Gold Coast Coomera – weekly report

Hi everyone, hope you are all having a nice week. As we say goodbye to winter and transition into springtime, we have seen a few showers hanging around the Tweed and Gold coasts this week.

At the time of writing my report, the weather was looking wild for the weekend ahead, with close to gale-force winds coming from the south to southwest. Given the forecast, it would be a good idea to stay off the water and think about stocking up from the local tackle shop, servicing the fishing gear and planning your next trip – once the weather subsides and we see a good forecast. Let’s have a look at how the fishing was this week.

Fishos reported some nice catches of flathead again this week, with good numbers of fish being landed throughout the Broadwater, Jumpinpin Channel and adjoining rivers and estuaries.

Unfortunately, there has been a bit of the dreaded snot weed showing up in some areas to make anglers lives that more difficult when fishing.

When targeting flathead in the Broadwater and Jumpinpin systems, the two main things you should look for are water quality, especially on a run-in tide, and bait – baitfish and prawns being the main sources. Finding clean water will normally increase your hook-up rate because the fish tend to spot your lure or bait much easier, rather than only swiping at it when the water is dirty.

Any bait activity is important when you’re fishing and that applies to flathead. Keep an eye out in the shallow water for baitfish and prawns jumping around trying to escape from predators and also keep an eye on the sounder in deep water, as the bait schools will attract flathead to feed in these areas.

When chasing flathead, my favourite tide to fish is a run-out – you can choose to target the edges of sandbanks, creek mouths, drains and river mouths. These are all good spots to find flathead lying in wait.

As the water level drops and the bait moves towards deeper water, flathead will lay in wait, head into the tide, ready to pounce on anything that swims past. When using lures, try a mix of trolling hard-body lures, casting soft plastics and working soft vibes – all worth a go to see which method the fish are best responding to on the day.

When trolling lures, you are best to troll with the tidal flow to increase your hook-up rate. The same applies when casing plastics, try and retrieve with the flow of water. Some good spots producing fish at the moment are Wave Break Island, the Nerang River, Currigee, Crab Island, Brown Island, the Coomera River, Tipplers Passage, Bedrooms, Kalinga Bank, Crusoe Island, Tiger Mullet Channel, the Logan and Tweed rivers, and Tallebudgera and Currumbin creeks. Gold Coast

 

 

We have been lucky enough to have a good run of weather over the past week, giving fishos plenty of opportunity to head offshore and chase a feed from the local reefs. Once again quality catches of snapper have been the standout, with good numbers of fish being caught.

Once the strong wind and swell predicted for the weekend settles down, getting an early start and hitting the 18 and 24-fathom grounds off the Seaway will be a good option, with some great quality fish being landed in these areas.

Make sure you get out as early as possible – to allow enough time to have a good sound around the 18 to 24-fathoms reefs, find a show of fish and bait to target on the sunrise bite time. Fish as light as possible.

Occasionally, you can get bricked on the bottom, but you find the lighter setup will always out-fish the heavy gear and you will catch a lot more fish in the long run. A float line rig setup is my first choice when fishing either live or dead bait, as you have the control on how quick you drop your bait, making them present as natural as possible and producing a hit on the drop. There has been a good general mixed bag of snapper, moses perch, jewfish, cobia, teraglin, maori cod and tuskfish on offer. Gold Coast

 

 

As you head out wider, the 36 and 50-fathoms grounds are also fishing well – current dependant – with good numbers of quality snapper, pearl perch, tuskfish, teraglin, yellowtail kingfish, amberjack, cobia and samson fish being landed. Best bait are Western Australian pilchard, whole large squid, mullet fillet, bonito fillet or live or dead yakka.

Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports… I only did a couple of days work on the Tweed River this week, and had a sensational day with Clint travelling to Brisbane to meet our new sponsors.

We met up with Gareth the owner of Tackle Tactics and we are now both proud users of Okuma Australia reels and TT rods. Okuma make a fantastic and reliable range of reels and I could not wait to get back to the Tweed to use them.

The best fishing for us this week was to once again jig vibes in the deep holes and channels where we caught flatties, bream, tailor, bigeye trevally and jewies. We also caught a few Australian bass, and of course released them very quickly and carefully because it is closed season for them in tidal estuaries at this time of year. Gold Coast

It is well worth noting that the bass have moved well down the river this year, due to the ridiculous amount of rain we’ve received.

Clint from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports… Again this week, squid kept us entertained, and there were plenty of flathead on the chew. We are blessed to have an abundance of squid in our waters over winter, and they are so much fun to catch and absolutely delicious to eat.

 

 

Some days they will aggressively attack Ecogear Dartmax squid jigs, other days the Ecogear and vibe lures we use daily are the best offering to tempt them. Flathead have been everywhere – from shallow to deep.

The key to finding them is to look for baitfish. In shallow water, keep an eye out for birds diving and the actual small fish in clear water. In deeper water, look for patches of bait on your fish finder then drop lures under them.

Water temperature has been hovering around 18C, and there have been some decent flounder, winter whiting, tailor, bream and trevally hunting in the Broadwater.

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 https://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

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