Muddies, trevally and pelagics

Happy new year and welcome to the sabbatical season.

Generally, the holiday period is fairly kind to fishos because warm water starts to push in a little more seriously at the beginning of January.

The rivers are fishing well too and everyone’s having fun!

It’s the season to be catching crustaceans and the mud crabs are being most cooperative.

Our rivers are chocka-block full of muddies.

Mostly they’re on the small side, with legal crabs in various stages of fullness, but at least there have been a fair few to sort through, which keeps interest levels up.

There’ll be heaps of crab pots in the water this month. You got to be in it to win it.

You know I enjoy including new captures, so while we’re on the subject of crab, now is the perfect time to mention that I caught a coral crab for the first time recently.

I sent the picture to a couple of friends who responded that they’d caught quite a few, so it would appear I’m a little slow at finally getting around to catching one.

A very attractive crab, I can report that they are tasty too.

I caught mine near Tumbulgum in the Tweed River when chasing mud crabs.

I’ve seen them come in on trawlers before, so you can imagine how surprised I was to catch one well upstream.

If you’re bait fishing for whiting in the Tweed or Brunswick rivers this summer, they both hold an inundation of small bream that will drive you mental.

A coral crab caught in the Tweed River.

These are great for keeping the kids interested, however they will quickly chew their way through your bait supply.

In between bream are some whiting, but bream will most likely be 10 to one, if not more.

Trevally are also in great numbers, particularly bigeye.

Averaging good sizes, they are a lot of fun to catch on both livies and lures.

Flathead and small jewfish are still in good numbers too, though they are fairly spread out, with the bulk of them well upstream.

Mackerel will start to appear offshore now, and anglers are keenly anticipating their arrival.

Small bream were everywhere with some good sized fish too, as Keira and Royce discovered.

With a massive rumour mill on who’s caught what and where, unfortunately there’s rarely any truth to the gossip in the early stages of the season.

The simple trick is to be out on the water and sooner or later you’ll be in the right place at the right time.

I always reckon Australia Day is when they start to turn up off Brunswick Heads in any real numbers, so before then, simply get out there and see what’s about.

You might be lucky enough to find a warm patch of water with some fish feeding in it.

If not, head out wider and chase some mahi mahi or early wahoo, possibly even a small black marlin.

Once you’re out wide, you could discover you’ve fluked a day without current and are able to catch some bottom species.

Mackerel are a hot topic at the moment. Keira with a spanish mackerel from last year.

I recently did just that – chasing a few kingfish on Windarra Bank, I discovered there was no current, so I headed out wider and found teraglin on the bite.

Speaking of Windarra Bank, it will be a hot spot over the holiday period because a few pelagic turn up there in January.

Rat yellowfin tuna are a popular target, though there could also be some small early season wahoo there as well.

Throw in some amberjack, kingfish, cobia, snapper and other bits and pieces and no wonder it’s popular.

Most importantly stay safe, respect other boaties – both at the ramp and on the reef –and have a great time.