Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
If the past couple of weeks are anything to go by, another amazing month of fishing is upon us. Mulloway
Though snapper and pearl perch were off limits during the closure, many of us found alternatives with some outstanding results.
I made a last-minute phone call to a couple of great people who run the Facebook page Fishing for Mental Health – Michael O’Gorman and his son Lachlan – to see if they were keen to head offshore to jig for some live bait and then head back to the Seaway to have a crack at a mulloway or two.
Their answer was a definite yes, with a small amount of reluctance coming from Michael due to the thought of seasickness.
We met up early and within no time at all we were heading seaward to a well-known area about 1km southeast of the Seaway that holds good schools of all sorts of baitfish year-round.
We attached a Wilson size 8 bait jig and sounded over the various schools of bait being displayed on the sounder.
The thicker red schools were the producers, with good numbers of yellowtail scad and slimy mackerel filling the live bait tank on the back of the Bar Crusher in about 15 minutes.
With our rods and rigs ready, we headed back to the end of the north wall of the Seaway to find some of these silver beasts.
Within a couple of passes over the hole at the end, we could spot the larger fish showing up quite clearly on the screen of the Lowrance HDS Live.
Using a rig consisting of two 5/0 octopus hooks snelled about 10cm apart on 60lb mono leader with a 1.5oz bean sinker running all the way down to the hooks, we baited up, positioned the boat over the fish and dropped.
As we dropped, I kept the boat positioned in the current so the lines would drop vertically under the boat.
By the time we had moved about 10m, I hooked up.
It was a jewfish and, as usual, it decided to head straight back into structure.
Fortunately, I was using a 50lb braid star and was able to turn it reasonably quickly, and with a couple of good lifts from the rod, I started to get some line back.
Within a few moments, we had a nice fish of about 74cm in the boat.
