Best tides for flatties

Now I know this may seem like a very basic question but I am just starting to get serious (again) about my plastics fishing. This time for flatties.

I recently spoke to Brad Smith down at the boatshed about best tides for targetting lizards on plastics and he favours the full tide to the first few hours of the run out. He even said there have been studies regarding the water temp being higher at this time and therefore getting the metabolism of flathead more active.

I have been fishing the Chinderah region of the tweed and have only had luck on the first few hours of the run in from the dead low. I also spent an entire day down there drifting the sand banks taking my lures in the obvious direction the tide would be carrying little fishes at that time either onto or off the banks, if you get what I mean. Again the only time I had luck was on the run in.

I am interested in all the theories on this one guys. What am I doing wrong on the run out?

Here's one of my run in flatties caught on a plastic.

I've had fair success on the last of the runout fishing all the little channels that run off the banks.

Any tide can be good, but you have to think about where they are likely to be at different tides. I believe that while they can be found in very deep water, flathead are very well adapted to getting into very shallow water. As the tide comes in over banks, flathead get up into very shallow water to take advantage of the abundance of food on yabbie beds etc. As the tide runs out, they will often retreat back down the bank gradually with the falling tide to take advantage of the small baitfish that are concentrated in the shallower areas at this time. Any sort of gutter or drain is also great at this time, as baitfish concentrate here as they are flushed out from banks/mangroves.

So during the run-in I will fish for flathead along the shallow edge of sand banks (10-50 cm depth). At high tide, I like to drift over yabby beds or weed beds. On the run-out tides I will look for flathead "lies" and cast just out from where I see them, or cast into gutters. At low tides, I focus on deep holes and channels.

winter time would have to be the worst time to fish for the flathead how ever i agree with gunna as i find the best bite on the last tow hours of runout and first hour run in however you get then all throught the day and tide
it is more than likely i find this because on or near the full tides i would be fishing for bream ;)

fishing for flatties a few of our club members are in favor of the fuller tides for the clean water.
they are a sight hunter so the clearer the water the better.
what ive found. if you find pellicans in the shallows you'll also find the flatties close by.
because they are there for the same reason, the bait fish.

good luck.
Cheers Cloud 9

We can catch them on all tides, but our preference is for last of the run-out, first of the run in. Like Jamie said (I am in the same club), look for cool clear water. In this situation we go for natural colours like silvers & blacks. In not so clear water brighter colours work well, like pinks & greens. But you can use both in both situations, I don't think there is a bad colour for flatties, they are greedy buggers.
At high tide, get up on the flats, we have caught 70+ cm fish in only 10cm of water, fish the edges of weed beds and the patches of sand in the weeds. Overcast days fish better here than bright sunny ones.
On the run out, especially the last of the run out, fish the drains and edges of the banks, the draining water forces the bait fish into the deep and the waiting flatties.
At low tide, fish the deep holes and any structure that has a back eddy behind it.
If you are interested there is the upcoming Gold Coast Flathead Classic, open to all comers and a great way to learn some new techniques for catching flatties and meet some new people over an ale or two after each days fishing.
Just PM me or Cloud 9 for any info or an entry form.

Cheers

John

[quote author=basserman link=board=Saltwater;num=1119926667;start=0#4 date=06/27/05 at 17:22:31]winter time would have to be the worst time to fish for the flathead quote]


Depends a lot on where you are. In the north they seem to bite particularly well in the winter.

Down south (sydney)winter means heaps of big flathead outside,with a constant run of westerly winds it means you can drift down the dropoffs from about 40m to 60m for average fish off 50cm.I find flathead from the ocean one of the tastiest fish you can eat,in saying that you can still catch crocs up the river but i think they tend to move up stream more to find warmer water.On sunny days in the middle of winter you will see them on shallow banks on the high witch i think maybe sun baking more than hunting because they spook very easily.You should try the old mister twister grubs in white when fishing the really shallow stuff,has been the best bet for myself.

Though anytime is good to catch Lizards, I've had most hook-ups in the last hour of the run-out and the first hour of the run-in tide. The fish tend to get concentrated into less water and seem to be more competitive as well. On a number of occasions, I've had a couple of lizards chasing the lure.

I've also caught good sized lizards at the top of the tides when I've targetted them underneath mangroves trees. I guess they like getting out of the current for a rest and like hiding up in the mangroves when there is plenty of water there (as I'm sure lots of fish species do). I've done well with this down the southern side of Kedron Brook @ Nudgee.

Cheers,

Gigantor

G'day Themooks - I live down there and fish that part regularly with plastics, hards and livies - give us a pm if you want to have a wander around - are you land based or boat?
Troy ;)