Description

Alright so Crcodile Fish or Flat Head, whatever you want to call them are probably not the most interesting fish in the world, but they are dam good at hiding and can make for good practice subjects for photos, as they will likely not move very much.

If you want to find Crocodile Fish, be very very close to the sand and keep your eyes peeled for slight triangular depressions or shapes in the sand, this can in many cases be a fully buried Flat Head, sometimes not even their eyes will be outside of the sand.

If you are experienced in finding the shape in the sand that gives them away, you can use a pointer, which you slide down underneath at a 45 degree angle and gently lever, this will push the sand below him up a bit and most times the Flat Head will just go with it and the sand on top of them falls away revealing the fish.

At this point now he is a little bit exposed,some times what I will do is use my hand to clear sand away from under his snout, just FYI, at no point are you ever touching this fish with your pointer, hands or anything else, you are just gently exposing him for a photo, not moving him around and pissing it off.

If you get too forceful or grabby they will simply dart somewhere else, faster then you can see, they are super quick and will simply bury themselves again, this is by far the hardest time to find them, because they have gone deep into the sand to get away from you.

If you want to get a nice portrait shot of a Flat Head fish like this one, you have to be patient, careful and ever alert. One thing I do find though is they like to be close to where large structures meet the sand. So where the box of a wreck meets the sand or artificial reef structures like concrete pots. Look at the base of these and there is a good chance of finding one there.

Happy hunting!