Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Gold Coast Region – Hi Everyone, hope you’ve all had a great week, the weather gods greeted us with some wild winds last weekend and early this week on the Gold and Tweed Coasts. The good news is the weekend is looking great, light winds and sunshine is the forecast which means all systems go for angler’s keen to hit the water and find some fish. Let’s see what’s been biting.
I braved the wild weather last Sunday to fish the Pirtek Fishing Challenge with my kids, 30 plus knot Southerly winds wreaked havoc on us all day making Fishing difficult at times. We chose to fish the Coomera River for our target species Whiting using blood worms and yabbies for bait. The River and Broadwater is still affected by fresh water with the water quality still being below average. Bream and tarwhine were everywhere and ravenous pretty much beating the Whiting to the bait nearly every time we cast out. I was using light estuary outfits with 6 and 9 lb main line, running a 1m + long 6lb fluro carbon trace matched with a size 6 bait keeper hook for worms and a size 4 for yabbies and a 4 ball sinker. In the end the kids had a ball landing 50 plus bream/tarwhine and 15 Whiting, not a bad effort given the conditions. We are very lucky on the Gold and Tweed Coast having plenty of sheltered inshore estuary systems to be able to get out of the wind enough and have some fun. The results of the Pirtek Challenge will be available on Saturday on their website for those interested. Some other areas to chase some Bream and Whiting are Tweed River, Nerang River, Paradise Point, Jacobs Well, Bedrooms, Tiger Mullet Channel, Slipping Sands and Logan River.
With a good weather forecast on the way this weekend prawns will be on the radar for plenty of fishos. Grab your top pocket nets and head up towards Jacobs Well for a look around the moored boats, from there head north to check out either Cabbage Tree Point, Little Rocky Point, Powerlines, Lamb Island, Karragarra Island and the Salt Works at Macleay Island will all be worth a look for a feed of fresh Banana Prawns.
For those anglers itching to get offshore at this stage the forecast is looking good, depending on the current situation the 18 and 24 fathom reefs should fish well for snapper on the dawn bite after the big swell earlier in the week. Plenty of burley should do the trick to attract a few nice fish. Other bottom species on offer are tusk fish, spangled emperor, moses, trag, jewfish and cobia.
Click here for tips on float lining snapper off the Gold Coast.
Gavin from Sea Probe Fishing Charters recommends Gold Coast region
After the weather settles down get out there and try for spanish mackerel and spottie mackerel around the 12s ,18s and 24 fathom areas. Try using live bait , WA pillies and also up to 25 gram slugs . On the way out to the 50’s check out the fads for dolphin fish. Out on the 50’s also try live baiting for amberjack, kingfish and snapper. Gold Coast region
Smithy from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports
The lower reaches of the Tweed is throwing big numbers of fish in all my favourite haunts with casting, trolling and surface lures all producing the goods. If you were a keen lure fishing Bream angler you would be in your element as we have been catching over 30 fish a day and then moving around to different areas to target some flatties that are liking the slightly cooler water. There are some thumper whiting around that are crunching our lures if they are fast enough to beat the Bream. There are also quite a few whiting around as well but the bream are that thick in numbers they are out competing them for the lures. We have also been working the areas where the birds are working and have been catching some small GTs and the odd good tea leaf trevally on surface lures. The mass amount of rain we had in February as we predicted is really laying the platform for some great fishing from now and through our oncoming winter season. Gold Coast region
Clint reports from the Broadwater
A busy week for our charters, the great thing about running estuary charters around here is the availability of sheltered areas to fish comfortably and catch heaps, even in windy conditions.
The water has continued to clear nicely since the floods nearly four weeks ago. A few more showers will only help the good fishing continue. The wind direction makes for good fishing this coming week. If the wind is up early we’ll be further up the rivers where there is plenty of action to be enjoyed.
Offshore fishing may be limited but we are still going out every day. Gold Coast region
The Jacks are still in the lower to mid reaches. We’ll target them at night the next few weeks around the current breaks in the lower river, then in the open river and bridges as the tides back off towards neaps at the end of the week. The wind is up but we have plenty of sheltered areas in our rivers to fish and catch plenty. I have been catching good numbers of Bream, Winter Whiting, Sand Whiting, Grunter and Trevally. Best areas have been Pelican beach, Bums bay, and Benowa.
Yabbies are working very well for me, as are Ecogear ZX40 in 440 and 447 colours, and Samaki Vibelicious soft vibes. I always smear a bit of Sax scent goldprawn on my lures for added natural effect.
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.
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
