Fishing wide on Windarra Banks

Snapper have been going off out wide this season. Windarra Banks has been fishing well, but it’s been the 40-50-fathom line that has really been on fire.

Unfortunately, the current has been on fire as well in recent days and probably won’t drop off now as it charges down the coast.

When the wind is right the strong current is still fishable and driving a long way back to the mark isn’t a chore when the fish are on the chew.

I jagged a good morning recently, so I headed out to the 42-fathom line and found the current was a fishable 1.5 knots.

The fish were on the bite from the first drop and if I lost one, another one soon climbed on.

This is the advantage of using tough bait like mullet fillets, octopus and fresh squid.

Pilchards are excellent at getting a bite, but you only get one chance and, if the hooks don’t find the mark, it’s a lot of wasted time winding in, rebaiting and re-positioning the boat for the next drop.

With tough baits, if you miss the bite or the fish falls off, you can continue free spooling the bait down confident that it will still be good enough for another bite or two.

 

I’ve also changed from using ganged hooks to a Snell rig of two or three Gamakatsu octopus hooks.

These hooks have been a favourite of mine for a long time and are deadly sharp and very strong.

I should have been using them a long time ago for float-lining the deep waters as my hook-up rate has since improved dramatically.

Snapper will start to disperse as October progresses, but they will still be there in numbers worth targeting.

On the morning in question, I got some nice fish relatively easily, but was soon hit by a current line that increased my drift speed to 2.8 knots.

The fish were still biting but the effort required to catch them increased as I had to manoeuvre the boat to keep the bait sinking at a reasonable angle.

After a few more fish I deemed it too much hassle and moved in a bit closer.

It’s much easier with a few people on the boat on days with high current and wind as you can leave someone to operate the helm full time.

 

Offshore will be a bit quiet this month apart from the snapper.

In close, there will be a few snapper and a handful of jewfish around but you’ll have to work for them.

Damien recently found a school of slimy mackerel on his jew mark.

It’s always good to have a school of bait on your fishing spot and this time was no exception as it attracted jewfish.

After anchoring on the mark, both Damien and his deckhand Eli landed a couple of fat fish.

River fishing this month will be at its best but where are the whiting this year?

The Tweed and Brunswick rivers are yet to see many whiting coming into fisho’s bags.

It’s the worst start to the season I’ve ever seen – downright miserable in fact.

 

Hopefully they turn up soon.

Flathead, however, have their signals right and turned up on cue.

There’s a good number of medium-sized flathead around and the big females are beginning to school up in the river mouths as they do every spring.

Trevally are on the move as well and are travelling throughout the systems wreaking their usual havoc on anything resembling baitfish.

I was interested to read in last month’s Bush ‘n Beach about the possibility of releasing big-eye and giant trevally into a couple of Queensland impoundments.

Imagine a 35kg trevally in the sticks – ouch!

As always there is plenty to fish for in the region.

Go get ‘em.