Fishing Report

It was nice to some good weather over the weekend giving everyone a chance to get out and chase a fish before the strong southerly kicked in during the week, making conditions very average on the Gold and Tweed Coasts. Looking at the weekend ahead, the strong southerly wind and rain will be hanging around making conditions average. Sheltered waterways will be the go if you are wanting to get out.

Good luck to everyone fishing the Pirtek Fishing Challenge this weekend.

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

Whiting

Given the forecast for the weekend ahead, sheltered waterways will be the only option with strong southerly winds, rain and a big swell making offshore a no go until the weather eases. Whiting will be a good target species to chase from up the local sheltered canals and rivers. The Nerang River has been producing some great catches of big Whiting this past week, with plenty of good feeds being landed. The Nerang has arms that are fairly protected by the southerly wind direction making it a good choice. Live bloodworms, beachworms and yabbies have been the best bait producing the quality elbow slappers. The gear of choice is a light responsive rod from 7 to 10ft in length matched with either a small spinning or alvey reel spooled with 6 to 9lb mono, a long 6lb fluro carbon trace, sized 3 to 5 ball sinkers depending on run and a sized 6 baitholder hook for worms or a size 4 hook if you are using yabbies. Either the run in or run out tides will fish ok depending on the area, the more run the better the fish will bite, as the tide slows the fish will also tend to slow down. When the tide flows it churns up the sandy bottom up exposing an easy feed of worms, yabbies, crabs and prawns for the hungry Whiting.

Flathead numbers are starting to increase as the weather cools down which is good news as we head closer to the winter months. Flathead tend to like cooler water much more than the hot summer we have just had. The Broadwater and Jumpinpin areas have had plenty of bait fish moving through the past month or so, which is another sign of good Flathead fishing to come. When fishing the incoming tide, try targeting the tops of sandbanks, mangrove lined islands and up feeder creeks. Weedless soft plastics in prawn or fish profiles rigged on light jig heads, surface lures or shallow diving hardbody should do the job. Once the tide starts to run out, I recommend changing your focus to fishing the edges of sandbanks, gutters, feeder creek mouths and any deeper holes. I prefer to use a mixture of soft plastics, soft vibes or deeper diving hard body lures. A few good spots to start looking are: Wavebreak Island, Crab Island, Coomera River, Pimpama River, Tipplers Passage, Never Fails, Jacobs Well, Crusoe Island, Tiger Mullet Channel, and the Logan River.

Quotes from the Boats

Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports:

“I decided to mix it up a bit this week and used a couple of different lures and worked a large area of the Tweed River. The surprising thing for me was the lack of boats up and down the river, which you would normally see during a holiday period. It was good for my clients and I to have some of the better-known fishing spots in the river to ourselves. We used a variety of techniques from surface lures to deep water jigging and some deep and shallow water trolling. All the techniques provided us with a few fish which included Flathead, Bream, Whiting, Giant Trevally, Tailor and School Jew. ”

Clint from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports:

“There were massive numbers of fish in the Broadwater this week. Many of them were on the small side, but it was encouraging to see such promising signs for winter and spring. So many juvenile Bartail Flathead, Dusky Flathead, Flounder, Snapper, Bream, Tarwhine and Squid. This time last year we still had dirty water from massive floods. This year no floods and clear water. The School Mackerel could appear in the Broadwater this winter I reckon, like they did in massive numbers after previous flood free summers. The Squid are arriving earlier than last year, in another month they’ll be widespread, in June to August they will be thick and big. I will be running lots of Squid fishing charters from now on, so book in a date soon – it is heaps of fun and they’re great eating! Best of all, we catch plenty of fish in all the spots that we chase Squid. Last call for Whiting wading on the flats this month. There are very few dates left until I resume this tour in October. I am astounded by the number of Flounder out in the Broadwater already. They are everywhere, shallow to deep and not bad size. Soon they’ll get bigger and bigger and like Flathead are very responsive to vibe lures. The winter Whiting are also increasing in size and number. These guys don’t grow as big as their cousins, the Sand Whiting, but they are a fun fish to catch on light tackle, and voraciously smash Ecogear ZX and Breamer vibes. If you get enough of them, they make delicious fillets. Water is around 22-24 degrees now in the Broadwater and all signs point towards a great winter for Flathead, Tailor, Squid, Flounder, Tuskfish, Snapper, and many more in our beautiful Gold Coast Broadwater. ”

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