ET - Howzat!

Every week on my show, "Escape with ET", I get the chance to meet some terrific celebrities who, like all Australians, love to spend time on, or near, the water. Often we're in exotic locations like Lord Howe Island or the Whitsundays, but recently I spent the day on Botany Bay in Sydney's south with legendary cricketer, Dennis Lillee.

Botany Bay has certainly changed since Captain James Cook first anchored off Kurnell in 1770.

Industry, airport runways, and a large cargo and freight terminal have played their part in its changing face.

Being situated so close to Australia's largest city has placed pressure on Botany Bay's fish stocks and spawning grounds.

Despite all that, fishing guides like Scott Lyons from Southern Sydney Fishing Tours still manage to catch and release large numbers of kingfish, tailor, bream, trevally and flathead.

Scott's 5.45m Savage Jabiru has been custom-built for the job at hand, and his knowledge of the Bay means anglers are put right onto the fish.

Dennis and I were lucky that we had not only Scott to put us in the right spot, but also local angler Dean Ferguson in his 5.6m Quintrex to point us in the right direction.

Dean has been perfecting a technique for flathead using soft plastic lures with outstanding success.

So Dennis replaced his red cricket ball with a Shimano spinning outfit to try and entice a hat-trick of Botany Bay's best.

I recall watching Dennis Lillee bowl many times: nostrils flaring, charging up to the pitch, striking fear into the hearts of the world's best batsmen. The Aussie war cry of 'Lil-lee, Lil-lee, Lil-lee' stirred the emotions in sports enthusiasts like nothing before, and it was with great delight that I saw Dennis' passion for cricket transposed into his fishing.

Dennis has caught plenty of flathead on bait in his home state of Western Australia, and was keen to learn the art of soft plastic lurefishing.

Sydney turned on a perfect morning, and in no time the sounder dropped away to three metres and we began our first drift.

Finding flathead in any system is all about finding the right terrain. Flathead like nothing more than lying in the sandy patches between weedbeds, so this is one of the first places to look.

The weedbeds, especially at the entrances to small creeks and bays, provide substantial cover for the thousands of baitfish in the bay.

See where your target species lies in the food chain and work those particular areas hard.

As dusky flathead prey on small fish, squid and crabs, and use ambush as their hunting technique, fishing in spots which hold large quantities of the above gives you a great chance for success.

Flathead lie in the sand with only the eyes on the top of their head visible. This technique allows them to look up through the water column, and enables them to ambush baitfish holding over the weed beds.

Over the years, I have experimented with soft plastic lures.

A slow twitching action, keeping the lure close to the bottom, seemed to work best for me. But after a quick demonstration from Dean, my catch rate increased threefold.

The technique that Dean demonstrated involved lifting the rod in a short, sharp strike to get the lure off the bottom, followed by a second harder strike that raised the lure about two metres before it fluttered back to the sandbed.

This aggressive action results in flathead from a larger area seeing the lure and racing in to hit the soft plastic on the drop.

Dennis was getting the hang of the new technique very quickly.

From the way he was asking questions, you could see how keen he was to get it down pat.

Scott Lyons told us that most of the anglers he tries to get started on this new technique give up pretty quickly, but Dennis just kept plugging away.

In the two hour session, Dennis caught his fair share of the 18 flathead which came aboard our boat.

Overall, between two boats and five anglers, we caught and released over 30 fish of up to 2kg. Not a little session in anyone's books. Dennis also owns a 5.6m Quintrex, and one thing's for certain: the flathead in Perth will be getting a workout this summer!

For Sydneysiders, Botany Bay is a great location to get amongst some of the great light tackle action on offer.

Indeed, it's a pretty good spot for visitors too, so - if you're looking for a great day out on the water and could do with some local knowledge - Scott Lyons can be contacted on 0418 169 439.