Danny with one of his Gold Coast barramundi.
The pelagics have been playing the game offshore on the Gold Coast.
Mitch was all smiles with a nice redthroat emperor and calm conditions.
What better way to start a morning. Page 26 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, March 2022
Mad mackerel month
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ND just like that… we’re into autumn. The weather has made it a little difficult over the past month, with very unsettled conditions that have in turn made fishing very patchy. Some days the fish have been biting their heads off and other days… not even a nibble. I haven’t missed a thing, being laid up after an operation, but now that I’m back on my feet, it’s time to hit the water. Nevertheless, the conditions haven’t stopped other anglers hitting the water – such as my son Mitch, who goes out every chance he gets. On the local systems, it’s the same story with mackerel – here one day and gone the next. The small blue mackerel have easily outnumbered the spotted this year, which is something I’ve not seen before. It’s very easy to tell if spanish mackerel are on the chew, especially if you are marking fish – you lose lures and rigs. The blues seem to swallow the bait or lure further down – probably due to their big gobs – resulting in get-
Gold Coast by HEATH ZYGNERSKI
ting snipped off. This can be a fairly expensive exercise over the course of a morning. When this happens, you need to swap the way you fish, by going either to a heavier wire or bigger lure. As the weather settles into autumn – which is one of the best times to hit offshore on the Gold Coast – we should get a lot more westerly wind in the morning and good seas. With that, generally the fish are a lot bigger as they fatten up for their upcoming run north in a few months. So, there’s still plenty of time to make up for lost efforts. Out wider, marlin fishos will be chomping at the bit to get connected to some of these
stick-faced fish in the settled conditions. The rivers and creeks have come alive after a bit of a flush. Plenty of mud crabs have been caught throughout the river systems along the coast and they’ve been big crabs too. If you do throw some pots in, it’s a good idea to babysit them because crab pot thieves have been rife – a few friends went crabbing in February and lost four pots in a matter of hours. Good catches of mangrove jack, bream, flathead and jewfish have also been caught in the estuaries. With the flush, it has stirred up some not-socommon fish, and several sensational barra* continued P27
The brag mat doesn’t lie. www.bnbfishing.com. au
