Fishing Report – 20th October 2022    

The Week Ahead 

Last weekend and early in the week were pretty good days for getting out and about and trying your luck at catching a fish. It looks like we are going to see the rain return and the wind and swell pick up for the weekend with some stronger N/NE winds forecast for the Gold and Tweed Coasts. If you are keen, try to stick to the rivers and sheltered waterways when getting on the water this week. It always pays to have the most up to date weather forecast before deciding to go. Let’s see what’s been on the bite this week.

Whiting Are Biting

With the wind tipped to increase over the weekend and rain on the forecast finding a sheltered area out of the wind will be the best plan if your keen to go fishing. Whiting will be a great target this time of year, quite good numbers of nice fish have been caught lately and they go pretty well on the table when is comes to a great feed of fresh fish. A few spots to try your luck that will give you a bit of respite from the wind are the Nerang River, Coomera River both South and North Arms, Pimpama River, Jacobs Well and the Logan River will all hold nice schools Whiting. Both the incoming and outgoing tides will produce fish, it’s just a matter of having a good look around and try a few different spots until you can find better numbers of fish on the bite. I will usually give each spot about 15minutes before deciding to move on.

Whiting will tend to feed best when the tide is flowing well, this stirs up the bottom and makes feeding a lot easier for the fish. When the tide goes slack, they will disappear and all you usually catch is Bream, once the tide turns and picks up the fish normally come back on the chew. Up the rivers you are looking for a mixture of sand or mud bottoms with plenty on bumps with high and low spots as this is prime Whiting territory, water depths can differ from 1m to 4 metres deep. You can also mix it up bit a and have a look around the tops of shallow sandbanks and wade around. The best banks to choose are ones with plenty of yabbie holes and these will hold better numbers of fish looking for a feed.

When choosing a rod and reel combo a light estuary outfit around minimum 7ft long rod with a soft tip action matched with a 1000 to 2000 sized reel spooled with 6 to 9lb mono will work well. A long 6lb fluro carbon leader, size 4 to 6 bait holder hook and a sinker size to keep your baits on the bottom, usually size 3 to 4 ball will do the jobs. If you are targeting the shallow flats on foot, you will normally just be casting unweighted yabbies for the most natural bait presentation possible. Best baits are live bloodworms, Beachworms and Yabbies.

Flathead

Flathead have been around in good numbers again this week with some very nice fish being caught from around Jumpinpin and the Broadwater. The water quality has been pretty good lately, fingers crossed we don’t get too much rain and the system doesn’t get too dirty. Most of the larger quality fish have been caught around and closer to the open ocean entrances, the larger female fish tend to attract good numbers of smaller male fish making a good target if you are chasing a couple of Flathead for a feed. If you are catching plenty of smaller fish, this means there is usually going to be a bigger fish in the area to target. Fishing the deeper water can be hard work when the tide is running quick, you will have to run a lot heavier jig head on the soft plastics or more up to a bigger heavier soft vibe to make sure these are keeping in contact with the bottom keeping you in the strike zone. Always keep an eye on the sounder for bait fish as the hungry Flathead won’t be far away. The best spots to try are the Gold Coast Seaway, Currigee Channel, Wave Break Island, Crab Island, Jumpinpin Bar, Kalinga Bank, Green and Gold Bank, Crusoe Island, Tiger Mullet Channel, Canaipa Channel and around the western side of Russell Island.

QUOTES FROM THE BOATS

Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports:

“This week’s big tides produced some excellent fishing particularly on the early morning making tides. The deep holes were on fire with ZX 40 lures doing some real damage worked along the bottom in 8 to 14 metres of water. The big tides also allowed me to get high up onto the flats with trolled Pontoon 21 lures doing the job in these areas. The species caught this week were a heap of Flatties and School Jew as well as the odd Bream, Whiting and Giant Trevally. ”

Clint from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports:

“The Nerang River and canals fished quite well this week but the numbers are now tapering off. A mix of Flathead, Bream, Jewies, and Trevally on Ecogear ZX40, Samaki vibes, Pontoon 21 crackjacks, Zman ST Grubz  and 6th Sense soft plastics. There are also plenty of good size Whiting widespread throughout the system. Bloodworms work best up the river, yabbies best from Sundale bridge and North. You can usually buy live bloodworms from the bait shop at Arundel. This coming week we have some excellent tides for fishing the Broadwater banks. I’m looking forward to chasing some hard fighting big Whiting, Bream, and Flathead on 3 lb line. Sport fishing at its best and I still have some days available.”

Gavin from Sea Probe Fishing Charters reports:

“With the weather being all over the place we are still managing to get out and getting amongst some great Dolphin Fish around the fads and on the bottom some Snapper, Trag Jew, Tusk Fish. In close still few Cobia to be caught with plenty of Mac Tuna on live baits.”

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