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Need help with soft plastics


Jake88

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I can't teach due to work but happy to give some advise.

While you're walking the flats at low tide keep an eye out for old flathead "lies" from the previous high tide.

Basically looking for indentations in the sand where the flathead have settled in or buried themselves for camouflage. Much the same as rays do. 

 

 

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Hey Jake

Best of luck. Welcome to the forum.

I am no expert on soft plastic fishing for flatties, but I have a couple tips which may help a bit:

- Make sure your plastic is on the bottom. If your plastic is to light it will not get into the right zone for flatties.

- Try and 'match the hatch' - don't go using a 6 inch soft plastic if the only thing you are seeing is 4 inch baitfish. Try and match the hatch to what you think is in the area.

Hope that helps,

Hamish

 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi mate, flatties on plastics is quite easy and there or a couple of techniques i like to use.

First use a 1/4 Oz jig head if water is calm, cast out and wait for it to it the bottom. Lift the rod tip a foot or two and slowly wind as the plastic flutters back down to hit the bottom again. Do this until it's back at shore or boat/yak. The lure motion is like a something hopping across the bottom. You don't want wind too fast though. A pause of few seconds when at the bottom is good. Remember they lay on the bottom and ambush so you might not realise they are on until your next rod tip lift.

The other method is basically a slow retrieve on or close to the bottom. Cast out out, let it sinks. Slow retrieve. You may feel lure bounce or rocks or weed. 

 

They will take 3 inch to 9 inch plastics.

 

 

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15 hours ago, Breaming with bro said:

starting with soft plastics can be challenging but after awhile you get better at it . as for fatties I highly recommend fishing 2 hours before high or low tide that's when I find I get the most I recommend you use the retrieve @Khan mentioned or use a slow roll technique you let the lure sink... quickly reel in for a few seconds and then let it sink again and repeat .I use both retrieves. I find the slow roll technique works best for my local areas but switch the retrieves up every now then. every day is different sometimes flatties might prefer one retrieve over the other id also recommend using the right gear its gonna be very hard chasing flatties on plastics if your using a 5000 size reel and a 6-9kg rod spooled with 20lb mono. a 1000-3000 sized reel matched with a 1-4kg 2-4kg or 3-5kg rod is ideal for flatties on plastics and braid from 4-12lb is good and leaders from 6-15lb is ideal id recommend using at least 10lb leader first just in case a flattie swallows your lure after awhile your reaction time using lures will improve and you can go down to 8 or 6lb leader but I recommend starting out with 10lb leader or even 12lb leader if you wish. As for plastics I recommend 2.5-3.5 inch plastics matched with 1/8-1/4 jigheads you can go heavier if your fishing deep channels with high currents . flatties are not particularly fussy on colours but I usually use whitebait/sardine colours or motor oil/grub colours or even sometimes bright pink orange and green colours . I usually find the natural whitebait or grub colours work best though. as for brands I recommend Daiwa bait junkie and Zman the most after that it would be savage gear and eco gear then after that squidgies and Berkley although sometimes the bargain bin specials/strange unknown brands work better then all of the brands I just mentioned but generally all the brands I just mentioned work extremely well and shouldn't make much difference on what plastics you use . And lastly location and where your fishing is key for flatties .you'll find you'll catch the most and biggest flatties in shallow water 1-4 feet sometimes though they hide out in deep channels . also drop offs and heavy structure but be warned flatties are not forgiving fish around heavy structure. So to sum it up if you 

fish 2 hours before high or low tide

use good retrieves and mix it up

use the right gear tackle and lures 

target drop offs structure and shallow banks 

I guarantee you'll be catching flatties left right and centre 

hope that helps make sure to listen to other peoples advice to @Drop Bear @Khan@ellicat and others had great tips to. welcome to the forum feel free to ask any tips on any of your fishing/outdoors subjects there are plenty of great experienced fishers on this forum to answer your questions .

Great advice good work mate

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