Luddies, flatties and jewies
O Brisbane angler Mal Butchart caught a little turrum at the mouth of the trawler harbour on 6lb braid and a soft plastic lure.
Springing into tailor, bream and flatties * from P31
also shown up in similar gutters to the bream and, as you may then expect, they’re taking the same types of bait as well as a few smaller paddle tail soft plastics. With tailor showing up on the beaches, we have also had a few mulloway cruising the beach gutters. They’re obviously chasing a food source but, if you’d like to try targeting them, it may be worth trying some worms, squid or even a large soft plastic in the hopes of tempting one into grabbing something a little different to what they’ve been chasing. Back in the river, the water temperature has been messing with the fish slightly, with bream numbers not as good in the lower reaches of the river as you would expect for this time of year. A run-in tide was still the best bet for both bream and luderick though. Luderick were showing up in the usual spots, such as Prospect Bridge, Mobbs Bay and al-
so behind the central business district. The main issue was the lack of weed for bait for this fish, with many anglers still having to resort to using cabbage from the rock platforms. Flathead were fairly good over winter and this was probably due to the slightly warmer water and air temperature. Most of the fish were well upriver, with the area between Pimlico Island and Rileys Hill being the most productive. The bulk of fish were caught in less than 2m of water, and some anglers even reported captures in only 0.5m. Bait such as prawns, pilchard and herring all worked but it would be well worth trying a suspended hard-body lure or a small paddle tail plastic with a very light weight on it. With the water being fairly clear at present, I would stick to more natural colour choices. Well, that’s about all for me this month, until next time – tight lines.
Page 32 – Bush ’n Beach Fishing, September 2023
VER the past month, fishing along the Clarence Coast of northern NSW has anglers getting among the fish and managing to score themselves a decent feed. Inside the Clarence River, luderick have been chewing their heads off, with all the usual locations turning it on, and the ever-reliable old ferry approach at Iluka being as productive as any of them. On most days, anglers were virtually shoulder to shoulder when fishing a falling tide. This was when the fish were biting well and, while green weed and cabbage bait accounted for plenty of fish, it was the somewhat scarcer black weed found in cane drains that was the better bait by a mile. Catches will begin to taper off this month as the temperature starts to climb, signalling that winter is over, and the bulk of the fish will head back along the headlands and breakwalls for the summer. Having said that, a feed of luderick is available in the river yearround, however the fish caught are usually a tad smaller and in poorer condition after their winter spawning run. One thing that I have noticed over the past few years is the total lack of boats fishing for luderick along the middle, Turkeys Nest and Collis walls. There was a time when these spots had boaties waiting for another to leave so that they could anchor and fish but, for whatever reason, nobody does that style of fishing these days. Bream are another species that have been
Just Jew by TYE PORTER
in no short supply in the river recently, however as for luderick, no one seems to put the effort in to chase them nowadays. Similarly, up to about 10 years ago, the river would be aglow with red and green navigation lights at night, then come slack water, it was a virtual charge of the light brigade with everyone heading home from Browns Rocks at the same time. Obviously, not many folks actually baitfish for bream at night these days, preferring to chase them during daylight hours on lures instead, which augurs well for bream stocks because a lot less fish are being caught. The humble old flathead can be taken in good numbers yearround inside the river. Brisbane angler Mal Butchart paid a visit to Iluka recently and had a ball landing countless
fish using 6lb braid and a mix of soft plastic and small vibe lures. Mischa went for a run with Mal in his boat one morning to flick lures and they had an absolute whale of a time, landing plenty of decent flathead, micro-baby jewfish and the occasional small turrum trevally. And while the NSW bag limit for flathead is 10 fish per person, the fishos put a 10-fish boat limit on themselves, keeping only five fish each and also releasing anything over 50cm. Tailor have been a bit scarce along the beaches lately, however around the headlands has been another story, with plenty of fish around the 1kg mark keeping the spin crew happy. A lot of anglers have actually been spinning up decent numbers of pan-sized choppers off * continued P33
Quality tarwhine have been plentiful along Ten Mile Beach at Shark Bay recently.
www.bnbfishing.com. au
