Broadwater Winter Varieties

Hi everyone, so winter fishing is in full swing on the Gold Coast and June is one of the better months of the year to get out on the water.

Catching a mixed bag is not that hard to do, if you know where and how.

With some big tides at night, June daytime tides are ideal for fishing the channels and sand flats.

Jamie used an Ecogear Breamer Vibe in the shallows to catch this dusky flathead.

Squid will be a popular target this month too – these tasty creatures are so much fun to catch and I’ll be writing more about them in the near future.

But for now, squid are easily caught in sandy channels from 2-6m deep during run-in tides using vibe lures and squid jigs. Another species I love to target on my Broadwater charters is flounder.

They are way more common than many people realise and are very responsive to blade vibe lures – particularly Ecogear ZX vibes that resemble small prawns.

A beautiful flounder caught by Brendan in the Gold Coast Broadwater.

Like flathead, they can be in any estuary depths.

The best way to catch these tasty fish is by drifting and jigging vibes over the sandy bottom.

In Queensland, flounder have no size limit, though it’s better to let the smaller ones go so they can grow and breed a few times.

The author and a 60cm slatey bream captured when jigging an Ecogear ZX vibe in the Broadwater channel.

While doing this, you can also catch heaps of flathead, squid, tarwhine, bream and winter whiting.

It’s predicted that we’re heading into an El Niño weather pattern this year, which means conditions will be drier and warmer than the average.

For estuary fishing, what this implies is that the water will be clearer, so in some places a run-out tide will fish best.

Josh scored a decent flathead while trolling a Pontoon 21 Crackjack lure.

Bait and fish will also move further upstream in rivers and into deeper holes throughout the systems.

And it looks as though we’ll have a good season of tailor this year, if catches over the past few months are anything to go by.

Tailor are one of my favourite fish to catch and to eat.

Alex was stoked to catch his first ever jewfish on the Tweed River with Brad Smith.

But ensure you kill, bleed and put them on ice immediately after capture.

They love feeding on run-in tides in the Broadwater, therefore it pays to have a few rods ready to cast for them.

Look out for the telltale signs of birds diving and the water spraying across the surface, then cast into the bust-up and wind fast, striking hard to set hooks.

Hayden boated a good-sized flathead on a Broadwater charter with the author.

In June, you can often spot tailor busting up in the Gold Coast Seaway and along South Stradbroke to Crab Island in the eastern channel in the Broadwater.

Usually, small metal spinning slugs from 20-40g in size work well, though occasionally plastics work better.

My favourites are Z-Man 3” MinnowZ in colours Opening Night and Pearl Blue Glimmer, rigged on 3/8oz TT Fishing DemonZ Golden Boy 3/0 jig heads.

These resemble baitfish extremely well, and a bonus is that they can be used for flathead bounced over the bottom too.

Okuma Ceymar HD 2500 reels and 3-5kg rods – such as Samaki Skitch X and TT Fishing Red Belly – are the outfits that work well for this style of fishing.

The author caught a nice 62cm flathead on a MMD Soft Prawn Vibe in the Nerang River.

Spool the reels with PE 0.6 14lb braid such as YGK or Platypus Pulse X8 and you’re good to go.

Tailor also move into the Tweed River this month – Brad will be catching them on his charters – as will lots of flathead, jewfish and bream.

These cool mornings turn into some lovely ‘on the water’ days. All in all a great month for fishing in our local rivers!

To book on a charter with myself or Brad, or if you have any fishing related questions, visit goldcoastrivercharters.com, SMS 0432 990 302 or email fishingwithclint@gmail.com – or find us on Facebook at Brad Smith Fishing Charters.