Flathead Conundrum

[Thumbsuckers]

I've fished for flathead for years on bait, lures and soft plastics. I mainly fish for them at the southern end of Pumicestone Passage and around Donnybrook. This season has been reasonably good although my catches have included quite a lot of "just unders" all of which have been released.

Like a lot of people, I target them on the last of the run out and first of the run in tides and score pretty consistently with these tactics.

My question is this: where do they go at other stages of the tide cycle such as the high or first of the run out? I've found it much harder to get a consistent bite at this time of the cycle to the point where I rarely catch them; hence I fish mainly on the low.

ive read plenty of articles which say they get up on the flats and it's a simple matter of following them there. I've never been able to replicate that. I wondered whether the opposite might be true and that they retreat into the channels. The other possibility is that they just don't feed at that stage of the tide cycle because the bait they chase is also more dispersed and harder for them to find.

Any ideas on this?

[PROS]

We mostly assume fish is there to eat the bait all the time.
From my experience they are like us; there is definitive eating periods; call them breakfast/lunch/dinner where they are actively chasing to fill their stomach for a short while.
Rest of the time they are busy doing other things such as going deep to cool down or staying around surface to warm up, protecting territory, chasing ladies to produce young ones, checking facebook, etc...
At these times they are only eating a well presented bait that passes right trough their noise or it might be a territorial attack.

I have best seen this in fly fishing for trout where you can spot the fish and see how it reacts to situation.
Sometimes they will chase the fly, other times you have to almost feed in to their mouth after hundreds of casts.
Flathead is no different.

Max

[Noelm]

I guess at high tide there is a lot more area for them to be spread around?

[TheGurn]

On a run in tide, look for the mirror image of the areas where you catch them on a run out tide.

Use soft plastics to get a reaction strike. They will be there. Particularly at this time of year.

Funny, but nearly all my flathead this season have had empty stomachs.

Hope this helps.

Cheers
Reg
Sent from my HTC Wildfire using Tapatalk 2

[Funchy]

Gotta agree with Pros here. Flathead like most animals are "lazy" meaning they dont want to burn unnecessary energy chasing food without the best chance of getting a return on invested energy so they will feed at the times they get the best chance to catch a feed.

In my experience during winter when the water cools I get my best fish at high tide up in the shallows as they sunbake. I feel that I catch them opportunistically by putting my soft plastic right under their noses. I assume this because I catch very few smaller ones. (i.e I will catch one good big fish in a session and no smaller models) I can cruise over yabby beds in 40-50cms of water in my yak and see heaps of flathead take off from there ambush positions that moments ago I had peppered with casts proving that they are there they just are not ready to eat.

And to reiterate TheGurn's findings..... This season most of my flattys have had empty guts this winter..... wonder if there is something in that?

[Feral]

When I used to paddle my kayak over the flats as the tide ran in, I would surprise huge flathead and rays in less than a foot of water. I'd say they follow the water in.