Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Fishing along the Clarence Coast of northern NSW has been above average in recent times, unless you’re a beach tailor fisher as these toothy critters have continued to play silly buggers by biting their heads off one day then disappearing for a week.
One of the main reasons for the erratic tailor fishing is that stinking salmon have appeared in large numbers, preventing the local species from having the time to snavel your bait.
Hopefully these vermin critters won’t be around for long as the weather starts to heat up.
My youngest son Mischa has been having a ball fishing the rock platform at the southern end of Iluka Bluff using 8lb Platypus mono line and live beachworms for plenty of solid tarwhine and the odd bream during the days when the sea is too flat to spin for jewfish.
Other anglers have been using beachworms in the narrow gutter running off Main Beach out along the rocks at the Bluff for excellent catches of solid whiting, with the same good fishing occurring at the southern end of the beach in the gutter along the breakwall.
Inside the Clarence River, luderick are still on the chew, however the numbers and size are both declining,
Most of the bigger fish have moved back out along the walls and headlands for summer as expected.
Whiting that are currently biting well along the beaches will begin to push into the river systems for their yearly spawning cycle.
I don’t know about you, but I reckon a good feed of big sand whiting is hard to beat.
Flathead are taken year-round in the rivers, however the warmer months see these tasty critters taken in good numbers along the beaches in the shallow gutters on soft plastic lures.
Iluka angler Rebekah Ellis has been spending a few hours each night drowning a bait at the Iluka boat ramp for nice bream and the odd pan-sized flathead.
It only proves that you don’t have to go far to simply catch a feed of fresh fish.
The old ferry approach at Iluka has been yielding quite a few school jew on both soft plastics and live herring at night during the high tide.
Every now and then they will start busting the surface feeding on small jelly prawns, which is a sight to see and hear.
Sadly, the winter run of big river fish never really got going this year and even when Mischa did manage to hook an absolute donkey fish on live mullet it was unfortunately foul hooked and lived to fight another day after a drawn-out fight, leaving Mischa with nothing but a scale as a souvenir.
Ipswich angler Slaine Dodrill has been having better results chasing jewfish from the beaches at night using live mullet on a slider rig and just recently managed to land his PB jew from Main Beach, Iluka that tipped the scales at 21.2kg.
Credit where it is due though as Slaine spends a lot of hours gathering live bait during the day and many long nights waiting for that elusive bite, which is exactly what jew fishing is all about.
I know I say it every year but October marks the beginning of the summer spring tides that occur during the day as opposed to winter when the big tides occur at night.
Fishing the larger river breakwalls such as Iluka, Ballina and the Tweed during the daylight hours using whole octopus will see you being rewarded with big jew averaging 18-20kg, whereas fishing the same spot at night using squid, for example, will see the average size drop to around 12kg.
Early September saw schools of large yellowtail kingfish move into the lower reaches of the Clarence River and along the breakwalls – a common event at this time of year.
I can’t believe the number of smallish longtail tuna that are still hanging around the walls with barely any anglers chasing them.
Traditionally this species has long moved back north for the summer, but I’m not complaining.
There’s also been an abundance of mack tuna and bonito feeding during the late evening to boot.
I have just spent the last two-and-a-half-months off the road with vehicle problems, but now that it’s all systems go, I had better get off my butt and actually have a go – so look out fish!
Offshore catches continue to be dominated by snapper and teraglin along with the odd pearl perch, however come the end of October most boaties in the know will start to have the odd early morning tow for spotted mackerel, especially in the warmer waters off Woody Head.
While September has never been my favourite month for fishing, this one has been an exception and bodes well for a ripper October, with no major rain events predicted as yet to spoil the party.
Spring has well and truly sprung, so you had better do the same and get out and get among them while the conditions are finally in our favour.
Until next month, safe fishin’.
