Merricks & Balnarring for flatties

[rookie]

Spent a pleasant but fruitless day wandering up and down Merrricks & Balnarring beaches last Saturday. Found a nice spot at Merricks - sandy with weed beds surrounding so i put in two rods with bluebait & squid on a running sinker so they'd stay on the bottom and settled in.
DAMN SEALICE ATE ALL MY BAIT!! Well, a fair bit of it before I gave up and switched to soft plastics (first time using for flathead)..
I started fishing just after high tide with bait for a couple of hours then through to low tide with plastics, all the way up to the end of the foreshore reserve @ Balnarring.
ZILCH ZIPPO NOTHING!! Bangg Bangg

My question is, did I fish at the wrong time? Do flatties prefer an incoming tide? Or is further down at Shoreham a better spot? On Google Earth it looks a little less rocky (damn rockfish took 2 of my rigs too)..
Any help would be much appreciated! I was lucky enough to get out on a fishing charter out of Inverlock on the 27th and bagged a heap of flathead - no monsters but an awesome feed! Now I want more!! :D

[Beno]

Shoreham is great for BIG rock flathead.... If lure fishing though I think somers maybe a better spot less weed.

[Brett]

Lice demolished your bait in daylight ?

[CarlG]

Lice demolished your bait in daylight ?

Did sort of wonder about that... I`ve only ever encountered them when fishing from dusk onwards..daylight bait demolition is more the territory of the toadie..

[rookie]

Maybe it was toadfish? I've never come across them before, never even seen one would you believe - I'm usually in freshwater in Central Vic.!! Not many toadfish Up there lol!! :oops:
I was watching my line pretty closely though and not using heavy rods and it didn't look like a fish on the chew.. I 'm really not sure now! Yeah it was daytime, I started fishing about 2 or 3pm.
Anyway, I'll try Shoreham I think (thanks Beno) and learn some lessons from Balnarring!
Oh, and Happy New Year all!!

[slinga]

Merricks has been caked in sealice round that time fyi.

[Brett]

I have never come accross lice at Merricks until around 9pm, sometimes even later like 11pm. Maybe I'm just lucky :roll:

[Tomcat1]

i have had problems with the sea lice many times even during the day. usually only at night but from time to time they are out in the day light.

[rookie]

What do you all think about the timing? Outgoing or incoming tide, or aren't they fussy!

Also, I love baitfishing; pillies & squid sitting on/near the bottom the way to go? 4/0 or 3/0 hooks? That's what I was using anyway, made sense to me although on the charter the BIG sinker was on a running setup above the hooks - different fishing I suppose..

Thanks all!