Flatties

What is the rig make-up for general flat fish, line and hook strengths, hook sizes and bead colours.

Do you need a long cast on sandy beaches.
Thanks

three hook flapper will do body 50-80 lb. snoods 20-25lb. hook size 2 or 1 which ever you prefer,beads you will have to experiment wth different colours and mixes ubtil you get one the flats are takeing regularly most flats are taken close in so casting doesnot come into it.some guys now are using very light rig body 30lb and snoods of 12lb. in flouro carbon but these rigs are NOT designed for long casting and LIGHT weights.

Does bead size matter.

Beachcaster has seen you right with his post. beads will work well for flatties at certain times. try different sizes, colours out in the places you fish or just use the ones you like(!) and see what works best. red and yellow beads seem quite popular. sequins are good too as they reflect light and can entice fish to bite when things are slow in clear water.

where are you planning to fish for the flatties, on different venues different colours work better but the basics of the rig are normally similar.

jsut to add! there are good anglers that rarely if ever use beads on rigs for flats and they catch very well. some say that beads and the like are a waste of time which i think is a sweeping statement and just not true. remember that how you fish your rig and how you put the bait on the hook is as important.

attractors can work well on rigs for wrasse, pollack, coalies and whiting too. even cod can respond well to them. obviously you are better off using spinnerblades or booby beads on rigs for fish if the sea is coloured as vibration and movement will attract more than colour. for example flounder spoons will still catch flounder in heavily coloured estuary water and can still outfish static ledgered baits.
attractors can have other uses aswell such as popping the baits up off the bottom or pinning them to the seabed in big tides using heavy metal beads and similar.

a good way to see what works for you is to make up a standard rig with no attractors and fish it against an identical rig design but with attractors on it. you might be surprised at how well the attractors can work on a given day.

in my opinion good bait is the main thing. Some people get tooo worked up with reflectors etc

the simpler the rig the better as far as i am concerned. if fishing in close as you normally do for flatties, use a lighter main body 40 lb and snoods of around 18" to 24" 20 lb amnesia. forget all the beads and floaties until needed.

Where are you intending to fish for flatties ?

Im planning on fishing around Greenore, Gyles Quay for starters.

Flatties are a nosy type of fish. If they spy something strange or out of the ordinary they will investigate as long as they don't consider it a danger.
I have seen anglers using traces decorated like Christmas trees with great success. But it can depend on the beach, sometimes it works on one beach but not on another :? This fishing lark can be a bit hit miss :wink:

Whatever rig you use with whatever beads etc, remember to move your lead every now and again. Most flatties will take the hook, give you a knock and then settle down, move your weight a few feet and you may see another knock, could be from the fist fish and possibly from a second.

Personally, if I see there are flatties around I stop using a break-away lead and go to a plain sinker. Flatties will hit a bait that is on the move, plus they will come quite high off the seabed to take a bait too, many's the time you will catch more flatties on your top hook than on the bottom one.

Tom.

I know it's a "how long is ... string " type of Q but what would you call
" close in " ? Is there a rule of thumb such as just behind the third breaker or something ?
Cheers
Nick

Behind the breakers, or if there's a really long bit inside the furthest breaker, is what I consider 'close in'. Anyone got a different definition :?:

Maybe I've been fishing in the wrong place. Might explain a few of my recent match results.... :oops:

On an ebb tide Flatties will sit right on the waterline, to lazy to swim, they will sit in the Sand and let the tide take them out. 2 or 3 yards beyond the waterline will catch you Flatties sometimes, not all beaches are the same though, but its always worth the odd chuck to see. Puddles even, as long as they have FLOWING water will hold Flatties.

Structures for definite will hold Flatties, search for them on the slack side of the tide pull, they are lazy fish that like to ambush their prey.

Tom.

Hi

Been doing my homework on this arising out of a query about sole.

Dabs are the most active hunters of all the flatfish and the least spooked which is why short snood next to the lead will often take them.

At the far end you have sole, which have a special sensory organunder the head that is apparently used to sense vibrations in the substrate - they will fly off at the least disturbance and prefer to slowly creep forward looking for food.

Somewhere in between is the plaice and flounder. Apparently the size of the blade and attractors can have an impact - too big and it spooks the fish (which is why I've gone off and bought a piack of 50 small ones!).

Plaice are often associated with mussel beds and this arises from their juvenile practice of biting off the mussels filtering gills - their main food source before they turn fish eating.

Scent was a big bonus in targeting all these fish... bar the sole, which also has a tiny downturned mouth which is hard to fit on even a size 2 hook.

FWIW: I'm keen to add to this, so if anyone would like to contribute...

While on the subject, what is the best time of the year for flatties?
Thanks,
-F

Hi Kieren
Isnt the logic that plaice wont take fish baits? been my experience anyway. worms and mussels seem to do better but flounder primerily eat fish. IN saying that There are bound to be people who have caught on fish bait

Yep

Been my experience that any plaice I take are always taken on mussel (surprise surprise) and newly dug lugworm.

Flounder can but do not always eat anything and I would pay particular attention to what food is available locally, for example there are some marks and if you don't have peeler, you are just wasting your time, whereas others its lugworm, I know one where you need ragworm and nothing else...

Turbot and brill are meat eaters with mackerel belly strip my preferred option, squid strip a close second

Dabs will eat anything too and are renowed for their preference for stinky old lugworm, left five days on a radiator... but that stops you catching all the other potential flatfish so its not something that I would recommend - beside which the wife will kill you :roll: :D !

Again something that combines a visual target and scent trail will work really well, especially if the water is not clear, but based on what I have read from Mike Ladle and others, the attractors need to be quite small.

HTH

On the subject of best times, almost all of these species are heading into their spawning times, so they (a) go off feeding and (b) are often in very poor condition after the spawn. For those reasons I stop targetting flats after January and don't seriously try for them again until May but it could be very different depending on the species and your location...

I hope people will find lots to disagree with in this...