Many flathead anglers are confident when targeting flatties at a particular tidal stage. Nige Webster reviews some tournament strategy that shows how
to catch them all day long.

Tournament fishing has grown in popularity in Australia over the past decade. Regardless of whether you like the idea or not, it is hard to dispute that tournament scenarios teaches us plenty about some of our local species.
I recently had the opportunity to fish with a mate of mine for flathead. Troy Dixon, a.k.a ‘Dicko’, works for Wilsons and was part of the team that fished in the latest Flathead Classic. Wilsons entered two teams into the competition and the teams finished a very respectable 3rd and 14th.
Prior to our trip, I had been speaking with Troy about flathead strategies and he recounted a neat approach that accounted for plenty of flathead throughout various tides. The idea of tournaments such as the Flathead Classic is to score as many points (or centimetres of captured fish) throughout the day as possible. Developing a pattern that enables you to catch fish across the tides is therefore a valuable weapon. Intrigued by the methods employed, I snared Dicko for a day on the water and took a closer look at how his team used three different lures and as many approaches to tempt a flathead bite throughout the flooding and ebbing tides. If catching flathead more consistently sounds attractive, read on.
THREE LURES
Many teams in the Flathead Classic choose to stick to one method. This often means jigging soft plastics on the bottom or trolling bibbed hardbody lures for a few days straight. In contrast, Dicko and his team chose to carry a few tackle boxes with several lure options which allowed them to mix things up a little. The real key in their way of thinking was to be able to match a lure and technique to the tidal phase and how and where the flathead might be found to be feeding.
Having opened Dicko’s tackle trays, I found a mix of plastic and hard lures.
The Jigging Option
There was a larger and baitfish profiled softplastic with a reflective finish. It was the Zerek Flash Minnow. This lure is made from tough plastic and with the reflective belly material looks very much the part of a wounded baitfish. The lure is flexible in that it can be weighted with a variety of jigheads and fished at any depth.
The Trolling Option
A small profile and bibbed hardbody lure could be found among the selection of lures. The Zerek Tango Shad comes in 40 and 50 mm sizes, dives to 2 m and with a great colour selection from AYU to brighter yellow and orange options, is perfect for trolling or cast and retrieve methods. The lure made the cut due to its tight shimmying action and importantly, because it matched a lot of the baitfish sizes flathead encounter daily. These days, many flathead anglers are trying to fish larger lures, but when speaking with Troy he reminds you that you can’t ignore how many XOS size flatties have been caught on 2 and 3 inch lures.
The Transition Option
No flathead tackle box should be without some form of prawn imitation lure and Dicko’s tackle trays are no exception. The Zerek Live Shrimp Hot Legs is a great imitation of a prawn. The lure is easily rigged on a jighead and comes equipped with plenty of leg-like appendages. This gives the lure a seductive look and vibration when falling or sitting in current. The legs are highlighted with colour and the lure can be rigged on weedless style jigheads or a specialised option that promotes an upright stance when perched on the bottom of the estuary. The Hot Legs Shrimp can be jigged in deeper waters or rolled above weed which makes it the perfect ‘transition bait’.

Leading a deep jigged flatty into the net

TIDAL KNOW-HOW
Flathead are classic ambush feeders. The design of their body depicts that it will hide in a good position and dart out to grab unsuspecting prey that encroach on a ‘holding lie’. They will very rarely swim hard for an extended period to hunt down a fleeing piece of food. This means that on the run-out tide, these fish become very predictable. They take hold in prime locations where food will continually drift over their ambush spot. Ledges, channels and drop-off areas that experience focussed flow are all highly regarded spots by feeding flathead.
The last stages of the run-out tide ensures that feeding hits fever-pitch levels. All that food that was once harder to get in flooded reaches suddenly finds itself pulled within easier reach of would-be hunters. If you are a flattie die-hard then you typically love this stage of the tide. Outside of these times, the nature of flathead fishing starts to change. The more water that flows into an estuary system, the more the fishing can become challenging.
The Wilsons boys derived a three-pronged strategy for finding fish:
1. The last half of the run-out tide was spent fishing around significant drop-off areas. Ledge and bottom structure in 5 to 15 m of water were all high on the hit-list. These areas were focussed upon right through the tide-turn and into the first stages of the run-in tide.
2. As the water began to flood into the estuary and cover weedbeds, sandflats and yabby beds, the team targeted shallower channels that sat adjacent to expansive shallow flats. The thinking was that the slightly deeper water around areas that held plenty of bait would hold good numbers of average size (but valuable point scoring) flathead.
3. The transitional parts of the tide were noted as those where the bite was starting to slow in any particular area. The team used these periods as a guide to start fishing the in-between zones. This included shallow water on top of the weedbeds and flats, or the ledges that ran alongside the really shallow water.
The final key to success was then selecting the best lure and retrieve to suit the type of bite available in areas where flathead were starting to concentrate and feed.
TIDAL STRATEGY
Troy’s team obviously developed a formula for consistently catching flathead through the tides as proven by the tournament rankings. The formula involved the combination of three retrieves and lure selections to best suit the location and behaviour of feeding fish.
Late Stage Run-Out Tide
The last half of the ebbing tide produced plenty of fish in deeper water sections of the estuary. Lower sections of the system were targeted and specifically the areas where the bottom noticeably dropped into deeper structure. The approach was to either drift or hold position along likely looking areas and jig plastics along the bottom. The tactic was aggressive and saw the team use heavier jigheads combined with the profile of the Flash Minnow. They intended to hit the bottom relatively hard. The Flash Minnow looks the part of a dying baitfish, so to have it slapping down on the bottom before being jigged up again and drifting with some current, makes it irresistible to ambush feeders like big flathead and jewfish. Dicko proved this point on my excursion with him by knocking over some quality flatties and a solid mulloway.
The Retrieve:
1. Cast the lure up-current of the location you believe to hold fish
2. Engage the reel, keep the line tight and let the lure sink towards bottom
3. The moment line slackens; it indicates you are on the bottom
4. Employ a few short sharp lifts of the rod to agitate the lure up and off the bottom
5. Drop the rod tip while quickly retrieving slack line and let the lure sink back to bottom. This is where most bites occur and they include a short sharp tap and loss of weight. You have to strike immediately to set the hook should you get the bite
6. Repeat the process throughout the area you wish to fish
The action and reflective qualities of these lures as they are jigged along the bottom is a catalyst for reactive strikes. The key to fishing the technique effectively is to ensure line management and that the best jighead weights are used at all times. Line management involves maintaining good contact with the lure throughout the whole retrieve. This ensures that you effectively work the lure along the bottom and most importantly, feel the moment you get a bite. As the current is always changing, so too should the jighead weights. Try to use a jighead weight that ensures the lure is always getting to bottom without it becoming too heavy and sinking unnaturally. The rule of thumb involves getting it to bottom without making the lure becoming a bomb or anchor.

A welcome flathead bycatch – the mulloway!

Flooding Tide Fishing
As the waters rise with the tide and ground is covered, fish tend to spread out. They will try to feed still but the manner and position in which they do will change. Trolling is a great option for covering lots of water and finding those concentrations of fish. Dicko’s approach in this case is to look for channel waters around food concentration zones. Channel waters and small gutters immediately around shallow water flats are a great place to troll during a rising tide. Target water depths that suit the depth of the lure you choose to run; the aim is to have the lure hitting the bottom as long as possible. The tournament lure that produced plenty of quality fish in this instance was the
Tango Shad.
Focussing on water that is 1.5 to 2 m deep was paramount to success as this is the diving depth of this lure. Trolling speeds should be approximately the rate of a slow walk and braided lines will help monitor the way in which the lure is swimming. If a lack of vibration is detected, the lure is most likely impeded by weed and should be retrieved, cleaned up and then put back to work. Try to keep moving until you get a few bites. Once you have caught a few fish, stick to the area, as these fish are there for a reason and there are very likely more of them around.
TIDAL TRANSITION STAGES
The point at which the tide starts gathering momentum signals a transition of the bite. At times when you find the bite starting to dwindle, it indicates that it is time to adapt. In between jigging the deeper sections and trolling beside the shallows, try fishing prawn imitations in varying depths of water to locate patterns among migrating fish. The tidal push often signals to fish that it is time to feed in new places. As the fish move from shallow to deep water or vice versa, there can be plenty of bites if you can fish the transition zones effectively. These include the immediate edge of the shallows and up into the shallow waters. Light to moderately weighted prawn imitations are a great option in this case because the fish are expecting to see food such as prawns in such areas, and, the lure can be fished in so many versatile ways. The Hot Legs Shrimp is snag resistant which means it can be fished in shallow and snaggy waters with relative ease.
On days where big fish are hunting in really shallow waters, such a lure type will produce some amazing results. The key to fishing with these lures is to keep on the move and try to locate the pathways where fish are migrating between waters of varying depth. Bouncing a shrimp along the bottom or slowly retrieving it through the shallows and edge waters will quickly tempt migrating flathead should they be in the area.
THE FLAT WRAP
I have often been caught in the mindset of trying to focus my flathead attention on the latter stages of the run-out tide. Having new approaches to fishing throughout the day has provided a certain level of confidence that is now resulting in many more fish in the boat. The approaches are not complex or highly technical but when the fish are found, they certainly do work.
Nige is northern field editor of Sport Fishing and field editor for Freshwater Fishing magazines. Based at Noosa he fishes the entire east coast in fresh and salt water – offshore – bream – barra – trout.