Page 36 - Bush 'n Beach Fishing mag

Tom with a lure-munching mangrove jack.
The weather has con- tinued to heat up and we have seen our first storms and rain for the summer.
There have been a few mangrove jack taken over the past couple of weeks, on a mix of both lures and live bait.
Page 36 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, December 2020
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Northern Rivers fishing Hwell between storms
ELLO all and welcome to this month’s
Ballina Bait & Tackle
by BRETT HYDE
edition.
We’ve had another
luck with both poppers and stickbaits.
will all be colours worth trying out.
few interesting weeks around the Northern Rivers as far as fishing goes.
Bassday Sugapen, MMD Splash Prawn, Atomic Hardz Pop 50, Ecogear PX, OSP Bent Minnow 76 and Bassday Backfire Pop- per lures have all been decent options to try lately.
The other member of the warm weather fam- ily has also been mak- ing an appearance of late.
One big concern for the coming season is the amount of rain we are predicted to have.
The warm weather has also had flathead on the move, with bet- ter numbers showing up from the mouth of the river to the ferry during recent weeks.
Surface poppers in the early morning have been productive, along with soft plastics around rock walls in the afternoons.
Lizards likely
* from P34
tion in the river this month.
water is right. There’s plenty of
Mangrove jack will also be on the cards.
bait around – if it stays the mackerel will be there when the water gets warm and blue.
Hugh and I drifted past the end of a rock bar hoping for a flat- head and within the space of a minute we both got wiped out by jack.
Out wider, a few small marlin and mahi mahi are cruising the current.
I’m sure people have landed them on light line, but we stood no chance – it was over in seconds.
The other week I had a small black check me out.
Mud crabs are starting to move around a bit more with the stormy weather and are quickly filling out their shells.
I threw an octopus out just to see what it would do – the fish swam over and checked it out but didn’t eat.
A few of the crabs caught last month were green and empty, but a couple of rusties are begin- ning to emerge now.
In close, there are a heap of pike, slimy mackerel and tailor, and it always pays to stack a good amount of these in the freez- er.
Offshore is usu- ally a bit hard at this time, but by Christmas a few spotted mackerel might make an appearance, if the
On occasion, sch- ools of little bonito will show up in December too and these are prime.
I reckon I might dedicate a couple of bait fishing trips, so I’ve got something to feed the mack- erel when they turn up.
The Northern Rivers is known for flooding over the summer period and rain has been fore- cast across the board.
The warmer climate has also pushed many of them into deeper wa- ter as they attempt to stay cool.
Wardell Bridge to Broadwater has been a little more consistent, which is largely due to the higher water tem- perature in this part of theriver.
For now though, we may as well enjoy a lit- tle clear water in the lower reaches while it lasts.
The deeper sections in this part of the river will be worth targeting over the next month, particularly with live bait if you want to catch a few of the larger mod- els.
The water tempera- ture in the river has continued to rise, even with the recent rain and storms.
I expect we’ll see more activity over the next month along a few of the rock walls clos- er to the mouth of the river, but for now you’ll have to go for a little drive either in the boat or the car.
We have seen an in- crease in the numbers and quality of whiting here too over the past couple of weeks.
Areas like the break- walls, the porpoise wall and behind the CBD up to Faulks Reserve will all be worth checking out.
As usual, the run-in tide has been the best bet, and I am expect- ing the quantities to im- prove even more over the coming month – if we don’t get too much rain that is.
For those wanting to catch a feed for din- ner, throwing a few soft plastics around the drop-offs from the sandflats on the run-out tide will still be worth- while.
Bass fishing has started to kick along with the warm weather, which means there’s been plenty of success using surface lures ear- ly in the morning and late in the afternoon.
Yabbies and worms have been the pick of bait, as you would ex- pect, but several of the better-quality fish have been taken on surface lures over the shallow sandflats.
Plastics around 70- 100mm will be ideal to use and I would suggest sticking with brighter colours.
Poppers, frogs, buzz baits, cicadas and stick- baits have all been pro- ducing fish in many different colours.
North Creek, Mobbs Bay and a couple of the sandflats around Pim- lico Island have been good spots to try your
Nuclear Chicken, Lime Tiger, Killer To- mato, Electric Chicken and even Pearl White
With the warm weath- er, bass seem to be moving out into deeper water fairly early most mornings, so it would be worth trying a few deep-