Hi everyone, hope you have all had a good week. No reprieve from the wind and heavy rain this week on the Gold Coast, with another big dumping of freshwater into our local waterways. A good flush out is a must have and will be very beneficial to fishing over the next few months. Fishing will be a bit tough in the coming week or so until the system starts to clean up, this will require the rain to ease up, with the Coomera River still overflowing heaps of freshwater into the river at the at the weir. Let’s see what has been biting this week. Gold Coast Coomera fishing
Mud crabs are a great target species if you are keen to brave the rain and get out on the water and set the pots. Ben White did just that and managed to come up trumps scoring a nice feed from the Coomera River earlier in the week. Large amounts of freshwater will tend to push mud crabs out of the mangroves and narrow feeder creeks and make them move down the river in search of a bit more saltwater. When setting your pots, I recommend putting a few test pots in some different depths of water and sections of the river, this will give you a better idea of where best to target once you check your results. After the extra rain this week I would recommend trying to target more downstream towards river mouths because these areas will have a bit more salinity in the water, making a more attractive area for mud crabs to feed. A few spots to try will be either the mouth of the north arm or south arm of the Coomera River, mouth of the Pimpama River, Brown Island, Aldershots, The Never Fail Islands, Jacobs Well, Cabbage Tree Point and the mouth of the Logan River – all will be worth a look depending on your location. If you are new to crabbing, make sure you are up-to-date with the all the latest rules and regulations – see https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries/recreational/recreational-fishing-rules/crabs-lobsters Gold Coast Coomera fishing
When crabbing I recommend using a bait bag as this tends to stop all the small fish and eels from destroying your bait before the crabs get a chance to get into the crab pots. For bait I usually use mullet, eel or fresh fish frames. Make sure you change your bait regularly as mud crabs prefer a fresh bait and will not respond as well to smelly old bait left in the pot for a few days. Gold Coast Coomera fishing
The open ocean entrances will once again be a good choice when planning a fishing trip over the weekend, and the Gold Coast Seaway pipeline has produced a few nice jewfish and trevally this week. Try drifting through the Seaway, and the main Broadwater channel is also a good option. Live pike, herring and mullet are great live bait. For the lure fisho, large Z-Man plastics, micro jigs and switch blades will do the job. Best to fish the area the hour before and hour after the tide change, when the tidal flow slows down.
Customers who braved the rain have managed to land a feed of bream and whiting using yabbies and worms for bait. The sandbanks closer to the ocean entrances around Wave Break Island, Crab Island, Paradise Point, Bedrooms, Millionaires Row and Tiger Mullet Channel are fishing well on an incoming tide, with the better-quality water making its way in from the ocean releasing a bit more salt into the system. Bream and whiting are not really affected as much as other species by boating traffic and noise which makes them an ideal target on the Gold Coast waterways.
Clint from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports it was all about whiting on the flats, where we caught 40-50 fish a day on average, fishing with live yabbies. The water temperature has risen to 23C on the banks and with that big sand whiting have come on thick, with many in the high 30cm range and some over 40cm. After 100mm of rain, some dirty water has pushed out of the creeks, but this didn’t stop the whiting, and it improved the number of flathead feeding in the shallows. If it looks muddy, then fish a run-in tide in the Broadwater banks and channels. Saturday December 4 is a new moon and a bigger tide will be early morning. Big run means big fun, but watch out for strong currents near the Seaway. The daytime and evening tides are a good time to fish the Broadwater channels and middle sections of the rivers.
Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports it was an interesting week working through some fairly heavy rain showers on both the Tweed and Goldy. Even though we got a few drenchings, the fishing was still very good. The fish caught this week were school jew, flatties, bream, flounder, whiting and mangrove jack. Drifting and trolling the deep channels in the lower reaches of the Nerang River produced some good fish, as did jigging the deep water around the rock bars in the Tweed. The best lures this week were Pontoon 21 Crackjacks, Hurricane Slams and Samaki Vibelicious.
Gavin from Sea Probe Fishing Charters reports there are still good numbers of dolphinfish hanging around the majority of the fish aggregating devices off the Gold Coast at the moment. If you are chasing a feed of reef fish there has been snapper, pearl perch and yellowtail kingfish around the 50-fathom line. Also, it’s good to see a few more black marlin showing up along the 50-fathom and also 24-fathom lines, especially after the southerly wind – the water has really cleaned up out there. Try trolling lures and also live baiting the usual spots. On the 24s, plenty of teraglin have been biting as well as some nice snapper.
If you have any great catches or photos you would like to share, please email us and let us know how you went. brett@coomerahouseboats.com.au or brett@fishotackle.com.au
Stay up to date with all fishing regulations in Queensland https://www.daf.qld.gov.au/business-priorities/fisheries
Fisho Tackle and Coomera Houseboat Holidays now have Hire Tinnies follow the link to view http://www.coomerahouseboats.com.au/our-fleet-type/hire-tinnies/
Seabreeze is a great website to access a local forecast http://www.seabreeze.com.au/graphs/
Good luck with the Fishing.
Brett
