Flathead is one of our favourites, and one of yours too. Available all year round, it is one of the easiest fish to catch and one of the tastiest to eat, and we run into plenty of them on our reef trips around Sydney. Here are the facts, how to catch flathead, and how to cook them.
Flathead Facts
The dusky flathead is the most common Australian species, and it can grow to as much as 15kg and stretch to 1.5 metres. You will also come across tiger flathead and bluespotted flathead. Most are medium brown, or dark green with a brownish tinge, with brown spots on the pectoral fins and a black mark on the tail to help them hide on sandy and weedy bottoms. Their wide head gives them good binocular vision to pounce on prey passing overhead. Unlike a lot of fish, flathead keep the same sex their whole life, set during the juvenile stage, and a female can carry anywhere from 300,000 to 3.9 million eggs. For the record books, Ken Paulie landed a 56kg fish in Kansas back in 1998.
Flathead Legal Size in NSW
Recreational rules updated in August 2022 mean a flathead you keep must measure between 36cm and 70cm. Anything outside that range has to go back in the water. The daily bag limit is 5 per person, with a possession limit of 10 per person. Limits can change, so always check the current NSW DPI regulations before you head out.
Best Time to Fish for Flathead
There is no official closed season for flathead, but the peak time to chase them is from April to May and September to October.
Available all year round, flathead is one of the easiest fish to catch and one of the tastiest to eat.
Flathead Fishing Spots in Sydney
Look for drop-offs where shallow water falls away into deeper water. Port Hacking at Cronulla, especially where the river mouth meets the sea, holds flathead on the tides. Other good spots include the Cooks River entrance in Botany Bay, the Hawkesbury River, Gladesville Wharf, Huntley’s Point Wharf on the Parramatta River, Tom Uglys Bridge on the Georges River, Gunnamatta Bay, and the Lilli Pilli sand flats in Sydney’s south.
How to Catch Flathead
Flathead eat a wide variety of things, including other fish, crustaceans and molluscs, so you have plenty of options. Good baits include herring, mullet, saltwater whitebait, squid, pilchards, pipis, yabbies, prawns and mussels. If you prefer lures, the best soft plastics for flathead are shads, grubs and paddle tails.
How to Cook Flathead
Flathead are a great table fish. They are slightly sweet, not oily, and have a light, delicate flesh, and the bones sit mostly in the head, so the fillets are easy to sort out. You can steam, poach, pan-fry, deep-fry, bake, grill or barbecue them. Cooking flathead on the barbecue or in the oven can dry it out, so it is best to wrap it in foil first.
Flathead Fish Recipes
Flathead will forever be linked with fish and chips, but it is far more versatile than that. Try it with a cherry tomato glaze, a fresh salsa or a crunchy coleslaw, in taco shells, through a spicy curry or a vegetable stir-fry. It also loves a yoghurt dressing with a lemon-lime drizzle, a beer batter with tartare and dill, or simply as salt-and-pepper tails.
Keen to fill the esky with flathead? Send us an enquiry or book a reef fishing charter today.
