Flat Fish

[chenz116]

Just wondering if anyone could give me a few pointers on fishing for Flat fish.

best bait, rig things like that

any help would be really appreciated.

[Mick001]

Chenz116
Just sent you a PM...

[bigsod]

3 hook flapper, size 4 to 2 hooks, 16" to 30 " snoods depending on conditions, bait wise lug both fresh and frozen tipped with mackeral, maddies can be brilliant and in esturys crab can be the killer bait

[Sweetwrasse]

I've found strips of really manky mackeral the top bait for finding bigger flounder, on the donegal coast anyway. Might be worth a go if the worm baits aren't working? Also, the flatties can be very close in so cast inside the first 10 yards and work your way out from there.

[doublebubble]

I believe size 2-4 size hooks are far too small.. when they are this small the chance of returning small flats alive are slim because they will swallow them and they wont live.. i use size 1- 1/0 and i always hook flats big and small and always get them back alive. Depending on where you fish the bait can vary.

[bigsod]

I believe size 2-4 size hooks are far too small.. when they are this small the chance of returning small flats alive are slim because they will swallow them and they wont live.. i use size 1- 1/0 and i always hook flats big and small and always get them back alive. Depending on where you fish the bait can vary.

Paul I certainly dont agree with wholesale slaughter and good unhooking practice like removing the hooks through the fishes gills like petekd has demonstrated on a post on this site. You and I have had this difference in veiw on smaller size hooks before and I repect your feelings but think your generalisation is flawed, I have caught gut hooked dabs on 3/0s and gut hooked dabs on 4s and lip hooked on both sizes, care in the release is the key to ensuring the fishes chances are better than slim as you put it..

[chenz116]

thanks for all the help lads.

have to say the forum is great for that

[corbyeire]

completely agree bigsod - care with the hook removal is the key

no need to yank out the hook from gut hooked fish, 99% of the time the hook can be removed via the gill with very little effort

[roger de dodger]

long thin strips of squid that flap about in the tide can work a treat,if they are about they will eat just about any bait presentation is important as a loose untidy bait will get ripped of the hook ,sometimes a few turns of bait elastic is all thats needed to get them to hook up