Shrimp soft plastics

[Dav0]

Hi guys!

I am still very new to soft plastics and just had a quick question. Now I have been doing a tone of reading about fishing with soft plastics on this forum and others and have gotten quite comfortable with catching flathead with the squidgie 75 and 100mm paddle tail fish but when I'm not getting any interest on those I always have some others in the bag to throw out as well. Last Friday I went for a wonder and found a good spot at low tide with heaps! Of flathead lies so decided to give it a go with the new gulp 2" shrimp/prawns I just got. Now without a paddle tail they don't have any natural swimming action so i would do 2-3 short sharp hops off to bottom let it sink hit the bottom and rinse repeat.... Am i not retrieving these right because as soon as I changed back to the paddle tail I got a hookup?

Just want to know if I'm doing it wrong!

Cheers

Davo

[Gad]

I`m no SP guru,and prefer to fish the flats with bait rather than sp`s,but what success that I have had using (storm)shrimp/yabby sp has been across yabby bed sandbanks as the tide comes across it .By casting out and walking with the current and allowing the sp to bottom out then using a light lift and repeating the process I have picked up flatty and whiting.

Just a comment on your mention of heaps of flathead lies at the spot you were at,it’s the practice of flatties to move with water depth across an area as the tide moves in or out,for example if you have 5/6 flatties in an area,and they move around and bed in a number of times in that area,at low tide with the number of lies you see,you could think that there was 15-20 or more flatties in that area when the tide was up.

[qwerty]

hi

i just about only use gulp 2" shrimp.

i like the 2 hop but it is not law

i was like that with minnow's thinking i had the twich wrong

but it just worked one day and not the next(went out yesterday 6hrs for one bream drop it at the bank )

q

[Guest]

I have also been told that 2''Shrimp gulp works great, i my self is still mastering SP...Takes a long time

[Mr FeLiX]

Flathead can be quite a lazy fish so to speak mate, and it can be a case of the bigger the plastic the better.

The theory behind it is the flathead only excert the effort for a 'substantial' meal, so to speak. Possibly try a bigger plastic? In saying that, in my experience with the 2 inch shrimps, i've only hooked bream, tarwhine, tailor and the occasional VERY small flattie.

Just try a few different methods, and you should find a pattern.

Good luck

[Charlie04]

Davo

I have had some reasonable success on the SP shrimps. Have found them most deadly on the drop when fished in tight to structure. Have had limited success skipping them on the sand flats but found most flatty you catch on the smaller shrimp are not that sizeable - I like to use a larger plastic with more movement for them. Summer whiting don't seem to mind the smaller shrimp.

[riverrat]

gulp shrimps are pretty much the best flattie catcher when number's more favorable than quality. 2' shrimps will catch every single flattie in the water if used right.

from the info given i suspect you are using too heavy a jighead for 2'shrimp. shrimps need to GLIDE down the water column after being jigged to give the flatties a chance to bite. since you fish paddle tails a lot and they have much more water resistance than straight tails, you might be using slightly too heavy a jighead for the shrimps. now size down the jighead a bit and see how you go.

[TheOutfitters]

Hi

I'm with Mr Felix on this. I think the 2" prawn is just too small. I'd go back to your squidgy fish.

Mr O

[dansike]

I agree, big paddle tails for big flatties

[Dinodadog]

on the rare occasions that I go to the salt these days, when I do go its usualy to go after flatties at sandgate. What I have found the most important thing is to have movement in the water either in or out tide and cast out bringing your lure back the way the tide is running. Flatties sit in ambush waitingfor the bait to come to them.

Dino

[Dav0]

Thanks for the replies guys. Gives me a few more things to try.

Davo

[flexo]

If you want to use a shrip pattern sp don't even bother with gulps hit up your local tackle shop for some atomic prongs these are my goto lure and have accounted for many fish including the jewy on Sunday .

[Surfingant]

I catch all my flatties on a 3" paddle tail, I agree that you are often better off upsizing than downsizing your lure. Also agree with Dino about water movement, they are an ambush predator so will wait for their meal to come to them. Don't give up on them there are some great results to be had with flatties on plastic.

[planetfonz]

on the weekend i got 5 flathead in around 30 mins or so, using a 4inch gulp shad and nitris got 1 using a 2 inch shrimp of the same colour. casting into same spots and all. being the laziest sp fisherman ever, i'm all for the shads

with the size of the prawns at caloundra on fri night you'd need a 6inch shrimp. big bstards

[Guest]

There has been some good advise given in this post, i must try a few of these ideas