Brissie systems fire up for summer

Another year has flown by and what a great year it was for fishing in southeast Queensland.

We had such a good winter and spring was also excellent, with plenty of flathead, jewfish and mangrove jack showing up in all of the systems around Brisbane.

The waterways were very busy during December, with school holidays and plenty of travellers from down south making their way to the greatest state in Australia.

I prefer staying away from the busier areas at that time of year.

I also like to fish at night or very early in the morning to avoid the large numbers of boats and jet skis.

The fish can shut down during the busier times of the day, so being on the water outside of these periods will increase your chances of landing a few fish.

Mangrove jack will be heavily targeted this month.

 

As the weather heats up, so do the jacks.

We received a good run of storms during November and December, which got the angry red dogs super fired up.

The good downpours of rain that fell with the storms kept a little colour in the water.

I find this helps considerably when targeting jacks on lures.

They can be very shy when the water is clean.

This season has been really good for mangrove jack so far, with good numbers of fish turning up in southeast Queensland.

To date, most of the jacks I’ve caught this season have come from rock bars.

Fallen trees are normally a favourite of mine, but they haven’t been producing as well as the rocks have.

A lot of small prawns are also getting about in the local rivers.

 

The cod population gives the abundance of prawns away, especially after being caught, when they regurgitate them all over the front deck.

Even though school prawns were on the move, most of the jacks I’ve been landing were taken on 3-4” paddle tail plastics.

The old saying ‘match the hatch’ certainly works on most occasions, though if the fish aren’t biting on a certain style of lure, it’s worth trying something else.

Flathead generally slow down at this time of year, yet there have been plenty around the mouths of rivers recently.

With big schools of bait holding up in these areas, flatties have been gorging themselves.

They hold in the deeper water at low tide and push right up into the shallow water on the flats as the tide pushes in.

My son Luke and I have been catching them in the Pine River and Hays Inlet in big numbers.

In only a couple of hours, 20-30 fish were caught, so the action has been fairly hot.

Flathead aren’t the only species hanging around these bait schools.

Some nice giant trevally, tarpon and big bream have also been getting in on the action, with 2.5-4” paddle tail plastics rigged on 1/4oz heads doing the damage.

 

The fish have wanted various presentations on different days, dependent on the wind direction and tide.

Some days they respond to an aggressive flick and other days they prefer a slow wind, keeping it close to the bottom.

Casting into the current and letting it bring the offering back has worked some days, yet on other days they prefer it coming across the current.

I have noticed that some anglers think you must bring the lure back with current at all times.

This isn’t true.

Trying a variety of different angles will open options up and have you catching more fish.

Vertical jigging in the deeper water has worked well, particularly with quality prawn imitations such as the Pro Lure Clone Prawn 92mm.

January is shaping up to be a very good month for catching a variety of species.

Remember to get out there early to beat the boat traffic and keep an eye out for the big storms rolling in during the afternoons.

Lightning and graphite rods don’t go well together, so remember to keep on eye on those electrical storms.

I hope to see you out on the water with the new gear you found under the tree in December.