Looking for Central Coast Flathead Tips

[Boondan]

G'day fellas, i've been lurking on the forums for a while, theres always great advice on here! However i'm looking for specific advice, my mates from Sydney like to come up to the Central Coast to fish but so far we've had no luck so far while fishing at The Entrance and its a bugger when they come all this way to catch nothing, we're fairly new to fishing and are mainly targeting flatheads so all advice on catching them would be greatly appreciated.
I've been looking at Patonga Creek fishing but there doesn't seem to be many posts from there lately on here and as time goes on I'm sure a lot can change about an area for fishing, does anyone know if its a good spot to fish for flatheads still and if so where abouts? parking further up the creek or closer to the beach?
We are purely land based so any recommendations of land based spots that are good for flatheads on the central coast would be most helpful!
Also advice on a good (but cheap) setup, rod/reels/line/soft plastics,  to catch them would be great! I know they're fairly simple fish and will go for most things that come near them but not knowing proper techniques for going about catching them I feel id need any advantage I can get.

Thanks in advance for any and all tips and advice!

[rickmarlin62]

if you fish the entrance stick with small sps..55 wrigglers or paddle tails..i wasted a day recently stickin with big 100/125 sps trying for a big fish and got donuts..rick

[Koalaboi]

Hi Boondan,

Basically you got three choices: either sps, dead baits or live poddies (or prawns when they are running).

I used to only fish with sps and was doing pretty well especially in the years following the big storm which grounded the Pasha Bulker: it really gave Tuggerah Lakes a thorough cleanout. But since then I've had less and less success to the point where I decided this year to stick to live baits. I am exclusively shore based. I don't ever use dead bait.

For both styles of fishing I found the best was to target the channels either side of the bridge on the runout tide.

The live poddies have been very successful with me having caught lots of fish over 50cm and one big 75cm model so far this summer.

That being said, even the live poddies have not turned a scale for me over the last few days. Another local went past me in his boat the other day, and he fishes exclusively for flathead and does very well thank you, but was bemoaning the lack of fish. The Entrance is terribly crowded at the moment and maybe the fish are spooked by the boats and jet skis and swimmers. There are some big whiting in the lake atm and I have also seen some large schools of very good sized luderick hanging around near the bridge.

Gear: I use a blackfish set up and drift my live poddy along the channels walking beside the float to stay on top of the slack line between rod tip and float.

Good luck,

 

KB

[ARC H]

soft plastics at and around ettalong  especially the oyster leases near rip bridge need boat or yak tho

Edited January 9, 2017 by ARC H

[Guest Guest123456789]

Any reason you haven't tried Sydney harbour (east), northern beaches or Pittwater? They all fish as well or better than central coast and are closer.

[Boondan]

Thanks for all the replies, I'll have to make sure I get some smaller sps, pretty sure i've only got 100+. Thanks for all of that koalaboi, sounds like it'd pay off to go prawning if thats the case since we only used dead prawns and sps. ARC we dont have access to a boat or yak so unfortunately that wont be an option unfortunately. Flatheadluke, I'm from the coast its my mates who are from Sydney and I think they just like going for the drive as they'll come up here even when I'm not fishing with them. 
 

[savit]

Just start with smaller SP and then check if larger size get hits.  I think that flatties can be SP size - 'shy' in some areas (at least in mine) while indifferent to the SP size in others.

[Guest Guest123456789]

Try half tide rocks on the run out tide. Park 2 bulkara st wagstaffe and walk the bush track. You walk along the rocks to what google maps call wagstaffe point and then fish south eastern side. I've had success with a size 4 ball sinker to a swivel then with about 60cm trace to a salted pilchard on a gang hook. They feed at night too so don't be scared to pack the headlamps. It's also a good mulloway spot apparently though I've not caught one there.