Cracking jacks, flatties and pelagics

Hello all and welcome to April.

Even though we have officially finished with summer, the warm weather and strong northerly wind seem reasonably settled and don’t appear to be going anywhere in a big hurry.

Compared to this time last year, when the region was suffering its worst flooding in recorded history, for the most part it has been fairly dry – apart from a couple of days when the heavens opened up and dropped about 150mm in certain areas.

While this may sound like a lot of rain in a short space of time, it was definitely needed in various parts of the region, and has certainly not affected the fishing at all.

With Easter around the corner and the current condition of the river, the next few months are looking very good in Ballina, and on the Northern Rivers as a whole.

This summer seems to have produced a significant number of mangrove jack compared to other years.

Mangrove jack enjoyed the warm weather.

I do think that now more people – who may not have done so in the past – are targeting this iconic species, but I will add that jack quantities and quality do appear to be stronger this year.

Live bait have been working quite well, but 4-5” soft plastics have also accounted for plenty of the larger models that have been landed over the past couple of months.

As is usually the case, most of the fish have been caught in the afternoon or at night, with most rock walls and bridges on the Richmond River producing at some stage over summer.

The other species we heard a little more than usual about was trevally. There seems to have been an increase in their numbers this summer and, as they are an aggressive species and fight particularly well, there were some great stories and captures across the summer, from the mouth of the river all the way up to Broadwater.

The bulk of the catches were flathead or jack bycatch, but if you want to target them a little more, I suggest sticking to a 3.5-5” soft plastic with a fairly quick and erratic retrieve.

Unfortunately, both whiting and mud crabs continued to disappoint across the summer period.

We have however, seen a slight improvement in the number of whiting, however they are still not to the level we would expect at this time of year.

The increase seems to be in the numbers being caught using surface lures as opposed to bait.

Spots such as Mobbs Bay, Pimlico and North Creek are starting to produce more fish, which proved to be lots of fun, while at the same time produced a bit of by-catch in the form of bream and flathead.

The warm weather has seen the vast majority of flathead move into deeper water in order to beat the heat.

Metal blades, vibes and soft plastics being hopped off the bottom have accounted for good numbers of fish, while live bait have tempted the larger models – especially when it was cooler.

Outside has been very stop start, for mackerel in particular.

Mark had fun with a few pelagics off Ballina.

The northerly wind keeps blowing in cold water, which shuts the mackerel down or causes them to move on altogether.

Currently, Brunswick Heads, Evans Head and Woody Head all appear to have a better run of them, so if you’re really keen to catch one, it may pay to look in those areas first.

I’m confident that in the next few weeks the weather gods will be kinder to us and we will start to see consistent numbers of both spotted and spanish mackerel.

Trolling dead bait has been the most effective method of catching them to date but, as the numbers of live bait on the close reefs increase, mackerel may turn their attention and preference to those instead.

On the 42 and 48-fathom lines, there were some excellent catches of snapper and pearl perch.

For the most part, the current has continued to run fairly hard, but slow pitch and octopus jigs – along with bait such as slimy mackerel, squid and mullet – have all accounted for some good numbers of fish.

The fish aggregating device also had good numbers of mahi mahi hanging around it, as well as plenty of under-sized kingfish.

It has been a very popular spot over the past few months and the first boats to arrive most mornings have managed to catch a few quality fish.

Mahi mahi have been intermittent – taking almost anything one day and then being very picky the next.

My only suggestion is to have some live bait, pilchard and a handful of lures ready to go and be prepared to try the lot.

If all else fails and they won’t play the game for you, it may be time to head wide and chase some snapper. Well, that’s about all from me for this month, until next time – tight lines!