Page 29 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

Dream fishing session
En Jewfish from Iluka Bluff on plastics
VERY now and then you have one of those
Just Jew
by TYE PORTER
dream fishing sessions that you don’t ever want to end – such was the case recently when Mischa decided to have a few casts for jewfish at the southern end of the Iluka Bluff using soft plastic lures.
tion, which saw the bait move on.
back along breakwalls and headlands for sum- mer.
When he arrived at the headland, gulls and terns were diving on large shoals of white- bait seeking shelter in the wash.
Not to be perturbed, he flicked the same paddle tail soft plastics along the Iluka break- wall at night for solid fish to 16kg.
The good news is re- ports of decent whit- ing are filtering in and these tasty little critters should be in abundance by the end of October.
A 1-2m swell was roll- ing in and breaking on the reef.
So, it shows that if you want to consist- ently catch fish, you have to be adaptable and change location the same as fish do.
Offshore at Woody Head, snapper and smallish teraglin have dominated catches, though it won’t be long before the first spotted mackerel of the season begin to get boated.
This sh engulfed Mischa’s Shimano Squidgy Whip Bait Soft Plastic lure.
Mischa with a nice 15kg jew sh taken from Iluka Bluff on a soft plastic lure.
Jew sh came in all sizes during a hot bite at Iluka Bluff.
Bush ’n Beach Fishing, October 2020 – Page 29
On his first cast, a nice school-size jew wacked his lure before he had time to turn the handle, and this set the scene for a couple of hours of fishing that everyone dreams of.
October is definite- ly the month to start haunting your local breakwall during the day with fresh or fresh- ly frozen octopus on a big spring tide, as big smelly jew are around this area all year, they simply change their diet.
Believe it or not the occasional longtail tu- na is still being landed, which is rare at this time of year.
The accompanying photos are a small taste of the action because space doesn’t allow for them all.
On the far north coast of NSW, squid and live yellowtail as bait at night will attract jew year-round, so don’t de- spair if you can’t find time to fish during the day tide.
For me, September was another month I didn’t pick up a rod mainly due to health issues.
Needless to say, Mis- cha hooked and landed around a dozen fish, only keeping a 15kg model, and had more than double the number of strikes and hits with- out hooking up.
Another species that has been in good num- bers near the headlands has been turrum and, while we don’t get mon- sters as they do in the tropics, there are loads of these hard-fighting fish up to 7kg currently taking lures.
Hopefully, I’ll find the energy to waddle out to the wall with oc- topus bait during high tide, and maybe even have a cast with live beachworm for a feed of tasty whiting along Shark Bay or the south- ern bank of Goodwood Island at night.
If nothing else, it sure blew the old-school theory of ‘not releasing fish where you catch them for fearing of spooking the rest of the school’ right out of the water.
Chopper tailor around 2kg are in reasonable numbers along both Back Beach and Main Beach at Iluka, while on the Yamba side, the rocks at Plumbago and Lovers Point are pro- ducing similar classes of fish on lures.
Regardless of the spe- cies you choose to tar- get this month, the fact remains that any day fishing is a great day, and if you happen to do it with a good friend then all the better.
It was only the incom- ing tide that forced a halt to fishing in safe conditions, even though the fish were still biting when he left.
I never thought I’d see the day Lisa Simpson and unicorns would have anything what- soever to do with jew fishing, but I have pics to prove they did and will have them in next month’s column.
He returned the fol- lowing day to catch and release another half dozen barely legal school fish before the wind changed direc- www.bnb shing.com.au
Inside the Clarence River, luderick catches are beginning to wane as the bulk of fish move
Until then, safe fish- ing.