The author with a land-based flathead that ate a TT Lures 1/4oz 1/0 TT Lures DemonZ jig head and Z-Man 3.75” StreakZ in Shiner colour.
Tips for land-based flathead
N A go-to flathead presentation – a TT Lures HeadlockZ HD jig head and Z-Man 3” MinnowZ.
Kaitlin with a land-based flathead on her go-to ZMan 3” MinnowZ in Pinfish colour, a great whiting imitation. Page 26 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2021
OTHING beats catching quality fish while having your feet planted firmly in saltwater and sand. Sometimes, when I can't be bothered loading the kayak or hitching the boat up, I head down to the water's edge and flick a plastic around, it’s an excellent way to round out a weekend afternoon or break up the weekday grind. My favourite fish to chase land based is the humble flathead – you never know if you're going to hook a 20cm pocket rocket or to the mythical magic metre fish. How often do you hear the story of an angler down at the boat ramp hauling in a monster after you've spent hours out in the boat?
Gearing up When it comes to chasing flathead land based on plastics there are two main things you probably need to consider – your location and your gear selection. As an example, if I'm cruising the flats with no hard core structure around, I will opt to fish lighter lines, leader and presentation, while on the other hand around mangrove edges and rocks, I go heavier in terms of line and leader and also possibly look at weedless style jig heads. As mentioned earlier, I prefer the more relaxing approach to walking the bank with my feet in the water, so the gear I'm usually running includes 10lb Platypus Stealth fluorocarbon leader attached to 10lb Platypus
X4 braid and matched up with either a 1-3kg or 2-4kg 7' rod and 30 size reel – Okuma’s Cerros spinning rod and Epixor XT reel are a favourite set up. Presentation wise I try my best to match the hatch in the local area I'm working, where bait such as hardyhead and other small baitfish, prawns, crabs and yabbies are all on the menu. Presentations that resemble these will be what I opt for. Z-Man have a huge range of presentation that cover all of these. To get you started on flathead Z-Man 2.5” and 3” Slim SwimZ, 3” MinnowZ and even 3.75” StreakZ are all good patterns. With every style of fishing, colour will de* continued P27
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