4 minute read
Scoring bites from bait schools
Welcome to the last month of the season.
It’s the best winter I’ve seen for many years and this month should be no different to the first two.
Large quantities of flathead, bream and tailor have been feasting on the abundant bait schools throughout the bays, rivers and creeks.
The amount of bait on offer over the past few months has been amazing and the fish know where to find it.
Bramble and Deception bays have held huge schools of small whitebait for months now and the fish have been feeding on it all day, even though very little structure is there for the fish to hold on.
During winter, I tend to spend a lot of time fishing in the rivers and creeks, but the bays have been too good to go exploring elsewhere.
Birds give the presence of bait schools away and can be spotted from a distance, with multiple schools of bait available for birds and fish to feed on.
Some were in deeper water of about 3m and some were in the shallows, 0.3-1.5m deep.
The deeper schools mostly hold tailor and some bream down deep, and small numbers of mack tuna also come in to feed on the small bait.
In the shallows, the schools of bait have been holding tailor, big bream and huge numbers of flathead.
The flatties have all been school sized fish, ranging from undersize to about 60cm.
I haven’t come across anything bigger yet, but I’m sure there are a few among them.
Schools of bait are constantly moving, so when the action slows, it’s worth moving along with the bait.
We have had some amazing sessions chasing the fish in the shallows.
Some very big bream have also been feeding in the clear low water.
I took Ben Collins out for a fish on the flats recently and we had a great day, landing good numbers of bream, lizards and tailor.
Ben showed his years of bream fishing experience, boating a number of big fat models, along with plenty of nice flathead and tailor.
The first few casts at a bait school were usually eaten by bream and tailor before the flatties had a chance to get in on the action.
Though the bream and tailor moved on fairly quickly, which left the lizards to feast on the rest of the bait.
I tend to spot lock with the electric motor about 5-10m away from the bait and bring the fish to me.
Flatties chase the lures a lot without eating them, which brings them very close to the vessel.
On bright sunny days, you can see multiple fish following your plastic back to the boat.
It’s very exciting fishing and you can mix your retrieve up to see what the fish want on the day.
When flathead numbers are thick, it’s possible to land a fish or get a bite every cast for 30-40 casts in a row.
When you find the fish, lure selection hasn’t mattered much – they’ve eaten almost everything.
We used brighter coloured plastics, so they were easier to see in the clear shallow water.
This made it easier to see the fish following the plastic back to the boat.
Working a treat were 3” paddle tails and 3” prawn imitations such as the Fish Craft Dr Prawn.
Small jerk shads also worked well.
Bream haven’t been fussy, happily eating 3” paddle tails and biting until they found the hook.
The rivers were fishing well too, with good numbers of threadfin salmon in both the Pine and Caboolture systems.
They can be very difficult to get a bite from, yet they’re a lot of fun when you do.
Small jewfish are still in big quantities throughout most waterways, which is an excellent sign for the next few years.
Over the past few years, it hasn’t been easy to find a legal jew in the rivers, so hopefully these fish grow into the 80cm plus sizes that we used to see regularly.
That’s it from me this month.
Get out there and enjoy the last month of winter.
Hope to see you on the water.
