Fishing Victoria Forum

i would like to start catching flathead in the dromana area on the mornington peninsula and im stuck. what are the best soft plastics to use in this area and what is a good setup to use? im also interested to know about some good spots on the shore for flathead aswell. Thanks

i like to use a 1-3 or 2-4 kg rod, 2000 or 2500 size reel, 8 lb braid to 2 rod lengths 8lb leader with a 1/8th ounce jighead with plastic of your choice. They don't care what plastic you use, but what i usually use is a 2.5 inch zman paddle tail in bad shad, or powerbait 3 inch minnow. Key with flatties landbased is to cover ground - cast around. There is no secret to catching them, do everything above you'll get some in no time.

any pier goes well for them

There's few posts about it in this forum, use the search function and you'll get a few.

I use 2-4 kg rod around 7ft, 2500 reel with 10lb braid and leader. 1/8 #1/0 jighead. Usually they're not fussy, these are in my bag and the go to lures for them. Keep changing til I get one or two. All piers are good to look for them, summer to autumn usually better.

Zman slim swimz badshad, motor oil and midnight oil,
Gulp turtleback worm pumpkin seeds 4 in,
Gulp nemesis pumpkin seeds 4 in,
Squidgy wriggler bloodworm 100mm,
Squidgy flickbait pearl 100mm.

Also let your lure touch the bottom. Flathead sit and wait for the prey to come to them, so bouncing or hopping the lure along the sea floor will get you best results.

All great advice here, I'd agree running something like a 1/8th or 1/6th jig head, either a #1/0 or #2/0 paired with a plastic around that 2.5" 3.0" size. I like the Zman Slim Swimz, I'd also match the colours to the water you're fishing. Anything with that smaller baitfish profile should be killer.

I've always found hopping the plastic off the bottom to be successful, and sometimes in the right spot dropping that jig head weight lets that plastic move across the bottom with the current, both good techniques. GL

nickpicc06 wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 14, 2021 6:58 pm

i would like to start catching flathead in the dromana area on the mornington peninsula and im stuck. what are the best soft plastics to use in this area and what is a good setup to use? im also interested to know about some good spots on the shore for flathead aswell. Thanks

A good spot to start is Mornington at the end on the side in close to sure casting at the bouys and the key is take it slow when I use 1/8 I wait like a minute to make sure it reaches the bottom and then just reel in the slack give it a couple twitches wait another 10 seconds repeat my preferred Color is motor oil or a seethrough with shiny silver bits if the waters clear use more natural colours if it’s murky use more vibrant colours like pink

When the weather and water warms closer to and after Christmas chuck on the boardies and wade out off the beaches close to dusk aiming for gutters and weed/rock edges with a handful of ~100mm plastics. Things like wrigglers, shads, anything that has a little inbuilt action to it. Colour doesn't matter so much, 1/8th jighead to keep bottom contact and get out beyond the beach goers that love to hit the far out sand bars. You'd be surprised how many good sized frogs are sitting in the sand waiting for anchovies or whatever to swim past scared of all the splashing people