Fishing Report – 5th October 2022    

It was good to see the wind ease and some more sunshine around earlier in the week after a windy and wet long weekend on the Gold and Tweed Coasts.

As we move towards the weekend, it looks like the showers are tipped to hang around, with an expected wind increase from the North Easterly direction bringing a rise in swell. With the forecast in mind, it will be a better option to stick to more sheltered waters if you are keen to wet a line over the weekend, and wait for the weather to ease before heading offshore for a look. Hopefully we don’t get too much rain and the water quality continues to improve throughout the Broadwater and Jumpinpin.

Let’s check out what’s been biting this week.

The Gold Coast Sport Fishing Club’s Flathead Classic

Finishing last Friday, the Flathead Classic was a massive event, seeing 618 anglers, consisting of 250 teams, catch and release a massive total of 7,012 Flathead. Conditions were pretty tuff at times with plenty of wind and a bit of rain around to test everyone skills and patience. We are very blessed on the Gold Coast to have such a great Flathead fishing on our doorstep giving anyone who’s keen to have a go at catching one of these great fish.

Looking towards the weekend ahead at the time of writing my report conditions are looking a bit average so far with stronger NE winds tipped to kick in for the weekend. It will pay to do your research and find some areas out of the wind that are protected from the NE winds if you are keen to chase a Flathead.

Flathead Fishing Techniques

A mixture of techniques are worth a go when you are looking for fish, you can try trolling hard body lures, casting surface lures in the shallows, casting soft plastic lures and prawn imitations or working either soft or metal vibes which work well in the deeper water. Flathead have a very ruff mouth and tend to swing their head from side to side when hooked. I always recommend using a fluro carbon leader to reduce the chance of being rubbed off and loosing fish. I normally use 12lb trace but when working bigger lures, I will tend to change up to 20lb leader just in case you encounter a big fish that eats your lure. The water quality has been on the improve since the rain, snot weed has been annoying in some areas it pays to move around to avoid it.

Flathead Feeding Grounds

Some good areas to look for a Flathead are the Gold Coast Seaway, Currigee Channel, Wave Break Island, Crab Island, Brown Island, Rat Island, Tipplers Passage, The Never Fails, Jacobs Well, Cabbage Tree Point, Jumpinpin Bar Mouth, Kalinga Bank, Crusoe Island, Pandanus Island, Tiger Mullet Channel, Canaipa Passage and the Logan River Mouth.

Coomera Houseboat Holidays customers have had some great fun during the school holiday break catching some nice Bream and Whiting around Jumpinpin and the Southern Broadwater. Yabbies, worms and prawns have been the best baits producing some quality fish. Some good spots are Canaipa Passage near the mouth of Cobby Passage, Short Island Huts, Slipping Sands, Crusoe Island, Gold Bank, Eden Island, Tiger Mullet Channel, Coomera River, both North and South Arms, Paradise Point, Crab Island and Wave Break Island.

Reports of quality Whiting have been coming in this week with local fishos landing some nice feeds of Whiting in the Nerang River, which is great news as we head into summer. The recent rain will be a good thing for the local rivers and estuary systems giving them a bit of a flush out after such a dry spell. Other spots to try will be Wave Break Island, Crab Island, Coomera River, Pimpama River, Jacobs Well, Cabbage Tree Point, Currumbin Creek, Tallebudgera Creek and the Logan River are all known as good producers of quality Whiting. Live Worms and Yabbies make great bait.

QUOTES FROM THE BOATS

Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports:

“I decided to plan my trips around the entrance of the river on the run-in tides to try and gain some salinity and a bit of clarity in the water. It was also important to produce the goods as I have had kids on board due to the school holidays. As it turned out we smashed some great fish with the pontoon 21 crackjacks trolled around the 2-metre mark working well and the good old reliable zx 40s, performing to perfection in the deeper sections.  To mix things up a bit for my clients, I broke out some MMD Splash Prawns and we cast them around the shallows on the top of the tide and caught some Bream on surface. The species we caught this this week were Flatties, Bream, Whiting, School Jew, Whiting, Grunter and a couple of small Giant Trevally.”

Clint from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports:

“The annual Flathead classic was held here last week, with over 7000 Flathead caught and released over the three days! Quite amazing what great stocks of fish we have here. Congrats to all the winners, but it will be nice to see less crowds on the water this week (ha ha). The Flathead will be quiet this coming week, so I will chase some big Whiting in the Southern Broadwater. Hopefully the water warms suddenly now, it did get cool after the rain event. It has been a great Flathead season so far, and we have been catching good ones every day on 6th Sense, Gobblers, and Zman soft plastics, and on Samaki vibes, Ecogear ZX40’s, and yabbies. There has also been some nice Tuskfish, Flounder, Sand Whiting, Winter Whiting and Tarwhine in the deeper channel along South Stradbroke Island. Nerang River is clearing quickly after the rain and is now a good colour although still quite dirty on the last of the run out tides. There has been lots of Mulloway around, we caught eight in the last two days, all little schoolies. Full moon is on 10 October, we will see some great fishing leading up to that.”

LINKS & INFO

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  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