What type of flathead is this? (Northern Sand Flathead)

[whiskey299]

Caught in Sydney Harbour

 

[Blackfish]

I recon “Northern Sand Flathead” Platycephalus endrachtensis but as @noelm says, if you can get a photo of its tail that would have been great.
With what I can see it’s got the distinctive stripes.

[Restyle]

A sand flatty 

[noelm]

Bit hard to tell without seeing the tail, but, more likely a Dusky, the Sand (Blue Spot) has got kind of stripes on the tail. The colour of the body is no indication at all. Just looking real close, “maybe” that has stripes on the tail??

Edited December 15, 2023 by noelm

[noelm]

25 minutes ago, Blackfish said:

I recon “Northern Sand Flathead” Platycephalus endrachtensis but as @noelm says, if you can get a photo of its tail that would have been great.
With what I can see it’s got the distinctive stripes.

Yeah, I think I see stripes, but then…….maybe not.

[whiskey299]

45 minutes ago, Blackfish said:

I recon “Northern Sand Flathead” Platycephalus endrachtensis but as @noelm says, if you can get a photo of its tail that would have been great.
With what I can see it’s got the distinctive stripes.

My friend's catch so I can only ask to see if he can get a photo of the tail section.

[Blackfish]

The colouration of the fish is Northern Sand Flathead

[Yowie]

 

Northern Sand Flathead, Platycephalus endrachtensis Quoy & Gaimard 1825

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Other Names: Bar-tail Flathead, Bar-tailed Flathead, Flag-tail Flathead, Northern Sand Flathead, Northern-flag Tailed Flathead, Sand Flathead, Western Estuary Flathead, Yellowtail Flathead, Yellowtailed Flathead

 

Edited December 15, 2023 by Yowie

[Yowie]

The fish I have caught, and I.D. as Northern Sand Flathead, have a darker body and smaller darker spots. Mine were caught in the deeper water of the Hacking, and therefore the body colouring will be generally darker than shallow water fish of the same species.

Looking at the 'other names' for this fish, there are some names there that are used on other species of flatties, and on searching  through the various google posts on identifying flathead, different authors can classify the same flathead species with different names. Yellowtailed Flathead it is not, nor is it a Bar Tailed Flathead. Both of these species have a yellow blotch on the tail fin, however, in different places.

The identification of flathead species in Aus is not 100% definitive, and the use of different common names for a particular species is creating confusion amongst anglers.

Though not perfectly clear, the photo provided by Whiskey partially shows black and white stripes on the tail fin.

Edited December 15, 2023 by Yowie