Beach Flathead

The 60cm Flathead

One afternoon at Lammermoor beach in Yeppoon I decided I would trial a few new lures. The minnow type hard bodied lures had no success neither did any soft plastic. Before I decided to finish for the day I changed over to a pink panther Tassie Devil lure. On the third cast off the rocks on the mangrove side of the beach I used a faster retrieve resulting in a nice little GT patrolling over the sand and rocky bottom. Latter I hooked up on a rock cod that stuck to the bottom like a suction cup darting between rocks. I waded out to a rocky platform where I flicked the lure out in every direction.  I decided to work the lure across the bottom at a very slow speed next to the platform rock. In a flash a huge lizard drew it’s camouflaged head out of the sand and crunched down on the fluttering lure. The 60cm flathead was only 2 meters away from where I was standing but took me five minutes to land. That end of the beach had produced a similar sized flathead for another man who used a bibless crankbait on another day with very similar conditions. When targeting flathead try to get the lure to hover just above the bottom, allowing the lure to stay in the strike zone. The fluro pink Tassie devil lure is now one of my most prized lures as it has caught multiple beach species and works great in cloudy water. Other colours of the same style and weight class work better in different situations depending on species and water quality. These lures are often hard to find but when you do I suggest you get a few for your tackle box.

Rhett Thorne

The 13.5 gram pink panther coloured Tassie Devil lure