Bush 'n Beach Fishing Magazine Location reports & tips for fishing, boating, camping, kayaking, 4WDing in Queensland and Northern NSW
Back in January 1992, I was competing in a fishing competition held at Brunswick Heads. jewfish
After the final weigh-in, a tall soft-spoken man by the name of Ron Collins approached me and asked if I would be interested in writing a monthly column about the fishing activity on the far north coast of NSW for his fishing paper, an offer of which I accepted.
My first article went to print in the 1992 April edition, and so began my 33 year and 11 month association with what I believe to be hands down the best fishing magazine printed.
I had the privilege of Ron staying at my house on several occasions and to this day my two eldest boys, who obviously were very young back then, still chuckle about the famous honking goose sound he would make for laughs when his name comes up in conversation.
Hell, Ron was the only human on planet earth to get me on the sea at night, let alone during the day.
It was off Evans Head in a Cruise Craft 650 Outsider, and it was the only time I went to sea without being sick.
Initially, I covered the area from Wooli and Minnie Water in the south up north to Lennox Head, but after quite a few years the late Squidgy Palmer took over the Evans Head area and my fellow scribe Brett Hyde from Ballina Bait and Tackle covered the Ballina and Lennox Head region.
After losing Ron, his young son Ben took over the Bush ‘n Beach Fishing reins – to say Ben is a chip off the old block would be an understatement, albeit minus the goose call.
I am now 65 years old and have spent just over half of my life writing for this publication, which in all aspects is far more than simply a fishing magazine – it is a family of staff, writers and readers who share the passion of fishing.
As a direct result of writing for BNB, I have made quite a few lifelong friendships, which I cherish every day.
To Ben and his beautiful mother Sue, I want to thank you both for the support and everything you have done for me over the years – Lord knows I’ve been a pain in the arse from time to time.
I wish you and your families health and happiness for the future.
To you the reader, thank you for your support too.
I hope you’ve been able to benefit from some of my tips over the years to get your dream jewfish.
So, for my final fishing wrap up, I will briefly give you a short list of what to look forward to this year.
Jewfish on the northern rivers of NSW, especially Ballina and Iluka, can be caught 365 days a year, but you have to be adaptable – the accompanying photos show this.
From now until the end of April, when the mullet run begins, jew can be taken during daylight hours from the headlands on minnow lures, as long as there’s a good coverage of white water.
While at night, they can be caught at the same location in calm water, as long as your lure doesn’t dive more than 1m and you retrieve very slowly.
The beaches will give up big jew day and night too, with live mullet being a good bait.
However, if mullet are unavailable, don’t hesitate to spin up a good-sized tailor and use it.
Again, the breakwalls will provide jew year-round day and night, though during the day tough bait such as octopus is a must.
If you don’t use a live tough bait, the bream will tear soft offerings such as squid to pieces in seconds.
Squid either whole or sliced is my preferred dead bait for jew from the walls at night, with live yakka coming in a close second.
While on the low tides, I also like slow rolling 6” paddle-tailed soft plastic lures, which often work when jew are not taking a bait.
If you are still trying to catch your first jew, the period of late April through to the end of August is your best shot.
This is the time of year when vast schools of jewfish enter the lower reaches of the rivers to meet and feed on the annual mullet run, with the mullet moving down from the upper tributaries to spawn.
The mullet run ends by June yet the jewfish stay on, gorging themselves on the smaller fan-tailed mullet that come down with their bigger cousins but don’t actually run to the sea.
They congregate in the lower reaches of the river systems and can be found near any form of structure imaginable, usually staying around until the end of August before moving back upriver.
Fishing the slack high water after dark is the prime time during winter and, as I have said numerous times, keep all lights off and let your ears do the work.
Jewfish can be heard busting into the small mullet, which in turn makes them fairly easy to find, but if you insist on shining torches everywhere, you may as well pack up and go home.
Regardless of where I’m fishing or what bait I’m using, I do not feed line off my spool when a fish takes my bait.
I simply give them the down of my rod and strike hard once.
This month will see both longtail tuna and spanish mackerel start to show up along the local breakwalls and headlands, and these hard-fighting fish will hang around until mid-June before heading back north for the winter.
Live garfish are the main bait used for both species, however older anglers such as myself much prefer to use surface popper lures and sight fish by casting at the fish we see swimming by.
If you happen to see an old codger in a white Toyota 4Runner bumming around the breakwall, feel free to say hello as I may be able to give you the latest news on where the fish are biting.
Oops, I was about to say ‘until next month,’ silly me.
Sadly, it’s God bless and goodbye.
Safe fishing.
