Hi Everyone, hope you’ve all had a great week, we had a rough start on the Gold and Tweed Coasts with a howling W/SW hammering us on Monday making finding a spot to fish very hard. Luckily the rest of the week has been nice with light to moderate winds and a nice forecast as we head into the weekend. let’s see what’s been biting this week.
With a nicer forecast during the week local fisho Wayne Young and Ben hit the local 18 fathom reef and came up trumps with a good mixed bag including a nice Jew Fish, Snapper, Moses and plenty of Trag Jew. This time of year the bottom fishing can be a bit hit and miss depending on the amount of current running as getting bait to the bottom can be near impossible. Trolling Skirted Lures or Live baits this time of year anywhere from the Seaway to the 50 fathom line of the Gold Coast or from the Tweed Bar to the close reefs is a great option as we should start to see a few juvenile Black Marlin moving past our Gold and Tweed coats as they migrate south. Bait is the biggest indicator that predators will be close by and feeding. Just keep an eye on the sounder as well as the sky for birds feeding on bait balls and scraps pushed to the surface. Other pelagic species will be on offer on the closer reefs such as the weather warms up like Dolphin Fish, Wahoo and Tuna and Mackerel.
Customers have done well landing a few nice Flathead on the Tweed and Gold Coast. In the warmer conditions try hunting in the deeper water or in the rivers look for deep holes as the fish will be looking for a bit of cooler water. When the fish are a bit scattered trolling diving lures is a great method to cover as much territory until you can locate a few fish in the one area. Once located you can switch to throwing soft plastics or vibes to tempt a bite. Drifting Live baits like Yabbies, Herring or dead bait like White Pillys or Blue Biats are a great option to cover an area. bait biggest indicator
Some solid Mangrove Jack have been caught and released in the Nerang River and Coomera River the past week on a mixture of live bait, dead bait and lures during both the daytime and night time. bait biggest indicator
Smithy from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports on the Tweed the best fishing is still upstream, Whiting are the main target on surface lures with MMD splash prawns the lure of choice. A few Bream are also falling for these great looking lures. The best chance of catching Flathead is by trolling hardbody lures in the 2-4 metre depth range, or tea bagging blades and Samaki Vibelicious soft vibes in the deeper holes up Tweed River. The hot weather will further bring on big Mangrove Jacks which can be caught on deep diving lures trolled close to structure such as rock walls. bait biggest indicator
Clint from the Gold Coast reports in the Broadwater we caught a few Flathead and Whiting on Ecogear ZX40 blades coated in Sax scent goldprawn, then moved up Nerang River to find shelter from the breeze. Trolling Pontoon 21 crackjack and Savage Gear 3d xdr shrimps produced a birthday feed of Flathead for John. The Flathead are very scattered and you have to cover a lot of ground to find them. The rest of the week we focused on targeting Mangrove Jacks in the evenings. With the Northerly winds persistent in the Broadwater we ventured into the local canals with cast nets to catch Winter Whiting, Silver Biddys, and Poddy Mullet. We have managed to catch Jacks on every charter this week, all fish measured over 50cm and all were released. Mixing up baits pays, like any fishing keep trying different things to find what works. Always hold on tight to your rod, they hit like trains and often there is no warning. There is a lot of big Bream around at night up the rivers. There has been large schools of Bigeye Trevally feasting on jelly prawns during the run out tides. These guys are terrific fun on light tackle and small lures.
Hope you all have a good weekend and get out for a fish, if you have any great catches or photos you would like to share, please email us and let us know how you went. bait biggest indicator
New fishing regulations now effective fisheries Queensland http://statements.qld.gov.au/Statement/2019/9/1/new-fishing-regulations-now-effective
Fisho Tackle and Coomera Houseboat Holidays now have Hire Tinnies follow the link to view http://www.coomerahouseboats.com.au/our-fleet-type/hire-tinnies/
Seabreeze is a great website to access a local forecast http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/
If you have any great catches to report or fishing photos please email them to brett@fishotackle.com.au Good luck with the Fishing. Brett
