Page 40 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing magazine

Mitch with a good-sized snapper caught of the 36-fathom line.
Andy was stoked with a decent tusk sh caught drifting.
one’s lips is mackerel. Anglers are already waiting with bated breath for the immi- nent arrival of the oce-
Spanish
were fairly consistent though, which kept fish on the table.
Waiting with bated breath
Afor mackerel mayhem
n Trips north to Seventeen Seventy
S we head into summer, the fish on every-
Gold Coast
by HEATH ZYGNERSKI
anic speedsters.
We’ve started to see a
Snapper are still about, with good num- bers of fish sitting in deeper water of around 36 fathoms or more.
In the estuaries, man- grove jack have woken from their winter slum- ber and already decent fish are being caught, with live bait being your best bet for a fish.
few wahoo arrive and we’ve had a good run of doggy mackerel in the Gold Coast Broad- water recently, which is super unseasonal.
As long as the current doesn’t hit us too soon, these fish should hang around for a few more weeks yet.
The local bars have all had a heap of sand move in.
I personally haven’t been out on the water lately, but my young bloke Mitch and his
An early run of pe- lagic species has seen a few schools of mahi mahi and wahoo turn up unannounced.
Tweed has that bank at the back, which is catching the swell, and inside the bar is getting shallow too.
friends have been doing OK around the traps.
mackerel
Summer species show up early
* from P38
models and colours.
had to keep mixing up techniques to get them to bite, but once we worked out when they liked it aggres- sive or subtle, it was a matter of spending more time hooked-up than fishing!
the Gold Coast.
We will also see a re-
Hard-bodies are starting to work bet- ter as the activity of fish increases.
turn of good numbers of bigger bream in the canals, which make for awesome surface fishing.
Over the past few weeks I was fortu- nate enough to try my luck aboard a Hervey Bay charter.
Further out we were fortunate enough to find a few healthy coral trout and golds- pot trevally, but we also lost a few fish to the resident sharks of the bay.
Good results can come from using plas- tics weighted lightly or left unweighted around pontoons too.
Fishing Hervey Bay is always a spectacular experience, not only is the fishing amazing, but when the scenery along the inside of the Fraser Island comes into view, it’s always a moment to remember.
Back to reality on
So hopefully this month you’re able to get out there and ex- perience a slice of the awesome fishing that is on offer!
We tried multiple techniques that all paid off.
Metal jigs and jerk shad soft plastics in 5-7” sizes were a hit for different species of trevally and accounted for a few tuna as well.
A mangrove jack that smashed a plastic along a rock wall.
We worked that we
These have been spo- radic but should be a more regular occur- rence as water temper- ature starts to climb.
Currumbin has been shocking and I’ve had concerns just getting to the bar, let alone going over it.
I don’t know what to expect this summer with mackerel.
Rather than the big boat, the tinnie may get a regular work out con- sidering the run up from
We did OK with spot- ted mackerel early on, but they seemed to move off quite quickly.
* continued P41
Page 40 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2020
www.bnb shing.com.au
Mitch and a nice little trout.