Spring is tailor time n Whiting and flathead fire up
W
HAT’S not to get excited about with all the great fishing happening lately? Spring is river time here on the northern end of the NSW coastline. As I mentioned last month, tailor are the fish of the moment in our river systems. These voracious feeders will eat anything and go anywhere in the estuary. At night, they love getting up into the shallows and smashing the schools of small mullet that abound. They are as happy living in a deep hole as they are travelling upriver to decimate a
Tweed to Byron Bay by GAVIN DOBSON
school of herring. White pilchard are the mainstay of their diet in the river in winter, however now that winter is over, they will feed much more opportunistically. Often – from now until Christmas – tailor are well upriver, but this year is anyone’s guess. Personally, I think they’ll stay around the lower half of the river because something is not quite right in the upper reaches. The fish haven’t returned upstream as they should have, with the
general consensus being that there’s far too much silt from all the flooding this year covering the bottom. The water itself doesn’t seem too bad but there is so much fine silt still that the bottom feeders and dwellers such as whiting and flathead can’t function there. Whatever the reason, I hope it rectifies itself soon. As a result, I think river fishing this spring might be more focused on the lakes and up to Tumbulgum. * continued P34
The Brunswick River yields some top-eating fish and should continue to do so throughout spring and summer.
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Bush ’n Beach Fishing, October 2022 – Page 33
