A monster at my feet

[michael2203]

G'day raiders,

So Saturday arvo the apprentice and I headed over to airport to try under the old control tower. Initially we started at the beach between the tower and runway with Lorelai landing her first whiting (a fact she continues to brag about). Shortly after we moved over to the rockwall but found the combo of snags and rubbish too much.

Following last weeks success at Tempe, I decided to stop there on the way home for a quick hour or so. First cast in and I'm on something big!!! After a bit of a fight I catch a glimpse of flathead. I'm guessing this thing was about 55-60cm at a minimum. I have him at the bottom of the wall we are fishing off, about to pull him up and BAM! he busts me off and he's gone. I would have release him anyway, but no chance for a photo. Devastated doesn't even begin to describe the feeling.

Anyway, shortly after that storm came through and put a halt to the afternoon. The lightning strike on the bank opposite was a good clue!

As an aside, I have been told to use long shank hooks for flatty's so that they don't chew through the line. Any thoughts on this?

Cheers and tight lines.

Hodgo

[Ahab]

Gidday Hodgo, Bumma about the flattie. I have used long shank hooks on flatties for many years with great success. I have recently started using smaller circle hooks to great effect, particularly on the slow drift and where you may want to only take a few keepers.you can also keep the trace size down to about 5 kg.

Flathead tend to swallow the bait and just sit there and once you start hauling them in the then wriggle about.Normal j hooks and even the long shank hooks can end up gut hooking the fish which is not good for the fish if you want to release it and not good for you if it chews through your trace.

This is my 2 bob's worth

Cheers capt Ahab

[michael2203]

Gidday Hodgo, Bumma about the flattie. I have used long shank hooks on flatties for many years with great success. I have recently started using smaller circle hooks to great effect, particularly on the slow drift and where you may want to only take a few keepers.you can also keep the trace size down to about 5 kg.

Flathead tend to swallow the bait and just sit there and once you start hauling them in the then wriggle about.Normal j hooks and even the long shank hooks can end up gut hooking the fish which is not good for the fish if you want to release it and not good for you if it chews through your trace.

This is my 2 bob's worth

Cheers capt Ahab

Thanks Capt Ahab. What are your thoughts re wire traces?

[Ryder]

Oh so close. Sorry mate. I bet you got the shakes.

I use long shank hooks for flathead and heavy leader, up to 20 lb mono.

My old grandad was a flattie man, long shanks all the way. They were thin, bronze and bendy.

You might find them at a servo. Not very popular in the modern age.

Years ago I got some at the 7/11. Used them at Fraser Is and nailed a big one. 87

The hook bent sideways, but it held. I reckon a chem sharp would have snapped or pulled.

[Ryder]

I was going to add avoid wire. You minimise good by catch like bream and jew.

They dont like it.

[Jimbu]

I feel your pain dude. I've lost two big flatties in the past 3 weeks also. The first was on soft plastics, and the second took bread 30cm under a float on a size 8 hook. Both went for long powerful runs then bit through 10 pound Flouro when I tried to put some pressure on. Gutting hey!

[aeb870]

I was never able to get myself to use circle hooks, but last time I was up in QLD my brother was using them so I tried.

Long story short, hooked a 65cm flathead off the pier at Hervey Bay and managed to pull up the flathead by grabbing a hold of the line (2 or more meter drop at low tide). I was certain I would lose it, but the circle hook had it perfectly hooked in the corner of the jaw.

Will definitely start using circle hooks more [emoji4]

Edited April 27, 2015 by aeb870

[manhands]

I used to use long shank for Flatties, be it from land or boat. Never wire leader also. Last year started using circles (only off boat) and no doubt hook up rate massively increased for me (maybe the angle from boat?), and 95% time they are hooked perfectly in corner of mouth for easy removal. My 2 bob.

Cheers

[GreyNurse]

Hi Hodgo,

As Ahab alluded to, flatties can either swallow the bait deeply, hook and all, or hook up in the corner of the jaw, regardless of the hook style. It depends on whether they have the chance to sit and swallow the bait, or hit the bait on the run. In any case, a good mono leader of around 20lb breaking strain will last well against the sawing action of a flatty's teeth. You can minimise that by not lifting it's head out of the water until you absolutely must, or swim the fish into a landing net. I'm sure you'll catch that big'un in the not too distant future.

[cameldownunder]

My best catches of flatties ( not many ) were on normal trace, but with the drag loose enough, so that when the fish shakes his head, the line gets pulled, instead of running accross it's teeth.

The only time I used wire, was when chasing Tailors. Bot stopped that because if a brim swallows the hook, cutting the wire is messy, and not good for the fish.

[michael2203]

Thanks everyone. Circle hooks, 20LB leader and back I go. Cheers!

[cogo44]

I use Gamakatsu Shiner hooks or Mustad Big Mouth hooks on the bottom dropper. Size 3/0 or 4/0 gets them in the corner of the mouth.

[qnut]

I use circles for bream & flathead IF the rare occasion occurs that I use bait... I find that for bream its their life saver (or savior?) almost getting a 90% hook up in the corner of the jaw and maybe 1/15 chance of accidentally gut hooking if the wrong hook setting technique is used... FlatHead being the same.. The trick with circle hooks is NOT to strike! Instead , Attempt a slow & steady lift of the rod tip once you've detected a bite which should lead to the circle hook coming back through the gullet & rotating to pin the fish in the upper pallet or corner of the jaw.

Tight Lines!