Hi Everyone, hope you’ve all had a great week, a run of nice weather early in the week has been welcomed by anglers on the Tweed and Gold Coast giving everyone some great fishing conditions at times. A few showers will be hanging around as the week progresses, at this stage it looks like the wind is tipped to pick up over the weekend unfortunately. Let’s see what’s been biting this week.
Local fishing guru Wayne Young (see photo in report) did well this week landing an impressive 79cm Snapper from the 18-fathom reef east of the Gold Coast Seaway. Wayne said there was only a slight current making conditions perfect for float lining baits. The big Snapper hit his bait on the drop and then put up a great fight. The best advice is to get out there early to catch the dawn bite as the fishing was all done and dusted by 7am. When looking for a spot to fish sound around the general area until you locate life whether it’s bait or fish, once you have found life I do prefer to anchor up and start a burley trail straight away. Customers have reported some great catches of Spotted Mackerel from the close reefs off the Gold Coat this week, start looking at the bait grounds then make you way out to the 18 fathom grounds in search of a feed. Mermaid Reef and Palm Beach will be worth a go, keep your eyes peeled for birds working or top water activity like splashing or fish jumping. With the conditions perfect, slow trolled whole WA pilchards, small skirted lures or small shallow water diving lures should work, I also enjoy casting metal slugs and retrieving them fast. Sometimes you will have to try a few sizes of metal slugs until you match the bait size they are feeding on. For bait fishos WA pillie pieces will do the trick, a burley trail is a must.
A few nice Whiting have been showing up in the Broadwater this week, junior fisho Bec (see photo in report) did well landing a quality feed fishing the edges of the sandbanks around the southern end of the Broadwater using live yabbies she pumped. Whiting seem to move around a bit at times, you will catch a few then they go quiet for a while. If you haven’t caught any fish for about half an hour just move around and try another spot close by and see how you go. I recommend 6lb fluro carbon leader, and either a 4 – 5 ball sinker to keep the bait in the bite zone, worms and yabbies are the best bait.
Gavin from Sea Probe Fishing Charters reports Marlin have been a little quieter this week but still a few around thou, some lucky boats are still getting up to 5 billfish a day. The best spots to catch a Marlin have been Deep Trag, Spot X and along the 85m grounds using live Bait and lures. The 18 fathom reef is producing plenty of Spottie Mackerel which have moved in with the Blue water. Try using simple half pillies and full pillies and also casting 25gram slugs into the bait balls.
Smithy from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports on the Tweed what a difference a bit of rain makes with the whole area returning to its lush green self once again. Apart from dodging a few showers and getting caught by few out on the water the fishing has been very good by utilising the conditions. The upper reaches of the Tweed River are still to dirty to fish so we have been staying downstream and working the areas where the clean water is being pushed in by the tides. The area where the dirty water and clean oceanic water is meeting is holding a strong concentration and variety of species. Trolling pontoon 21 crackjack lures is producing Flathead, Bream and Whiting, we have been mixing it up by drifting and casting metal and soft vibes for the same species. The shallow flats around the last couple of hours of the run-in tide has also been fun for casting surface lures for Whiting and especially Bream that seem to be in numbers foraging over the shallow seagrass beds. We have also caught some small Giant Trevally on surface lures and by trolling around the areas where the birds are feeding on baitfish schools holding along the current lines.
Clint reports the Gold Coast estuary fishing is really starting to improve after the rain events and this will continue in coming weeks. Whiting were feeding in the Southern Broadwater along the channel edges between Sundale bridge and the Spit. Using freshly pumped yabbies or Ecogear ZX40 blades or Samaki soft vibes coated in Sax scent goldprawn will catch you a feed of Whiting, Flounder, and Flathead. As the dirty water dilutes further the fish will start to head slightly more upstream chasing food. Expect Mangrove Jacks, Bream, Grunter, Tarwhine, and Trevally to be on the bite.
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 conditions perfect for float lining baits conditions perfect for float lining baits
