Winter tactics for Broadwater

Hi everyone, I must say I am loving the cold of winter and the westerly wind that’s typical for this time of year.

It hasn’t been all dry so far, but we’ll take what we can get.

This month is one of my favourites and I’ve been mixing it up a lot for customers on my local daily estuary fishing charters.

Regular charter client Damo took home a nice feed of flathead.

We are spoilt with some wonderful varieties, including flathead, squid, flounder, tailor, winter whiting and more.

These are all very tasty critters, plus you don’t need a lot of rods on the boat to target them all.

For starters, when squid are on, I’ll take three or four rods rigged with squid jigs attached by Mustad Fastach clips, so colours and sizes can be quickly changed if the squid need tempting.

Tate caught his personal best flathead on a charter with the author using a Samaki Redic 50mm lure.

Another essential combination is light 2-4kg Samaki and Tackle Tactics rods about 7’ in length, matched with 2500 size Okuma Ceymar HD reels for jigging vibe lures, including Ecogear ZX40, TT Fishing SwitchPrawn+, Samaki Vibelicious 70mm fork tail and 65mm Nomad Squidtrex.

Spool the reels with PE 0.6 YGK Pentagram line and 10lb fluorocarbon leader and you’re good to go.

The author gave Damo a quick beachworming lesson and it didn’t take him long to catch his first.

I’ll then have a couple of slightly heavier 3-6kg 7’ rods with 2500 or 3000 size reels spooled with PE 0.8 Platypus Pulse X8 braid and 12lb leader.

These double as flathead soft plastic and tailor slug combos.

From there it’s a matter of finding the baitfish to find the predators on the day.

Ollie captured a nice flathead on the ever-reliable Samaki Redic lure in Coral Trout colour.Regular charter client Damo took home a nice feed of flathead.

Generally, I will work deeper channels on a run-in tide and shallow bank edges on a runout.

Squid love to hunt in clear water, which happens during runin tides, with the blue ocean water pushing in through the Seaway.

Arrow squid can be found in sandy channels of about 4-6m depth.

I’ll cast the squid jigs out about 10m and place the rods in holders, with the slow rocking of the boat enough to entice squid.

Arden managed his best flathead on a charter with the author.

We then drop the vibe lures straight to the bottom while drifting.

A simple continuous short and fast lift and drop of the rod tip is enough to catch heaps of fish and squid in Southport, Labrador, Runaway Bay, South Currigee, North Currigee and the main channel north of the Seaway.

A run-in tide is also the best time to catch tailor, which chase and voraciously eat baitfish.

Hard fighting giant trevally are always a welcome catch in the Nerang River.

Always keep an eye out for tailor busting up and birds diving, then cast metal lures and retrieve at medium to high speed.

Once the tide turns, you can continue to fish as above for the first few hours but, as the water level drops, it’s time to look for flathead waiting off the bank edges for unsuspecting prey.

This is when a cast and slow hop hop retrieve of 3” and 4” Fish Craft, Z-Man and Rapala CrushCity soft plastics in either baitfish or prawn imitation profiles work well.

Mark was stoked to boat a big arrow squid in the Broadwater using a Fish Inc squid jig.

On windy days, it helps to bring a few shorter 6’6” 2-4kg trolling rods, instead of some of the others.

Using Samaki Redic DF50, Fish Craft Dr Stretch and Pontoon 21 Crackjack 48SP DR hard-body lures, we will troll any areas that are 1-3m deep for flathead, whiting and bream.

The author boated a 65cm flathead using a 1-2kg Insalt rod and 6lb leader.

Until next month, happy fishing.

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.