The author with a spanish mackerel taken on a live yakka.
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Page 48 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, June 2024
Live baiting spaniards
L
IVE baiting spanish mackerel can be the answer to either an amazing session or a slow morning. This all depends on the season, the water and various other conditions. The better times I’ve found for live baiting in winter have always been the start and the end, with dead bait filling in the middle. From big yakka and bonito to slimies and even tailor – these have all been great live bait for mackerel. Towing, drifting and sitting at anchor are the best ways to use your live bait. Offering a very simple rig that includes a 60lb multistrand wire, a single J-hook or live bait hook and a stinger/ treble. The single hook placed
Gold Coast Broadwater by MITCHEL ZYGNERSKI
snuggly through the nose of your live bait and the stinger going into the middle section will give you the best results for hook-ups. When towing your live bait, you only need to be idling in gear. Any faster and you run the risk of killing your bait. Keep in mind, if you’re towing against the current, you may have to go in and out of gear or make your way out of the current to continue your loop. Once you have your live bait – which you can get from various locations, including small reef structure from 5-20m of water or even from deeper water of
about 40m – you can head to your local reef. Off the Seaway is the 24-fathom reef, which is a great place to start. Every season, huge numbers of spanish school up the bait and have a feeding frenzy, giving many fishos a great opportunity to get stuck in. From there you can make your way to Diamond Reef and even the 36-fathom reef. Having one live bait on top and another on a down rigger will give you the best chance to land your bag limit of spaniards for the day. If you are fishing Tweed, there are a few reefs off the coast* continued P49
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