Flathead
Where and when to catch Flathead in Victoria: the VIC season, the spots in our guide that hold them, and where to find VIC's current size and bag limits.
- Size
- Up to 5kg, commonly 500g–1.5kg
- VIC season
- Year-round (best Oct–Mar)
- VIC spots
- 84
VIC Size & Bag Limits
VIC limits for Flathead are set by VFA and change from time to time, so we link them rather than copy them. Check VFA's limits before you fish.
Western Australian limits don't apply in Victoria.
Where to Catch Flathead in VIC
Melbourne & Hobsons Bay
Bayside & Frankston
Mornington Peninsula
Geelong & Bellarine
Western Port & Phillip Island
Surf Coast & Great Ocean Road
Shipwreck Coast & South West
South Gippsland
Gippsland Lakes & East
How to Catch
Best Baits
Pilchard or whitebait, prawns, small live baitfish, squid or fish strips, and peeled crab or worms
Lures
Soft plastics are the standout: 2.5–4 inch paddle-tails, minnows and prawn imitations on a 1/8–3/8 oz jig head heavy enough to stay on the bottom. Small metal blades and soft vibes cover more ground over deeper sand, and small diving hardbodies trolled or cast over the flats work too.
Rigs
For bait, a running sinker rig with a size 1/0–2/0 hook and just enough lead to hold bottom, or a lightly weighted bait slowly drifted. For lures, a light 2–4 kg spin outfit with 6–10 lb braid and a 10–15 lb fluorocarbon leader; flathead have rough jaws that fray light leader, so check it after every fish.
Technique
Keep it on the bottom and keep moving. Fan-cast across sand patches, channel edges and the sand-weed margin, let the plastic hit bottom, then work it back with short hops and pauses so it puffs up sand like a fleeing baitfish. Flathead won't chase far from where they lie, so cover ground until you find them, then work the area hard because they often sit in loose groups. From a jetty or breakwall, drift a bait along the bottom with the current rather than letting it sit. The hit is a solid thump followed by a headshake; let it run a moment before you lift on bait.
Best Time
Through the day, midday included, with moving water the key: a rising tide pushing over sandy flats or a run-out drawing baitfish past a channel edge. Flathead are caught all year, but the warmer months bring more fish into the shallows and onto the jetty sand, while winter fish sit deeper and bite slower.
Identification
Also known as Flatty, southern blue-spotted flathead, sand flathead, bar-tailed flathead, lizard
Unmistakable as a group: a broad, flattened head with the eyes on top, a long tapering body, and a mottled sandy to brown back over a white belly, built to lie buried with only the eyes showing. Telling the southern species apart is a tail job. Southern bluespotted flathead have small blue-white spots on the back and three to five big black spots ringed with white along the tail margin. Southern sand flathead have a white lower tail with one, sometimes two, large black blotches near the end. Rock (grass) flathead are the ones that come out of the seagrass rather than off bare sand. Whatever the species, the gill covers carry two sharp spines that will open a thumb, so grip them behind the head or use a lip grip.
Size & Growth
Most flathead caught from jetties and the shore are 30–45 cm and a few hundred grams to a kilo. Southern sand flathead top out around 55 cm and a little over a kilo, so a 45 cm sandy is a good fish. Southern bluespotted flathead grow much bigger, to 90 cm and 8 kg, and the 60 cm-plus fish that turn up in sheltered bays are usually bluespots. Like most flathead, the big ones are females, so a photo and a release is a fair trade for the standout fish.
Diet & Habitat
Ambush feeders that lie half-buried and lunge upward at small fish, prawns, crabs, squid and worms passing overhead. They live on sand, mud and shell bottoms, especially where sand meets weed, along channel edges and drop-offs, around breakwall toes and jetty sand patches, and up on the shallow flats on a rising tide. Sand flathead range from the shallows out to 100 m on open bottom; bluespots prefer sandy patches among the weed in sheltered bays down to about 30 m; rock flathead sit in and around the seagrass beds themselves.
Eating Quality
Some of the best eating in the sea: firm, white, mild fillets with almost no bones once you're past the head. Fillet and skin them, and take the cheeks while you're there. Bigger fish pan-fry or grill as thick fillets; smaller ones are ideal crumbed or battered for fish and chips. Bleed and ice them straight away and eat within a day or two, since flathead soften noticeably after that, though skinned, vac-sealed portions freeze better than most.
Guides Featuring Flathead
Flathead elsewhere: Western Australia · South Australia