Estuary
Flats Flathead Fly Fishing
By Richard
Carter
Fly fishing tips and tactics
Before we start the following
is just a guide to get you started. Don't use the concepts presented
here as absolutes, mold them to suit your needs, skill level
and equipment.
The key to a catching a flathead
is understanding their habits. Most predators in this world hunt
their food. They head out into their marked territory and find
their prey, stalking their prey and then attacking at the opportune
time. Alternatively a few predators wait for the game to come
to them, one such predator is the Flathead.
A flathead is a unique hunter as most times it will bury itself
slightly under the sand facing into any current that might exist.
The only thing showing is it's eyes and the occasional puff of
sand as it breathes. As food items get carried along by the current
or as small baitfish, prawns and such feed along the bottom sub-strata.
All it takes is a quick lunge and there's the first course for
the day.
You can see the places a flathead lies in wait to ambush its
food at low tide. Usually at drop offs from the mud/sand banks
or junctions of currents. Suggest having a wander across the
sand/mud flats during the low tide for possible casting spots
for later during the rising tide or even alter on the dropping
of the tide.
Another place to find their bunkers is at the head of weed beds.
Most small baitfish and prawns know they can find refuge in weed
beads. A flathead knows this too. So that clearing just inside
the edge of the weed bed is the spot a flathead has cleared for
an ambush location for anything swept along by the tidal flow
looking for a bit of refuge and safety amongst the weeds.
The advantage of these ambush predator traits to the fly fisherman
makes flathead almost a too easy of a target. Almost every estuary
system along the east coast will have multiple locations easily
seen to those who know what to looks for. The inner and outer
drop-offs of beach gutters also are locations flathead will haunt,
hidden by a thin layer of sand. Cast up onto the high sand bar
and strip over the drop-offs, even to the point of wading out
into the surf and casting back onto the beach and striping the
fly out to sea (easier from a boat, if the swell is small then
much safer for the boaties)
I prefer very shallow water situations for my flathead fishing,
it is so much more visual. I normally wade up the current looking
for likely flathead ambush points. Casting lightly weighted flies
(if weighted at all) past (or up current) of a suspected lie
and give the fly a slow, just faster then the current, pause/strip
retrieve. The sudden lunge out of the weeds, mud or sand is always
a rush. The fight on the fly is far better that any other fishing
method and like all species some are more vibrant in their struggles
than others.
If you get a lunge or a follow, quickly roll out the fly and
bring it back through the same area of the lunge or swirl. This
due to the flatheads habit of dropping down to the bottom straight
after its attack on your fly. After a cast and retrieve over
a dark weed patch, I have had large flathead follow a fly and
having come from a dark substrate it was dark in colour. After
it broke off the attack on the fly, it sank to the bottom. Due
to its dark colour it stood out against the sandy bottom ten
feet in front of me, though it was gradually lighten its colourings
to match its surroundings. I roll cast the fly just past it and
letting it sink, as it neared the depth of the flattie I gave
the fly a twitch or two and the flattie lunged up and opened
its mouth (it is amazing how large they can open their mouths)
to take the fly - all this ten feet in front of me in gin clear
water. Visually fantastic! Still in my minds eye I can perfectly
see it swirl and take the fly on the second pass, after missing
on the first cast.
Equipment
The equipment you will need can
be very basic and not anything special or different from what
you are currently using. There is always a lot of discussion
on the type of line to be used amongst SWOFFERS (Salt Water Fly
FishERS - the 'O' just makes the acronym read better).
A full sinking line gets your fly down and disturbs the bottom
strata attracting scavengers to the mud clouds caused by the
line stripping along the bottom. The negative of this, is all
the flathead the sinking line lands on may not (most likely)
enjoy a fly line being dragged over then and vamoose. This limiting
the potential number of flathead who may see the fly during a
retrieve. I started with a full sinking line and still caught
fish so they do work if that's all you have.
If the water is really shallow a floating line and a long leader
will work. But if a fast strip is required your fly could rise
off the bottom (were it should be for flathead) and never go
into the strike zone. Also this fly line option is not too helpful
in water deeper then five or six feet, where you have a higher
chance of a larger lizards.
There are still other options so not all is lost, like a clear
intermediate line which has revolutionized some estuary swoffers
fishing approach. The negative of these lines is the need to
strip it all in before your can cast again (same for sinking
line). You may be able to roll cast the last 20 or so feet then
cast the full line or just do a water haul cast but then you
take the chance of missing that lazy window shopper fish following
a few centimeters behind your fly. A stripping basket can help
when wading, not as major a problem for boat based swoffers.
The last option to be discussed is a ghost tip line. These are
floating lines with a 9 -10 foot clear sink tip. Combining with
an AIRFLO clear intermediate sink leader and you have a great
option for estuary flathead fly fishing. Great for deep and shallow
presentations and due to the main part of the line - the floating
part, easier to pick up and cast without having to pull the line
out of the water first.
Rods - anything from 4w - 8w can do the job effectively, anything
larger and it's a bit of overkill. Reels not really that important,
a 100 -150m backing just incase you get some pelagics come through
close enough to cast to. If you a bit slack on cleaning your
gear after a saltwater outing you may want to get a reel that
doesn't rust like the Loop graphite reel I use ($165 or there
abouts, some stores supply a spare spool so shop around).
You must remember that saltwater fishing is a lot different then
freshwater trout. When trout fly fishing at the most you could
expect to come across a couple of fish species in a day on a
river, a few more maybe in an impoundment or lake. In the salt
you could come across ten or more species in a morning session
and you will need a setup that can change quickly to suit the
conditions and available species. Add that flathead are a very
tidal related enterprise, you need a versatile fly fishing setup
to maximize your time on the water. This is why on any flathead
outing I will have three lines on me, a floating line for shallow
water, a sink tip for weed bed and medium water approaches and
a sinking shooting head for the deeper water. This so at any
stage of the tide I can target the flathead and any other species
that might pop up during the day.
If you had to choose one line for the estuary applications I
would go for the ghost tip type fly lines. I am quite enjoying
mine, a Cortland 444 tropical ghost tip, also not too bad a line
for target Australian bass along the edges of weed beds in impoundments.
One of the ways estuary fly fishing is the same to trout fly
fishing is you sometimes need to have just the right flies, though
flathead will be a bit more congenial in taking flies that would
be outrageous to a trout. For example I once had a six inch flathead
take a six inch monster fly meant for its great grandmother.
Flies
Flies to use range in type, material
and colours as much as any other species. I think Flathead fly
fishing is more a presentation thing rather than a specific fly,
remembering that if the fly doesn't get in front of the flatheads
face it matters little what it looks like or what colour it is.
For you it may be a plain old clouser (people don't use these
for their looks, its because they work and work all the time,
most of the time anyway). Other flies to use include prawn flies,
crustacean flies, baitfish flies and pure attractors flies (Spinster
flies) - all have their place. If your tying skills are just
being nourished, stick to the good old clouser pattern. Colours
are again a large discussion point but pink over white and chartreuse
over fluoro yellow or white, both with a touch of pearl Krystalflash
or Flashabou, will be good basic starting clouser fly. Hooks
sizes from 4 to 1/0 should suit most situations and flathead
sizes.
I prefer imitative flies as although they are harder to tie,
give me a touch more enjoyment in the development, tying and
using of such. One fly I developed was a baby whiting fly for
flathead that travels along with its head down and tail up. Corsair
body tubing, a bit of lead wire in the nose and some bean bag
balls in the tail, yellow hackle fibres for fins in the right
places. Travelling along just like the real thing, burrowing
away at the sand as it moves along with the current.
My favourite flathead fly, at the moment, is the 'Estuary Critter'
fly we tied in the September club tying afternoon. Very light
weight and a real "eat me quick" crustacean pattern,
which is great for covering shallow weed beds You can find an
article with full tying steps at - http://www.fishnet.com.au/flyswap/articles/estuarycritter.html
Other flies :-
Pink thing in red collar/white elsewhere, all white etc.
Deceivers in all colours
Surf candy type baitfish, Eyes flies etc
Crustacean patterns - Reverse Silicone Hackle Prawn, MOE and
MOS type flies.
Not forgetting Crazy Charlie patterns of many types ('Gotcha'
a good one)
Or the Emu Squid (tying instructions in October's Club Newsletter
Vol3No10)
Here's a pattern to tie yourself:-
M.O.S. tying instructions (Mother Of Silicone).
Based on the original Mother of Epoxy(MOE) fly, but uses silicone
as a body base due to MOE and it's body base of epoxy which is
a real hassle dicking around with a large, very fluid lump of
epoxy that never seems to set until its not in the right place.
This fly style is a great crustacean type pattern that can be
tied in all sorts of colours from pinks to light tans to clear
head/white tail to all black. The action and placement of this
fly is the key, though contrast of the colour of the materials
is also a factor.
Stage one: Preparing the head/body of the fly.
Take a heavy gauge size 4 or
2 hook. One third of hook shank from eye tie in a set of large
beadchain or lead dumbbell eyes. Tie off thread.
Take a dollop of silicone and shape it around eyes into a diamond
shape. Leaving room at rear of hook shank to tie in tail materials.
Make the silicone diamond a touch smaller then you need.
Leave 24 hours for the silicone to set.
After which colour the silicone with a marker pen to the colour
desired or one that matches the tail materials you will be using.
Now coat the silicone with a thin layer of five minute epoxy.
Twist about till dry and epoxy won't sag or use a rotating dryer
made for the purpose. Give the epoxy plenty of time to cure as
we don't want any fingerprints on the epoxy. If you do get some,
a quick brushing of nail polish will refresh the surface of the
head material. You could also use a hot glue gun and coloured
glue sticks to make this style of fly too.
Stage two: Adding the tail materials.
Tie in your thread behind the silicone/epoxy body. Tie in a clump
of marabou or ostrich herl on top of the hook shank.
Tie in some flash 4 or 5 strands of Krystalflash or Flashabou.
Tie in splayed a grizzle hackle tip on either side of the hook
shank.
Tie in a grizzle saddle hackle by the tip and form a collar behind
the silicone/epoxy body. Tie off thread behind silicone/epoxy
body. Trim top of hackle collar.
This
small flathead loved his Green M.O.S. fly so much it was stuck
half way down its throat
Tactics and application.
Fishing from a boat makes the job a lot easier. What you do is
get to the up current side of a sand/weed/mud bank area and as
you drift along with the current cast out the side or 45 degrees
towards the front of the boat retrieve in a stop start manner
(or the best style suited to the flies and fly line setup you
are using). Bouncing that fly on the bottom will see more results
than not. Once you have drifted the length of the flats area,
motor around and back up to the starting point or 20 or 20 feet
to either side of the last starting position and start you drift
again. Be careful not to drive through the area you will be casting
over next, as you disturb the fish you hope to cast on the next
drift.
If walking the flats, walk into the current, casting in a fan
in front of you. Then taking a few paces forward and repeating
the casting fan - one at forty five degrees to the left, adding
a 10 or so degrees to the right of the last cast on each next
cast till forty five degrees to the right.
Whether using a boat or wading, work your flats thoroughly. Specifically
target potholes on the flats, the joining points of clear water
- dirty water currents, the edges of weed/sand/mud banks and
especially the cleared patches in the weed beds. The potholes
I mentioned are areas of darker water that are two to twelve
or more inches deeper than the surrounding water. These potholes
attract food items and thus the predators that prey upon them.
The clearings in the weed patches mentioned earlier have more
than a high chance of containing a flathead, so cover them a
few times before moving on.
On the dropping tide I especially like targeting flathead sitting
at the entrances of run off areas of mangrove swamps and the
like. The run off rivulets can only be a few inches across (up
to several feet) but flathead will be there just inches from
the mouth of these small waterways, waiting in the main channels
for any morsels to get drained off the mangrove swamp. I love
this sort of fly fishing, getting a casting length from the shore
line (boat, kayak or canoe required), floating line, long leader.
Then casting the fly (like shrimp patterns best for this type
of application) into the running water, avoiding the overhanging
mangrove trees (not easy either) and stripping out the fly into
the deeper water at the pace of the water flow. Always expecting
the crash tackle on the fly but never really ready for it. Great
fun!
Remembering too that most, if not all, the larger flathead (55cm
- 60cm+) are female so treat them with care, take a photo and
release them quickly. They can lay several million eggs a season,
so they can produce more of our potential future fly targets.
The smaller males are better eating anyway, if that is your thing.
So go tie some flies and then go flathead fly fishing, as its
always flathead time! (late spring to summer the best).
