3 minute read
Bream, tailor and jewies
A persistent foul east-southeast wind and large swells put a dampener on land-based fishing around Iluka and, on the rare day the sea did calm down, the inshore water was that steely cold grey colour big pelagic hate.
Reports have it that a few die-hards still gave the wall a try and were smoked by a couple of big speedy things that nobody got to see, but I suppose the big ones always get away.
Hopefully April will be a lot kinder once the beautiful early morning southwesterly wind kicks in.
Though even then, we only seem to get a few days at the fish before that very wind causes a big ground swell.
A few boats put to sea at Woody Head and fished the more protected water of Shark Bay for nice spanish and spotted mackerel, along with the occasional longtail tuna.
So the fish are here, we just need to catch a break along the stones.
Ten Mile Beach at Shark Bay has been producing excellent catches of nice bream on both pipis and beachworms, even during the big swells.
Local angler Rebekah Ellis was only one of many anglers getting into the bream and, after years of using a thread-line reel, I finally convinced her to have a go with an Alvey and she was successful using one on her first trip.
The southern end of Back Beach adjacent to the second bluff had some reasonable formation about it, which saw some decent chopper tailor to 3kg being caught late evening, with one angler managing to snare a 12kg jewfish on a bonito strip meant for tailor.
The southern end of the first bluff has been as fishable during the last couple of hours of a falling tide, which has seen a few of the local anglers bagging turrum and school jew on minnow-style lures, but as soon as the tide begins to make, the swell pushes in way too hard.
Inside the Clarence River the usual pansized flathead are in good numbers as always, while reports of good whiting catches are dwindling by the day, though this is to be expected as we head into the cooler months.
April is definitely the month that gets my jewie senses tingling.
It marks the start of yet another winter chasing this smelly species inside the river as they move in to feed on the yearly run of sea and flat tail mullet.
Once the mullet start moving, it will be standing room only at the T-Piece on the corner of the Yamba wall.
Thousands of flat tail mullet congregate there each night and, naturally, the jewfish are not far away.
The best thing about April and May is that, as long as the swell plays nice, you can chase mackerel and tuna from the walls during the day and then switch gears to target big jewfish at night – it just doesn’t get better than that.
Sorry my report is so short this month but, with all things being equal, I should have a lot more action to report on next month. Until then, safe fishing.
