Easy Afternoons

[BR65]

Around this time of year, with the water temps dropping and diver whiting invading the shallow flats, we have a good run of winter flathead in our local estuaries.
These tasty flatones school up in good numbers, often up to a dozen smaller male fish around one or 2 bigger females, and they are relatively easy to catch on plastics, and make great chewing.
My local puddle, Hayes Inlet, is 5 minutes down the road, and, like yesterday, when I have a afternoon low tide, and light easterly winds, its a great way to spend a couple of hours flicking placs and putting together a feed of fresh fillets.















Its a bit of a slosh to get to my preferred bank, but worth the effort.











Encouraging signs - flathead lays in the sand indicate fish in the area, I generally work on the theory that they face head into the current, so that gives me an indication which tide the fish are using to access that piece of real estate. I also use that when placing my casts, usually slightly up-current so that the flow swings the plastic down stream in an arc as I'm jigging back, hopefully into the mouth of a waiting fish. The sharper the outline in the sand, the more recent the fish has been there.











There's nothing to technical in this, I use a Penn Pro Guide 2/4kg spin stick and a little Sienna 2500 spooled with 10lb braid, and 14lb leader. 1/4 ounce 1/0 TT jig heads, soft plastics are what ever you fancy, but I am a fan of the Squidgy Fish, and lately Guzzlers.






At times you have to wade through the smaller rats, or skaters as I call them due to their propensity to skate across the surface when you are retrieving them, but there are some bigger girls in there.






I've caught plenty at 70+, and 2 over 80 from Hayes bank side, I do release those bigger girls, with a personal cap at 60cm, I reckon the best eating are around that 50 mark.

The end result is a plate of tasty fillets. I'll skin these today, and rolled in flour tonite in a bit of hot oil and butter, with rosemary chips and salad, well worth the effort.