5 minute read
Luderick, flathead and jewfish
Over 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 year-round, 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 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 year-round 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 the beach at the top end of Ten Mile Beach too, with the occasional clever fisho putting a set of 10/0 hooks in a tailor and sending it back out for a nice jewfish – though more often than not, a tasty blacktip shark.
Iluka Bluff has been holding big numbers of small to just-legal school jewies on soft plastic lures on the reef at the front of the headland, while the southern end of the headland that abuts Main Beach has seen a handful of good jew landed using 14cm floating Rapala X-Rap hard-bodied lures.
Both the Iluka and Yamba breakwalls have fished well for jewfish on a variety of bait, from whole or sliced squid, live yellowtail or live mullet, during either change of tide at night.
Soft plastic 6” lures also work a treat along the breakwalls, especially at low water at night and, more often than not, it usually takes no more than only three casts with a plastic lure before we have a fish and are walking off the wall.
When I use soft plastics for jew, I only ever use paddle tailed lures and simply cast out along the wall, let it sink, then slowly wind it in.
It’s amazing how many fish will hit the lure as you’re about to lift it out of the water.
The offshore brigade are still getting among plenty of quality snapper, teraglin and the occasional big jewfish.
And we’re only about six weeks away from large cobia starting to show up in the warmer shallow waters of Shark Bay, around Jackys Bommie.
October should see the annual run of big yellowtail kingfish along the breakwalls –it sure is a sight to see a school of 20-plus brute kingies cruising around enjoying life, though that’s a way off yet.
All in all, September can be a funny sort of month fishing-wise –most of the traditional species are moving out of the rivers after winter before the summer fish such as whiting move back in.
Either way, a feed is always to be had… if you know how to fish.
Until next month, safe fishing.
