Fishing Victoria Forum

Something to add the scientific name listed in the port philip marine life site doesn't match up with any of the flathead species listed by the Australian museum ie it is another species to add to the list.

There could be some debate as to its common name.

i agree with fishing vic!!! but the coloruing looks like its come from the depths, still maybe a dusky as its a pretty large specimen

thanks for the plastics tips guys
will give it a go next time i have the plastics out..

I had a couple of those too, great fun on light gear. Do they become more active after dusk?

The slimy ones in the pic are sandies. They have poor keeping quality, developing a milky slime in the flesh. The green coloured one is common offshore at Lakes around the pipeline area. There are a huge variety of colours to what is usually refered to as dusky flathead, or yanks by a lot of locals(commercials fishos) I am guessing they are yet unidentified sub species. Some have green spots and are much lighter in colour. The ones that are on the fine silty bottom seem to be much darker.They are all good eating.

woke up with a bad headache in the morning which persisted till late. As a resullt, I was unable to chase cala - the drive was long and uncomfortable. Munched some panadol and went to St Kilda Pier hoping the :sick: will pass away while chasing flatties on SP. Got a couple of nice flatties 53cm and 46cm for my effort. Nothing but flatties on the pier today plus a lot of salad. I have never seen so much flatties caught on bait from St Kilda Pier. Almost all anglers and danglers got their share of flatties. Saw an old fart wrapping a stonker flathead :fish11: :fish11: Biggest I've ever seen caught from St Kilda pier.. :fish11: :fish11: :fish11: :fish11:

Went home before sunset as my headache persisted. Arrived home, ate something so I can take panadol again. Bugger me, as soon as ate something, the headache disappeared. If I only knew I was only in need of a chow, I could have eaten the flatties alive so I can fish longer. :roflmao: :roflmao:

I caught my first flathead today!

Together with a few Oz Salmon, they were my first fish on soft plastics too. Quite a buzz!

What time were you there FC? I hit St Kilda pier tonight with my mate who is visiting with his wife down from Beechworth, there for about an hour from about 7pm. We fished the section of pier that branches out before the rocks. Had 1 rod soaking bait (frozen pilchard) while we each flicked soft plastics around. The bait wasn't touched, my mate got one bite and then nothing. A lot of other people were on the pier fishing and we didn't see any fish caught in that time. Would have been nice to get on to one of those flatties.

Fish-cador wrote:forgot about the gill spikes. I suspected it was a dusky as the gill spikes were almost of the same length. The tail had no big spot to confirm if it was a dusky - just small dark patches all over. The fishing guide says for mature dusky, the tail marks maybe absent. I was leaning towards dusky but the color made me think otherwise. Thanks for your inputs. Let's call it a dusky. :roflmao:

Strange looking fish. More of a snake head than dusky. :crazy: Looks like there was a hanky panky a few years back in St Kilda area involving a snakehead and a flatty. :crazy: :roflmao: :lolf:

Yes, all on SP and on small jig head.

yeah looks like a snake head but back where i was snakeheads are tropical fresh water mudfish very strange :?

shazz, I arrived before 5PM and fished the penguin area where I snagged the bigger one then move to the concrete and stayed there until 7~ish. I was the only one using SP in St Kilda pier until one guy with choc drinks joined me in the middle section of the pier. He was using SP that looks like a frog. He left after about 30 minutes. The guys fishing by the shed caught a few, one guy with the noisy siren alarm caught 2 nice ones. The old fart on a bike got 3, one massive. The old man 3 lamp posts from the kiosk got 2, the guys on the protruding concrete secion halfway the pier caught a couple each. Breams were caught by one guy using tube worms. I guess you missed the action again.