These fish can reach monstrous proportions. They are voracious feeders and are just about a daily catch when targeting Mangrove Jack. They range from creeks to offshore reefs and we have caught them up to 20kg at Wilderness Island.

Kingdom: Animalia

Family: Platycephalidae

Many species are found in the Indo-Pacific, especially most parts of Australia where they are popular sport and table fish. They inhabit estuaries and the open ocean.

Flathead use their body structure to hide in sand (their body colour changes to match their background), with only their eyes visible, and explode upwards and outwards to engulf small fish and prawns as they drift over, using a combination of ram and suction feeding thereby improving their chances to catch prey.

Oceanic flathead are generally located more offshore than the dusky flathead, frequenting the sandy zones around and between coastal reefs, although bar-tailed flathead occur in many esturine environments, for example the Swan/Canning River System in Perth.