Offshore Flathead Questions

[josamill]

Hi - never fished for flatties offshore - pretty much just in and around Broken Bay with poddy mullet and plastics.

Wondering if somebody who knows could give me some direction.

- Other than reefs, I've always imagined the bottom of the ocean around Sydney to be a big sandy desert - so how do you know where to find flathead?

- Is there a better time of year for offshore flathead, or does it correspond with the better estuary months Oct-April?

- What is the best rig & bait - understanding they are probably not overly fussy.

- Drift?

Any advice is appreciated!!

[night_rider]

Josa, I'm no expert but when ever I drift or attempt to drift for flatties, I've found a paternose rig works quite well. They are easy to tie using Dropper knots for your hook leaders and ensure one bait is on the ground and the other is up a little.

You can also adjust the sinker weight quite easily if you use a clip sinker.

I've heard there are flattie grounds in 40m fathoms, have a quick search on FR. There are quite a few reports ranging from 20-50m catching them on the drift..

Good luck!

Edited March 1, 2016 by Marky Wants to Fish

[onearmedfisho]

40m not fathoms. Drift in about 35 - 43m and you'll get em

[antonywardle]

+1 to the above.

Go straight out from box head to the 45M mark then paternose with a heavy sinker to make sure you get on the bottom

and drift. Bait, i like cooked prawns because they are bright coloured and move a bit, but cut up

pilchards are good. Go for the individual frozen ones (ICQ? something like that). They are a lot better quality.

Wide mouth hooks and they seem to catch themselves. If you have a sea anchor, take that too

as if the wind is up you might drift too fast for the flathead to bother chasing you.

That area is classed as open water, so remember you'll need all the offshore kit.

I only know of one person who was pulled up. He was close to shore but it was classed as

outside.

The flathead outside are duskys so they are allowed to be slightly smaller for a keeper.

Your call, but I don't usually keep them if they aren't 40cm.

good luck

[GoingFishing]

Hi Mate

I’m no expert so don’t take my advice as granted ! But I can tell you what I have learnt during my recent flathead endeavours, of which recently I have had reasonable success.

You are right to believe that the ocean outside can be likened to a sandy desert, but just like all living things and particularly fish, flathead will be found where there is suitable habitat and food source close by. For that, you should be looking for sandy bottoms which sit in between reefs, holes, seamounts, or any object or structure that can sustain food and safety.

Ocean going flathead are generally smaller than their estuary cousins and have an adjusted legal size to suit. I have found that the shallower water is abundant with flathead, but a high percentage of those would be undersize as the more mature flathead will often move into deeper water. That being said, don’t let that stop you from fishing the shallower areas as I have regularly caught good size flathead in as shallow as 15m of water.

I personally have not fished broken bay so unfortunately cant point you to any locations there, but If you are willing to go south i have found the northern beaches to be quite productive lately.

Flathead are ambush predators who lie and wait for their prey, because of that anchoring and fishing is not recommended. The best method to fish for flathead is to drift. This way you are also covering a larger area and you will eventually find them. Try different depths until you find them, 30m then 40m and so on. When you do find them, just mark the spot and keep drifting the area and you should be able to score a feed.

The best rig to use when drifting for flathead is a two hook paternoster rig with a sinker at the base, 40-50cm trace to your first hook, then 40-50cm trace to your next hook. Flathead aren’t fussy so you can use any line up to 25lb. Adjust the size of your sinker to make sure your bait is on the bottom, if your bait is suspended above the floor then your just wasting your time unfortunately ! Just about any bait will work and even soft plastics.

If you’re willing to go south of broken bay, send me a PM and I can point you to some specific areas.

Sam

[tiimmaahh]

Go straight out from box head to the 45M mark

That area is classed as open water, so remember you'll need all the offshore kit.

I only know of one person who was pulled up. He was close to shore but it was classed as

outside.

45M water depth mark is 2NM offshore from Box Head?

[pistolpete33]

Hey josamill.

I've fished the flatty grounds off barrenjoey quite a few times with good results. Simple paternoster rigs with pilly cubes will do but make sure you have enough weight to hold bottom. Never seen a dusky out that far but plenty of blue spot flattys.

Good luck!!

Cheers

Pete

[Yowie]

Josamil,

As others have stated, drift about until you find them, then remember that location. Have only fished for them out from Port Hacking, so up your way you need to move about until they are located. Generally if you find them in a location one year, they will be there the next year.

Drifting is the best way to catch them, you will cover more area than anchoring, and the flatties prefer a moving bait.

Use the smallest snapper sinker to keep your bait on the bottom. With the wind going one way, and the current the other way, you will need an 8 ounce sinker or bigger at times.

Snapper sinker on the bottom, and the hooks on droppers 50cm and 1 metre above the sinker. I give the line an occasional jig off the bottom while drifting, gives the bait a bit of movement to attract the flatties. The flatties will swim off the bottom to grab food, or your bait. A couple of times fishing in 30 metres of water, have had a flattie follow a hooked fish to the surface, then dropped a bait next to the free swimming flattie to hook it and swing it into the boat before it realised it was hooked.

Most baits work as flatties will eat anything.

I usually fish for them from early spring to early summer, only because the fishing inside Port Hacking goes rather quiet during those times. They can be caught most of the year, though the small spikey flatties (no size limit and less than 30cm) can be a pest and attack the larger baits, also jackets sometimes turn up and chew off all baits, hooks and sinkers.

[fisholb]

Hi - never fished for flatties offshore - pretty much just in and around Broken Bay with poddy mullet and plastics.

Wondering if somebody who knows could give me some direction.

- Other than reefs, I've always imagined the bottom of the ocean around Sydney to be a big sandy desert - so how do you know where to find flathead?

- Is there a better time of year for offshore flathead, or does it correspond with the better estuary months Oct-April?

- What is the best rig & bait - understanding they are probably not overly fussy.

- Drift?

Any advice is appreciated!!

Drift from 40m to 60m

Paternoster with 4/0 circle hook

Mullet and squid strips

Very good spot off maroubra beach

Goodluck

Sent from my SM-N910G using Tapatalk

[sharknett]

For a good tough bait, take a couple of strips from the belly of the first legal flathead you get and use your GPS to keep drifting the same area.

[antonywardle]

45M water depth mark is 2NM offshore from Box Head?

Hi

check http://www.rms.nsw.gov.au/documents/maritime/usingwaterways/maps/boating-maps/8b-brisbane-broken-terrigal.pdf

Newly updated Jan 2016.

It says that passed Boxhead you are in open water, even if you could cast on to the land. Inside that and you are in

limited open water. Just needs to be 1/2 metre and I'm guessing that it is what maritime say that will count ;-(

also covered a little better in this post http://www.fishraider.com.au/Invision/index.php?showtopic=60333

I picked up some flatties as drifted passed the wreck but I can't find it on google earth to show you sorry

[tiimmaahh]

Right, off to BCF to grab some extra safety equipment. Thanks @antonywardle

[antonywardle]

NP

I think I read on here that somewhere near Sydney heads is also

OpenWater, even though you are closer then 2NM from the shore.

Not been down there in my boat, so I haven't looked in to it.

I think its the water and the paper maps that catches a few people out.

I keep forgetting them myself.