Flathead Fishing Episodes

Mastering Gold Coast Flathead With Guy McConnell

Flathead are distributed right across the Gold Coast in good numbers, but spring is the time when the bigger fish become more concentrated and easier to target. Gold Coast sponsored angler Guy McConnell does a great job of sharing tips that will help anyone catch more (and better quality) flathead on lures.

  • Flathead fishing has been elevated to “sportfishing” status as more anglers target and release trophy fish on lures.
  • Due to their accessibility from shore, boat or kayak, fishing for flathead is extremely popular and a great way to get started at lure fishing.
  • Because of the way flathead feed, lures will often outfish baits simply because lure fishers can cover more water to find the fish.
  • Many flathead species will come into mere inches of water to feed an hunt on the incoming tide. 
  • A common rule of thumb when flathead fishing is “big lures take big fish”. It seems that big flathead are often ignore small food items.
  • It’s usually possible to catch flathead on very light tackle, but a heavy bite leader is required to prevent them wearing through the line.
  • Dusky flathead (Platycephalus fuscus): The largest species, found from southern Queensland to eastern Victoria.
  • Sand flathead (Platycephalus bassensis): Southern and eastern Australia, from Queensland to Tasmania.
  • Bartailed flathead (Platycephalus indicus): Tropical Australia, from Western Australia to Queensland.
  • Tiger flathead (Neoplatycephalus richardsoni): Southern and western Australia.
  • Blue spotted flathead (Platycephalus caeruleopunctatus): Found from southern Queensland to Tasmania.
  • Northern sand flathead (Platycephalus laevigatus): Northern Australia, from Western Australia to Queensland.
  • Yellowfin flathead (Platycephalus conatus): Southern and eastern Australia, from Queensland to Victoria.
  • Rock flathead (Platycephalus laevigatus): This species is found in southern Australia, from Western Australia to Victoria.

There are many more species, but these are the main ones of interest to anglers.

  • Soft plastic lures such as paddletails, curltails, shads and so on  in 3-6″ sizes, fished on jig heads or rigged weedless.
  • Soft vibes in sizes from 75-110mm.
  • Hard bodied diving lures from 75 to 120mm long.
  • Small metal blades of around 35-40mm.
  • Bent minnow style surface/sub-surface lures
  • Floating stickbaits, poppers or other surface lures
The Five Best Fishing Spots In Sydney With Luke Kay

The Five Best Fishing Spots In Sydney With Luke Kay

The greater Sydney area has no shortage of fishing opportunities for lure tossers, as today’s guest Luke Kay shares in this interview. From the bays and estuaries to the ocean rocks, Luke takes us through where he likes to go in search of fish.

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Discover the Best Fishing Spots in Southeast Queensland this Spring

Discover the Best Fishing Spots in Southeast Queensland this Spring

For the boating angler, Southeast Queensland during spring is all about big snapper, quality jewfish, threadfin salmon, flathead and plenty more! Nabeel Issa is a multiple time ALF podcast guest and always has plenty of great info to share. Today he walks us through why spring is his favourite time to fish in SEQ and gives us the rundown on how, when and where.

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Episode 532: Top Brisbane Landbased Fishing Spots In Winter With Beau Rixon

Episode 532: Top Brisbane Landbased Fishing Spots In Winter With Beau Rixon

Brisbane offers an astonishing range of land based fishing options to suit anglers of all skill levels, ranging from the hunble flathead right through to tailor, squid, bass and jewfish. Local fishing tutor and land-based guide Beau Rixon spends a lot of time fishing the area from the shore and teaching others to do the same, so for today’s episode I invited Bea to jump onboard and share some of his favourite land based spots.

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Episode 182: Jumpinpin Flathead With Nick Whyte

Episode 182: Jumpinpin Flathead With Nick Whyte

Jumpinpin is famous for bream and hold quality jewfish…… but for the flathead enthusiast it’s also home to some quality crocs. Brisbane angler Nick Whyte explains what you need to know to target the big lizards in deep water.

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Episode 151: Lake Macquarie Flathead With Mark Williams

Episode 151: Lake Macquarie Flathead With Mark Williams

Lake Macquarie is one of the three trophy flathead fisheries in New South Wales and flattie gun Mark Williams knows the system better than most. In this episode Mark shares some secrets for targeting the big “old girl” flathead in this popular system.

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