Episode 182: Jumpinpin Flathead With Nick Whyte

Nick’s Deep Water Flathead Fishing Tips

• Jumpinpin is a top destination for flathead fishing and the size of fish is exceptional. But the style of fishing is completely different from that normally practiced for targeting flathead on the flats and takes a fair bit of practice.
• The Pin Area has plenty of different options with numerous small islands, channels, flats and the like to fish. Nick fishes all depths but likes to target the big fish that associate with structure such as ledges, trees, rocks and other structure in water down to 60ft.
• When fishing deep water for flathead, remember to slow everything down. Let your luges to the bottom before starting to work it.
• While large numbers of big flathead can sometimes be caught in a session, targeting big fish in deep water is often a game of patience and persistence. Using the techniques Nick Describes you will get far fewer fish than you would tossing smaller lures on the flats, but the quality of fish will be far better.
• Jumpinpin is subject to some strong currents. At times tidal currents can be up to 6 knots and make fishing near impossible. On the bigger tides the fishing opportunities may be limited to those times around the tide change. On smaller tides the window of opportunity can be much larger.
• It’s not necessary to fish ungodly hours for deep water flathead, they’ll be on the chew for most of the day.
• Keeping a very close eye on the sounder is key to success. There’s no point fishing over barren, flat bottom. You need to find structure and fish as close to it as possible, using the sounder to know when to lift your lure up and out of danger. Heavy lure losses can happen until you get the hang of this.
• Fishing vertically and “tea bagging” your lures is an effective approach, as the boat and lure are moving at the same speed. This minimises the belly in the line, reduces lure losses and keeps the lure close to the bottom.

Jumpinpin Flathead Fishing Tackle

• Fishing for flathead in deeper water requires heavier tackle to cope with the lure sizes, fish sizes and currents.
• Nick favours high-end rods like the Venom or Loomis NRX spin rods in the 16-22lb line class. These rods are lightweight, strong and have the sensitivity needed to be able to effectively work Lures in deep water with currents.
• The Shimano Stradic Ci4 is a good mid-range feel that’s more than adequate for this type of fishing, 16-22lb braid and a 14-22 lb leader complete the outfit.

Jumpinpin Flathead Fishing Lures

• Nick likes the Z-Man Paddlerz 5” paddle tail soft plastic for deep water flathead. He usually starts by fishing this lure on a 1/2 oz Tackle Tactics jig head and adjust the weight as required. In contrast to the standard advice of starting with a light jig head and then switching to heavier as required, Nick suggests starting heavier and going to a lighter jig head if possible. With flathead it’s all about getting the lure to the bottom. If the head is too heavy and the lure doesn’t have enough action, switch to a lighter jig head. Nick fishes these lures vertically, hopping it along the bottom as it drifts with the boat.
• The 95mm Zerek Fish Trap is a deadly flathead lure in deep water and Nick likes it especially when the water is a little less than clear. The versatility of this lure allows it to be slow rolled across the shallow flats, hopped down the face of ledges or tea-bagged through the deeper water where there is current flow.
• The Z-Man Mag Swimz 8” paddle tail soft plastics are large lures that get fewer bites but invariably when they’re hit it is a very good quality fish.
• The Zerek Affinity swim bait is a large jointed lure that attracts a quality class of flathead. Nick would do most of his deep water fishing with the previous three lures but might switch to this lure if he heads up into shallower water around the Pin Bar.