PLAN OF ATTACK

Catching flathead on lures can be easy or difficult depending on the conditions. Where I live, on Queensland’s Gold Coast, we are blessed with large tidal estuary systems and rivers that all hold plenty of flathead, but finding where the most fish are on a given day can be a challenging business. In general, the fish are at their most active between June and December, and in the hot summer months it is often almost impossible to find a decent fish. The following is a guide to how I plan my flathead fishing. There are a number of predictable variables, such as tide, moon phases and to some extent the prevailing wind. The factors that are unpredictable are water quality and the availability of baitfish. As winter turns to spring the size of our fish increases and large numbers of adult fish move towards the seaward entrances in preparation for spawning. There tends to be a gradual migration of fish from the central areas of the estuary towards the river mouths over a period of about a month. In the deep water entrances there may be no fish to be found in early August, and a very healthy population a few weeks later.