Catching Tassie Flathead on Soft Plastics

By Jack Gillespie

Targeting the humble flathead in shallow coastal waters can make for some of the most fun fishing you will ever do. There are countless techniques to target shallow water flathead from large swimbaits to ultra-small hard or soft bodied lures, in this article I’ll focus on soft plastics which is my favourite and one of the most versatile baits available. 

Where to Start

The first thing you need to choose is the location you are going to fish. In general, this is the hardest part, but the good news is you are not short of likely locations right around the Tasmanian coastlines. Mouths of bays, where the rivers meet the coastline, rocky points and straight beaches will all hold good size flathead at certain points are the day. There are two main things you should look for when you set out to find a flathead fishing location, 

1. Do the flathead have some sort of cover to hide in close by when not feeding. Flathead are the master of camouflage yes but often when they are out of a feeding state or feel spooked, they will head for cover. This can come in the form of weed or reef so it’s best to have that far away if you are fishing over straight sand bottom. 

2. Is the area off the beaten track.

Don’t get me wrong, you certainly can catch flathead in popular areas and even take a feed home if that’s the goal but if you want to target the larger fish it’s always better to go where there’s less pressure. Larger and wiser flathead will soon vacate the area if they sense danger and because they are regarded highly as table fair, so chances are they aren’t going to be released to be caught again when they have grown.

Gear

Gear will most certainly depend on what size soft plastic you are going to use. Flathead will eat a vast variety of bait sizes from large garfish down to small solider crabs, try to narrow down the most common form of bait and match the hatch. 

Bait Junkie 3” Prawns and 4.2” Minnows are a great starting point; they are a large enough bait to offer a decent snack but also not too big that a timid fish or a fish that has just eaten will refuse. Colours of soft plastics also play a role and I’m a big believer flathead favour a solid non transparent colour whether it be light or dark, my belief is it’s because it makes it much easier to see from further away. Camo, skin shrimp, black chart and electric shad are my four most used colours.

Because of the intensity a flathead will hit a bait with and because they suck in their prey to their wide mouths it always the safe bet to use to use heavy wire jighead with a slightly larger hook, with these jigheads you’ll limit straighten hooks and also gut hooking a larger fish. 

Example

* Bait Junkie 3” Prawn- 3/0 hook size

* Bait Junkie 4.2” Minnow-  5/0 or 6/0 hook size

Primarily this style of fishing will be done land based and for that reason I like to use a longer rod. The 23 TD Black Paddlefish 742LXS offers enough length and its 2-5kg weight range offers the ability to cast light lures a long way. The 22 TD Zero 742MXS offers a bit more backbone and will assist when throwing a larger bait such as a 5” Jerkshad all the way up to an unweighted 10” Gar.

Flathead aren’t known for their long runs mid fight so reel size can be kept light and compact, the 23 TD Sold HD 3000D-XH is a favourite of mine for its smoothness and durability and the 23 Exceler LT 3000/4000 also punches well above its weight for the price.

Having light mainline braid will help you with casting distance and cutting through the wind or current. 10-12lb J-Braid expedition offers great durability and will be more than enough when fighting a larger flathead. Because of the small teeth that flathead have and the way they generally suck the bait in its also best to up your leader a size or two so this is where I will use J-Thread X-Link 16-18lbs, it has great abrasive resistance but still a small diameter. 

Soft plastic Technique

My favourite techniques when targeting flathead are slow rolling a lightly weighted Minnow and then pausing for two seconds every meter or so. The pause will encourage a flathead to pounce if they are tailing your bait or just undecided if it’s worth their time. 

With the prawn I get slightly more creative but it’s also very simple, if you’ve ever seen a prawn in the water you want to recreate what they are doing when they sense trouble and flea the area. They will move very quickly but only for a very short distance, so you want to keep your twitches very short and after three or four twitches you want to pause for a couple of seconds.

The most important thing with your technique is you want to cover ground because flathead won’t move overly far for a feed so you can potentially get 15-20 casts in before you even have to take a step. What I like to do is wade into the water around knee depth or even slightly shallower and imagine I’m standing in the middle of a clock, my first cast will be directly offshore which I call 12 o’clock, my next cast will be to 1 o’clock then 11 o’clock then 2 then 10 then 3  then 9 after that I will walk 15-20 meters in the direction I want to go and repeat the clock method, this is a very easy and effective way to cover ground without leaving any stone unturned. 

With your newfound knowledge you’ll have more than enough information to get out there and start catching a few flathead. Be sure to handle your fish with care if you plan to release them always supporting their weight by the belly and be familiar with your rules and regulations if you plan on taking some home for dinner as it varies statewide. 

Good luck, happy fishing!