Reduced visibility targets

Hello all, by the time this edition hits, I’m hopeful we haven’t had too much follow-up rain since the recent deluge.

The water level at Lismore was slightly under minor flood height, and we have seen plenty of discoloured water pouring from the mouth of the river.

As you would expect, there was a heap of debris, both natural and man-made, making its way downstream.

As per usual, I would expect it to take a couple of weeks before it begins to push some clearer water in at the mouth – during the next fullmoon phase of tides.

While all of this may seem a little doom and gloom, there were a few silver linings in the dark clouds that may have been overhead.

At the time of writing, the river water was very discoloured, however we’ve had reasonable numbers of bream holding hard to structure such as walls, jetties and bridges from the ferry to the mouth.

This was obviously for safety due to the reduced visibility, so most anglers were fishing very close to the structure with oily bait such as mullet, pilchard, mullet gut and bonito.

These will help fish to find them in the murky conditions, but make sure you have plenty of gear with you because structure can account for loads of lost tackle.

One of the downsides to discoloured water can be the fork-tail catfish (or dogfish) that turn up.

They have a great ability of finding bait when visibility is reduced and they possess some very nasty spines – if stung, the pain can be excruciating for hours.

The only relief is to immerse the affected area in very hot water.

If you do catch one, I suggest using a set of long pliers to take the hooks out and, at all costs, try to keep your hands away from them.

Flathead were a little on the quiet side with the discoloured water, though the flatties that were caught seemed to come from some of the deeper channels in the river, from the mouth to Pimlico Island.

These deeper channels will be holding saltwater, which will be sitting under the freshwater on top.

Most anglers reported pilchard and mullet were the best of the bait choices.

And as far as lures go, metal blades, vibes and paddle tail plastics have been the pick of the bunch, particularly brighter colours.

While vibrant has been the best bet, don’t discount a black gold or even something in white to stand out.

Still a few late season bass about even with the discoloured water.

These types of lures generally work better because of the vibration coming from them, which aids the fish to find the lure in the reduced visibility.

Given the water conditions, adding your favourite scent would also be a great idea, if not essential at the moment.

While the conditions have slowed some of the species in the river up, mud crabs and mulloway have still been fairly good.

The discoloured water combined with a few bigger tides have had the crabs moving.

Good numbers were caught in both Emigrant and North creeks and in the main river as far upstream as Pimlico Island.

If the water temperature remains fairly high, I expect to continue seeing decent numbers for at least the next couple of months.

As for mulloway, well the discoloured water is a dinner bell for them.

With plenty of potential prey pushed out of the river congregating near the mouth, or looking for potential food themselves, they become an easy target for mulloway.

In conditions such as these, with the large volume of water moving through the bar area, it can be incredibly difficult to get a bait to sit on the bottom, so large soft plastics or hard-body lures in the 6-7” range are ideal.

Colour choice is up to the individual, however white or a white with a red head is definitely popular, along with anything similar to a mullet pattern.

With water pushing out from the river mouth, at these times the beaches further away from this area will generally fish a little better because they’ll be less affected by the fresh water.

Over the next few weeks, try your luck on beaches such as Patchs, Skennars and Seven Mile, as fish from some of the beaches closer to the river mouth may be pushed onto these.

Bream, flathead, tailor and possibly a few whiting should all be possible during this time, using bait such as pilchard, mullet, bonito and worms.

Well, that’s all from me for this month, until next time – tight lines!