Page 64 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing magazine

Nick Swan caught his 49cm mangrove jack with a Keitech Swing Impact Fat paddle tail plastic in the Maroochy River.
OVEMBER is suit most styles. If the current is light a great time to For a lighter current, enough, using a steady start planning be sure to break out the stream of berley can
Flathead are still making an appearance and Tyler Egan was happy with this 90cm model.
PNre-summer warm up getting ready for pelagics
Sunshine Coast
by GRANT BUDD
for the next month as humble pilchard floater, make the difference
we head towards my fa- vourite time of the year – the pelagic run.
scare you and condi- tions change.
drifting and as always upgrading the hooks is essential, as are long 3m or more leaders to cope with getting rubbed up against the reef.
as big mid-water snap- per, cobia, tuna and mackerel frequent this area.
between success and failure.
This year things are set to be quite different, with La Niña being the driver for a better than average pelagic season.
It is the land of big fish and big bust-offs, so go in well equipped with 40-60lb gear.
In closer, Sunshine Reef is showing good- sized coral trout, grass sweetlip, venus tuskfish and of course snapper.
Be sure to pick up pel- lets, tuna oil and ani- seed oil, and mix it with sand for best results.
For now though, ex- pect to find a few big spanish mackerel pa- trolling the shallow coastline from Double Island towards Moolo- olaba.
High-speed jigging is a great method to target amberjack and trevally, which fight all the way to the boat.
For those fishing lo- cal, North Reef has been holding a great mixed bag of species, with jewfish around the 1m mark.
Sunshine has been popular for smaller craft during stronger wind days, as the con- sistent southeasterly wind is usually behind you for the trip home.
The headlands are a great place to have a few larger stickbaits in both floating and sink- ing styles and anything in the Nomad range is a great starting point.
If you have a kayak, a whole bonito, slimy mackerel or garfish on a troll rig and a short length of single strand wire is the go-to rig.
In this area PE3 is the smallest diameter of polyethylene fishing line you should use, as even the smallest am- berjack will wear out anglers not used to this method of fishing.
These fish will take a wide range of baits including live, slab and strip on a snelled 7/0 octopus circle hook and 60lb leader.
Out here a mixture of styles work very well and 20lb gear is perfect for smaller soft plas- tics, 3/8-3/4oz jig heads and jigs in the 40-80g range.
With a pair of polar- ised glasses, you can often sight cast to tuna and cobia passing close by.
Double Island often produces a mixed bag of species not often caught around Noosa.
Sharks can also be a problem and lighter outfits don’t let you apply the pressure re- quired for lifting fish up quickly.
Another way to target these fish is on slow jigs, with the Samaki Ribcage an option for deeper water.
Take a look at PENN Prevail II Surf Spin- ning 9’6” rods for rock and heavier lure casting up to 150g.
These include amber- jack, goldband snapper, saddletail sea perch, nannygai and red em- peror.
Take a look at the various high-speed jigs around 100-200g, and switch out stock hooks for Decoy DJ-78 Mid- dle Pike on slow jigs and DJ-79 Long Pike assist hooks for knife jigs.
The new Hot Bite Rap- tor Slow Fall jig would be great for lighter PE2- 3 outfits fished in shal- low water or during a light current run.
If bait fishing and dropping live bait, then 50lb or greater is rec- ommended because the reef can be an unfor- giving place, especially when the fish of a life- time latches on!
Match this with a Shimano Ultegra 5500 long cast reel and you have a great combo when loaded with a high quality 30lb braid.
At times it is well worth the effort to load the trailer and drive to Tin Can Bay.
If drifting out near North Reef, be sure to use soft plastics in the 5-7” size range.
Having a gang-hooked pilchard floater out on light-wind days can re- sult in a wide range of species picking up your offering.
Also along the surf line, you can expect to find a continued run of small dart and early morning will provide lure anglers with giant trevally, which push
This makes for a shorter boat ride if Wide Bay Bar doesn’t
Slow jigs also work very well here while
You will need jig heads up to 1.5oz and around 5/0-7/0 hooks to
* continued P66 www.bnb shing.com.au
Page 64 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2020