Page 79 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing magazine

Choices for Capricorn Coast
* from P78
ideas, locations and techniques.
with schoolies going nuts.
sneaky yakka spots up your sleeve, these would be quality places to give it a go.
Apparently, the easiest place to catch a CQ jack is the Causeway Lake, but after talking with a few locals, it’s not a mat- ter of just rocking up and smacking jack.
If you push past the bay and hit the outer islands such as Barren, Man and Wife and Out- er Rock, spanish mack- erel seem to be easy pickings.
I’m hoping to get out for a session if the weather permits.
Well, it may be the case if you fish the pop- ular areas with live bait – but I wanted to catch them on lures, so it’s a different ball game.
More specialised mackerel anglers have been running bait such as bonito and ribbon- fish, but fishers trolling Rapala X-Raps were getting in on the action.
Last but not least are the boats that have pushed wide chasing quality reef species.
Muddies will be on the move, so make sure to soak a pot or two when hitting the estuaries.
Always great to get the kids out for a mackerel hunt. Braxton, Jax and Charlie with the morning catch.
King threadfin salmon are another favourite to target in closed season.
Another great species to target at this time of year are small black marlin, which have turned up in good num- bers.
Overall, the wider grounds have been fishing consistently for species such as red em- peror and large mouth nannygai.
Be aware, they inhabit the same places as bar- ramundi, so if you hook a barra by mistake, do your best to release it boat side.
Nannies have been re- sponding well to live yakkas, while reds have been biting on big fresh flesh baits.
We are on the other side of spawning sea- son currently, and large schools of big threadies will reduce.
Fishers floating live baits and pilchard for mackerel have picked up accidental captures, while the more ad- vanced anglers running teasers and skirts have been raising over a doz- en fish on good days.
Make sure when chas- ing reds to alternate be- tween running ball sink- er and paternoster rig.
There should be big- ger numbers of school- sized threadies in the town reaches of the Fitzroy River and on snag banks and rock piles down river.
If you want to target a small marlin, the most common place seems to be around yellowtail scad schools.
I ran out of time to get a report from last month’s Fitzroy River Barra Bash – stay tuned and I will get it done for next month.
Locating them on side imaging sounders be- fore casting is a popular method.
If you have a few
That’s all from me – stay safe and fish on.
You’d be amazed how often that makes a dif- ference.
Now, what’s been hap- pening around the Cap- ricorn Coast area?
School mackerel have been in good numbers, when the weather has allowed anglers to get out into the bay.
The islands close to Emu Park have been fishing very well for this species.
We used a very sim- ple technique of drift- ing with the boat and floating pilchard along current lines.
The kids had a ball,
Humminbird Helix found schools of king thread n salmon on mega side image.
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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2020 – Page 79