Little Flatty's big lure conversion on the upper Parra

[Little_Flatty]

Have been consciously working on my bigger lure game of late, after reading reports and talking to fellow raiders. I have also had a mishap with the tip on my light spinning rod which I haven't got round to fixing, so that was all the encouragement I needed. Out with the 1-3 and 2-4kg outfits, in with a 3-5kg combo.

I actually don't own much heavier than that for lure chucking (although if this big lure thing catches on, I might well get myself a heavier outfit, or at least a rod capable of casting heavier weights). I have to admit, I barely know myself, fishing such 'large' lures! 🤣 I'm sure they aren't large for many anglers, but they are for me!

The past week I've been fishing solidly for not a lot of fish. Sure, I've been finding fish, but my hookup rate has been dismal. Part of this is because I was fishing weedless***, the other part is likely that my usual small flatties have been attacking the lure. I did have one moment where I hooked something BIG but it came off after a few headshakes. That was enough to keep me motivated.

This morning I started on one of my local spots on the flats. Peppered the shallow flats for half an hour, for nought. That said, a big stingray swam over my line/lure at one point causing me to fear for the welfare of my newly-rigged lure. Though the hook definitely touched the ray, it didn't find its mark, leaving me breathing a sigh of relief! Got to be thankful for weedless 🤣! I'd never seen a big ray this far up the Parra, it was nice to see such a majestic creature up this side of the woods.

I lost a Diezel Minnowz that I'd rigged up with a double stinger so I decided to move closer to the Ryde bridge. Not much there either, so back to the flats as the sun came out. I put on a 5 inch gulp minnow in Nuclear chicken, Texas-rigged with a 1/8th bullet weight and a 6/0 weedless EWG hook. On one of my casts parallel to the shore, less than 2m out, I had a good hit and up came a 48cm flatty:

Nothing extraordinary, but I was happy enough with that. A few more casts for a few more hits, but no cigar. I ended up needing to leave the fish biting, lest I be late for my new guiding operation's first gig (taking my kids and my mate's kids out to sight-fish for puffers 🤣). That's a story for another day, but it was fun (albeit busy work for us dads!) 

One thought I had was that with my daily walks might be more suited to hardbody fishing, to allow me to cover water a little quicker than plastics. A $20 voucher from one of the big chains sealed the deal, and some Bomber Long As and some Classic Lures Ghosts are on their way. Let's see how this goes.

***Pet Peeve: I'm partly fishing weedless because I'm finding it hard to get jigheads light enough for my conditions! Why are all of the large jigheads more than 1/2oz? I don't need such heavy jigheads for the shallows in my area! (Update: I did eventually find the 1/8oz 6/0 and 1/4oz 7/0 heads, but it wasn't easy).

****The weedless hooks were rigged with tungsten putty on the hook for added weight. I quite like this concept. It's like heavy blu-tak and you can customise your weight exactly as you please. I bought it in a 50g batch. Only issues I've noticed is that they will rattle off in the car if you leave your rod rigged and Z-mans will melt them (like they melt everything else). That's a story for another day, but does anyone else have experience with Tungsten putty?

[Green Hornet]

A 5 inch plastic is where I start when chasing flatties exclusively and surprisingly it doesn’t seem to deter undersized fish down here. These are rigged on either a 3 or 4/0 standard, 7-10g jig head and I’m convinced the heavier weight helps.  
The reason I say this is after a conversation with a friend that is a guide, he said when a flathead partially buries itself it’s lateral line picks up the impact a heavier lure makes hitting the bottom, attracting the fish in to strike from a further distance. Seems to work I reckon.
A lot of the bream boffins use tungsten putty on their hard bodies to tune floating lures into suspenders or slower floaters. I have no experience with it myself, preferring to use suspend dots. Another trick is to add a little weight to the shank of the hooks with a couple of winds of fine, cord solder. 
Nice fish too by the way Mike, pound for pound a 50cm flatty always goes hard.

[Pickles]

That’s a healthy flattie Mike. Love the colour choice of lures, with a heavy weighted lure, you could always knock the little guys out f it lands on their head. Surprising how big a lure a small fish will attack. Terrific report 👍

[wazatherfisherman]

Great report Mike! Good to see you've gone 'big'

[XD351]

Great fish and report Mike !

You can get the tt lures snakelokz in lighter head sizes and change the hook out . if you want a weighted hook you can use the snag less weight system hooks or chinlokz sws hooks on the snakelokz head - you just have to chop and change as you like as all the hooks are the same shape but some have added lead weights on them .

The snakelokz come in 1/12 oz up to 4/0, 1/8 oz up to 6/0 and 1/6 oz up to 8/0 .

Yesterday I picked up some big paddle tails and some 1oz 7/0 jig heads to try in broken bay for flathead in 25-30 ft of water - can’t wait to try these out !

Edited March 4, 2023 by XD351

[Little_Flatty]

5 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

A 5 inch plastic is where I start when chasing flatties exclusively and surprisingly it doesn’t seem to deter undersized fish down here. These are rigged on either a 3 or 4/0 standard, 7-10g jig head and I’m convinced the heavier weight helps.  
The reason I say this is after a conversation with a friend that is a guide, he said when a flathead partially buries itself it’s lateral line picks up the impact a heavier lure makes hitting the bottom, attracting the fish in to strike from a further distance. Seems to work I reckon.
A lot of the bream boffins use tungsten putty on their hard bodies to tune floating lures into suspenders or slower floaters. I have no experience with it myself, preferring to use suspend dots. Another trick is to add a little weight to the shank of the hooks with a couple of winds of fine, cord solder. 
Nice fish too by the way Mike, pound for pound a 50cm flatty always goes hard.

Hey Pete, Yeah I'm surprised at the number of small fish that will have a go at the smaller plastic. I think it's interesting your comments re the heavier lures. Kind of goes against what my experience is in the Parra - I swear the flatties mostly attack the lure in the 'hang time' of the lure - but I'm all for changing things up to keep it interesting! I do have some solder wire at home for that purpose. Should dig it out!

I like the Tungsten putty as I can mould it around the shank of the EWG hook.

4 hours ago, Pickles said:

That’s a healthy flattie Mike. Love the colour choice of lures, with a heavy weighted lure, you could always knock the little guys out f it lands on their head. Surprising how big a lure a small fish will attack. Terrific report 👍

Hi Bob, It certainly was surprising how little fish will go at big lures! The expanse of flats I fished, I rarely caught fish on the smaller lures there. I wonder if there's a reason the bigger lures worked today.

54 minutes ago, wazatherfisherman said:

Great report Mike! Good to see you've gone 'big'

Keeps it interesting Waza! Looking forward to experimenting more!

23 minutes ago, XD351 said:

Great fish and report Mike !

You can get the tt lures snakelokz in lighter head sizes and change the hook out . if you want a weighted hook you can use the snag less weight system hooks or chinlokz sws hooks on the snakelokz head - you just have to chop and change as you like as all the hooks are the same shape but some have added lead weights on them .

The snakelokz come in 1/12 oz up to 4/0, 1/8 oz up to 6/0 and 1/6 oz up to 8/0 .

Yesterday I picked up some big paddle tails and some 1oz 7/0 jig heads to try in broken bay for flathead in 25-30 ft of water - can’t wait to try these out !

Yeah I'm a fan of the Snakelockz system and have a range of the weights and hooks already. They are quality stuff. That said, I still like the simplicity and low cost of the Texas rig system

[XD351]

I was using the Texas rig today at lake lyell- great for pulling a lure through ribbon weed and tree branches ! I didn’t have any bullet weights so just used a tiny ball sinker  down onto an ewg hook -cheap as chips rig !

[Little_Flatty]

7 minutes ago, XD351 said:

I was using the Texas rig today at lake lyell- great for pulling a lure through ribbon weed and tree branches ! I didn’t have any bullet weights so just used a tiny ball sinker  down onto an ewg hook -cheap as chips rig !

Yeah it's surprising how you can just work lures through ribbon weed and it can come through unscathed! Although, nothing can save you from snot weed...

I haven't experimented much with ball sinkers vs bullet weights, but they sure would bring the cost down even further.

[XD351]

Nothing will get through snot weed 😂

I have seen the guy from Windsor bait and tackle YouTube channel use a ball sinker which is inside a loop knot so it can’t slide up the line , that is why I thought of using it - although I didn’t use a loop knot . 

[zmk1962]

Excellent report @Little_Flatty… lots of gear content to ponder on and a solid flattie to boot… pity I don’t have the tech know how to add anything of value to the points you raise. 😞
cheers Zoran 

PS- targeting puffers 😂… waiting for that report and tackle discussion next. 

[Little_Flatty]

8 minutes ago, zmk1962 said:

Excellent report @Little_Flatty… lots of gear content to ponder on and a solid flattie to boot… pity I don’t have the tech know how to add anything of value to the points you raise. 😞
cheers Zoran 

PS- targeting puffers 😂… waiting for that report and tackle discussion next. 

Thanks Zoran. I get just as lost with your technical boating discussions 🤣 At the end of the day, it’s just tying a lure to the end of the line and casting 😎

On targeting puffers, kids seem to love them. They are easy to catch, but just hard enough to make it fun for a kid, they’re cute and they get to understand the mechanics of fishing. I suspect I have some years of targeting them yet!

Speaking of technical @Green Hornet what gear do you use to cast your bigger flatty lures? I’ve just realised I’m missing a rod from my collection (of course I am…🤣), specifically from the 1/4oz to 1oz range. Maybe I’d have less of an aversion to heavier weights if I could cast them properly.

[Larkin]

About time you started using some larger lures mike!

you never know what you’ll get out there. Large flatties, kingfish, salmon, jewfish - they all hit the 5-7inch plastics. 
nice fish 👍

[Green Hornet]

1 hour ago, Little_Flatty said:

Speaking of technical @Green Hornet what gear do you use to cast your bigger flatty lures? I’ve just realised I’m missing a rod from my collection (of course I am…🤣), specifically from the 1/4oz to 1oz range. Maybe I’d have less of an aversion to heavier weights if I could cast them properly.

Probably not much help to you Mike, but i use 1 of either 2 Duffrods. For 10-18g jig heads, a TPS70135 that is 7 foot, rated 3-5 kg and has a moderately fast taper, or for 7-10g, a X860DPSI 7'2", 1-5kg and extra fast taper. 90% of the time I use the latter as I don't feel the need to go heavier than 10g.
I match these to either a Shimano Complex Ci4 or Stradic Ci4 both in 2500 with a quality PE 0.8 braid, that breaks around 15 pound.

As well as better casting, the heavier rods help impart a crisp action when hopping the lure and should you be lucky enough to land a big fish, help get it in quickly so you can release it in as good a condition as possible.

[Little_Flatty]

4 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Probably not much help to you Mike, but i use 1 of either 2 Duffrods. For 10-18g jig heads, a TPS70135 that is 7 foot, rated 3-5 kg and has a moderately fast taper, or for 7-10g, a X860DPSI 7'2", 1-5kg and extra fast taper. 90% of the time I use the latter as I don't feel the need to go heavier than 10g.
I match these to either a Shimano Complex Ci4 or Stradic Ci4 both in 2500 with a quality PE 0.8 braid, that breaks around 15 pound.

As well as better casting, the heavier rods help impart a crisp action when hopping the lure and should you be lucky enough to land a big fish, help get it in quickly so you can release it in as good a condition as possible.

Thanks Pete,

I managed to dig out a 4-8kg travel rod that I'd long forgotten I'd had! 🤣 @mrsswordfisherman if my wife knew a lot about fishing like you, she'd be like 'tsk tsk' next time LOOK before you buy something new! 🤣 (actually that already gets said to me with basic grocery items ). For now I'll just have to say that to myself 😎

So now I have the rod, I'm upping the ante! Here's a 7-inch lure (squidgy flick bait?) that I found in the bargain bin years ago that I bought for a joke....back then I wondered who in their right mind would use lures that big? Rigged on a 7/0 1/2 oz jighead.

Going to take that out and give it a shot. @wazatherfisherman, your gar lures are also getting a guernsey soon. Just got to find the hooks I have in mind!

Mike

[Yowie]

A nice flattie there.

Do not worry about the size of the plastic. I have seen some fishos in Port Hacking throwing out plastics in the shallows, with the plastics being near the size of a legal flattie. 🤣

[Green Hornet]

3 minutes ago, Yowie said:

A nice flattie there.

Do not worry about the size of the plastic. I have seen some fishos in Port Hacking throwing out plastics in the shallows, with the plastics being near the size of a legal flattie. 🤣

Exactly, down here there are guys that exclusively chase extra large flatties using legal size tailor as a live bait or the largest Crossfire lures.

My wife’s PB flatty was landed/netted when it engulfed a 38cm fish she’d hooked and got it wedged in it’s mouth.

[Little_Flatty]

25 minutes ago, Yowie said:

I have seen some fishos in Port Hacking throwing out plastics in the shallows, with the plastics being near the size of a legal flattie. 🤣

Yowie, I have to admit that @zmk1962’s plastic bonito did come to mind!🤣

Though I’d probably need the chunkiest swim bait rod to throw that!🤣

[Yowie]

5 hours ago, Green Hornet said:

Exactly, down here there are guys that exclusively chase extra large flatties using legal size tailor as a live bait or the largest Crossfire lures.

My wife’s PB flatty was landed/netted when it engulfed a 38cm fish she’d hooked and got it wedged in it’s mouth.

Those bigger flatties just open their mouth and whatever swims past gets inhaled. I have had them grab legal sized whiting, but eventually drop off the hook.

My grandfather fished Lake Illawarra a lot (hence some tips I received as a youngster). One day the bream were getting hit, a big hit then nothing and up would come a bream head. He peered under the boat and saw a monster flattie grab his bream, shake the head and saw off the body.

The biggest flattie I saw was caught in the lake. It was sitting on top of a laundry dish, about 2 foot across, and it was sticking out about 1 foot either side of the dish. Head like a big shovel.

[kantong]

great catch! Persistence pays off!

Edited March 6, 2023 by kantong

[Fishingwazza2019]

Great report . Very detailed ..,Good to see parramatta river producing fish. 

[XD351]

I sent you a PM Little_Flattie.