life for any kind of fishing, it would be a 3" Atomic Prong in Pearl Core. The Pink & Green is a flattie special but everything eats them. Don't be at all surprised if you see my boat up this way trolling a couple of 3" prongs around the 50 fathom reefs on 24kg game outfits

Cheers, Slinky

[sanger]

I like the idea of nicking the tail of those Pogy lures Grant uses to bring the juices back Fishlexic..

By the way that was you who pulled in alongside my car when you called in with a friend to check out Brooklyn boat ramp the other week wasn't it ? Anyway we were there for a fair while after you left and I had an idea you said you would be back in a while to have a chat...

Cheers

jewgaffer

Hey byron wasn't me mate. I spend all my time fishing north of the bridge and havent fished south for a few years.

would have stopped for a chin wag if it was me!

Caught a 65 flattie on a black and gold squidgy fish the other day and started to have some fun with some of the smaller curly tail numbers.

Tight lines

[stylo]

Got this fella today - I saw it chase down a 4" jerk shad at my feet and boofed it down but only grabbed the tail - no hook up. Swapped over to a 65 cm squidgy fish with X factor juice and tossed it back in ... lift lift drop and BANG I'm on.

In my experience, Squidgy fish OR Shads in 65+ cms will catch flatties. 3" Gulp pogys and shaky shads are almost identical in shape so they work just as well but they are not as tough and I lose too many tails with these on smaller fish.