End of season offshore fun n Time for shallow-running hard-body lures or suspending jerk and glide baits
H Mackerel on the close reefs are always a popular species to target at this time of year.
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ELLO all, the first signs that summer is over and winter is approaching have started to show around the Northern Rivers already. We’ll possibly have our summer species around for the next month or two but there is a definite chill in the air. And some of our winter species such as bream and tailor have started to show up in reasonable numbers. Compared to this time last year, we’ve had only a small amount of rain and even that was infrequent, so it’s setting up for a very productive season on the water. The river was looking fantastic at the time of writing, with clear water well past Wardell Bridge. Over the past month, we’ve seen many flathead making their way further up the
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river for winter. There are still some good numbers in the lower reaches but, with the small drop in water temperature and the minor rainfall, a few flatties have frequented some of the sand flats between the ferry and Wardell Bridge. This trend will continue as we creep closer to winter, so now is a good time to dig out your shallow-running hard-body lures or suspending jerk and glide baits in preparation for the next couple of months. As the weather continues to cool, plenty of these fish will move shallower for the warmth and to chase the food that is also hanging around these types of areas. This time of year is known to be productive for anglers wishing to chase flathead on surface lures too, with some good numbers of fish sitting in less than 2m of water. While mangrove jack have certainly tapered off recently – mostly due to the weather – whiting and mud crabs seems to have had a late summer flurry, with better numbers over the past couple of weeks. Both of these species have had a quiet summer compared to normal, so it’s a welcome change to see
more of them around, even if it is towards the end of the season. It appears to be setting up as a good period for bream and tailor. We’ve had decent bream captures in the river and tailor from the rocks and beaches. At present, the better numbers of bream seem to be spread from the ferry to the Broadwater, however I’m expecting them to start moving towards the mouth of the river over the next month. Hard-body lures, plastics and bait such as prawns and squid have had the best results lately, though as we get into the cooler weather, metal blades and vibes will come into play as bream set up for their breeding season and have a preference for staying closer to the bottom of the river. Tailor have been responding to the usual bait such as pilchard, bonito and mullet, as well as metal spinners and surface poppers. As is usually the case, a few of the better-quality fish have been taken at night, but if you prefer to fish during the day, good numbers have been spun up from areas such as the breakwalls, Flat Rock and Black Head. * continued P41
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