Pat Williams discusses the challenges of catching big flathead in heavily fished waters and how to overcome them to ensure a successful session.

Big flatties. There’s just something about them. They’re a funny old fish, not much to look at, really, and in all honestly they’re a bit sluggish on the end of a line, but when I get hit with a bout of flattie fever, they’re all I can think about!
Living on the north side of Sydney, I’ve got a handful of pretty productive estuaries on my doorstep. Sydney Harbour, Pittwater and Narrabeen Lake are all within a half hour’s drive of home, and all hold plenty of big duskies. The problem is, they all cop plenty of boat traffic too, and get fished pretty hard.

A solid flathead taken from shore on the edge of a sandy drop-off.

I’ll occasionally load up the car and shoot down the coast to target big flathead in one of the super productive south coast estuaries a few hours down the Princes Highway, but the majority of the time I need a flattie fix, I’ll end up at one of the local spots – along with everyone else!
I love taking home a feed of flathead fillets as much as anyone, but knowing that really big flathead are breeding females, means I can’t conscionably slaughter trophy fish (which suits my fishing style just fine, as the true big’uns are few and far between). A couple of mid-sized fish in the 40s and 50s are perfect for a feed, and anything over about 65 cm goes back in the drink.
Sydney’s heavily fished estuaries fish surprisingly well for solid fish between 60 and 80 cm, and I’ve even snagged a handful of quality fish in the mid 80s over the last few seasons, as well as fluking a 90 cm model on a dead pillie bait a couple years back. The same goes for popular estuaries up and down the coast, from Lake Macquarie on the New South Wales Central Coast, to Jumpinpin on the Goldie. So living in a metro area is no excuse for not getting out there and connected to some solid flathead.
TACTICS
The same techniques and tactics used to target flathead in remote areas all work when applied to heavily fished, big city waterways; the key though, is to focus on the level of finesse you apply to your approach. It’s occasionally possible to get away with sloppy rigging and technique when targeting fish that rarely see lures – but second best won’t cut it in the big city. These fish see plenty of lures and baited hooks, so it’s important that your attention to detail is spot on.
SOFT PLASTICS
Flathead fishermen were among the earliest converts to soft plastic fishing, when the soft plastic revolution first reached Aussie shores, many years ago. The reason that this style of fishing has never gone out of fashion is because it works. Flathead love a well-presented plazzo, but it’s important to remember that the key here is ‘well-presented’.
There is a huge range of quality plastics on the market these days, and all the major brands work well. The key to success is presentation. When your lure happens to land in front of a willing flathead, nothing must be out of place. At a very basic level, make sure that your plastic is threaded onto your jighead completely straight. This might seem a remedial point, but it’s amazing how many anglers still seem to rush this simple task and end up with a slightly distorted lure that just won’t swim straight. Spend a few extra seconds rigging up, and ensure that your plastic swims straight and true.
When it comes to jigheads, less is more. The vast majority of waterways in which dusky flathead are targeted are less than five metres deep. This negates the need for heavy jigheads. While a heavy jighead may allow a long cast into a headwind, it will cause your plastic to plummet straight to the bottom, and impart a jerky, unrealistic action as you work it back.
I generally fish fairly large plastics between 100 and 120 mm, but the heaviest jigheads I use are 1/8 oz and often it’s possible to get away with 1/16 oz jigheads which allow your lure to sink slowly and naturally through the water column, and result in many more hits on the drop. When fishing light jigheads, your lure will flutter responsively up and down as you flick your rod tip and work the lure. That’s how these lures are designed to be worked, and using too heavy a jighead is only going to kill the action that’s built into them.
It’s widely known that big flatties have raspy mouths, which can wear through fine leaders during prolonged fights. When targeting big flatties in lightly fished waterways, many anglers will use fluorocarbon leaders as heavy as 20 lb for the extra abrasion resistance.
In heavily fished metro waters, it’s a simple fact that you will get more hits when fishing lighter leaders. This means you’re treading a fine line between getting more hits, while trying not to lose fish to worn leaders. I find a good compromise is to drop down to a 10 or 12 lb fluorocarbon leader. It’s light enough to fool most flathead, and is unlikely to wear through unless the fish is hooked deeply.
DIVING MINNOWS
As well as the usual selection of soft plastics, there are quite a few other styles of lures that can be deadly on flathead. Small diving hardbodied lures can be very effective when prospecting new waterways. The most effective method of fishing these lures is to slow troll them over the edges of drop offs and other likely looking areas.
Pick a lure that dives to approximately the depth of the water you’re fishing. You want your lure to be tracking just above the bottom, and even bumping into it from time to time. This can result in the occasional snag, but will ensure that your lure is in the strikezone. You only need to be trolling at about walking pace for this style of fishing to be effective. It can be a great way to cover a lot of ground when fishing unfamiliar waters.
LIVE BAITS
While it’s a far less active method of fishing, there’s no denying that, at times, flathead are simply are not interested in lures, and using live baits is the only way to get a strike.
It’s been my experience that flathead will often be really fired up and willing to hit lures during spring and summer, and become more hesitant during the autumn months. They can definitely still be caught on lures during autumn, but they just don’t seem as interested in hitting artificials as they are earlier in the season.
If you’re having a hard time luring flatties during autumn, it could be time to mix it up and try fishing a live bait. The best live bait for flathead are poddy mullet between about 8 and 12 centimetres. These can be caught quickly and easily in most estuaries with the use of a clear plastic trap, baited with bread, and set in ankle deep water.
Fish your live mullet on a simple running sinker rig, with a short 30 to 40 cm fluorocarbon leader attached to your swivel and a 2/0 or 3/0 light gauge circle hook pinned lightly through the mullet’s back.

A brace of thick 70cm fish taken in two casts from a Sydney Harbour tributary.

OUTSIDE INDICATORS
While the tackle or baits you choose to use, and the finesse you employ in your approach are undoubtedly the most important factors that contribute to your catch rate when targeting dusky flathead in heavily fished waterways, there are a few other factors to keep in mind.
It’s been widely noted that flathead seem to come on the bite during the last of the run out tide. This has been my experience also, so if I’ve only got an hour or so to go fishing, I’ll try to make sure that I’m fishing the last hour of a run out tide. As with most styles of fishing, the low light periods just after dawn and just before dusk always seem to see extra feeding activity. If you can line up a low tide with an early morning or late afternoon session, you’re giving yourself the best possible chance of encountering some hungry flathead.
FAN FAVOURITES
Flathead are truly one of the great Australian sportfish, and are a mainstay of estuary sportfishing around the southern half of the country. Duskies have a broad range, can be targeted on super light tackle and put up a wonderful account of themselves. They’re happy to chow down on a huge variety of baits and lures and also go pretty well on the plate.
While the biggest and best catches of flathead might be taken in more remote waterways, they’re certainly a viable proposition in even the most heavily fished estuaries, so there’s no excuse not to go out and get amongst them.

Pat Williams is a Sydney-based photojournalist with a love for all things fishing. He’ll try his hand at targeting just about anything that swims, but his true passion is chasing big, hard-fighting fish from the ocean rocks. In Summer and Autumn he can be found spinning for pelagics on the New South Wales north coast and livebaiting for kingfish in Sydney. Over the cooler months he can usually be found on the south coast in pursuit of hard-fighting black drummer, groper and snapper.