Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
HELLO sunshine! Thankfully, we’ve had more decent weather recently and less rain. But we still needed to contend with some difficulties. Flathead
Luckily, the inshore fishing has been steady.
Dusky flathead on the southern coast of Queensland have been fairly good, and around Hervey Bay was no exception.
Out wider it’s business as usual with trevally, snapper and by-catch tuna.
With occasional less than desirable weather, we ventured in shallow to target flathead on soft plastics.
Flathead are a lazy predator that I find are easily caught if you choose the right structure and the correct tide.
A good area may produce well at one stage of a tide but prove difficult at another phase.
It pays to ‘think like a fish’ and take into consideration that they want to increase food input while undertaking minimal output.
Flathead are ambush predators that wait for prey to come into range, then they strike. So, find structures where they might sit.
Structure such as weed bed and gravel or rock patches are fantastic places of ambush.
Consider that to be effective, there must be enough water to congregate feed at these hiding places.
So, if there is too much water, the bait might travel elsewhere or spread out, therefore the predators might follow and leave the area.
How far will depend on the height of the tide.
Sometimes they orbit close but generally, the more the water level increases, the further away they sit from the structure.
It gets to a point where the level of the tide is too high, the structure carries no bait and therefore no predator load. Gutters are another place I target flathead.
