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How To Catch Flathead On Lures

In this article we are going to go over the things you need to know to catch flathead on lures.  Flathead are by the far my favourite fish to target and it comes as no surprise to me that it's the favourite of many other anglers as well. They are an easy species to target on lures and a hot flatty bite is a hard one to beat. Boating 40+ fish in a session isnt unheard of and they are a ton of fun to target.  So lets get into it! Where should I target? The best flathead haunts are sand banks, mangrove lines, weed and drains. Any of these areas in your system are a great place to target flathead, however to find active feeding fish you want to find spots that are holding bait. What lure should I use? As a rule of thumb, you want your lure to be close to the size of the bait that's in the area. There's little point throwing a massive lure if the fish are feeding on small whitebait for instance. Colours can make a massive difference as well! When the water is dirty- opting for darker, brighter, or UV lures will yield the bests results. In cleaner water- use natural colours. The most common jig head sizes that will cover most situations are a 1/6 to 1/4 weight when fishing shallow and 3/8 to 1/2 ounce when fishing deeper. Hook size will depend on the size of the lure however a 3/0 to 5/0 will have you sorted in most instances. What rod and reel? The most commonly used combo would be a 2500 series reel with a 2-4kg 7-foot rod. Line? For the mainline- 10lb braid is ideal and for leader- 10-15lb fluorocarbon line.  Retrieve? Flathead can respond differently to retrieves on any given day. The three common retrieves are- slow rolling (slowly wind), hopping (hop your plastic up and down) and finally, flicking (flick your rod tip quickly). Make sure you add some pauses to keep your lure on the bottom, as flathead are bottom feeders.  These tips will certainly get you on your way to catching some nice flathead.