Page 84 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing magazine

Life after annual barramundi closure
* from P83
As a bonus, they are
queenfish or on the sand flats adjacent to the shore.
during summer and can be targeted with live bait or lures.
mud flats when the water leaves the man- groves edges.
as soon as the bleeding stops.
one of the best eating of all the trevally species but need to be killed and bled immediately on capture for optimal results.
Wearing polarised sunglasses will assist in spotting any schools swimming in the shal- lows, where a carefully placed cast in front of moving fish will gener- ally draw an immediate response.
The blues like to trav- el the edges of beaches chasing baitfish but can also be found in deep- er holes in rivers and creeks.
Soft vibes work well for both species when using a steady sink and draw technique.
Do not lay them in full sun or allow the body to bend – this will seriously affect their ta- ble quality.
Their flesh makes great hummus or pick- led fish and comes up well as raw sashimi with soy and wasabi.
Threadfin salmon
Big king salmon can often be sighted right up in the shallows on the rising or falling tide chasing prawns and bait but will usually exit the
If they’re killed and bled on capture, the flesh comes out juicy and white on the plate. Mackerel
Billfish are still an op- tion until the wet arrives and dirty water pushes pelagic fish offshore. Trolling with garfish is the most popular local method, though using small queenfish will occasionally raise a big black marlin.
Look for goldens in the same areas as
Both blue and king threadfin are active
While I’m not a big fan of blue salmon fil- lets, I rate fresh king salmon much higher than any piece of barra.
Sailfish and marlin
This big golden trevally grabbed a soft vibe in 15m on an offshore reef, which kept the lucky sho very busy in the process.
Nick Gust fromTasmania landed a stonker queen sh on a cast y and man- aged to avoid the attention of a big bull shark. It’s a sh that would put a smile on any sho’s face.
Page 84 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, November 2020
Personally, I try to avoid using wire be- cause it can put fish off at times, but I do lose quite a few lures in the process.
On occasion, males can be sighted right out at sea, as they travel large distances search- ing for a mate.
Mackerel activity gen- erally slows once the wet season approach- es but a few school, grey and spanish hang around offshore reefs to make things interesting.
The local club holds a ‘female anglers only’ tournament in early No- vember, which tends to attract a large number of entrants.
Crocodiles
Trolled lures such as Halco Scorpion and La- ser Pro, Reidy’s Judge and Rapala X-rap are a few of the popular macko-takers, while cast metals and jigs also account for their share.
Visitors are always keen to sight a croc or two but by the time No- vember comes around, that’s a fairly rare event.
The big decision where mackerel are concerned is whether to use a wire trace or not.
The big males are out looking for females, which are in turn searching for nest sites.
The only type of wire worth considering is single-strand brown stainless of a breaking strain at least twice that of the line you are us- ing.
And with water tem- perature reaching up around 30C, crocs are keen to expose not more than 25 percent of their body to the Queensland summer sun because any exposure will in- crease their body tem- perature too much.
Avoid black nylon- coated stranded wire and cheap snaps at all costs.
It’s also the time of year when female crocs can get very cranky, particularly if someone starts sniffing around one of their nests.
Mackerel require careful treatment to re- tain their great eating qualities.
November can be hot, humid and very uncomfortable but the great fishing definitely makes up for the incon- venience. www.bnb shing.com.au
They should be brain spiked and bled imme- diately upon capture, then placed flat on ice