Fishing Australia

LARGER RIVERS

Larger rivers like the Clyde, Shoalhaven, and those up on the north coast of NSW have vast areas of deep fast flowing water that you can fish the same way.

This can be done effectively from the bank but it’s even better if you can hold into the current with your kayak or tinnie (an electric motor helps here) and cast directly upstream. This allows you to work your lure back towards the boat with less belly in the line; which means you are more in contact with your lure and need less weight-both of which equals more flatties.

Boat or bank another great strategy is to wait for the tide to ease off which means you can get down to more places with less belly in your line. To add to things as the tide changes all the bait has to change position creating a flurry of activity. The hour either side of any tide change is a superb time to fish and well worth waiting for!

BROAD DEEP SLOW FLOWING AREAS

Many estuary systems also have broader ‘lake’ or ‘inlet’ sections where there is much less current and so the flathead can face in any direction.

Typically these areas have a weed bed that peters out around the 4 meter deep mark. Along the ‘outside’ or ‘deep edge’ of the weed bed is a great spot to target larger flathead, especially on the lower stages of the tide. You can cover some of these areas while wading, but obviously a boat makes it easier.

Where possible cast softies into the sand just a few meters wide of the weed bed and retrieve your lure parallel to the weed so it is in the strike zone for longer.

Points and reefs are also worth working over the same way, ie keep your lure working along the sand just next to the rocks.

Also keep your eye out for working birds and bait on the sounder as flatties will move under a tailor or salmon school mopping up the easy feed that drifts down to them.

Again a softie with just enough weight to reach the bottom is ideal, cheap and because the hook rides up they are less snag prone than most lures.

Blades are also very effective, and a new craze developing is to find a patch and then click lures like the 6cm Rapala Clacking Rap across the mud or sand; must be like a small crab or something, but it is fooling flatties even in hard fished areas!

You can also troll these areas with deep diving lures. Grub them along the bottom, kicking up sand to get the Flathead's attention, with the occasional pause to let the Flathead get a clear strike at it. The Rapala X Rap in XRD 08 and 10 are perfect for this purpose. The shad shaped XRS 06 and 08 are also particularly good on big flatties.

TACKLE

For all the flathead fishing detailed so far and over the next few weeks, standard outfit is a 6’ to 7’ long graphite rod rated at 2 to 4 kg coupled with a 20 to 30 sized reel will do the trick. For the record mine is a Rapala Braid Concept 702 spl coupled with an Okuma Salina 30 sized spin reel.

Spool up with 2 to 4 lb braid which will handle any sized flathead, but is thin enough to cast even the lighter lures sometimes needed.

Use an Albright Knot to tie on a rod length of 6 to 8 pound fluoro carbon leader, any thicker and you will get far less bites.

Put a short 20 cm long piece of 15 pound fluro carbon leader above the lure if you are expecting flathead over 70 cm long in places where you can’t take your time and so the higher tension will see their teeth cut through the lighter leader.

Tight Lines

Rob Paxevanos