Fishing Monthly Magazine | February 2023 by Fishing Monthly

• FREE TOURNAMENT ANGLER GUIDE INSIDE • Technique Spotlight

Toby Grundy brings us ‘Scoring points off the rocks’ QLD

NSW

VIC

TAS

Features

Pelagics off the rocks • Lure fishing tweaks and tools • Snapper stocks in Victoria •

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CONTENTS

OUR COVER February 2023, Vol. 3 No.10 QLD NSW

VIC

TAS

From the Editor’s Desk...

For me, one of the biggest threats that anglers have, both domestically and globally, is access. It seems as though everywhere, governments, groups and greenies seem determined to lock up areas for their own use. Although there have been exceptions to the rule, anglers accept good, common-sense management over lockouts any day. And, importantly, policy and management decisions should pass the pub test. Maybe it shouldn’t have surprised me, then, when I read the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority’s (GBRMPA) stance on FADs (Fish

QUEENSLAND 16

Jumpinpin

Southern Bay

Brisbane

Northern Bay

Noosa

Bundaberg

Mackay

Townsville

Hinchinbrook

Cairns

Port Douglas

Cooktown

Cape York

Freshwater

Steve Starling with a beautifully marked brown trout caught on fly. A Steve Starling image.

NEW SOUTH WALES Pittwater

Ballarat

Sydney North

Crater Lakes

Sydney Rock

Eildon

Sydney South

Gippsland Freshwater

Ballina

Coffs Coast

Forster

TASMANIA Offshore Hobart

96 97

Port Stephens

Hastings

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Swansea

Central Coast

Illawarra

Batemans Bay

Bermagui

Tathra

Hunter Valley

New England Rivers

Batlow

Canberra

VICTORIA Warrnambool

Portland

Cobden

Geelong

Port Phillip West

Port Phillip East

Phillip Island

Marlo

Gippsland Lakes

Lakes Entrance

Port Albert

Bemm River

Mallacoota

Robinvale

Shepparton

Yarrawonga

Bendigo

Wangaratta

JANUARY 2023

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Esperance

104

Bunbury

104

Augusta

105

Metro

106

Mandurah

109

Kalbarri

107

Lancelin

108

Exmouth

110

Karratha

110

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Aggregation Devices) and Artificial Reefs (AR) in the vast GBR Marine Park. I can understand the policy for artificial reefs. You don’t need more reefs in a park that already has 3000+ reefs and shoals in it to fish. What about FADs? They don’t want them – even in areas well away from the reef. Along the easy coast, state Fisheries departments have run programs of FADs in barren areas of the ocean that help to aggregate pelagic fish and enhance fishing opportunities. Species such as the fast-growing dolphinfish (mahimahi) are a prime candidate to provide sustainable fishing opportunities that actually draw fishing pressure away from the reef’s demersals. Reading the literature review behind the policy decision, they state that a FAD’s risks include, “overfishing pelagic species, including juveniles; disrupting movement and migration and attracting fish from other habitats, as well as overcrowding and user conflict issues.” Sounds like they don’t want them because people might keep undersized dolphinfish? Or they’ll get overfished? Sounds like a public servant that doesn’t want to process paperwork. And that doesn’t pass the pub test.

106

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Scoring points off the rocks CANBERRA

Toby Grundy

I started fishing off the rocks around 10 years ago. During the winter months, my friends and I would

pelagics, we would cast small plastics for breadand-butter species like bream. We never did particularly well, but we didn’t mind. It was more about escaping the Canberra cold than it was

around my local area was slow to non-existent due to the recent rain, and I needed a change of scenery. At first the fishing was as hard as I remembered from my youth, but after a few subtle changes in my approach and a move away from live baiting, I figured out how to consistently catch pelagics right through the warmer months. I used a variety of techniques to keep the

fish interested and most importantly, on the bite. STRUCTURE I always look for a high ledge when arriving at a likely location. Around 2-3m above the water is perfect but I’ve also fished ledges at the 4-5m mark. If I can find a sheer ledge then that is the perfect scenario, because I only have to worry about the fish running towards my

The author packs light, bringing only a small number of lures and jigheads.

Main Pic: Double hook-ups are common. Above: If the author had to pick one lure for fishing the rocks, it would be a shallow-running 90mm jerkbait. pack into my ute and drive down to Tathra or Merimbula on a Saturday morning and spend the day live baiting for salmon, kings and tailor. To pass the time in between the 8

FEBRUARY 2023

about catching pelagics in big numbers. I recently rediscovered my love of rock fishing after several explosive sessions down the South Coast of NSW. The fishing in and

Often the small salmon turn up before the bigger specimens, so keep casting!

location as opposed to worrying about the fish running to a number of different levels of rock as I work the fish to the surface. I prefer high ledges because I can see deeper into the water column and, depending on the wind direction, I can cast a lot further. I’ll also look for kelp beds close to my location, and I try to angle casts towards this type of structure. The deeper the water off the edge of the ledge, the better. Anything from 5m or more is perfect. TACTICS/LURES The lures I use and the tactics I employ complement each other. I always cast a deep-diving lure first and I work that lure at pace back

to my location. I usually start with something bright, with a thin profile (10-15cm long) and a tight action. While I’m working the lure at pace, I first employ a figure-8 retrieve for the first several winds. A figure-8 retrieve is where the angler points the rod tip towards the water, starts winding and then moves the rod tip in a wide figure-8 while winding. This imparts a really erratic action into the lure, and often triggers a reaction strike from a cruising pelagic. After a few figure-8 style winds, I switch retrieve styles and I’ll start winding (still at a rapid rate) the lure while flicking the rod tip up and down. The short pauses also often bring on a reaction strike if a tailing pelagic hasn’t been fooled by the figure-8. Once I’ve caught one

“

to wise up, I stop using both the brighter coloured deep diver and the brightly coloured shallow running diver, and instead use natural colours in the same lure type. If the action completely dies off and stays this way for more than 10 minutes, I sometimes switch to a

I do the shallow divers. A completely different lure can elicit a strike when the larger lures fail. SPECIES I have caught kingfish, tailor, Australian salmon, trevally and small tuna using these techniques. Kingfish tend to chase the lure all the way back before

Overcast days and northwest winds mean good fishing on the South Coast of NSW.

Rock fishing can be very dangerous, especially for a novice. Wear a life jacket and make sure you wear the right footwear. I use spikes for my footwear and always wear light clothing.

pelagic, I switch lures and change my approach. The whole reason why I fish the stones now is because it is a really visual fishing experience. The reason why I start with the deep diver is to get the fish interested and once interested, I switch to a shallow diving minnow so I can watch the chaos unfold underneath my lure. I usually downsize to 5-10cm

minnow which runs 5-10cm below the water’s surface. I don’t mix retrieves when fishing lures close the surface. All I do is wind as fast as I can, and I rinse and repeat this time and again until the fish switch off. If they switch off, I go back to the larger lure, work them up again from deep and then cast shallow running minnows again. If the fish really start

Trevally love chasing plastics, especially when retrieved fast and near the top of the water column. small wriggler style plastic (80-100mm) in a natural colour, and I’ll cast out and let it sink. Once the plastic has sunk a few metres, I will wind the lure back at pace and fish it much like

striking at it, so make sure you keep your eyes on the lure. If a pack of kings is still on the lure a metre out from the ledge, run the lure right along the length of the ledge. This strategy

“

SALTWATER X-RAP DEEP SCAN ME

JUST IN TIME FOR BARRA OPEN SEASON Rapala Australia

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www.rapala.com.au FEBRUARY 2023

best mimics a baitfish dashing for cover. TIMING Dawn and dusk are the best times to fish for pelagics off the rocks, coupled with a tide turn. I haven’t noticed a dramatic difference when fishing the turn of the tide from high to low or low to high. The action is generally good fishing during either tide change. I like a north-westerly wind ranging from 20-25km, and I don’t fish on still days. The fish bite a lot better when the top of the water is a good mix of wash and waves. TACKLE For casting and retrieving the larger diving lure, I use a 6-10kg spin rod matched to a 4000 sized spin reel spooled with 40lb braid and 50lb leader. I often get the bigger fish on the deeper diving lure, and it is easier to work the figure-8 retrieve with the heavier outfit. The 4000 reel has 15kg of drag, which is important if a big king or tuna decides to

A sealed reel and a 3-6kg rod will handle most of the species that turn up. have a crack. For fishing the smaller, shallow running divers, I use a 3-6kg rod matched to a 30 Quantum Reliance spin reel spooled with 20lb braid and 30lb leader. The

SAFETY FIRST Rock fishing can be very dangerous, especially for a novice. Wear a life jacket and make sure you wear the right footwear. I use spikes for my footwear and always wear light clothing. I also carry a beacon. I have never had to use my beacon, but knowing that I have a way of contacting emergency services if I get in trouble does give me some peace of mind. I also never fish the rocks solo, and I never turn my back on the water. A good set of polaroid sunglasses are also a good idea, as is sun protection in the form of a long sleeve, hooded tee shirt. SUGGESTED LOCATIONS I really like ‘The Tubes’ at Jervis Bay. This a great

fishos because it is well protected and the fishing, at times, can be particularly impressive. Moving further afield, the whole of Green Cape at Eden is worth a serious look as there are plenty of rock platforms to fish, including the iconic Pulpit Rock (although last I checked, the road to Pulpit was undergoing redevelopment so check before you head to Eden). CONCLUSION Scoring big numbers of pelagic fish off the rocks has to be one of my favourite forms of fishing. What was once an excuse to escape the Canberra cold has become a really important and regular angling experience for me. I find myself often checking the tides and weather on a

reel has 10kg of drag. I want to make mention here that I use sealed reels. Sand and water will get into a conventional reel, and it will sooner or later seize up. A sealed reel is the

A life jacket is essential when fishing the rocks.

A good pair of polaroids makes it easier to follow the lure and monitor fish behaviour.

Expect small kingfish in big numbers. 10

FEBRUARY 2023

best choice if you’re fishing from the rocks because the nasties won’t get into the internal components, and most sealed reels have tough external components to lessen the impact if the reel is dropped or dragged across the stones.

platform to fish for pelagics because it is relatively safe and the water is deep and full of big fish (depending on the time of year). Big Beecroft is another rock platform located in Jervis Bay. This is another great choice for novice rock

Big salmon are a lot of fun.

few different apps through the course of the week, and if the weather is right, I often make the short drive to the South Coast and get stuck in to packs of roving pelagic fish which patrol the rock platforms looking for an easy meal.

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Five tools for lure fishing success NSW STH COAST

Steve Starling www.fishotopia.com

Lure fishing is immensely popular, and gains new fans every year, but many of these devotees overlook a handful of important tools that can radically improve their results and enjoyment when lure fishing. Regardless of the species you pursue with lures, or where you chase them — in salt or fresh water — there are five often-overlooked tools or accessories that are capable of dramatically improving both your catch rates and your overall enjoyment of the process.

Iconic Aussie species like barra are tough on lure hardware (hooks, rings, clips and eyelets). Many switched-on anglers upgrade and modify their lures to cope. Having the right tools makes this a breeze! fitted with short chains or loops and attached to a length of strong cord can be quickly

Adding Shimano’s S Factor fish feeding stimulant to a modified Squidgies soft plastic. Many anglers (Starlo included) have enormous faith in this stuff. It constantly surprises me that so many keen fishers fail to employ any or all of these five important tools on a regular basis. If you don’t already own examples of each category, consider adding them to your arsenal at the earliest possible opportunity! DE-SNAGGING DEVICES Having an effective de-snagging tool on board your boat or kayak can literally save you hundreds of dollars a year in the form of recovered lures that would otherwise be lost, and left in our aquatic environments to potentially entangle wildlife or endanger swimmers. There are several effective forms of de-snagger. Heavy weights

FEBRUARY 2023

A de-snagging device can literally save you hundreds of dollars a year, and it’s also good for our fishing environments. adding too much weight will inevitably sandbag the action of most lures and likely reduce their appeal to fish. Add only a little weight at a time before test swimming the lure. SCENTS AND STIMULANTS Debate rages amongst keen fishers as to the

clipped to a snagged line and slid down to (hopefully) entangle the lure and pull it clear. These work well, and offer the advantage of being applicable in deeper water

especially lure casting and trolling. These days, most hooks are wickedly sharp straight out of the pack, but they will all dull over time as a result of repeated contact with rocks, timber, boat hulls, fish teeth and even the lure’s body itself. Corrosion can also dull your hooks. Check your hook points regularly by touching them lightly against the ball of your thumb, or dragging them across a fingernail. They need to be “sticky sharp”: in other words, instantly grabbing at any surface they come into contact with. If they’re not sticky sharp, sharpen them! Sharpening stones, emery boards, fine grained files and purpose-made hook hones of varying coarseness grades (often using diamond-based abrasive coatings) are perfect

effectiveness or otherwise of various additives, scents and bite stimulants — both commercially-made products and various ‘home brews’. Most anglers agree, however,

Quality split ring pliers make swapping out lure hardware a breeze. These Xurons are the best Starlo has used for the job. of weight at a critical position on the body of a diving plug or minnow can sometimes turn a good lure into a great one, and dramatically boost your strike rate. There are a couple of ways of doing this. Fitting heavier or lighter hooks and rings to a lure may do the job, but if you need a little more weight, small clip-on sinkers, mouldable putties and various adhesivebacked, stick-on weights are all ideal for the job, although not always easy to find in local tackle stores. Be aware that lure buoyancy will also vary slightly with the salinity of the water (lures float higher in saltier water). Also,

that these potions certainly do no harm and can, at the very least, help to mask human odours and various fish-repelling taints from boat fuel, bug sprays, sunscreen lotions and the like. In some scenarios — especially when making very slow presentations with soft plastic lures, or fishing

A pair of small floating/diving minnows (old Bushy’s Stiffies) that have been ‘tweaked’ to alter them from floaters to slow sinkers or suspenders, depending on salinity. Those stick-on SuspenDots (left) make the job very simple, but mouldable putties like Knead-It (right) will also do the job.

Check your hook points regularly and sharpen them as required. These Eze-Lap Diamond Sharpeners are brilliant and come in several grades of coarseness.

Time spent tweaking and customising lures is one of the marks of those ‘ten percenters’ who catch 90 percent of the fish! It could involve upgrading hardware, adjusting lure buoyancies using various methods, sharpening hooks or adding scents. 12

(limited only by the length of the cord). However, these sliding weights can’t be used to reach up into trees if your lure is snagged above the water line! For that purpose, telescopic poles with a pigtail of spring wire at the end that can be twisted onto your snagged line and used to poke the lure clear are perfect. These also perform well on snags below the water line, but are limited to the fully extended length of the pole. For this reason, many keen lure fishers carry both types of de-snagger. HOOK SHARPENERS Sharp hooks are critical to consistent success in all forms of fishing, but

for this job. Carry at least a couple: ideally one in each tackle box. SPLIT RING PLIERS Eventually, most hooks fitted to lures will become too blunt, damaged or corroded to remain effective, and will require swapping out. Many savvy fishers — especially in the tropical north of the country — also upgrade the hardware (hooks and rings) on imported lures as a matter of habit to deal with tough local customers such as barramundi and mangrove jacks. To quickly and easily perform these important tasks, you’ll require an effective pair of split ring pliers. There are many on the market, but some perform better than others. Buy yourself a dedicated pair of quality split ring pliers and keep them solely for that task, rather than relying on standard, long-nosed, de-hooking pliers with a basic split ring opening tooth built into the end of one jaw. BUOYANCY ADJUSTMENT If you fish with floating/ diving, suspending or slow sinking hard-bodied lures in either fresh or salt water, it can be really handy to have a quick, easy method for adjusting their buoyancy, and therefore their sink or rise rates when paused, their attitude in the water, and even their casting performance. Adding a small amount

in dirty water, low light and after dark — scent additives almost certainly increase both the strike rate and the length of time a fish will retain a lure in its mouth before attempting to spit it out. This can make a big difference to your catch rate. Try various scent additives for yourself and decide which brand or flavour you prefer, then get into the habit of using it regularly. Carrying and employing these five often-overlooked essentials for better lure fishing are exactly the sort of cutting edge habits that separate the ‘ten percenters’ from the rest of the fishing pack: that is, those ten percent of anglers who consistently catch 90 percent of the fish! Are you keen to join that group?

Consistent success when lure fishing often comes down to getting a bunch of small things right. Starlo relied on a customised soft plastic rigged on a pre-sharpened hook and smeared with some S Factor fish attractant to snare this lovely Murray cod, which was released after a quick photo.

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OLD

An interesting time to fish GOLD COAST

David Green

At the time of writing the offshore fishing has been hampered by constant strong southerly winds, making for big swells and rough conditions. The pelagic season has generally been quite reasonable, with plenty of dolphinfish (mahimahi) around the FADs, quite a lot of small black marlin on the inshore grounds and some nice Spanish mackerel and

yellowfin tuna. Hopefully this month will see this pattern continue. As well as black marlin in close, further out on the continental shelf there have been quite a few blue marlin encountered in water depths between 100-400m. February is generally a top month for blue marlin, and the action should increase this month as the water warms up and the current begins to run hard. If you are interested in chasing blue marlin from a trailer boat, pick a day where the forecast is good

A healthy summer flathead.

and make sure you have plenty of fuel. The run out to the grounds is generally about 50-60km offshore, so you need to be well prepared. The well-known ‘Riv Grounds’ are the closest reliable spot to the Seaway. We usually put the lures in on the edge of the continental shelf in about 100m of water and head east. The depth drops off quickly, and in less than half an hour at troll speed you will be in 300-400m of water. I troll a spread of five lures, but depending on your crew, a couple of outfits as a minimum can be just as effective. Use a minimum of 24kg tackle (stand up 37kg is preferable) and work current lines, bait or dolphin schools and be on a constant look out for birds. The bites will come if you are patient and persistent, and seeing a blue marlin smash a lure is one of the most exciting things in fishing you will ever see. The troll speed is generally around 8 knots. The majority of bites occur around tide changes. Due to an absolutely ridiculous rule based on extremely poor science, the Spanish mackerel now have a closed season for the first three weeks of February and March. Outside of this time the bag limit is now one fish per person, with a boat limit of two fish. It is a good idea to concentrate on spotted mackerel this month using smaller baits and lures. Bottom fishing has been surprisingly good through the early part of summer, probably due to the lack of current and abundance of bait. In February there will still be a few parrotfish, pearl perch, teraglin (trag) and pigfish on the 36 and 50 fathom lines, but it is usually a very slow time for the bottom fishers. Micro jigging is another option at this time of year, and it’s

A nice big dolphinfish. also effective on mackerel, kingfish and tuna. BROADWATER AND RIVERS February sees the boat traffic on the Broadwater drop off from the madness of summer, and when the big tides push into the Seaway and Jumpinpin entrances it often brings in big schools of frogmouth pilchards. There can be some great spinning using metal lures and plastics for trevally, tarpon, tailor and smaller tuna species. There are also often small schools of queenfish in the Seaway entrance in February. These make fantastic teaser baits for small marlin. Whiting are a major target species in February, and in the hot conditions the best fishing is often at night. The Nerang River near the council chambers is a particularly productive area at night. Fish with a long 2-3kg nylon trace and use worms, yabbies or small shrimp. The run-in tide is generally the most productive. If you like chasing whiting on poppers, there are plenty of spots to try

this month. I like the flats around Crab Island, the mouth of the Pimpama River and the lagoon area near the Jumpinpin Bar. Look for shallow sand flats with plenty of holes. The whiting start to move onto the flats as the tide floods, and if the day has 15-20 knots of breeze the fish seem much more savage on surface lures. While you generally don’t catch as many whiting on poppers as you do on bait, it is a fun way to fish and when they are hunting for prawns in the surface layers, they can be extremely aggressive fish. My favourite lure for whiting is the Bassday Sugapen. It needs to be retrieved quite quickly. There should still be plenty of mangrove jacks around this month and they are often very active on the surface in February, with the period around dawn often the most productive. There have been quite a few mangrove jacks over 60cm caught this season already. Working floating pontoons using 3-4” paddletail plastics on 3/8-1/2oz jigheads is particularly

effective. At night, jacks move away from cover and are often caught on small live baits and strip baits at this time. Both the Coomera and Nerang river systems fish well for jacks in February. Flathead fishing is generally pretty quiet this month although there may still be a few big fish up on the flats on early morning high tides. There are also a few mulloway in the entrances, which can be caught on both live baits and lures. Crabbing is generally very productive for mud crabs this month in the Pimpama River on the big run-in tides. There should be a few sand crabs in the main body of the Broadwater this month too. Mullet is the preferred bait. Make sure you have your pots and floats well marked. Overall, February is an interesting time to fish the Gold Coast. Hopefully the never-ending southeasterlies will ease off and we can get offshore soon to chase marlin and other pelagic species. It should be a very productive month.

Dallas D’Silva with a 3kg coral trout taken on a picture perfect day at Mourilyan.

Laura Riches with a black marlin. 16

FEBRUARY 2023

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Southern

OLD

Scoring a summer feed JUMPINPIN

Bo Sawyer

G’day everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed some good fishing over the past month and managed to find a few ‘not so windy days’ to get out on the water.

shameless plug, let’s get into the fishing. We’ll start off with the conditions in and around the Pin as per usual. Windy days have been the norm lately, and early mornings have definitely been the best time to head out. We are still seeing a few wind direction

There have been some excellent crab catches coming in throughout the whole system. The Logan and Pimpama rivers have been the pick for the mud crabs at the moment. If you are after sandies, try around Tipplers Channel. The flathead have been very hit-and-miss lately, which is partly due to the windy conditions and dirty water around the low tide. Try targeting them at high tide along Kalinga Bank, the Lagoons, Gold Bank and around Pandanus Island, all of which will hold cleaner water. Then around the low, try the banks around Tipplers and Jacobs Well. The water will get dirtier the further up the system you go, so try to target smaller areas such as drains, weed edges and cove entrances. Small mullet, herring, prawns or pilchards for the bait fishos. If you are flicking lures then vibes out

The author caught this solid trevally on a 4” plastic while flicking for flathead. the Pin bar, Kalinga Bank, out the front of Millionaires and around Crusoe Island in the deeper water. Pillies or any lure that resembles a baitfish should get whacked.

Martin and Suzanne have been getting stuck into some nice whiting up to 38cm. Before we kick off the report, I’d like to announce that I’ll be joining Capn’s Charters starting from this month. So if you’d like to come out and learn or improve your lure fishing we’d love to have you onboard. You can find us on Facebook under ‘Capn’s Charters’. Now that I’ve finished giving myself a big

nice bream around Gold Bank, Crusoe and Short Island. Flicking small, lightly weighted plastics is a fun way to target them using 4-6lb line. Otherwise, whitebait and prawns will get the bites as well. Some cracker whiting are getting around at the moment on live blood worms and yabbies. The Lagoons, Gold Bank, mouth of the Logan and Slipping Sands have been accounting for some fantastic fish. Use light line and keep the bait moving. There have been a few big trevally getting around in the Pin area up on the flats. There’s also the added

bonus of some big squire between the Pin bar and all the way up to Russell Island. I nailed a few 50cm models just recently while using big 7” plastics for flathead and jew. That’s all from me this month. Smaller vessels should take care out there on the windy days, I’d hate to see another capsized boat this month, so be safe everyone. Don’t forget to stop in and say g’day to Brett at Jacobs Well Bait and Tackle. Best of luck out there, and tight lines. • To see more of Bo Sawyer’s fishing adventures on Instagram, follow The Bobo Boat (@thebobo_boat)

changes, and I find this scatters the bait around a little more, so some scanning may be needed to find where it’s holding. The water quality has been decent on the incoming and great around the high tide, however the outgoing has seen dirtier water spilling out, especially on the bigger tides.

Jai headed out with his dad Benno and nailed a monster.

Andy scored a nice feed of sandies recently. 20

FEBRUARY 2023

deep, 5-7” plastics for the big girls and 3.5-4” plastics for all sizes. We got some nice-sized flatties on big hardbodies recently as well. I’m still seeing plenty of tailor around but their numbers have dropped off a bit. The last of the incoming has been the best, and as usual look for them working the surface or diving birds. They’re not usually too far behind bait schools, so you can run around sounding them up as well. Try along

There are still some nice jewfish coming through the Pin bar and off Swan Bay in the deeper water. I’ve been sounding up a few schools around Five Ways as well, but it’s just been too windy there to target them. The deep holes in Logan River and around Eden Island should produce as well. Live pike or mullet on a snell rig is gold, otherwise tea-bagging vibes or big plastics will get some interest as well. There have been some

Ryan from Capn’s Charters with a solid fish.

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Fish ‘n SIPS challenge

Purchase a permit and fish for the tagged fish in one of Queensland’s participating stocked impoundments to be in the running to win! The first 15 tagged fish caught and reported will win one of 15 cash prizes. To be in the running, you need to purchase a SIPS permit and fish for the tagged fish at these Queensland stocked impoundments:

Tinaroo Dam Lake Proserpine (Peter Faust Dam) Kinchant Dam Callide Dam Cania Dam

What you need to know Spanish mackerel CLOSED The southern closures apply to east coast waters south of latitude 22˚S — located slightly north of Stanage Bay, between Mackay and Yeppoon. 1 February 2023 to 21 February 2023 and 1 March 2023 to 21 March 2023 For more info go to the Qld Fishing 2.0 app

Competition ends on 31 October 2023, or until all 15 tagged fish prizes have been claimed. For more info go to daf.qld.gov.au and search for Fish n SIPS.

Stock status

at your fingertips The Qld Fishing 2.0 app is a great way to keep up to date with the fishing rules and now you can use it to check the stock status of our most popular species, including coral trout, barramundi, mud crab, red emperor and many others. With almost 50,000 subscribers, the Qld Fishing 2.0 app provides you with all the information you need to know when you wet a line. This is another way we’re making it easier for you to get the latest information as part of our Sustainable Fisheries Strategy. Download the ‘Qld Fishing 2.0’ app from the App Store or Google Play.

Download the free ‘Qld Fishing 2.0’ app from the App Store or Google Play 22

FEBRUARY 2023

DAF1872

01/23

Wetlands –

how we protect fish habitats Wetlands have never been more important for fish and fishers alike. Not only do they provide places to fish, but also essential habitat to many species. In addition to being fish factories, wetlands contain marine plants that protect our shorelines from erosion and improve water quality. When left undisturbed, marine plants and the sediments they grow in also store carbon. Keeping these carbon stores safe is a big help in managing the impacts of climate change. That is why Fisheries Queensland provides advice on proposals that could impact marine plants or the ability for fish to move within and between different wetland habitats. When a development could impact marine plants or fish passage, we assess the proposal against codes that form part of the State Development Assessment Provisions (SDAP). The codes include performance outcomes and

sets expectations for developments, to help protect and manage marine plants, fish habitat and fish passage. We publish guidelines about marine plants, fish passage and information about what to include in a development application with practical examples. The guidelines are designed to help developments avoid impacts to marine plants and fish passage. This means we can still undertake developments that are important for Queensland’s economy – while making sure our fish can continue to use wetlands for food, shelter and to breed. This means more fish for our future. So, the next time you go fishing – remember the many benefits wetlands provide, and celebrate your favourite wetlands with us on World Wetlands Day on 2 February. For more information on the guidelines go to daf.qld.gov.au and search for SDAP.

Faces of Fisheries Meet Sam…

Sam joined the Fisheries Queensland team in 2017 and has worked in both fisheries science and management roles over the last five years. He is currently the Director of Assessment and Monitoring. Sam’s passion for fish and fisheries started early, having grown up in Tasmania fishing for flathead and squid. Sam now lives in Queensland and spends a great deal of his spare time on the waters off South East Queensland. He considers learning from and sharing knowledge with others as one of the most enjoyable parts of his role. He especially loves chatting with people who have a passion for learning more about the species they fish for. Sam also mentors university research students — helping to develop the next generation of researchers.

fisheries.qld.gov.au 13 25 23 FisheriesQueensland FisheriesQld DAFQld FEBRUARY 2023

Southern

OLD

Plenty of fish are on the chew SOUTHERN BAY

Nick Whyte

With plenty of wind and rain around over the last month, the river systems and bay have had a bit of a break and a good flush.

really good-sized tailor getting around. Keeping a small slug on the ready is a great idea with all the pelagics around. The Mustad Tracershot casting jig in the 15-30g sizes are worth a throw, as most of the bait these guys are hunting is

Flat Shads slow rolled around pontoons, or fished weedless in heavy natural structure, will see the results come. The bay islands have been producing plenty of pan-sized snapper and grassies. Low light periods of dawn and dusk have been

Brenden Whyte with a quality Southern Bay tailor. Mud crabs, flathead and whiting are all on the move towards the Jumpinpin and snapper, mackerel and maybe the odd tuna getting around central to Northern Bay. Mangrove jacks have been going off in all the local systems as well. School mackerel have been around in a few numbers. The beacons, Rous and Rainbow channels and the northern side of Peel Island are all areas worth a look. There have been a few reports of some spotted mackerel and longtail tuna more north of Harries. Around the Jumpinpin, throughout the bay and around the mouth of the Brisbane River there have been some unseasonable

quite small – the old ‘match the hatch’ approach. If you a finding most of the fish are holding deeper, try trolling the areas holding lots of bait with your slugs behind a paravane. Mangrove jacks have been stirred right up lately, and the action will continue for the next month or so. There have been a lot coming from the local canal systems and the small mangrovelined creeks. The Logan has been throwing up a few, with live baiting getting the bites. It’s best to try soft vibes over the deeper rock bars or weedless plastics through the submerged timber. There’s always the chance of a few estuary or gold-spot cod to keep you interested. Zerek Live Shrimp and 4.5” and 5”

the best times around the shallows. Unweighted baits or very lightly weighted soft plastics have been the go. The use of 3” or 4” lures will get a lot more attention up shallow and help tick the numbers over. The majority of the bigger quality fish have been coming from the deeper water. Harry Atkinson artificial reef, the sunken houseboat or the West artificial reefs at Peel are all worth a try. There have been a few jew getting around the isolated structures, so keep an eye out on the sounder for the larger schools. Summer whiting are in great numbers around the lone pine in the Logan and around the sand flats in the power lines area at the mouth of the Logan River. Light lines with fresh baits have been working best. Pumping your own yabbies or gathering small soldier crabs as well as fresh worms will do the trick. If you can find some clean water around the bottom of the tide, long

Gold-spot cod love a good artificial bait. This one took a 60g Mustad Ink Vader meant for a tusky.

PROVEN WORLD LEADING

ANCHOR DESIGNS

skinny poppers worked fast on top up in the shallows can be a great visual technique and seems to get the better quality fish. There have been a few tuskfish reported around the bay shallows of Peel, Bird

There are still plenty of lizards around the Pin. Scott caught this one on a Duo Realis Jerkbait 120. and Goat and Pots Point. You have to make the effort to get the right bait before heading out. Small, live black crabs are the best bait, with big, fresh green prawns a close second. If you’re after some bigger fish, look for some of the isolated coffee rock up the Rainbow Channel or any of the coffee rock ledges up around the top of Moreton Island around Cowan. If you’re keen to have a crack on artificial lures, prawn imitations work well. I’ve caught a few on Fish Traps fished really slow, and the Mustad Ink Vaders are a deadly lure on them on the deeper ledges. Brisbane River has been producing some great fish lately. There have been some nice threadfin salmon and jewfish from the port area. There have also been some fish upriver, but the larger fish have been towards the mouth at the moment. Just remember that these fish when pulled from deep water suffer from barotrauma, and if you are practicing catch and release, try to have a release weight

handy to get the fish back to the bottom [Google ‘effective release weight’ to see a DIY article from Gordon Macdonald]. Take care when handling them and don’t keep them out of the water too long. Targeting these fish is awesome fun but if you don’t release them properly, they will have very little chance of survival. There have been quite a few flatties still up on the banks. Trolling has been producing the goods, with heaps of fish coming on the Zerek Tango Shad. Once you have found the flatties, put the effort in around that area with the soft plastics. The edges on the eastern side of Garden Island and the eastern side of Macleay and Lamb have been producing the goods. Just be careful of the green zones around the eastern side of Lamb Island. Fish the edges on the last of the run-out tides. If you have a great capture from the Southern Bay you would like to share, email it through to nick@ techfishing.com.au. Until next month, Tech-It-Easy.

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Southern

OLD

Anglers are spoilt for choice BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

So far it has been a reasonably mild summer, and the fishing has been rather good for most species. Hopefully February will be warmer, resulting in increased metabolism and more aggressive activity from a broader array of species. So far, we have seen great fishing for species such as mangrove jack, mackerel, sharks, longtail tuna, threadfin salmon, estuary cod, crabs, prawns and a host of other species. February can often be a month with fluctuating weather and regular afternoon storms, however our usual weather patterns have been somewhat out of whack of late. With the kids back at school, the opportunity to wet a line can be a lot more consistent

gang hook rigged pilchards next to the marine markers and then just drifting away 50m or so before repeating the process. Dropping chromed slugs and slices into the same zone, and then retrieving them flat-stick to the surface will produce some exciting strikes. Do several drops at each beacon before moving on to the next. Returning at a later stage of the tide can often be successful, even if results weren’t forthcoming earlier. Surface feeding fish are best targeted by casting chromed slugs and slices and retrieving as fast as possible. Casting to the edges of feeding fish is recommended, as bite-offs are common when casting directly into the melee. Wire leaders should be avoided as they definitely decrease the strike rate from mackerel. If you cast to the edge of the school and begin retrieving just before the lure

Anglers commonly anchor in this area, floating out pilchards and small live baits. A berley trail of finelychopped pilchard pieces can often increase results. CRABS The warmer months are ideal for those chasing a feed of crabs. Sand crabs (blue swimmers) have been around in healthy numbers for the last few months, and this should continue unless we get major rain. Most people have been targeting these by setting pots around the bay islands, Sand Hills area and in the Rous and Rainbow channels. Further north, Deception Bay, Scarborough Reef, out from the Mouth of the Pine and several other prime areas will all produce. Setting pots in varying depths can allow you to determine what depth is currently working best. Once you have figured out the best depth, you can deploy all your pots in similar areas.

Larger pelagics such as longtail tuna should be prevalent during February due to warm water temperatures and increased baitfish presence. mid-week for many parents. Let’s look at a few more of your piscatorial possibilities this month. MACKEREL The mackerel fishing in the bay has been consistent, with school mackerel remaining the main species on offer. Some spotties have been around, however they have not been consistent amongst anglers’ catches. The central and northern bay have been the best option for all pelagic action, especially mackerel. However, the southern bay has also produced schoolies in decent numbers around Peel, Banana Banks, the Rous Channel, Rainbow Channel and also just out the front of Wellington Point. In these locations, most have been taken by anglers trolling spoons or drifting pilchards. Further north, mackerel have occasionally been found surface feeding, however fishing around the shipping channel beacons has been more consistent. Beacons can be probed by dropping 26

FEBRUARY 2023

lands, bite-offs will be rare. Mackerel are tail biters and will snip the tail of a faster moving prey to immobilise it. Slower moving prey will be engulfed in their entirety. A lure that sinks after landing can be engulfed from either end, which will result in a bite-off. If the lure is moving rapidly then the mackerel will only hit the rear, which is where the hook is. Chromed slugs used for vertically jigging beacons are best to be rear weighted so they plummet quickly to the bottom. Centre weighted lures will flutter down and will often get entirely engulfed. School and spotted mackerel can sometimes be caught around the fringes or underneath feeding schools of tuna. Drifting pilchards aft whilst whiting fishing around the Sand Hills or targeting snapper and sweetlip around the bay islands will often produce a few schoolies. The Measured Mile is a popular and generally productive location during February.

Mud crabbing has also been fairly consistent due to regular rainfall, which lowers salinity high up in the systems and forces the muddies further down. It is highly likely that we will receive some substantial storms over the coming month, which stir up the mud crabs somewhat. This is a boost for crabbers as they are easier to access as they move around more readily. Setting pots at the mouths of creeks and gutters leading from the major banks and mangrove expanses is usually successful. Deeper gutters, collapsed mangrove banks and holes also offer great opportunities. Safety pots are best baited with fish frames, whole mullet, chicken carcasses, fish heads or even a bait bag stuffed with chicken necks, pilchards or offcuts. Remember that various crab species possess different size limits, bag limits and methods of measuring. Crabbing apparatus needs to comply with current

regulations in regards to labelling, and the type and size of floats that you can use. Good crabbing opportunities exist for mud, sand and blue swimmer crabs over the coming months so get out and set a few pots soon. PRAWNS It is highly likely that we will see some decent prawning in the Caboolture and Pine Rivers over the coming weeks. The only thing that could spoil this opportunity is too much flooding rain, which would quickly flush the prawns out into the bay instead of just into the lower reaches of these systems. Commonly during February prawns will be found in the major holes along these two systems and also various spots in the Brisbane River. Those anglers with good quality sounders and a knowledge of their workings will have no trouble finding the prawns if they are there. Prawns will often appear as a blanket of blue, red or green dots (dependant on the colour palette used) along the bottom. In some instances, large, condensed schools can rise several feet off the bottom. Prawns will commonly lift from the mud and silt around the change of the tide, and move off to another area. This is the time they are most easily located and targetable. Prawns can be caught at night in some areas, however daylight sojourns generally offer better numbers and opportunities. Prawners are restricted to a 10L limit of prawns (regardless of size) per prawner, with a maximum of 20L per boat with two or more aboard. A 10L bucket will often hold 11-12L of prawns when full, so don’t rely on that as your measure. It is best to accurately measure 10L of water into the bucket and then mark the top of the waterline with a permanent marker so you have an

Flathead are a staple all year and can be taken on a wide range of offerings in the estuaries, creeks, rivers and bay. accurate measure. Once you fill the bucket with prawns to this level, then you know you have bagged out. LONGTAIL TUNA February is generally a good month for all pelagics due to warm conditions and heightened baitfish presence throughout the bay. Longtails are one of the larger pelagic species often encountered, and can reach weights over 30kg. More commonly they are in the 7kg to 16kg range, which makes them attainable and awesome sport on 8kg to 15kg line classes. Longtails can be picky at times, and will only eat exact replicas of the baitfish species most commonly found at that time. If you match the hatch with the baitfish they’re eating, you are in with a decent chance of hooking up. Bear in mind that these baitfish can sometimes only be a centimetre or two long, which makes casting a profile of this size quite difficult, especially when the tuna are flighty and you need to cast a considerable distance. Trying numerous profiles from as small as you can cast to reasonably large pencil poppers and stickbaits

can often be worthwhile. Fly fishers have the ability to cast smaller profiles (up to around 35m or so for a good caster) as they are casting the weight of the line, not the actual fly. Common offerings for longtails include chromed slugs and slices, jigheadrigged jerkshad plastics (especially 5” ZMan JerkshadZ in bubblegum), stickbaits, pencil poppers, weighted casting minnows, baitfish profiled flies and many other offerings. JACKS AND COD Anglers casting lures around the various structures in the rivers and estuaries are likely to encounter both jacks and cod during the warmer months. Both species hunt by ambush, darting out to engulf any hapless morsel that passes close by. Those anglers who present their offerings closest to the structure are most likely to get hit. Sturdy drag settings, good rod work and a degree of luck is generally required for each fish landed. Jacks are particularly hard fighters and will engulf a lure and be almost back to their snag before you can react to

Unless we receive flooding rainfall, the Caboolture and Pine rivers should produce good numbers of banana prawns during February.

OLD

the strike. Soft plastics, minnow lures, soft vibes, blades, topwater offerings and flies can all be used to tempt jacks and cod. Bridge pylons, jetty structure, pontoons, mangrove snags, rock walls and many other forms of hard structures can be targeted with such offerings in the rivers, harbours, canals and creeks. Live baits of mullet, herring, banana prawns, pike and biddies can all be used to tempt these and many other species. Fish these with a minimum of sinker weight, fluorocarbon leaders and suicide or kahle pattern hooks. Late afternoons, nights and early mornings are ideal times for targeting jacks, especially when barometers are rising due to impending storms. BRISBANE RIVER A broad array of species can be taken in the Brisbane River during February, including threadfin salmon, mulloway, snapper, bream, flathead, estuary cod, sharks and others. Threadfin often school in the lower reaches and are best targeted with soft vibes, jighead-rigged plastics (especially paddle-tail shads and crustacean profiles) or live baits. Threadfin can be picky at times and will sometimes only come on the bite around the change

of tide. Just because you can find them (they show prominently on quality marine electronics due to their large air bladder) doesn’t mean you can get them to bite. Often you will need to sit on a school and try different offerings until they decide to come on the chew, if at all. Hopping or slow rolling lures through the school is a good approach. However, drifting down a live banana prawn on a fluorocarbon leader will offer your best chance as threadfin really love prawns, and regularly follow schools up and down the river. Prawnprofiled plastics are a great option if you can’t secure a live offering. These same lures and baits will tempt most species in the Brisbane River, although these species can inhabit numerous different areas. Casting to the front of the wharves and jetties (adhere to distance restrictions) and allowing the lure to sink on a slack line will get it close to the base of the pylons. Small hops and pauses offer a reliable presentation with soft vibes and many plastics. All manner of species can be caught in these zones. Other good river spots to try include the dredge holes at the mouth, around the

tripod beacons of the inner leads, retaining wall at the mouth and Caltex Reach, the Oil Pipeline, Gateway Bridge area, Claras Rocks and the Sunken Wall. When fishing in the Brisbane River, your next fish could be a monster threadfin, snapper or mulloway or something less desirable like a shark, pike eel, catfish or ray. Lures often allow you to avoid the latter four species, but baits offer a relaxed approach. SHARKS Warm weather and sharks go hand in hand. As water

temperatures rise, shark activity also increases. Often it is hard to get a hooked fish to the boat due to the sharks which engulf any hooked fish. Anglers can have a lot of fun catching sharks and many consider them decent table fare, offering a good yield of meat. Drifting out whole fish baits or fillets around the bay islands or spoil grounds is a fairly reliable way to secure a few bay whalers or even hammerheads. A constant berley trail of tuna oil will increase your chances. Baits

are best presented on a twin snelled hook rig on nyloncoated wire. I usually put one about 50m behind the boat around 4m under a balloon, and then another around 30m behind the boat with no sinker or float as you drift through these areas. Brisbane River sharks (commonly bull sharks and spinner sharks) respond well to live catfish or eel chunks fished close to the bottom. They can be caught almost anywhere along the river’s length, and I reckon the section above the city

Threadfin salmon numbers dramatically increase in the lower reaches of the Brisbane River during the warmer months and can even be taken from land-based locations.

Southern

reaches from St Lucia to Mount Crosby is your best bet. The sharks move up and down with the tide, so any bait is likely to be found by these predators. Struggling baits such as catfish will quickly get homed in on. Don’t think you need to cast to the middle of the river to catch them – you are better off with baits fished closer to the bank, especially where the water flow is minimised. Sharks can offer a lot of fun and are a great way to teach the younger and less experienced anglers the skills of fighting a tough adversary. They are in plague proportions at present, so don’t hesitate to take a few for the table. CONCLUSION Plenty of options exist for anglers over the coming months in Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River. Whether you are wanting to target a tough sportfish like a longtail tuna, cobia, shark, mangrove jack or threadfin or a tasty tuskfish, snapper, mackerel, sweetlip or flathead, there is great opportunity for all. You could add a feed of prime crustaceans such as mud crabs, banana prawns or sand crabs into the mix for a SEQ seafood smorgasbord. Get out and get amongst it whenever the weather allows during February – you won’t be disappointed.

FEBRUARY 2023

Southern

OLD

Good numbers of active fish NORTHERN BAY

Tackle World Lawnton

To many seasoned anglers’ relief, the silly season has finally come to an end and we can finally enjoy a little less chaos at the boat ramps and on the water. The fish are surely as relived as we are! Throughout January we have seen some very productive fishing when anglers have had a gap in the weather to get out. The bay has been producing some good numbers of mac tuna, with a few schools of longtails mixed in. We have seen a better season than the last one on school mackerel, and hopefully this will continue throughout this

month. A few lucky estuary anglers have encountered a few fantastic mangrove jack captures, with plenty of whiting and flathead getting around to top the esky up. RIVERS Throughout this month we should still be seeing prime conditions to target mangrove jack. With the waterways having quieted down a little by now, the jacks should be a little less spooky. Take advantage of those afternoon storms we see at this time of year, and if time permits try to fish the lead up to them because the fluctuating barometric pressure usually gets the jacks exited. For lure fishos you can’t go wrong with a wellpresented 4-5” paddle tail

plastic rolled along rock walls or manmade structure. Suspending jerkbaits like the Lucky Craft Pointer are another fantastic lure style, being able to be twitched and suspended right in the strike zone to entice a jack from its lair. Don’t forget to hold on because these fish love hitting on their way back to structure, making for a very quick and exhilarating strike. For the bait fishers, there are still some excellent opportunities for you to target jacks. A well-presented flesh bait or a live bait are two very effective options. Once again, focus your efforts close to structure, with some key haunts being rock walls, bridges and rock bars. We hope to see some good numbers of prawns

Grassy sweetlip will be on the cards in February. Bikrant caught this nice fish out of the yak.

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showing up this month for a later season than normal. Now is a good time to get out and start sounding those deeper holes in the Pine and Caboolture rivers, looking for signs of life before social media catches on and everyone is out there. BAY We can expect to see the school mackerel and tuna getting around in the bay throughout this month, and hopefully into the early parts of next month. Mackerel will continue to be found pestering bait on the markers throughout the shipping channel. A metal slug burnt past them or a weighted pilchard drifted past are often great starting points. As always, find the bait, find the fish! Don’t be afraid to keep marker-hopping until you find some good numbers of active fish. Deeper divers trolled in the channels are also a great option to pick up numbers of fish and cover ground. As always, keep an eye on the horizon for bust-ups or diving birds on baitfish because tuna will never be far behind. Grassy sweetlip are another great target species in the bay during the warmer months. You will generally come across these fish on most of your favourite winter snapper marks. These fish fight hard, get large and are excellent on the plate! Grassies can’t resist a pilchard drifted slowly through the water column on a float line rig, or even a live bait dropped to the bottom. They will also take a variety of lures, from soft plastics to jigs and even hardbodies trolled deep enough. Low light periods are often preferred, whether it be early morning,

Ethan Flowers picked up this nice bass at Kurwongbah in the new year. late afternoon or even night. True, they can be caught at other times of the day, but they tend to be a little bit harder to tempt. DAMS AND FRESHWATER Whilst the bass in our dams have still been a bit hit-and-miss, the creeks have most certainly made up for that. We should continue to see some fantastic bass fishing in the upper reaches of the North and South Pine rivers. Young’s Crossing is a favourite spot for bait fishers; it is easy to access and produces large numbers of good bass in the right conditions. These fish love a live African night-crawler (worm), but if you can get your hands on some live shrimp these will always be the most irresistible bait. A kayak is most definitely one of the best tools to have whilst creek bass fishing, allowing anglers to get into areas typically not accessible by foot, often producing some cracking fishing. Fishing shadow edges around structure with small surface lures and diving lures

is a great start, but when the bass turn on they will eat just about anything that hits the water with unmatched aggression. Lake Kurwongbah has been and will continue to fish well for saratoga while the warmer weather keeps up. Early morning and late afternoon will be the pick times this month. Fishing surface lures in close around the lily pads and weed banks with plenty of pauses is often a reliable way to tempt a bite. If you don’t mind getting wet, the lead up and short period after rain often gets toga fired up and on the hunt, but always be mindful of lighting! • For more up to date information on fishing in and around Brisbane call into the guys at Tackle World Lawnton and they can point you in the right direction. The friendly staff at Tackle World Lawnton cater to all levels of experience and offer the widest range of brands at the best prices. They are located at 640 Gympie Road Lawnton (07) 3205 7475 or find us on Facebook and Instagram.

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FEBRUARY 2023

Plenty of good jacks are still around. Hayden Townsend picked up this nice fish in early January.

FEBRUARY 2023

Southern

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There’s plenty to choose from NOOSA

Peter Wells

With plenty of wind around over the last couple of months, most reports have come from the bigger boats. When we do get some good offshore conditions, you will struggle to get a park at the ramp as plenty of anglers have been waiting for their offshore fix.

For the bigger craft, a trip to the reefs off Double Island can be very fruitful. Plenty of pelagic activity has been reported, along with plenty from the bottom. Kingfish, mahimahi, amberjack, and big trout are just some of the species that have been captured over the last couple of months. Jigs have been very popular around these areas, with plenty of anglers reporting that they

also been prolific with some nice longtail tuna, mackerel, and even a couple of small marlin taken. With offshore conditions being a bit hit-and-miss, the rivers have seen plenty of anglers in smaller craft picking up some great fish. Flathead numbers in the rivers have been outstanding. The Noosa, Maroochy and around Tin Can Bay have all seen some great catches.

Adian and Troy love catching snapper. Reports are coming in of more and more small Spanish mackerel and spotted mackerel from around Laguna Bay. These fish are feeding on very small baitfish, so casting smaller slugs is the way to go. The TT Hardcore are perfect for the job as they have a smaller profile but still have some decent cast weight. A good tip has been to let the slug sink for a 5 count, as the Spanish are holding a little deeper.

are out-fishing their baitdropping mates. Sunshine Reef has again been the saviour for those in small craft. A lot of anglers have been using the ‘fish and run’ approach, getting out early and heading home as soon as the breezes pick up. There has been plenty on offer, with a good mix of reef species including snapper, sweetlip, tuskfish, Maori cod, cobia, jewfish all from the bottom, while the surface feeders have

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There have been some big girls landed over the past few weeks, with plenty over the legal limit of 75cm. If you do get a big female, make sure that you support her body weight well while taking your photo. Try not to use lip grips to lift her, use a landing net. Make sure your brag mat is wet and not too hot when measuring the fish. All these things will help with the health of the fish upon its return. Grunter bream have been

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in good numbers around the Noosa Harbour and up between the lakes, along with some quality mangrove jack. The lure anglers are having more success with warmer waters. For those who just want to put fish in the boat, live baits are the way to go. For the Noosa angler, trolling hardbodies has been the key to getting stuck into some great jacks. There are some great lures on the market, but one of the standouts would have to the Bassday Sugadeep in the 70mm and 90mm size. Fishing the top of the rock bars from Johns Landing to the mouth of Cootharaba has been well worth the effort. For those of you who love to get up early, working the many fallen trees and root systems along the river up between the lakes with surface presentations has been effective. Jacks love frogs so the Finesse FrogZ and Hard Leg FrogZ from ZMan have worked very well. Rig them weed-free and you can confidently cast them deep into the timber where the jacks love to live. Mud crabs are still moving around through the system, with good bucks in most Sunshine Coast rivers. In the Noosa, setting your pots up between the lakes and around mangroves has seen some nice bucks. Quality baits of mullet and a tide change has been the key to potting some nice crabs. A good tip is to soak your mullet in tuna oil; this will increase the scent trail, giving you better results. Make sure you mark all your pots above the water line as Fisheries are checking. Trevally numbers have been good, especially around the bigger tide of the moon phase. Fish the top two hours of the tide and use slugs

Aiden Whiteman with a ripper 80cm snapper. and retrieve at speed. These fish are also happy to take a soft plastic or a micro jig. Look for the bait activity brought in on the tide and you will usually find these great sportfish. On the beaches, dart have been in plague proportions along the majority of gutters from Noosa Northshore beaches all the way up to Inskip. Whiting have also been in good numbers, with the best bite coming from the start of the run-out tide. The hot spot has been just north of Teewah. The best baits for these tasty morsels have been beach worms, pipis and peeled prawns. We are also seeing some good jewfish in the gutter, especially around the new moon. These fish will come in the high tide so the bigger evening tides are your best bet. Live baits of poddy mullet or larger herring are ideal baits if you can get them. If not, dead baits of mullet, squid or clumps of worm have all worked. In the fresh, Lake

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Canter with a spotted mackerel.

Borumba has been producing some good bass and saratoga. Most of the action has been up the creek arms of the dam, but there have been fish around the main basin first thing in the morning and just on dusk. Small micro jigs have been very successful just worked through the schools. For the saratoga, frog and cicada profiles have been very successful cast in under trees first thing in the morning. The fishing in the Mary River around Gympie has been very good. Traveston Crossing Road down to the weir has been the place to be, with plenty of solid bass and sooty grunter on the chew. • Don’t forget to check in to www.fishingnoosa.com.au for all the latest up to date info on fishing and bar crossings. The knowledgeable teams at Tackle World Noosa, Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola our new store The Tackle Shop in Gympie can provide you with the right equipment, bait and advice to ensure success!

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Central

OLD

Stay flexible, stay mobile BUNDABERG

Luke Truant

The fishing at the moment is pretty similar to the last three months, as in there are still some outrageous sized coral trout and red emperor kicking around, if you put in the effort to get far enough away from the sharky areas. ESCAPING THE SHARKS I personally have changed tactics with sharks a little. Instead of moving a small distance from one area to another, I’ll move 40nm! That is, when I make two trips in two successive days, I’ll fish the second day roughly 40nm or more away from the first day’s locations. The sharks definitely seem to cluster; I’ve found that a 10

mile by 10 mile stretch seems to have worse sharks than another area of the same size. These sharky areas change depending on the day. When it comes to moving away from sharks in the middle of a trip (rather than between trips) I’ll move an absolute minimum of a few miles. And it’s not just about changing the location you’re fishing, it’s also about changing the depth. If the sharks are bad in the shallows in one area, it’s unlikely they’ll be better in the shallows in the next area, so change the depth you’re fishing as well as the area on a single day. BOTTOM FISHING My favourite baits for the extra large reds and big trout would still be whole hussar fillets or whole iodine bream fillets. I catch my hussar and

iodine bream with smaller baits and smaller hooks, such as 4/0-6/0 hooks. The hussar are pretty much everywhere and the iodine bream are more often on sandy margins next to the reef. Rig your fillet with a single 8/0 starting at the fat end. These fillets can be quite large, easily in excess of 20cm, but this large portion size won’t deter smaller size fish from having a go (although usually not the smallest fish). For example, you can catch trout anywhere from about 2kg up to max size. Even undersize Maori cod will take these big baits (Maori cod are the biggest pigs in the sea!) We are still catching smaller numbers of grass emperor (grassy sweetlip) and venus tuskfish. In February, we can expect the

Blake wrangled this little pup through the sharks!

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grassy numbers to increase, and I would start using whole squid baits rather than fillet baits for these fish. I personally only use local squid. It supports the local industry, and these squid also tend to hold on the hook better than imported squid. Grassies can be caught just about everywhere until about March/April, when they move shallower to around 20m of water, or even less. They love the reef edges and rubbly patches. Grassies love a running ball down to a swivel with a 45cm trace (or a trout rig with a running ball down to the hook), although that’s a hard rig to fish if you’re on staghorn coral because it gets tangled easily. Still, I do believe it increases your chances if you’re prepared to put up with a few losses. You’ll definitely catch more with a running ball than a paternoster. I recommend using a strong 7/0 or 8/0 hook, because the last thing you want is to connect to a big fish and straighten the hook.

This solid trout couldn’t resist a big flesh bait. I use Elkat Live Bait hooks. SPANISH MACKEREL The Spanish mackerel are still nice and thick, and ‘lazy’ fishing is working, i.e. a diving hardbody like a Halco 190 XDD trolled at 6 knots on any of the reef areas down to about 30m deep. Be mindful that the Southern Spanish Mackerel Closure runs from 1 February to 21 February, and again from 1 March to 21 March, 2023. Lately we’ve been getting some bigger Spaniards up to 18kg, but the average size is a lot smaller for summer fish, around 6kg. If you catch a Spaniard that looks like it might be undersize, just flick it over the side, don’t bring them into the boat and measure them or they’ll rub off their protective slime thrashing on the deck, and they have a high mortality rate from infection when their slime is rubbed off. Just flick it off and catch another one. ESTUARY FISHING The rivers have been firing with prawns and crabs. I recommend targeting the deep holes near the port on the neap tides, usually within an hour of the low tide. When you drop your prawn net to the bottom, leave the net there for a while before bringing it back up. Don’t just lift it back up after one or two jiggles. I’d wait for a minimum of 30 seconds to give the prawns time to wriggle away from the mud into the top pocket. On one trip the prawns didn’t emerge for 45 seconds minimum, but when they did they kept going for another 45 seconds until there was half a kilo of large banana prawns in the net. On that day, if you had dropped to the bottom and pulled up more quickly you would have caught next to nothing. When it comes to cast nets, ask the locals what net they use, because they know what works. Don’t buy a cheap, mass-produced net or you will catch far fewer prawns. I speak

from experience! A good handmade net can be twice as expensive as a cheap one, but it should last you 10 years or more, and will pay for itself in the amount of prawns you’ll bring home. It’s a good investment. Crabs have been going really well, probably due to the constant rain we’ve been getting. The crabbing should keep going through until around June. I’m a firm believer in buying heavy-duty crab pots in dark colours; I strongly believe that pots with blue or green mesh catch more crabs than the bright orange ones. We’ve tested the theory with orange vs green pots, and nearly all our crabs have come from the green ones. THE MONTH AHEAD Spanish mackerel should fish well this month, outside of the closure periods. February is also one of my favourite months for bottom

fishing, with quality trout and reds taking big flesh baits with gusto. The sharks will be thick though, so you have to be flexible and be prepared to move significant distances. • Truansea Charters specialise in 10-hour day trips chasing prized reef targets such as coral trout and red emperor, as well as arm-stretching pelagics like Spanish mackerel. The maximum number of anglers is 6, so you’ll never feel crowded. The price is $330pp (or $300 pp if you book the whole boat), which includes all gear, fuel, bait, ice, chilled water/soft drinks and laughs! You’re welcome to bring your own reef fishing gear if you prefer. Other charter options include half-day reef trips, half day river trips and private guiding. To find out more visit www.truansea.com.au, or you can Like them on Facebook or call Luke on 0423 015 490.

A grassy sweetlip caught around this time last year.

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A great time to target barra MACKAY

Cameron Christian

February 1st means the start to the barra open season, and it’s a great time to target some chrome. Although the weather can be prime with plenty of hot days and stormy afternoons, February is also usually the wet season, and large influxes of freshwater can hinder efforts. There

sometimes less than 1m deep. Lures like shallow divers, surface lures or lightly-weighted soft plastics can be slowly worked in these areas, while live baits can be floated around the edges of the hole. Prominent structure like the rocks around the Ron Camm Bridge or the bridge pylons in the Pioneer River can be fished with live baits or deep diving hardbody lures slowly rolled tight to

these techniques while drifting up or down with the tide, working the above structures for at least 15 minutes before moving on. Paying attention to rainfall and choosing systems which clear quickly or have had a chance to clear will provide better fishing conditions. In addition, noting times and locations of prawn runs will help you to locate where the fish are feeding. Mackay systems

Kynan Beutel with a great red emperor. has been decent rain over December, and a little extra over early January should lead to a great start to the open season, with plenty of baitfish around. Neap tides and live baits are a reliable combination around Mackay, with the usual spots being hammered quite regularly. Bear in mind that these traditional hot spots are not your only option. Barra can be found all over Mackay, and the structure and techniques used in the most popular spots can also be used to find fish in all the systems. Deep holes (like the barra hole near the mouth of Constant Creek) hold great concentrations of barra which typically patrol the shallow edges of the hole,

the structure. This technique that usually works best with neap tidal flow. Gullies, creek junctions and drains (like twin gullies in Murray Creek and the V in the Pioneer River) provide an ideal feeding location for barra as bait is flushed out with the tide. Barra will hang around the sides of the flowing water, and presentations should mimic the bait being flushed out. It’s an ideal situation for prawn imitation lures after a good prawn run. All the systems around Mackay, including Reliance, Eimeo, Murray and Constant Creek and to the south, Sandy, Alligator and Rocky Dam Creek are full of these types of structure. These spots are best worked using

are a mixed bag, and fishing creeks in this fashion gives you a chance to catch many other species including jacks, fingermark, cod, grunter and flathead. February is typically the wet season, and this provides plenty of opportunities to get a good feed of crab as they retreat to the mouths of gullies and creeks to escape the fresh water coming into the feeder creeks. There have been reports of great mud crab catches over the past few months, and this should continue. Large influxes of cold rainwater typically shut the impoundment fish down, hence trips to the dams are usually best planned before big rains, during rainstorms or well after large

downpours. The dams will be well worth investigating during February, however summer is really the best time for impoundment barra. There have been reports of great action at Kinchant, and this should remain consistent considering it is such a well-stocked dam. A recent comp at Kinchant saw average feeding conditions, with most teams making the 3-fish bag and some missing out. An outstanding 75% of the reported fish caught were captured within an hour and half of the low tide, showing just how significantly tide changes affect the feeding patterns of impoundment barra. Winning team ‘Pond Pounders’ (Jason and Trevor Crofts) used the popular technique of targeting isolated barra within the shallow portions of the basin using Garmin Live Scope and Samaki Redics. Later on they moved to jig beside weed towers, also utilizing live imaging, and they said that most bites came from a fast upward jig above the fish once they had seen the lure. Second placing team ‘Swamp Dogs’ (Adam Walker and Jono Clark) achieved great results by fishing a bowl/bay shaped clearing along a weed edge. High winds blowing parallel

Jason Crofts from winning team ‘Pond Pounders’ with a nice Kinchant barra. also staging/feeding points within the bowl where barra would accumulate due to depressions or channels in the weed, which provided a feeding opportunity for the fish. The team identified these points using 360 imaging, noting that barra could be seen hanging at the staging point for several rotations of the transducer and could be easily targeted. Some fish were caught from the deep open water

10-15 second sink time was required to work the deeper sections of the bowl and weed edge. Meanwhile, the heavier vibes could still be cast up onto the high weeds within the bowl and retrieved with a fast and erratic action over the weeds. The team focused these casts on the barra, which emerged from the weeds at the staging points to entice a rection bite. Mentioning the faster sink

Jono Clark from second placing team ‘Swamp Dogs’ with a healthy Kinchant barra.

The freshly-hatched sooty grunter at MAFSA’s hatchery featured in last month’s article has now grown to nearly 20mm long. 34

FEBRUARY 2023

to a weed edge created reprieve from the current at the top of the bowl, while the bottom of the bowl caught some of the current and created a junction at the bottom point of the bowl. Positioning the boat just out from the mouth of the bowl allowed casts to be fanned out all around the boat. Casts were focused on the open water where fish travel along the weed edge, up onto the high weed within the weed bowl, at the top and bottom points of the weed bowl, and

and points of the bowl using heavy swimbaits and soft vibes such as Fish Traps, but the majority of their fish were caught by casting up into the shallow bowl and the staging points within it, using lightly weighted, weedless swimbaits such as Zerek Flatshads and hardbody vibes such as Maniac vibes. The team noted that counting the lightly weighted lures down to the weeds to slowly work the lures as close to the weed as possible was essential. Sometimes a

rate was more effective for targeting these fish as the lure could be immediately placed in front of the fish once they were identified on the sounder. MAFSA’s hatchery has been busy growing out the sooty grunter fingerlings spawned over the last few months and will soon be ready for another spawning run. The wet season is the trigger for sooty grunter to begin breeding, and hopefully Mackay’s freshwater rivers will be flowing and full of fat broodstock.

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Barra season opening TOWNSVILLE

Dave Hodge

The predicted weather pattern that had everyone on edge at the end of the year was a bit of a non-event. Expectations

plastics as well. Barra season on the East Coast opens on 1 February, and aren’t people excited about that! Three months of driving past obvious barra on the sounder has been hard, but most anglers understand the importance of letting

Contrasting colours are working well in the dirtier waters. Getting that weight on the hook just right is key to presenting at the right depth. were for a very wet December and January, but a few showers here and there were all that we experienced. It was the wind that had us all down in the dumps though. Week after week, the fishing was just shut down, especially for the offshore fishos. Some really big tides made it hard in mid-December, but despite it all, thinking anglers found some nice grunter, jacks and fingermark in the deeper holes using vibes, plastics and live baits. There was enough rain to dirty the water up (but not really have any other benefit in relation to barra spawning), so bright coloured lures were the most productive. This trend continued on to the inshore grounds, where the fingermark were smashing brightly coloured vibes and

FEBRUARY 2023

these fish do their spawn thing, and have left them alone. Obviously though, some people believe that it’s fine to actively target and release barra. These people either don’t know or don’t care that these big girls re-absorb their eggs into their body when captured, eliminating the chance of them contributing to this year’s spawn run. As they say, common sense ain’t that common nowadays. THE MONTH AHEAD Let’s say we get the rain that’s predicted for the upcoming wet season, and rivers run hard and fast. Where would you start to search for the fish? Well, going from past experiences, it’s the second rain event that gets the barra going. The first rain event is just a clearing run to flush the sediment and debris before the main event, when you see schools of barra head

You never know what’s going to hit your lure next if you’re casting around inshore reedy type stuff. This flowery cod snatched a lure meant for a trout and gave a good account of itself.

If you’re in open water, don’t go too hard on your hooked fish. That tiny bit of skin would have pulled out if the author had gone any harder on this fish. further upstream to gorge on the mobile bait schools. This is usually when you find those drains that have distinctive colour changes and bait schools holding at the mouths of them. A wellpresented hardbody or soft plastic will almost certainly get intercepted by a barra if your timing is right. Whatever you do though, don’t forget those surface lures at this time of year. If you have never caught a barramundi on the top before, you’re in for a treat. If the water is a bit clearer, a walk-the-dog style of surface lure is a good choice. Lures like the Sugapens in the 110mm size work very well. I also like the Halco Roosta popper in the 80mm size, which casts like a bullet and has one of the best sounding ‘pop’s you’ll find. Also, the Bills Bug Fizzers in the 70mm size are one of the best surface lures ever produced, particularly for barra. While not as good a long-distance casting presentation as the Roosta popper and Sugapen, it has a unique sound that drives barra wild. If you find yourself looking for deeper fish, then trolling a deep diving hardbody while keeping your eyes glued to that all-important depth sounder,

(preferably side scan) will help you to find schools of fish down deep. Once you have located them, you can position yourself appropriately and deliver a vibe or plastic and catch them

bigger tides and freshwater runoff, there are often clearer flowing drains that enter the main river systems. These are prime locations to target mangrove jacks, and also barra. Having a few

During the festive season, the author and his son went for a flick around the mountains during the windy periods to chase a few sooties. They’re great fun if you’re not after a feed. on the cast. This technique of actually finding them first while trolling can result in big numbers of fish. Please don’t go overboard if you’re looking for a feed. During those times of

lure sizes to choose from is important though, and matching the size of the food they’re eating at the time is paramount if you are to get the most action possible. I’ve had to downsize to the

OLD

3” Atomic Prongs on 1/6oz jigheads to get the bites at times when the fish have been feeding on jelly prawns and rejecting everything else. Ever since, I’ve always kept them in the boat at this time of year. We usually fish them on 10lb braid and 20-30lb fluoro leader and that’s over a spin rod combo. This may sound light for barramundi, but you can’t fish small lures on heavy gear, and we land at least 95% of our fish in the open water situations. Our annual overall catch rate would take a serious dive if we didn’t carry these lighter options with us. It’s up to you if you want to give it a go or are happy throwing the normal type stuff.

CRABBING Fortunately for the smaller boats, the creeks have still been fishable, and the crabs have been running as thick as anyone can remember. However, but with a heavy out-oftown commercial crabbing presence, many were just under legal size. ‘Share farming’ (crab theft) is very much a problem around here, and people are not only losing their hard-earned crabs by scumbag robbers, but in many cases whole pots are going missing, especially the good quality ones. You would think that a fine of over $1200 per pot for interfering with a fishing apparatus would

they’re usually good species that hit them. If you want to more precisely target fingermark, and assuming you have an electric motor, you can spot lock your boat just downcurrent from them and hop a soft plastic prawn imitation (e.g. Halco Paddle Prawn 7” or Atomic Prong) through the school. Generally you will get pretty instant results. 20lb braid and 30lb leaders are usually enough stopping power if the sharks aren’t too

bad, although that’s a rarity these days. The longer you have to fight a fish, the more likely it is to get eaten, so sporting tackle often can’t be used. If you do lose a fish to the sharks, don’t keep fishing in that area. Just move on and find another school elsewhere. You don’t want to train the sharks to hang around boats waiting for an easy feed! I hope you all have a great barra season opening and bend a rod.

Catching sooties gets you into some breathtakingly scenic areas. As they say, a fish is a bonus.

This trout ate an Atomic Slim Twitcher meant for a mackerel.

New

be a deterrent, but nope. Every day in at the Fishing Warehouse where I work, we hear one victim after another come through the doors, and it really is huge concern. If you video someone in the act of robbing your pot, I’m sure Fisheries would love to see that evidence, especially if it’s got the rego number in it, so fines can be handed out appropriately. FINGERMARK Massive schools of squid have been showing up in the

ECLIPSE The Angler’s Bimini.

closer waters, and hot on their heels are the fingermark (golden snapper) schools. If you locate a school of deeper fish that you think may be fingers, there are a few things you can do. If you don’t have an electric motor and the fish are in less than about 13-14m of water, you can troll deep diver like a Halco Crazy Deep Scorpion 8m through the patch and hang on. Predators will, most times, rise to smash these versatile lures, and

Trout of this size are common if you’re a plastics chucker. Reflexes need to be fast, and rigging and hooks need to be spot on if you’re to land them.

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OLD

Barra season has landed HINCHINBROOK

Ian Moody info@ianmoodyfishing.com

After taking some time off from charters and enjoying a good holiday (battling COVID and a shoulder injury) I am keen to be able to head back to work and kicking off on barra charters from Feb 1st.

Once again, at the time of writing, Hinchinbrook seems to have missed out on big flooding events that we used to get frequently years ago. The systems around here have been silting up badly over the last few years. So the question I get commonly asked is, “when is the best time of year for barra fishing?”

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Without doubt the best time of year for barra is when the water heats up. While I have caught my share of winter barra, as a charter operator I had to learn how to catch them in any conditions, but for most people, their quest to catch barra is going to be more effective if undertaken when the water temperature is around 26-30°C. April to May is also a favourite of mine for charters as the monsoon is usually over (no cyclones and no trip cancellations). So, periods between February to May is where we often cast shallow diving hardbodies into dirty water fringes in backwaters, headlands or flats to target bigger fish over a metre in length. February can be tricky with the likelihood of heavier downpours from storms and cyclones. If the Herbert River area catchment receives a lot of rain, the flow will extend right through the channel and right up to the northern end near Cardwell. The initial flooding events can be a bit of shortterm pain, but definitely long-term gain when things settle. The mouths of rivers and creeks can still be flowing fresh out of them on the surface but still hold some salinity towards the sea bottom. Often I find way out the front on the sand gutters can hold a lot of various size oceanic barra on the outgoing tides. I usually prefer the building tides up to the moons to be the more productive periods. I would load my tacklebox full of shallow or medium range diving hardbody lures around the 80-120mm in length and work them with

A Missionary Bay barramundi. a slow retrieve. If you’re fishing the drains, you will want to start just above half tide on a larger-sized outgoing tides during those building tides as some drains need to be fished on higher parts of the tide as compared to others depending on their shape and size. Waiting until it’s too close to the bottom of the tide can see some of them drained completely and which then the barras will often stray out onto shallow flats. If you prefer to live bait instead of casting lures, I’d concentrate on the periods of neap tides when they will usually aggregate in numbers in deeper holes and ledges. Pinning a live mullet or larger sized herring in through the mouth and out through where the membrane is between the eyes is a good method where there is a bit of current running. I will often pin them through the tail in deeper water and also if the bait size is a bit smaller. It pays to be versatile when fishing the area as some days they will hug the bottom and ignore lures and want baits and some days they move around and hang close to the surface and

prefer lures. Good mate of mine and Cardwell local Luke Hubert had been nailing some good quality sized barras during last year’s season using swimbaits and hardbodies. He had spent time working out different areas around the channel and Missionary Bay during the year and it’s really paid off for him with a lot of fish just either side of the metre range. It should be another good season for him again this year. Barramundi will again be the bigger focus heading into March as this is one of

my favourite months chasing them. Working the stable weather periods in between rain spells will be the best. I wish everyone the best during the opening of the barra season and hope mother nature gives us a few chances to get out. • If you’re looking to do a Barra charter with us for this year’s barra season, Bookings are filling up quick so now is a good time to get in and get your name down on some good dates. For bookings please email us at info@ianmoodysportfishing. com or phone myself directly on 0402 339 459.

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OLD

Christmas for barra anglers CAIRNS

Dan Kaggelis dkaggelis@gmail.com

February is like Christmas for anglers in the Trinity Net Free Zone because barramundi is back on the target list. This time of year, I love targeting

comes up try moving to a paddle tail plastic like a Molix RT Shad in 4.5 or 5.5 inch in size. Paddle tail plastics will also be a very good option tight against the mangroves for the mighty mangrove jack. Jacks will be a little harder to find, especially if

very easy to see when these prawns are around in big numbers as they will spray everywhere when your lure hits the water. Look to fish these plastics over a J hook jig head and light line is a must. The threadfin salmon schools should well truly be along the beaches in

and large paddle tails such as the Molix 120 Shads. There will be barramundi amongst the salmon so don’t be surprised if you hook one as by catch. Typically, these barra are large fish in these spots so do handle them with care. Anything over a metre should not be boated if you want to release them so keep this in mind if its worth killing such as great fish for a photo. Next month the fishing situation will remain pretty much the same which is great news for those fishing the NFZ. Barramundi and jacks will be in

If the jelly prawns are out, try a 2.5” Z-Man PrawnZ. good numbers whilst the threadfin salmon will begin to drop off. Prawns should also be on the move as well.

March is also a good time to start setting a few crab pots especially if it’s raining.

Paddle tail plastics like the Molix RT Shad will be deadly on the jacks. these fish over the mud and sand flats especially over the large king tides. The barra love moving up with the water looking for a feed this time of year and targeting them on poppers or walkers early in the morning is a must do. There are some good flats in the Trinity Inlet near the mouth and around Hills Creek, and if you time it right with a turn in the tide as the sun is coming up you should be in for some action. Once the sun

it is hot and water temps are over 30 degrees. These fish get very lethargic in these conditions and fishing the shaded areas is a must. Try and flick weedless plastics underneath mangroves for best results. If we do see significant rain, then we should see an explosion of jelly prawns in the creeks and estuaries. If this is the case, then you will have to downsize your lures. I have been having success using the new Zman PrawnZ in this scenario. It’s

big numbers which is good news for both land based and boat anglers. The Machans Beach to Holloways Beach stretch tends to be the main area these fish are found which is ideal as land-based anglers can access them with ease. Live prawns or mullet baits are perfect for land-based fishing for these fish. This is the same for boaties, however they are more likely to hit vibe style lures, prawn imitations

Chasing barra over the flats is a very smart option in February.

Traditional Far North Qld PORT PORTDOUGLAS DOUGLAS

Lynton Lynton Heffer Heffer www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

By late December we started to see old-fashioned monsoonal activity, which delivered some typical wet season weather. For long term residents, this is more of a traditional start to the wet season. The rains haven’t been over the top thus far but it is expected to play a significant part moving forward. This more recent development has however rejuvenated our fishery both inshore and offshore. On the reef it has dropped the water temperature to a more acceptable level, bringing back on the bite a lot of our ‘red’ reef species including coral trout and nannygai, particularly in 40

FEBRUARY 2023

waters in excess of 30m. These are obviously our preferred target species. Also we’ve experienced a solid run of tea-leaf and gold spot trevally which, when you hit a school of them, can be extremely hectic for the anglers involved. Another bonus in the deeper water has been some exceptional days of Spanish mackerel mowing down a floating pilchard or live fusilier approximately 20m beneath the surface. This has been a nice surprise for this time of year. Hitting various depths back into the shallows there’s been a good run of spangled emperor, occasional red emperor and quite a few sweetlip. The weather has remained mostly calm with the odd day turning into a churn when a low-pressure trough crosses the coast. There’s going to be some

good value moving forward on the outer reef if the winds don’t spoil your trip. We don’t worry about the rain up here but it is the wind that matters. On our significant coastal river and estuary systems the recent rains have been a blessing, rejuvenating more bait life and also dropping water temperatures to a suitable level. The local species have found a new lease of life led by fingermark, mangrove jack, barramundi (season opens on the 1st February), river trevally, queenfish and grunter across the flats. There’s also been some gigantic GTs to 20kg sniffing around the river mouths being active on the incoming and the first part of the outgoing tide. All methods of fishing have been productive including soft and hard body lures, surface poppers and the local’s favourite -

Spanish mackerel have been smashing both live and dead baits. live mullet or sardines. Rain levels have been perfect thus far, but a deluge of drops can shut down any of our calm waterways for a number of days. The beauty

of where we are is that the Great Dividing Range which creates most of our rain, is it’s not far from the ocean and any size flooding can recover fairly quickly.

Moving forward the weather is the key for at least a couple of months but if it remains stable the fishing up here holds a lot of merit.

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OLD

Wet weather madness COOKTOWN

Justin Coventry

The rain has been refreshing the river systems, bringing great opportunities with the rising water levels. The thought on everyone’s mind this month is, “Where can I find my first big barramundi for 2023?” The flooding rain has produced a run of smaller fish trapped upstream to venture out but hopefully some bigger fish move up to the upper reaches and provide some great sportfishing once access is available. The roads are wet, and some creeks are impassable at the moment but once they drop then there will be great fishing to be had as the waters recede. The stocks look healthy as many small fish have been caught by young kids fishing our local causeways and there seems to be large stocks of new juvenile fish rushing into the system, so hopefully more bigger fish are to come as they grow and reproduce. Small lures are working well with these small fish and timing is key, as first run is always the best. The larger fish have been harder to find, but I think it will improve as the waters start to clear and they start to stick to structure. The runoff areas are great feeding points and fishing gutters and creek mouths will produce as they make great ambush areas for big fish chasing bait in the receding waters. Running water will allow trapped bait to move and when they meet the junction of a major water course they can provide some heart pumping action. The first big flood run of these are always the best but action can

continue to produce as fish migrate through the system and look for nice ambush areas for feed. They are hungry at this time as they move around and when found will strike aggressively. It’s a great opportunity this month to fish these areas and hook larger fish as they feed. Timing is key, and I like receding tides as the drains flush and the bait funnels through, so throwing lures upstream in gutters and working them down to a junction will bring a reaction from the waiting predators below. The jump as the big chrome barramundi erupts trying to free itself from your lure gives the heart a

holds instead of flying through the air as the barra successfully removes it. Stocks seem to be high with all the junior fish travelling this year which will make for some great captures in years to come. REEF FISHING The reef fishing has been next level and there will be more calm days ahead as these calm weather windows should be around for the next couple of months. Thunderstorms and potential cyclones will be the things that still need to be observed but this is the time to make the most out of the calm weather and longer periods of calm weather. The reef fishing of late has seen some beautiful

through the Endeavour River every now and again as the wet season continues, but the moments when the river clears and the bait return there will be some great action there. The rain has also brought out some great sized mud crabs. One young local lad, Sam Ryder, caught a 20cm wide crab across its shell which had the nippers the size of his hands. Crabbing will be rewarding in next few as they move around with the fresh water running through the river systems. With plenty of bait from reef trips it provides some great

FEBRUARY 2023

opportunities for a few indulgent feeds of muddies. The fresh fish frames work well for bait, especially if you change it out when you check the pots. Be mindful that the rivers can flood and trees and branches regularly come down the river son tying your pots to mangroves will help save losing them. There’s so much on offer and lots of options this time of the year to get some seafood for the dinner table and some great barramundi action to come so I’m looking forward to seeing what is ahead.

Jonathan and Tash with some nice coral trout. pump of adrenaline and can only be described as a cause of ‘Barra Fever’. It’s so good at the start but you can’t help but hold your breath until the lure

big coral trout coming over the side and some nice red emperor from the deeper shoals. The red emperor have been a little harder to find in numbers over the

Joshua Coventry with a large-month nannygai. 42

A 20cm mud crab caught by Sam Ryder.

last few years so hopefully it’s not a sign of stock levels depleting. It is such a nice eating fish and the family have enjoyed some great dinners of this juicy, soft fish and would be our favourite at the moment. The large mouth nannygai have been captured in large numbers and still coming in at an impressive size. Fish around 10kgs can still be found and they fight so well and are great eating. Jigs are working well on them and is a good way to cover ground over a shoal, looking for activity on the sounder. Some nice size coral trout also are coming up from the deep. Just be aware that sharks don’t take too long to show up and when the fish start falling victim to them I usually move on as you just end up wasting good fish and losing tackle. THE WHARF The local wharf will be continue to be hard to fish with fresh water flushing

Barkeley caught this nice bream at the mouth of the Maroochydore River.

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OLD

Short term pain, long term gain for anglers CAPE YORK

Tim O’Reilly wildrivercompany@gmail.com

A decent early season deluge has been recoded for much of Cape York as we pre-empt what might happen in February. As I type this report, Weipa currently has a dark circle of monsoon clouds surrounding it, and rainfall has been spreading to many parts of the Cape.

Most local anglers (myself included) are happy to completely write off inshore fishing through February in the hope that the wet season will reach a beneficial climax. Offshore, however, is a different story. I remember a few trips in February 2022 that had some of the highest species counts I have encountered. Admittedly there were a few cod species, but on two consecutive trips we managed 50 species.

There aren’t many other places in the world where this is possible. Our Great Barrier Reef coastline really does offer enormous species diversity. The fishing over on the East Coast of the Cape has various inshore and offshore options at this time of year. On the outer edge of the Barrier Reef, this month normally provides plenty of bluewater action, especially around the deeper shoals and during larger tidal

There should be some muddies moving around after rain.

The Cape York rainfall map leading up to February. Image courtesy of the Bureau of Meteorology, Commonwealth of Australia

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runs. Having cooler water and higher nutrient flow is a positive, as many of the larger reef systems can trap warmer, more stagnant water under high surface temperatures. All the pelagic species will be on offer, with smaller yellowfin tuna normally a highlight in the reef passes. Calm conditions in the mornings make feeding fish on the surface easier to spot. Fishing for coral trout and other tasty fish is usually more productive in deeper water during these summer months. In Cape York, that 30-60m range is where many of the best fish will come from in February. Much of the inshore fishing will involve the run-off, and centre around neap tides in the downstream reaches of the many coastal creeks and rivers. As easterly flowing systems are generally shorter and

carry a smaller sediment load, they remain relatively clear with the influx of fresh water. The fishing can be fantastic early in the season, with prawn and plentiful baitfish in shallow, clean creek mouths. The exception will be the longer, snake-like systems flowing north into Princess Charlotte Bay. A good wet season will see access up into Lakefield National Park and the bottom of Princess Charlotte Bay almost impossible at this time of year, unless accessed by sea. A large amount of turbidity will make fishing challenging anyhow, but this represents the only true run-off style fishing available on the Cape’s east coast. Tiny creeks and rivulets as well as swamp and lagoon overflows entering the main systems can be dynamite for barra with prawn and shallow

baitfish presentations. This coincides with the opening of the barramundi season on 1 February for both sides of the Cape. Over on the west coast of the Cape, we can expect most of the bigger systems to fish a little tough. However, the larger bays and smaller creek systems will be red-hot depending on how much freshwater is coming down at the time. This freshwater influx is the trigger for many of the aquatic food webs, and maintains the vibrancy of estuary and riverine systems. It clears out the old and ushers in the new, purging some of the saltwater growth and building up new freshwater growth such as lilies. The barramundi fishing in the season ahead and years after very much depends on how much rain we receive right now.

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Barra will be gorging on crustaceans in February.

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FEBRUARY 2023

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OLD

Formulating a plan of attack for the lakes TOOWOOMBA

Jason Ehrlich fishability1@bigpond.com

Mixed results have been coming from the lakes. The summer heat has finally warmed the lakes right up, and the fish have been a little more predictable. Notice I said

‘predictable’, and not ‘catchable’. This is often the case in summer, and we need to plan our attack to optimise our chances of doing well. The hottest part of the day is often the slowest, so aim for early morning and late afternoon sessions when things are cooler and the sun isn’t as bright. The

SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND CRESSBROOK CLOSEST TOWN: CROWS NEST Cressbrook Dam has been very tough over the last month. Bass are again hard to find, and it seems like the lake could do with a lot more fish. Golden perch are still quite common when targeting bass, and this is a good sign for the future of the fishery. The bass do tend to scatter over the summer months in Cressbrook, and this can make it much harder to find them. Trolling hard bodies around the edges and even out in the middle should produce a few fish, as it is the best way to cover heaps of water. Spectre Vibration jigs cast to the lake’s edges and worked back into around 8m could also produce. If schools are found, try casting spoons from a distance into the school. • Fish ‘n’ Bits in Toowoomba has all the gear and tips on how to chase the Cressy fish. They are an excellent store specialising in all freshwater lures and tackle. The access gates to the ramp and day use area will be open from 7am to 8pm. SOMERSET CLOSEST TOWNS: ESK, KILCOY Mixed results have been coming from Somerset. It is a slower year than normal, but anglers putting in the time are finding some success. Big bass have been holding around the

Pelican Point area. The fish are pretty mobile but they seem to revisit the same locations. The southern side of Pelican and down toward the portable toilet has been one of the best big fish locations. Other flats and points in the area have been holding fish at times, so be prepared to search anywhere between Beams Creek and Bay 13. Further up the lake, the bass are very scattered and the schools are smaller.

longer days mean the fish have plenty of daylight hours to feed, so don’t expect them to be on the bite all the time. Some lakes will be more productive than others, so let’s take a look what should unfold over the coming weeks. Until next month, buckled rods from the Colonel. You can almost guarantee the bigger fish will be close to the bottom. The thermocline and algae, which shows up as a line on your sounder, will most probably dictate their position in the water column. The bigger fish are very fussy about where they like to sit, and you will need to be no more than a metre out with your presentation. The depth they are found can vary between 6-10m. The 7m mark seems to be pretty productive at the moment.

Small bass are much easier to find in the same locations. These fish like to suspend and are easily spotted on the sounder.

While a mixture of lures produced a month ago, chatterbaits, spinnerbaits and crankbaits will now

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dominate catches. Deep diving crankbaits can be trolled or long lined to get them down into the fish. Long lining involves letting out heaps of line as you drive over a school. It is a very effective way

Ian Ryan had a ball using the author’s Active Target to try to pick off individual fish. ZX blades were the standout.

Gary’s Marine Centre

When the wind blows at Somerset, it’s a prime time to drag Spectres along the bottom for big bass. to present a hard body. The crankbait can be then cranked down to the bottom and worked in stop starts to allow it to float up between draws across the bottom. A lure kicking up the mud and floating back up is much more effective than just trolling and stirring up mud all the time, or being a bit shy of the bottom and not touching at all. Spectre Vibration Jigs are the other standout lure, and account for a big portion of the fish caught at this time of year. They can be cast and retrieved but the fishing never seems as good when the boat is stationary. Wind drifting when it is blowing hard is my favourite approach. The alternative is to slow troll at around 1.5-2km/h and work the lure with a few winds before dropping the same amount of line back to the bottom. This keeps the lure close to the bottom and in the zone as the boat moves along fast enough to leave the fish behind and not following. MAROON CLOSEST TOWNS: BOONAH, RATHDOWNEY The fishing at Maroon

DARLING DOWNS AND GRANITE BELT COOBY CLOSEST TOWNS: HIGHFIELDS, TOOWOOMBA The golden perch have been chewing pretty well but you may need to target them a little differently from previous years. The slightly stained water seems to have slowed the growth of the thick weed beds. The golden perch are therefore sitting comfortably at 6-9m randomly across the bottom, or around old, sticky drowned vegetation and rubble type bottom. These deeper fish are hard targets for lure trollers. They seem to lift off the bottom more in the late afternoon, but it is only a

small portion of the fish on offer that will rise. Deeper presentations which remain close to the bottom will therefore be the most effective. The ZX40 blade has been one of the best lures. The goldens are a bit reluctant to take these lures presented vertically, so a short 20m cast can make all the difference. I have had quite a few sessions on the lake using my Simrad and Active Target. The live sonar shows the fish swimming around and we have been able to accurately pick off individual fish swimming close to the bottom. Bigger vibes have also produced fish when fished in a similar

has been very good. Spectre Vibration Jigs came into their own last month, with anglers boating dozens of fish a session. These lures can be worked around the lake edges or across the schooling fish out deeper. Both casting and trolling will produce bass, with sizes ranging from tiddlers right up to quality ones. Early and late in the day, it is worth exploring the shallower sections of the lake or over the tops of deeper weed growth with surface lures and suspending jerkbaits. It will be a small bite window but these lures can produce well at this time of day. Reaction-style lures should come into play when the surface action stops. Spinnerbaits and chatterbaits are hard to beat at this time of year. • The lads at Charlton’s Fishing at Redbank are all over the fish activity at Maroon and Moogerah. Call in and grab your supplies and hit them up for tips on where the fish are biting. way. If you lack fancy sounders, you can just drift along and vibe the bottom or go back to the ZX40 if the drift speed allows. There is a lot of drowned vegetation down there so keep lines over 6lb braid and 12lb leader to make sure you can tear your lures free. Live shrimp have been working exceptionally well. Boat fishers should aim at positioning the boat in 8m of water and move often. From the bank, there are fish being caught around the pontoon and either side of the gully between it and the start of the steeper rock wall. Fish are scattered well throughout the dam, but there are areas which are definitely holding better numbers.

OLD

LESLIE CLOSEST TOWN: WARWICK Insane golden perch action has been taking place at Leslie Dam. Anglers in the know have found great schools of goldens in 6-8m

of water. A lot of these fish are small, but mixed in have been some exceptional quality specimens. Ecogear ZX blades have accounted for most of the fish, with some boats nailing 100 plus fish in a day.

With these tiny lures you will get a lot of the smaller fish mixed in with the bigger ones. A few locals have worked out the Spectre Vibration Jig is a good option to weed out the smaller fish and target the better-quality

standard soft plastic and swimbait rigs or even a hardbody. Night sessions are still productive as the fish move around more outside the weed. Main basin points down around Dingo Island are well worth a look. The Zerek 5.5” Live Mullet, Barambah Bony Shad and Molix Shad 140 are all great swimbait choices. If you prefer to rig your own jighead/plastic combo, you’ll have a bit more flexibility with depth presentation. There haven’t been a lot of reports on trolled up fish. It should be a good time of year to find a few open water fish around the drop-offs in front of

the dam wall and Iveragh Creek. Diving lures like Predatek Vipers, Classic Barras and Halco Scorpions can be trolled with a bit of pace while you are searching for fish. If you are lucky enough to find numbers of fish, don’t be afraid to put the hardbodies away and troll a soft plastic at a slower speed. • Gladstone Fly and Sportfishing (0429 223 550) and Lake Awoonga Barra Charters (0404 151 844) run guided trips on the lake. Both cater to the needs of the angler and can do fly or conventional tackle trips to target the lake’s barramundi. It is hard to beat time on the water and a guided trip is a great way to learn more about this lake and its fish.

CAPRICORN REGION AWOONGA CLOSEST TOWNS: BENARABY, GLADSTONE Awoonga Dam has been difficult to fish over the summer months. The barra have been hard to find with all the big, tall weed beds. The weed has pushed to the surface from the deep water and is hiding the fish and making them difficult to find on the sounder. Pushing in through the weed to find broken pockets has worked during the day. Surface frogging the broken weed or rolling weedless plastics can produce. The more open areas inside the weed beds can be fished with

ones. These lures can be cast over the fish and allowed to sink to the bottom. You can then either hop it back along the bottom like a vibe, or slow wind for five or six turns and then drop back to bottom.

Trollers are also catching fish in shallower water when using TN60 Jackalls around the wattle trees. Towing them with an electric motor will present them quietly and allow you to better control the boat speed.

• The local blokes at Warwick Outdoor and Sport in Palmerin Street can point in you in the right direction and hook you up with the good gear and bait to catch the fish at Leslie.

Murray cod have been on fire in the Border Rivers and Northern NSW. Matt Taylor experienced some awesome action on the smaller fish.

You can still catch big, healthy bass in summer. Luke Sticklen has the knack of pulling them on Spectre Vibration Jigs at this time of year.

• Mark from Awoonga Gateway Lodge always has a few productive secret spots to share. The Gateway lodge is on the way in to the dam after turning off at Benaraby. The accommodation is great with plenty of boat parking space right beside the comfortable air conditioned, self-contained cabins each with its own veranda. To book in a stay give Mark or Lyn a call on (07) 4975 0033. CALLIDE CLOSEST TOWN: BILOELA The barra were tough at the end of last year but have picked up a bit for 2023. Big numbers aren’t being caught but it is still worth

a trip to tangle with quality fish. The average size has dropped off but you can still expect most barra to be either side of the magic metre mark. Anglers have been finding good numbers of fish but have been struggling to get the bites. Bunches of fish are still holding around the edges of the lake, and there is also a small scattering of fish out in the middle. Soft plastics produce well when the fish are willing to bite. I am keen to get back out there and play with my Live sonar to see if I can find some active, shallower suspended fish out in the deep water that are more willing to feed. Hardbodies

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are ideal for this approach. I’ve got a feeling it will be tricky to find the right fish, but once you do you can almost guarantee they will eat an accurate presentation. • You can stay close to the dam at Lake Callide Retreat. The park has basic camping, powered sites for camping and vans and also selfcontained cabins. There is a well-equipped camp kitchen and toilets and showers up in the main part of the park near the office. Make sure you bring all of your fishing tackle. The kiosk has a limited amount of fishing gear but it is well suited to the lake.

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I’m all for taking mates out for a fish, especially those that don’t do a lot of fishing and unlike me, haven’t had a lot of luck catching premier targets like barra, threadfin and of course mangrove jack. Jack stay in the estuary until they reach a certain size, then head out to the reefs to mature. For some reason, the jack in southern Queensland

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finish with “...the hell was that?!” Of course, these jirgins don’t have the vast experience and lightningfast reflexes of a jack legend like myself, so it was annoying when Pertatey somehow managed to wrangle a 50cm+ model into the net. He’s about as experienced as a giant not very experienced thing, but the tinny bugger got the rod out the rod holder, put the brakes on and got it away from the snag I’d put us on.

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First and highest among the rules post-catch are: don’t tell anybody what you caught. Second, if they somehow find out you scored and ask you where you got it from – then drawl, mime a brain injury or just bloody lie. But don’t give out the honey hole. There will be attempts to draw that information out with flattery or even threats, but stand firm. If you have to say anything, then Nunya Creek is the only acceptable word that can pass your lips. As in:

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Sydney

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Cautious optimism SYDNEY NTH

Steve Winser

With water temperatures finally rising and a possible end in sight of the dreaded La Niña cycle (according to the Bureau of Meteorology) we are cautiously optimistic about the next few months. The kings in the harbour have mostly been solid

fish, though with the lower water temperatures down deeper it’s been one day on, one day off. They have been very choosy about baits - as usual, fresh or live squid has been the preference and there are plenty of arrow squid over the ribbon weed to be had. We’re using jigs in the #2 to #2.5 size range for these. A few bigger calamari

Some good kingies should be caught in the coming weeks.

squid are also starting to appear over the kelp. The majority of these kings have been in the lower Harbour region with a mid tide either way and plenty of current producing best results. The offshore reefs drifts in the 30 to 60 metre zone are still producing consistent bags of smaller snapper along with your standard mowies and blue spot flatties. This still an indication of the colder water down deep. The bad weather has made things tough in regards to actually getting out. For some reason it always seems to land on a weekend. Paternoster setups with pilchard and prawn baits will see you with a feed. The shallow water Harbour standards of bream and blackfish are still in surprising numbers at this time of year. Some of these are in very shallow water of less than a metre. Dusky flathead are

Solid kingfish are being caught in the harbour. starting to wake up from their winter snooze with some good fish being taken on the shallower banks on 3”to 5” plastics (either the curly tail or shad tail models). Look for a high tide running out to deeper water channels here. I haven’t fished much this month due to a back injury, so my old mate Chris

was good enough to share some of his pics of Harbour kingfish he got this month. • Fishing Sydney Tours takes pride in tailoring every trip to the customer’s preferred species, style of angling, and level of expertise, all within a friendly and relaxed atmosphere at competitive rates. There are some excellent fishing spots that

can be accessed straight off Sydney, and we will show you where. We offer harbour, wash and offshore fishing for species ranging from kingfish and mulloway through to snapper and mahimahi. For more info go to www.fishingsydneytours. com.au, call 0481 120 600 or look up ‘Fishing Sydney Tours’ on Facebook.

The offshore fishing has been phenomenal PITTWATER

Marc Ternen

In Pittwater, anglers are reporting fantastic catches of arrow squid around most of the public jetties, Scotland Island and around the Palm Beach weed bed area. Most of the squid have been coming on smaller squid jigs such as the Yamashita Egi Oh Q Sutte-R in 1.8 size. The two most productive colours have been natural prawn and pilchard glow. A lot of good-size bream are being taken around Clareville, Stokes Point, and the front of Careel Bay. The most productive bait has been peeled Hawkesbury prawns. There are also some lovely whiting on offer in locations such as Elvina Bay and Paradise Beach. For best results, fish the run-out tide with live worms or nippers.

If you want to buy live bait, call your tackle store ahead of time to make sure they haven’t sold out. The kingie fishing has been good in areas such as West Head, Mackerel Beach, The Basin and Coasters Retreat. Drifting around the mooring areas is probably going to produce a higher success rate this month. Because there are lots of squid around, the kingfish are laser-focussed on them, so squid baits are working the best (either live or dead). If you want to chase jewfish (mulloway), the most prominent locations are the Hawkesbury River, areas around Flint and Steel, Bar Point and Gunyah Point. The best time to fish is the top of the high tide or the bottom of the low. Good baits include whole squid and large strips of mullet/ slimy mackerel. While you are targeting jew for a few hours it’s worth putting in some crab pots,

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FEBRUARY 2023

because there are a lot of blue swimmers around. Look for bay type areas with a lot of slack tide. The main bays to target are in Yeomans Bay, Jerusalem Bay, and for those further up the bridge area, target bays in the area around Bar Island. The crabs can often be found around mangrove areas, oyster leases etc. Fishermans Point and Sunny Point are good locations as well. Round or square crab pots are the most successful to use, generally providing a better result locally than witches hats, which can tangle up in the current. The fishing offshore has been phenomenal. Most of the guys are still fishing for teraglin (trag), and there are a lot of them around most of the offshore reefs. Two of the most popular locations for trag are Trawlers Reef and Palm Beach Reef, but most of your reefs or wrecks in that 40-60m range are holding a lot of trag, as well as snapper and other bottom species. The headlands have been producing good catches of kingfish, including Avalon, Newport and Goalen Head. Fishing in the early morning or late afternoon is a must. Most of the kingies are being caught on one of two methods – bait or stickbait. Stickbaits should be around that 100-160mm size, and cast and retrieved quite quickly around the headlands. On the offshore reef areas, it’s good to use a large ball sinker (around size 4 to 7) directly down to your hook, and using big baits such as large squid, big strips of slimy mackerel and large strips of

bonito. When fishing in this way you can pick up a range of species, not just kingfish. The bycatch includes trag, big snapper, and also the odd jewfish at this time of year. On headlands it’s good to use a similar running sinker rig but lighter, with a very light pea sinker (as light as conditions allow) and the same bait. When drifting offshore in that 50-70m depth you are almost guaranteed to pick up a lovely feed of tiger flathead and/or blue-spot flathead. You can pick virtually anywhere along our coastline, from Long Reef to Palm Beach, to catch flatties in this way. The standard way to catch them is using a large paternoster rig and a size 6-8oz snapper lead, with a flesh bait such as mullet or slimy mackerel, and drift around. Both bluespot and tigers are excellent on the plate. Long Reef Wide has been producing a variety of species, including trag, snapper, big morwong and the odd offshore jewfish. Moving to the beaches, the whiting are starting to show up in very good numbers. Ideally you should look for a good gutter on a rising or outgoing tide, and use live or dead beachworms or tubeworms. Remember that whiting are a very sensitive fish, and won’t always take the same presentation that you fished the day before. If you’re having no luck with a paternoster, try switching to a light running rig and you may find that your luck turns around. To maximise

your success rate, fish nice light line around that 6-10lb range, and don’t cast too far out. These fish like holding close in, and a lot of the time you’re casting only 15-20m from your comfortable, dry sand position. We’ve been getting good reports of whiting on the south end of Dee Why, and Freshwater Beach has been excellent on the north end and south end. Further north, you can try fishing the Bilgola Beach region and the northern end of Palm Beach. If you’re going to do that, don’t just bring a whiting rod – also bring a heavier rod to see if you can tempt a jewfish. It’s good to stick a heavier rod in a holder while you chase whiting, so you can cover all your bases. There have been good catches of kingfish coming from the area around the South Head wreck, and out towards the artificial reef. Again, squid seem to be the most effective bait for these fish. Anglers are also having success in the Centurion Area off Quarantine Point, which is highly accessible by smaller boats. Fishing towards Reef Bay and around Dobroyd Head can also yield some kings. When chasing kingfish in these parts, don’t go too heavy with your line. I recommend 20-30lb. If you use 80lb in 15m of water you’ll deter many kings from taking your bait. Some quality bream are being taken around Manly Point and Little Manly Cove, and some lovely whiting are being caught off the sand

areas around the Little Manly Beach area. The best baits are Hawkesbury prawns and also small cubes of tuna for the bream. To maximise your catch rates, fish light line around 6-10lb. Anglers using soft plastics have been doing very well up around the Clontarf Spit bridge area and Pickering, and tailor and the odd kingfish are also being caught in mid harbour. The odd big salmon can be caught there too; they can be 3-4kg and fight more like a kingy. One of the most effective soft plastics for us lately has been the 3” Berkley PowerBait Nemesis in bleak or bloodworm. It has been accounting for flathead, tailor and the odd kingfish. You can also get good results on paddle-tails in natural colours. • If you need fishing gear, quality bait or a chat about what’s biting, head to Narrabeen Bait and Tackle. Owner Mark, his son Marc and long-time staff member Chris have been local fishermen for 30 years – so there’s not much they don’t know about Pittwater or Northern Beaches fishing, and they are happy to answer any questions you may have. The store stocks an extensive range of tackle, and their live and fresh bait range is renowned as one of the best in Sydney. It is sourced locally and includes live beach worms and nippers. Drop on and see them at 1469 Pittwater Rd, North Narrabeen or phone (02) 9970 6204.

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Online - ANYTIME FEBRUARY 2023

Sydney

NSW

Taking full advantage of summer SYD ROCK & BEACH

Alex Bellissimo alex@bellissimocharters.com.au

The last month of Summer and most revelers are back at work. A lot of anglers had the opportunity to fish consecutive days, but now people have fewer opportunities to get out. And those days may not have the best tides at the right time of the day, meaning you may have to fish with what you get. Here’s an example. Back in the day when I was a fishing club angler and competed in the monthly competitions, on some months there were sensational tides coinciding with dawn and dusk, but for some monthly competitions the tides were not so good. Some competitors complained about the ‘bad tides’ at the wrong time of

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the day. I used to say to them that we all have to compete with bad tides and we all have to make the most out of what we have. The moral of this story is that you will often have free time, but the tides or times may not be great. You just need to take advantage of what you have. Below here is what has

from the larger squid, larger prawns like the Endeavour, banana or king prawn un-peeled have that thicker shell compared to small school prawns and salted pilchards. They last longer therefore the snapper will have an opportunity to grab your bait. Sinker sizes from 00 to 2 ball is a good general choice

Salmon aren’t just a winter species. This massive 70cm fish was recently caught by Andrej Zecevic. been biting, predictions for this month and some tips. Rock Fishing Generally, the snapper have been biting just on the dawn period to about one hour after light and one hour before the twilight period just before it gets too dark to fish safely. They have also been biting after dark. If it is safe enough, you could fish after dark off the rocks but it is generally not recommended unless you really have a very good understanding of rock fishing. It is a duty of care for you and for the anglers that may be relying on you as you may be the person that took them fishing off the rocks, so be mindful when rock fishing. Snapper to 45cm, bream to 42cm, small kings, bonito are also part of the catch when wash fishing for snapper. The go-to bats are pilchards, squid strips and prawn baits. When fishing the deeper water rock spots – say 6m and above – you often encounter lots of small fish like big sweep, mados and yellowtail which can be in large numbers, so having robust baits all help when wash fishing. These fish will not mind demolishing your bait to just a bare hook within seconds. Squid strips, especially

and line class from 6-10kg with a rod 10-12ft suitable for 6-12kg line class is good for this type of fishing. Pair it with a reel to suit (I like the Daiwa 500 BG MQ). I like the 2/0 to 3/0 size hook range as well. Bonito and kings are being spun up on 7” Bat Junkie Jerk Shads with jigheads in the 1/2 to 1oz range and hook size from 6/0 to 8/0. The white colours are working quite well but this can vary. Extra-large sea gars work well on a set of four, 5/0 to 6/0 gangs or a two hook snell with a set of 7/0 hooks and (depending on the size of the gar). Make sure that your larger hook sizes are not used on the smaller gars. There are quite a lot of small kings at some spots, with some days producing the bigger fish. For the snapper, kings and bonito try the deeper headlands like The Hat at Manly, Bluefish headland’s eastern front, North Curl Curl and South Whale ledges. Bream numbers are up this month. Your beach whiting outfit will work very well, especially fishing the shallow water spots like Long Reef at Collaroy. When the shallows flood, bream like to forage for food like crabs, shrimps, some weed

varieties and more. Hook size from #1 to 1/0 are a good choice. You can go up to a 2/0 but I like to keep it slightly smaller as you may encounter luderick and the smaller rock blackfish to about 1.3kg. Beach Fishing Whiting numbers continue to please lots of anglers when they can get out there and have a fish for one of the most delicious fish in the ocean. All of the beaches from Palm Beach to Manly Beach are producing. If you’re a weekend angler, you will have the crowds to contend with. Surf competitions, SLSC club events and nippers can make it pretty tough to find a spot to fish on the beach. My tip is to steer clear of the surf club sections of the beach. The flagged areas for swimmers will reduce the area you can fish, and the surfers are often just out of the flagged areas. The other alternative is fishing at night for whiting. The majority of anglers do not fish at night for whiting off the beach. The surfers, swimmers are not there and there are far fewer people walking up and down the beach. When night fishing off the beach for whiting you will catch them in surprisingly shallow water and in closer than the fish caught during the day. They have less fear and use the cover of darkness to forage for food in water depth as little as 30cm. Mixed in with the

Fishing the sudsy whitewater washes on the deeper headlands is a fun way to catch snapper, and they fight hard on the right gear. John Halford was happy with this bag of plate-size snapper to 40cm. whiting are bream and tarwhine. Flathead are also a bycatch, and the odd Aussie salmon as well. On my YouTube channel there is the Bellissimo Paternoster Rig. Check it out. It is a practical 2-hook paternoster I designed myself a long time ago.

Whiting up to 44cm and bream up to 38cm are being caught. The average run is from 29-31cm for the whiting, and the bream are roughly the same. Tailor numbers are increasing off the beaches as well, with salmon to about 2kg and tailor to about

Husband and wife team Louis Ghee and Gayle Robyn worked hard for this bag of quality whiting and bream. Gayle’s whiting went 44cm. Moving from one beach to another paid off.

NSW

1kg, with smaller choppers in between, especially the run before dark. The larger tailor are caught after dark. The run will increase into March onwards.

We can expect dusky and bronze whaler sharks in much larger numbers than jewfish. Banjo rays, shovel nose sharks and eagle rays are also a bycatch of the beach jewfish angler. Fishing my part of the world is not like fishing north or south of Sydney. The numbers of jewfish are a lot fewer than the Central Coast, for example. Elsewhere, beach jewfish are often caught during the day, where in Sydney they are a lot rarer during the day. So, beach jew fishing is best done during the nocturnal periods. Pick the high tides between 8pm to 12am. You can fish the later high tides if you’re not working the following morning. The baits I like to use are live or butterflied yellowtail, mullet or tailor. Squid strips and whole squid are always a welcomed bait for jewfish. For all of these species try Palm Beach, Newport, Bungan, North and South Narrabeen, Dee Why and even Manly. Yes, the super You’re going to love your new Savage. The oldest busy Manly Beach produces You’rename goingintoAustralian love your new Savage. The oldest all ofhow the to species boating, knows buildmentioned. namestrong, in Australian knows to build This beach reliableboating, units that are a how workhorse out isonbest fished strong, reliable units that are a workhorse out on at night. the water. They’re built tough to get you where PLANS the water. They’re built tough to get you FALLBACK where you want to go and then get back to where When fishing the rocks, you want to go and then get back to where you need tocamo be. With a great day’s The Bait Junkie 5” Jerkshad in the if thefishing spot you want to fish you need to be. With a colour great day’s fishing fun inon between. caught several snapperand to 38cm this outing. looks a bit risky, consider a and fun in between.

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There are a few jewfish (mulloway) being caught as well. As you may already know, putting in the hours and the outings is the best way to find a jewfish.

Rob Marich caught this bag of whiting to near 45cm on a trip with the author. One fish was caught at Narrabeen, and the rest at Newport. Don’t be afraid to move if you have to. plan B location. At the end of the day, it is good for you to know lots of locations rather than be a rigid angler with too few locations. Off the beach, having a plan B location will enable

you to fish in peace rather than having to stress out about the swimmers, surfers and plethora of walkers on the beach. • For rock and beach guided fishing or tuition

in the northern Sydney region, visit www. bellissimocharters. com.au, email alex@ bellissimocharters.com.au or call Alex Bellissimo on 0408 283 616.

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Sydney

NSW

Say goodbye to holiday crowds SYDNEY SOUTH

Gary Brown gbrown1@iprimus.com.au

Now that the Christmas and New Year holidays have started to settle down, both on the shore and on the water, you should still be getting out there in the Southern Sydney area as there will still be plenty of fish on the bite. Rolland from All at Sea Charters reports that his clients have been getting amongst the snapper, tailor, salmon, kingfish, sand flathead, morwong, bream, dolphinfish (mahimahi) and trevally in recent weeks. They have been working the offshore area from the point at Kurnell and down to just past Marley Headland. The best baits have been half pilchards and strips of squid and slimy mackerel. Try using either a paternoster rig or just a running ball sinker down onto the bait. If you don’t know what these rigs are, you should check them out, plus 19 more at ‘Gary Browns Essential Bait Fishing Rigs for Saltwater’ on the Tackle Tactics website. Hop on Google and search for ‘Gary Brown’s Bait Rigs’ to check it out. If you want to see what

have a boat or a kayak, you can try fishing close into the pylons. Remember its illegal to anchor in the middle of the pylons. Fish as light as the conditions will allow.

Further north you could try for bream, trevally, whiting and flathead along the stretch of beach from Dolls Point to just south of Brighton Lee Sands.

are out of the main channels. During the Christmas and New Year holiday period, I came across so many boats that were anchored up in the middle of the channels

When you are travelling to your favourite spot offshore, don’t forget to troll a couple of lures out the back.

This sliver trevally couldn’t get enough of the ZMan 2.5” PrawnZ in the blood oil colour. The best rig seems to be the running ball sinker down onto the bait. The beach at Dolls Point has been producing bream, trevally, whiting

that I have the pleasure to call Scotty a mate for over 26 years. All the best in the future Scotty, and I am sure that the trevally, bream and flathead

in Botany Bay will be happy you are gone. • Don’t forget to keep those photos and reports coming in to gbrown1@ iprimus.com.au.

The usual places like the end of the third runway, Trevally Alley, Bare Island, Sutherland Point, Silver Beach and wide off Towra will be producing bream,

The author took Mitch Rofe out for a bit of light tackle fishing with the new ZMan 2.5” PrawnZ. He was amazed at how well they worked over the weed beds.

Glenn Loveday tried using blades, and discovered that they really do work. Rolland and his clients have been catching lately, go to Facebook and look up “All at Sea Charters’. Bream, trevally, mulloway, tailor and whiting can be caught fishing from the shore at the Toms Uglys and Captain Cooks bridges. A decent cast while using paternoster rig should get you amongst a few fish. For those of your that 56

FEBRUARY 2023

and a number for kingfish. Live nippers and beach worms have been the best of the baits. You could also try using half pilchards and garfish. For the lure fishers, you can try small metal lures, or soft plastics such as ZMan 5” Scented Jerk ShadZ pinned on 2/0 and 3/0, 3/8oz jigheads. The colours that I prefer are slam shady, silver shad, sexy mullet and pearl.

crabs, whiting, tailor, kingfish, dusky flathead and octopus. In the Port Hacking one of the best baits is live pink nippers, followed by live beach worms and then peeled prawns. As I always keep saying, if you are bait fishing you need to anchor and you must berley for the best results. Just make sure that when you do anchor you

in the 6-knot area near Deer Park and Lilly Pilly. There were so many that we had to weave our way through them. Thankfully, NSW Waterways started to move them on as they were a boating hazard. SO LONG, SCOTTY The time has come – Scotty Lyons from the ‘Hook and the Cook’ and Southern Sydney Fishing Tours has finally pulled up stumps. I have known Scotty for over 30 years, and yes, it has been an amazing ride. We had a great time carrying out fishing classes at Hunts Marine together, and making a couple of videos together on Botany Bay and the Port Hacking River. I also got to go on a trip to Weipa with Scotty and Glenn (I was just the cook and boat driver). Amazing times. I am glad

The dolphinfish have started to show up at the FADs off Southern Sydney.

Recreational Fishing Update Sydney, it had spent 309 days at liberty and was caught more than 385 nautical miles (~715km) from its original release location. It is believed kingfish distribution and movement is influenced by biological and environmental factors including spawning events, food availability, water temperature and oceanic currents. However, the exact reasons why kingies choose to move such extreme distances is still being researched.

Carp Blitzed At Sofala! More than 180 adult and junior anglers recently competed in the 2022 Sofala Carp Blitz, held on the Turon River in the NSW Central West. Aimed at reducing the number of invasive European carp and redfin in the river, the popular event raises funds for Sofala Central Acclimatisation Society (CAS) to purchase native fish to restock the Turon catchment via the NSW DPI Dollar for Dollar Native Fish Restocking Program, which is funded by the Recreational Fishing Trust. A total of 242 carp and 85 redfin were weighed in with competitors Jake Pollard and Christy Healy taking out biggest carp honours with 6.895kg and 5.216kg fish respectively. As well as providing funds for native fish restocking, the 2022 Sofala Carp Blitz also raised funds to help support Daffodil Cottage Cancer Care. DPI Fisheries congratulates the Sofala CAS for organising and running this great community event!

Cobia Recapture!

A large cobia, originally tagged by Wildside Sportsfishing Charters, has recently been recaptured. This recapture was particularly exciting for the DPI tagging program as it has set the record for the furthest distance travelled by a recaptured cobia since the program’s inception in 1973! There have been 1,405 cobia tagged and 35 reported as recaptured in the program. Angler Russell Cleaver caught the fish while fishing aboard charter boat Wildside on 12 July 2022. The crew were fishing offshore of South West Rocks targeting kingfish using live baits in 100m of water. After a tough 15-minute tussle, the cobia was quickly brought on board the boat where the hook was removed, and photos were taken. Skipper Jason Bettles estimated the fish to be around the 25-30kg mark. A quality fish in anyone’s eyes! Russell and the crew had decided they had enough reef fish for the trip, so they decided to tag and release this fish. Despite being caught in 100m of water, the fish powered off back to the depths. Fast forward to 11 November 2022 the fish was recaptured by anglers Jacob Martin and Mitch Burdekin, who were fishing offshore of Double Island Point, Qld. Both Jacob and Mitch were surprised to see the NSW

Fisheries tag in the fish. Once they got back on land, they reported the recapture to the program. Upon recapture the fish weighed 27.8kg. The fish spent only 122 days at liberty and was caught more than 300 nautical miles (~555km) from its original release location. Each reported recapture contributes to our understanding of pelagic fish species. If you are lucky enough to recapture a tagged fish, please ensure you report it using our online recapture form which can be found on the NSW DPI website by searching ‘Tagging’. The Game Fish Tagging Program is a great example of your fishing fees at work!

Each reported recapture contributes to our understanding of pelagic fish species. If you are lucky enough to recapture a tagged fish, please ensure you report it using our online recapture form which can be on the NSW DPI website by searching ‘Tagging”. The Game Fish Tagging Program is a great example of your fishing fees at work

Book Now For A Interstate Kingfish Recapture! 33% Discount On Eco Fishing Huts!

A kingfish originally tagged in Victoria has recently been recaptured for the second time! Keen spear fisherman Giovanni Rettura caught the fish while fishing offshore from Sydney on 21 November 2022. Giovanni measured the fish at 117cm and a solid 14kg. A search of the Game Fish Tagging database revealed that the fish had been recaptured once before. The fish was originally released on 10 January 2022 offshore of Port Welshpool, Victoria. The fish was released by Connor Hall who was fishing with accomplished kingie angler Jason Taylor aboard his boat Matrix. Connor and Jason measured the fish at 105cm. After only 6 days the fish was caught again by Ben Kirkham who was fishing in the same area where it was originally released. Ben also measured the fish at 105cm. Once the fish was caught for the third time offshore of

DPI Eco Fishing Huts are back! A total of 21 unique wilderness fishing and accommodation opportunities all offering 33% discount are available from now until 31 December 2023. Book now as the prime times and popular locations are sure to fill up fast. This unique offer is only valid to recreational licence holders or those exempt such as if you are a pensioner or an Aboriginal person. Make sure to enter the code “ECOHUTS” and include your recreational licence number or your fishing fee exemption details in the comments section when you make your booking. Stay tuned for details on new exciting Eco Fishing Huts and info on the fantastic fishing opportunities you can enjoy with family and friends on the 21 already available. Head to the NSW DPI website and search ‘Eco Huts’ to check them all out. The Eco Fishing Hut initiative is a great example of your licence fees at work!

www.dpi.nsw.gov.au FEBRUARY 2023

NSW

Find some fun on light gear BALLINA

Joe Allan

It seems crazy to be talking about another flood, but since the mini flood at the start of December, the Wilson and Richmond rivers have actually been fishing very well. Plenty of bait has been stirred up, and in turn plenty of fish around to eat them. By the time this issue goes to print there should be plenty of marlin getting around offshore. We have had the odd one come through in early January, but these should get more prevalent

as the fish come down from the north. There have been plenty caught north of the Tweed already, with reports of some boats going double digits on the blacks. The mackerel have also been coming in from the north, as well as some spotties a little further south from Evans Head. When these speedsters go crazy, make sure you’re at the ramp early as the numbers at the local boat ramps rival Pacific Fair’s car park on Christmas Eve. There have also been a few dolphinfish (mahimahi) around, and these can be really fun on light gear so get stuck into them.

Serena Sullivan with a thumping 90cm Richmond River flatty.

When it’s hot during the day, the fish often move into the deeper drop-offs in search of cooler water.

ba Prawn Blade s” “Yam

Anthony Melchior with an early morning surface fish from Bungawalbin Creek.

The freshwater stretches have been on fire, with good sizes and numbers of bass being reported. When the drains were flowing it was cricket scores all round. Funnily enough though, small crankbaits were the best performers, which is not normal. Normally it’s big spinnerbaits, chatterbaits and large noisy lipless crankbaits

that will get the bites. It’s reflective of the size of the bait around upriver I think. Early mornings and late afternoons can still produce good numbers of fish off the surface. Cicada imitations

like the Atomic Hardz Cicada 35 are really good at getting bites. You often don’t have to do too much with them, just jiggle the rod to make the lure shake on the surface, exactly like a cicada that’s fallen from a tree. A technique that has really produced lately is burning Buzz Baits fast away from structure. The fish have to make a quick decision to either eat it or leave it, and if they’re even remotely hungry they’ll have a crack at it. When the bait is moving as quickly as you can get it going, the strikes are often very explosive. There have been good numbers of crabs around on the big tides in mid-January; the dirty water has certainly brought the crabs on. Any stinky baits you can get

your hands on will do the trick in the dirty water. Keep your mackerel frames as these go pretty well as bait for crabs. There have been good numbers of bream around the ferry and just slightly upriver. The rock walls have been holding fish as well, and can produce the odd mangrove jack, too. If you hook into one of these red devils, good luck on bream gear! They can be hard to get in. Suspending jerkbaits have been working the best for the jacks. Lures like the new Atomic Hardz Slim Twitcher Deep in 95 and 110mm or the Samaki Redic are good options. We have seen quality fish caught on both of these of late. Until next issue, tight lines.

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Test your tackle and yourself COFFS COAST

Rob Taylor

If I had to describe the start of 2023 in fishing terms, it would be summed up in one word: marlin! This season has

around, we should still see fish all through February. While marlin have been grabbing all the headlines of late, we’ve also experienced a great bass bite, some epic flathead fishing and a cracker start to the mackerel run.

jack and GTs. Some big jacks have been taken by both lure fishos and those using baits, with the usual haunts such as river snags, break walls, bridge pylons and the local marina all producing fish. The GTs are bashing bait in the

surface sessions being one of the more exciting times to chase them. The Mann and Nymboida rivers are fishing well, and plenty of cod are also on the bite and mixing it up with the bass. ROCKS AND BEACHES Finally, the time has come to dust off the landbased game gear and get stuck into the recently arrived longtail tuna and Spanish mackerel that are hunting along the local headlands. Fishing either topwater with poppers or metal slugs, or drifting out live baits under floats, will no doubt tempt a passing pelagic at this time of year. Locations such as the north wall, Muttonbird Island and the quarry will be the pick of the local land-based spots, but also consider Hat Head to the south as it still fishes well on its day (despite the crowds). If it’s more the breadand-butter species you are chasing, the local rocks and beaches will be holding bream, whiting, flathead and mulloway this month.

Local angler Dion with a solid blue landed from Luke Azzopardi’s Sea Devil.

Hayden Elks found this solid mahi snooping around fish traps. mid-reaches of the main rivers, with the Bellinger and Kalang rivers being the picks. Trolling with an electric motor and small shallow-diving minnows is a great way to find the fish, and you can then simply pull up and cast. Whiting and flathead are quite easy to find, with sandflats being the best places to start. Bass are right up in the high reaches and continue to bite well, with late afternoon

Luke Giovanetti with a black marlin from a kayak.

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Bottom plonkers have also been reporting solid snapper and mulloway numbers offshore, and plenty of trag and pearl perch. It’s hard not to love this time of year, so let’s take a deeper dive into what’s happening for February. CREEKS AND RIVERS As expected for the height of summer, our local creeks and rivers have been fishing really well for whiting, flathead, mangrove

been a record year for black marlin, with a run that started at Fraser Island and continued all the way down across the border to our shores. Marlin have been hooked left, right and centre. They’ve been hooked on bait jigs, have eaten whole snapper, and have turned up just about everywhere. I can’t ever recall a season start like this, and with these numbers of marlin

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Nothing beats a low tide walk along a beach gutter with live yabbies or small soft plastics at this time of year. It’s a very productive and enjoyable way to

bag a feed. OFFSHORE As mentioned, the offshore scene has been dominated by the black marlin run, which has

been nothing short of phenomenal. Every man and his proverbial dog has been hooking black marlin, and there have been plenty of anglers popping their

Brad Bye with a chunk of a mulloway taken off the bottom.

marlin cherry, even when not chasing them! With the numbers of fish that have moved down the coast this season, I suspect the run will continue through February and we’ll still be seeing the odd fish caught well into March. The marlin run has almost overshadowed the start of the mackerel season but by the time you read this we will be well and truly into it. Spotted and Spanish mackerel will be the primary targets, with wahoo out around the islands on the right days. You can also chase jellybean yellowfin tuna, which should be abundant for the duration of February. This time of year is not all about pelagics though, as there’s still plenty of bottom fishing on offer with mulloway, snapper, trag and pearl perch continuing to feed through the warmer months. They tend to be a little deeper at this time of year though, so fire up the sounder and search. Out wider, we are now in prime blue marlin time so if you really want to test your tackle and yourself, head beyond the 200m line, deploy some big lures on line classes of at least 24kg, and try to cross paths with probably the craziest fish that swims.

Josh Cheong caught this red bass on a stickbait during a trip to the Cocos Islands last year. The outfit was a Demon Blood 792-46 and a Certate 14000xh spooled with Saltiga x12 PE8.

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Feeling flat in February FORSTER

Luke Austin

We are fast approaching a period on the fishing calendar that many anglers regard as the most exciting and productive for the whole year. The water is warm, food sources are

is a fun and productive way of fooling a few flathead, and the estuary is alive with baitfish. Herring in particular have been plentiful and are very easy to gather. Hitting the channels and drop-offs down around the bridge, rock walls or oyster leases down around The Paddock should see you converting

bit of ground casting lures. Grubs, prawn imitations or curly-tail soft plastics are always very effective, but anglers have also been finding plenty of fish on shallow diving hardbodies, soft and hard vibes, and blade baits. No matter the type of lure you decide to try, the single most important thing to think about is keeping that lure in the ‘strike zone’. I find the most common mistake that anglers make when luring for flathead is that they work the lure too hard and fast. Remember to chill out and take your time! Trumpeter whiting are fishing well at the moment and can be found all over the lake. The usual haunts up

Now is the perfect time for some family fun on the water.

Curtis Chalker with a solid flathead that engulfed his live herring. abundant, and the fishing options and possibilities are almost endless! I absolutely love the next few months and can’t wait to see what piscatorial wonders will turn up! Wallis Lake is still fishing incredibly well for a multitude of species. Flathead are by far the most common catch at the moment, with both bait and lure anglers enjoying plenty of action. Fishing live baits

just about all your live baits into nice 40-75cm fish, with the possibility of running into something much larger more than likely! If gathering live bait is not an option, there have been plenty of fish caught this week on mullet strips, bonito, pilchards, whitebait and beachworms. While bait fishing is a heap of fun, by far the most productive way to target a feed of flathead is to cover a

You will find some cracking snapper sneaking about the shallows this month. around Lanis and the Duck Pond are both producing fish, but there are also plenty sitting further downstream around The Wires and even as far as The Paddock. Their larger relative the sand whiting have also been very active recently. Fishing the flats we had some great fun chasing

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them on surface lures, with small stickbaits proving to be especially effective. While we didn’t manage to land any really big fish, most fish were well over 30cm and in great condition. Local beaches continue to fish well, and this trend should continue while the warm water hangs around. Sand whiting, dart and bream have been making up the majority of bags, but there has also been the odd salmon, tailor and mulloway mixed in…. Our local rock platforms have been producing all sorts of fish lately. Those anglers keen to put in the time and fish the low light periods have been rewarded with some great land-based snapper up to about 4kg off the stones down south. Fishing the washes with crabs and cunjevoi in the same areas has also been a great way to land a nice bag of bream and the odd black drummer. As of yet, the land-based game season has not kicked off, but there are huge schools of bait getting about (including garfish) and the water is nice and warm, so anything could happen at any time! Offshore fishing in February can be a very rewarding option, and those

anglers who have managed to get out have found plenty of nice fish. The FAD is fishing really well for mahimahi, with the average fish sitting at a much better size. While there are not many fish up

over about 75cm, most fish have been legal over the last couple of weeks. There are still a few black marlin sneaking about down south and the mackerel season could kick off at any moment. Snapper anglers are having a ball in the shallows up north, finding success floating baits, casting plastics and vibes and even shallow water jigging. Most fish have been up over 45cm. The reefs out in 40-70m have still been delivering some nice mixed bags, but you may need to move around a bit to find the fish….. • Luke is the owner of Great Lakes Tackle – your ‘local’ bait and tackle store. They only sell the best brands and offer sound, friendly advice on where you can go to land your next trophy fish while visiting the wonderful Great Lakes region! Open 7 Days in the main street of Tuncurry Ph: (02) 6554 9541 or find them on Facebook to see what they have been up to!

Chasing flatties in Wallis Lake is super fun this month.

NSW

Ravenous flatties on the chew PORT STEPHENS

Paul Lennon

While not much changes fishing-wise from January to February, this month is always better fishing as you don’t need to compete with crazy busy school holiday crowds. In the bay, flathead are ravenous with good catches spread from Tahlee through to Jimmy’s Beach. Soft plastic lures as well as hardbodies are responsible for most flathead caught these days as you can cover so much ground using them. Look for areas such as mouths of feeder creeks,

weed and rock edges meeting sand and mud and drop offs. Whiting are another fish that love these summer months and if you get yourself some live worms and fish the high tide along Shoal Bay, Nelson Bay or Little Beach you should have no problem getting a bagful and probably pick up a flathead or bream, too. February is also a great month for surface lures with bream and whiting both candidates for this exciting style of fishing. For bream, work your lures over shallow structure with slow twitches and pauses and for whiting fish the shallow bays and

intertidal flats with a quicker, walking pace style retrieve that never stops. Since the floods last year the squid fishing has been as bad as I can ever remember, however they seem to be making a comeback the last few weeks with anglers doing well in the moorings at Shoal Bay and weed beds off Jimmy’s beach. BEACHES The ocean beaches are still holding plenty of big sand whiting to 40cm, it’s just a matter of fishing the gutters with live worms or pipis the on the high tides. The best beaches for this are Stockton, Samurai, One Mile

and Fingal. Fingal Spit is worth the walk on dawn or dusk to chase tailor with solid schools busting up during the low light periods. One of classic ways to chase tailor and still lethal is a whole pilchard or garfish rigged on a set of gang hooks, cast out and retrieved back at a medium pace. Metal lures also work a treat with 20-40g the best sizes to use. ROCKS By late February there should be a few longtail tuna showing up along the headlands but for now you might have to settle for mack tuna and bonito. Both can be caught by live baiting slimy mackerel or yellowtail under a float or by casting metals or stickbaits. You might even pick up a big king doing this, too. There’s a few squid in the sheltered bays around Fingal Island down to Boat Harbour with larger 3.5 sized jigs the best option when fishing the rocks. OFFSHORE Marlin fishing is shaping up just in time for the game fishing tournaments with black marlin being caught in close from the Vee Reef to Seal Rocks and plenty of black, stripes and blues on the shelf and beyond. The FADs are both holding plenty of mahimahi

There are plenty of marlin around. (dolphinfish), however size has been lacking with reports of anglers having to weed through the smaller fish to find legal sized models. Snapper are showing up in good numbers around Broughton and Fingal

Islands with first and last light the best time to catch them using floating baits down a berley trail. There’s loads of trag on the Vee and Gibber Reefs with the odd mulloway and snapper mixed in with them.

Ben and Joe Lennon with a ripper dusky flathead. FISHING NEWS

Fishing monitoring across NSW Despite La Niña conditions throughout most of the year causing widespread flooding into coastal waters, the Marine Ecosystems team completed their 2022 activities for the state-wide rocky reef fish monitoring program. Monitoring was conducted across Marine Park and Management Zones across NSW. This year, the team collected over 500 baited remote underwater videos (BRUV) along 1800 km of coastline from the Solitary Islands to Narooma. Data from this long-term monitoring program will be used to assess rock reef fish trends through time and to detect changes across marine park management zones. The Marine Ecosystems Unit delivers scientific information to enable biodiversity conservation and sustainable use of the NSW Marine Estate – including the Marine, Estuarine and

Ron with a nice kingfish. Coastal systems. One of the goals of the researchers is to determine which fluctuations in habitats and species are natural, and which have resulted from human disturbances, and find solutions for mitigating impacts. Within this research area, researchers look at: • Identifying how fish use habitats and what works best to restore habitat quality, quantity and access for fish; • Measure and track the health of fish populations, using biological indicators, at multiple spatial and temporal scales (including pollutants);

• Identify changes in estuarine habitats over time and how these might relate to human disturbances; • Investigate how best to restore seagrass habitats and populations; • Applying experimental biology and ecology methods to establish cause and effect relationships, to test policy and management options; and • Social and economic values of ecosystems, and more. For more information on the Marine Ecosystems Unit, visit www.dpi.nsw. gov.au. – FMM

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NSW

The skinny water is holding stonking fish CENTRAL COAST

Jamie Robley

February is a month I’ve always embraced with enthusiasm. Not only is it one of our peak months on the fishing calendar, it’s also when holiday crowds thin out and the weather begins to settle. Gone are the super early pre sunrise starts, as the sun creeps over the horizon a bit later now and with a bit of luck those persistent onshore winds will also abate.

fishing at Avoca back in the 1980s. In other words, casting hole pilchards on ganged hooks, live baiting with yakkas, pike or garfish and lure casting. However, the tackle itself has evolved into far more sophisticated and user-friendly gear. Some vital basics of chasing pelagics from our rocks are to only fish when sea conditions are safe, and getting out of bed super early and putting in the effort to be casting your baits or lures in the early morning period. Of course, bream and

The keener offshore anglers will also be enjoying the fact that they can launch nice and early in the morning without a big waiting line at the ramp. Offshore winds are starting to ease back a little, and this means anglers can stay out longer without having to rush back in before the wind picks up. This is particularly important at Norah Head, which is quite exposed to northeasterly wind. LAKES ALIVE The lakes here have been fishing well in recent weeks and that should only get better Flathead have continued to be active throughout summer and you’ll probably run into a few this month, especially in shallow spots. The Entrance, Ettalong and Woy Woy are some areas to concentrate on, but in reality, a flatty can turn up almost anywhere.

Bream fishing has been first rate in recent weeks. February is normally one of the best bream months, especially for those who prefer to cast small lures. If you’re into rock fishing and like to get some string stretched and hear what your drag system sounds like, then bonito, kingfish and other speedy predators should be on the prowl. In January everything was primed up for a good inshore pelagic season. By now we should (hopefully) already be enjoying some excellent warm water action. Effective techniques for this sort of fishing are still largely the same as they were when I first started my rock

tailor can also still be caught around our rocks at this time of year, and they also tend to be easier to catch around sunrise or sunset. However, both bream and tailor really like that churned up whitewash close to the rocks and a shallow, sandy bottom. So, if sea conditions are perhaps a bit too dicey to fish out on the more exposed, deeper ledges, try plonking some baits or lures back in around the more protected, washy spots.

this month. I must admit, I’m saying this with a bit of trepidation, as the previous few years have seen floods towards the end of summer and early autumn. This summer, the weather patterns have been a bit different, with a drier trend, so fingers crossed the weather gods are on our side this year! Bream are out in full force this summer, and they’ve remained my main target species, both in the lakes and feeder creeks as well as in

Brisbane Waters. However, whiting are also around in excellent numbers and flathead continue to be active throughout our waterways. Mud crabs, blue swimmers and prawns haven’t failed us either. No doubt, all of this is a result of the rain and flooding over the past three years. The rains may make things difficult at the time, but the long-term benefits are well proven. Regardless of exactly which species you prefer, nearly all of the action is in quite shallow water at this time of year. By that, I mean knee-deep or a metre at most. It’s an age-old habit of people to cast out into deeper places or always try to seek out deep water. I can assure readers though, almost always, that bream, whiting and flathead much prefer super shallow water during most months of the year, and this month you’ll do better by casting baits or lures in very shallow spots. BEACH BEASTS Beach fishing normally picks up as we get towards the

end of summer. Tailor, bream and whiting are the most active fish in our local surf zone right now, with a very good chance of mulloway at night. However, as water temperatures are very warm and there are lots of baitfish around, the sharks also love feeding close in along the beaches. They’re mostly

small whaler sharks around 1-2m long, but a few larger whalers and hammerheads also come in close at times. Eagle rays are also reasonably common and some of them are big enough to spool you in an instant. So be aware that if you hook something big, you might be in for some fun and games!

The best results in our estuaries for bream, flathead and whiting will come by fishing the shallows this month.

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The season is in full swing SWANSEA

Jason Nunn

It’s all looking very good out wide, and marlin season is in full swing. The water temperatures out wide have been reaching heights of 24-25°C, and back on the edge of the shelf, the temp is around 22-23°C at the time of writing. There’s a little bit of current at the moment (which will probably continue through

with some nice mahimahi (dolphinfish), which have turned up in that deep water. A few of the boys got specimens around the 8-10kg mark recently, which is a welcome bycatch. It’s nice to be able to take something home for the table sometimes. On top of all these species, there should be blue marlin on offer this month as well. All in all, I have high hopes for the gamefishing in the coming weeks, if conditions remain favourable.

hooks is a proven method, but if you’re not equipped to fish with livies, you can troll 8-10” skirted lures. At the moment, the most reliable skirt is the JB Lures Dingo (and Small Dingo), rigged on 15-24kg line. You don’t need to have outriggers, and just troll around in the vicinity looking for baitfish on the sounder, and look out! Little blacks and dollies like the lumo green colour, and the dollies also like pinks and purples. Moving to inshore reef

are excellent on the plate. Make sure you ice them down to keep the flesh in tip-top condition. Bonito arrived at the beginning of January, and their numbers should increase in the coming weeks as the schools become more concentrated. With the arrival of the bonito we should see the onset of other fish such as frigates, mac tuna, and hopefully Watsons leaping bonito. It’s a very exciting time for pelagic fishers, who are spoilt for choice. Cubing works for bonito, or you can cast or troll for them. Some good lure options include small skirted lures, white Smith jigs, and chrome slugs/slices. If you’re using chrome lures, spin them back hard, and you may pick up a few frigates on that quicker retrieve. When everyone is hammering the surface, we troll deeper divers around them, especially the Yo-Zuri Crystal Minnow. The Crystal Minnow is deadly, and often picks up those slightly larger fish subsurface.

Keeping slight tension and a digit on your line at all times will maximise your hook-up rate on mulloway. Ben didn’t feel a thing from this sneaky ghost until he had weight on the lure lift. Image courtesy of @hook__in. turn up on our beaches in good numbers in February, particularly the latter part of the month. Brined pilchards are a good option for tailor

This big girl couldn’t resist a Samaki Vibelicous smeared with Sax Scent. She was released after a few quick photos. Image courtesy of @hook__in. February) and there are lots of predators and a fair amount of bait. The water is good, with a nice blue colour, and there are a lot of pelagics in the water column at the moment. Both black and striped marlin are regularly being caught. There are little packs of these marlin swimming around, so you can be trolling along and before you know it you can have three or four in your spread. Anglers have also been encountering a few shortbilled spearfish along

The fishing prospects are also good for inshore anglers with trailer boats. A lot of juvenile black marlin are moving down the coast, with most fish ranging from 20-40kg. That’s a pretty good average, and there are a lot of them. I believe the FAD off Swansea will fire up this month, as some of that warmer water out wide starts to push in closer. Juvenile blacks and dolphinfish are the main targets. Live baiting with circle

fishing, the trag fishing along the coast has been out of sight for a number of months. Between Christmas and New Years, some guys were catching their 5-fish limit in half an hour, with the majority caught on pilchards. The action should continue right through February and into March. The average size has been around 45-55cm and I would expect some better fish as we come into autumn, up to that 60cm mark. Trag fight like a demon, and they

Flathead are plentiful HUNTER

Patrick Linehan

Consistent southerly winds over the last month or so have pushed in some warm water along the coast, seeing a good run of small black marlin reasonably close to shore to the north. There have also been plenty of striped marlin and a few blue marlin over the shelf. Unsurprisingly, the FADs have also produced plenty of mahimahi (dolphinfish) recently. There have been a few pelagics showing up inshore, but as usual for this time of year, there’s still a month or two before the action peaks. If the rain holds off, the signs are looking good for a reasonable run of mackerel and tuna. Closer in, the warm To page 66

Chris Clare with a healthy 60cm flathead caught on a soft plastic at low tide.

A healthy bass taken off the surface. Image courtesy of @hook__in.

Bonito very good for bait for species such as bream and snapper, and it’s also a very good eating fish when put straight into an ice slurry. Some people assume that bonito taste like striped tuna, but they’re much better than striped tuna. Bonito flesh makes fantastic sashimi and cooks up well on the BBQ too. If you can’t decide whether to use your bonito for the table or bait, try eating just the shoulder and using the rest for bait. Beach-wise, whiting been on fire this summer on our coastal beaches. The humble farmed tubeworm has proven once again to be an outstanding bait, and because they’re farmed they don’t impact wild worm stocks. This bait has also been accounting for bream and dart. We are just starting to see the odd tailor on the beaches in the afternoons. They normally

because these baits are tougher and don’t fly off the hook as easily as regular pilchards do. And of course, you can also get good results on chrome lures. If you’re using a 10-12ft rod you can use 65g+ lures, or 40-50g on an 8-10ft rod. Anglers chasing whiting and bream as we move towards autumn will also catch school jew, and that will only get better as we head into autumn. When it comes to estuary fishing, the bream and whiting catches throughout January have been very good, along with flathead. As an example, one customer just told me he went fishing in the channel and caught eight bream up to 39cm and a 67cm flathead to boot, plus a smaller flatty that they released. Remember the new slot limit for flathead in NSW, which stipulates that 70cm+ flatties must be released. One customer was disappointed that he couldn’t

catch a fish under 70cm… what a great problem to have! Regardless, in 4-5 years’ time we’ll reap the rewards of these big breeding females being allowed to reproduce, and there will be stacks of takehome size flatties. I’m looking forward to it. Squid have been in really poor numbers. February to March is traditionally the breeding season for squid in Lake Macquarie, but this year might not be as good as usual. We have to wait and see whether the floodwater last year has upset the breeding pattern. Summer has been very good for crabs, although in the coming weeks we’ll see a lot of female crabs in berry (carrying eggs) which can’t be kept. As we move into autumn, we’ll see more takehome crabs. We’ve had a bit of a resurgence of kingfish. There are quite a few small ones around 50-55cm, with a few around 70cm in the mix. As we head into Easter those kingfish numbers should increase, as will tailor. All in all, signs are good that we’ll enjoy some good fishing this autumn. • Fisherman’s Warehouse Tackle World has a large range fresh and frozen bait as well as a huge range of rods, reels, lures and accessories. They also sell and service outboard motors, and have a competitively-priced selection of new and second-hand boats. The friendly staff are all experienced local anglers, and they’re always happy to share their knowledge, whether you’re a novice or experienced angler. Drop in for a chat at 804 Pacific Highway, Marks Point, or give them a call on (02) 4945 2152. You can also find them on Facebook, or check out their website at www.fishermans warehouse.com.au. FEBRUARY 2023

NSW

The best is coming up! ILLAWARRA

Greg Clarke

You can pack all of your best fishing for the past 10 months together and it still won’t hold a candle to what the next two months has to offer, as there is something for everyone starting now. Mahimahi are everyone’s’ favourite, so the FADs will be popular again as they move in and the crowds gather to take advantage of their willingness to hit everything that moves at times. On other days they will just give you a headache, swimming around the boat and ignoring every offering you put in the water, even livies. Most of the mahimahi are around the 1-4kg mark, but big ones can show up anytime and are great fun on light gear. Big mahimahi like big baits and are often picked

and grab one for the freezer; blacks are good tucker! After that I chase other species that are less hard work. Marlin are great to watch jump and cartwheel around the place, and big fish can be tough they don’t fight that hard – certainly not in the same league as a tuna. I still get a buzz when they come out of the water on that first jump though. If you really want to catch one, my suggestion is to put away the lures. Fuel is very expensive these days, and live baits average a hook-up every 80 minutes or so, while with lures its more like every 4-5 hours. Grab a few live slimy mackerel and slow troll them over the above spots and you should hook one, the rest is up to you. In closer the yellowtail kings are about and have been for quite some time this season, and they are getting

With the water running warm your offerings could tempt all manner of other species as well. Smaller GTs, rainbow runners, amberjack, samsonfish, spotted and spanish mackerel and the usual stray cobia of all sizes seem to pop up all along the Illawarra this month. There are some nice snapper over the deeper reefs if the current allows you to fish them, and a few in around the bommies and shallow reefs during the evenings if you fish with a bit of berley. Sharks can sometimes be a problem at times, and there are usually plenty of small whalers and hammers around this month. Bonito can be a pest, eating all the soft plastics and pilchards they can get, but they can be fun when they school up with salmon, frigates, kingfish and trevally and churn the water to foam as they terrorise the baitfish

February is the best month of the year for black marlin. up as by-catch when chasing marlin, but if you are targeting them specifically, a big yakka or slimy mackerel should do the trick. Every piece of flotsam and jetsam that you encounter offshore should be investigated, as even the smallest object can hold big fish, and the larger the object the more of an ecosystem it becomes, attracting all manner of bait and predators. A floating log that has been in the water for an eternity and has an ecosystem set up around it is something you dream of finding, as it will usually hold a stack of bait and a heap of predators chasing them. Marlin are next on the hit list, as February is the best month of the year for black marlin on the Illawarra Coast. All the usual spots like Bandit Reef, Wollongong Reef and further south at The Banks will be very popular as soon as the word gets out they have arrived. I like to get out early 66

FEBRUARY 2023

bigger with each passing week. They are also becoming more popular with anglers. Once regarded as neighbour’s fish (a fish you only give to your neighbour), they are now a main target for most sportfishers and as such they are getting quite educated. Kings will be kings, however, and some days they just can’t help themselves and hit everything you throw at them. Big poppers have always been a handy tool for revving up kings, and they seem to be getting more time in the water these days and taking some good fish as well. If you think bass hit surface lures hard, a 20kg king belting a popper a few meters from the boat sure gets the blood pumping! There are plenty of kings in the 3-8kg range around the islands, Bass Point, Rangoon and Bellambi, with live slimy mackerel or yellowtail the gun baits. Squid are good baits too, but I prefer to eat the squid myself.

There will be a few dart mixed in with the whiting now the water has heated up. population. Just look for the terns, mutton birds and seagulls on the surface and cast lures into the mess. For the drifters, there are plenty of flatties over all the sand patches along the coast and they are quality fish too. Throw in a few small snapper, trag, trevally, mowies and even a stray pearl perch or spangled emperor that have travelled down on the currents and you have a good quality bag. The rocks are firing as you would expect, with all the surface species including some big kings around the deeper ledges down south. A live frigate mackerel spun up at daylight and then sent back out is lethal. As always, the hook-up is the easy part, but getting them back to the rocks is a little more difficult. The frigate could also bring undone a marlin too, as it is prime time off the stones for billfish and anything can happen this month. Blackfish are increasing in numbers along the coastal ledges and in the harbours,

with cabbage and green weed the best baits. On the harbour front, the frigates are making their presence felt, charging in and out of the harbours like Bellambi, Wollongong and Port Kembla. A few small chrome lures and a light spinning rod is all that is needed for a heap of fun and is a good way to gather some choice mulloway baits for later in the evening. A fresh slab of frigate mackerel cast out into just about any good gutter all along the coast stands the chance of scoring a mulloway at the moment. The trouble is there are so many other fish out there that often beat the mulloway to your bait. Salmon, big tailor, flathead, some solid bream, trevally and plenty of small whaler sharks are all in the surf, so sorting a mulloway out of that lot can be difficult, but many anglers have been overcoming the difficulties and catching some nice fish over the past weeks. During the day there are

dart and whiting on the bite on all the beaches all along the coast, with beachworms a must for good results as always. In the lake there are some good whiting over the sand flats before the drop-off and down at the entrance taking squirt worms. Flathead are all over the place and if you like crustaceans, the lake is full off blue swimmers. The prawns are a bit scratchy, as the lake is now permanently open and they head to sea every year now rather than spending time over a couple of seasons growing, but on a good night you will get a feed and plenty of bait on most nights. Minnamurra has plenty of flathead over the flats and in the deeper holes, with the ever-popular bridge pylons holding bream and even the odd mangrove jack if you are lucky. It’s an exciting month to be out fishing, but what gets me more excited is March! See you next month.

From page 65

water (we’ve been recording 20-24°C some days in the river) has also really kicked into gear the summer surface action for whiting and bream in the estuary. The Bassday Sugapen and Lucky Craft Sammy have been working on Castaway over the flats, with cicada lures catching plenty of bream under the trees further up the river. Keep your eyes peeled for some surface feeding trevally, as both bigeye and giant trevally are spread throughout the Hastings River at the moment. There are also plenty of flathead along most banks, with the rock walls producing plenty of fish. The clear water has made the flathead bite a bit hit-and-miss over the high tide in the lower reaches. Your best bet is to fish the low when there’s a bit of colour, and less boat traffic. A reminder that all flathead over 70cm must be released in NSW (the new slot limit has been in place

A summertime Hastings River mulloway caught by the author, who is the new Castaway Estuary Fishing Charters owner and guide. since August last year). The increased boat traffic has affected the success of finding mulloway in the rivers, with the beaches and headlands tending to be the better option to find a few school-sized fish at this time of year. Also, another reminder

of the mulloway size and bag limits (legal size: 70cm, bag limit: 1). Despite a lot of traps being set, the mud crab season remains lacklustre. I haven’t heard of many people having much luck on the muddies. No doubt the amount of rain over

the last couple of years has had an effect. • Castaway Estuary Fishing Charters specialises in calm water, guided estuary lure fishing experiences based in Port Macquarie, NSW. For more information visit www. castawayfishing.com.au.

NSW

Summer got on top BATEMANS BAY

Anthony Stokman

We were all worried about the rain this season, concerned that it would ruin our summer. Well, the rain pulled up enough to let the sun shine, the fishing picked up and the tourists came. It was a welcome boost to the local economy after missing the last three summers of trade. The positive from all the rain is all the things that flourish from it. The decimated land from bushfires is green and luscious and there’s an abundance of new life. That includes fish. RIVERS AND LAKES In times of great rain

rejuvenation, which saw a plenty of prawns enter the lakes and rivers. Some lakes are closing up now and that means we could see prawns locked up and growing, giving us a good run continuing throughout the summer and into autumn. All the prawns and bait have been important ingredients for the food chain and we have seen bait pushing right up into our systems that were once affected from all the ash and sentiment from the fires. Now anglers are finding fish throughout the estuaries and right upstream, where bass are also active. The bass started slow. At the start of January they were taking diving lures more

job if you don’t like your Tiemcos getting destroyed. Either way, deeper divers, spinnerbaits or surface lures should see some bass coming undone this month. One of the most common prey the estuary fish are feeding on are prawns, so it makes sense that’s what most anglers have been using of late as a weapon of choice. I mentioned it last month and I’ll mention it again: go get yourself some prawn lures to increase your catch rates. Some of my favourites, and the most requested, have been the Zerek Prawn, Ecooda Prawn, Berkley Shimma Shrimp and the new ZMan PrawnZ which is slightly smaller and has been killing it. You’ll catch everything with them, from Toby May is the rock star of snapper fishing. He has the head of a snapper with sunglasses on.

Flacky from Flacks Fishing Adventures has been catching many flathead of late. there is great spawning and recruitment and we are seeing the results of that in our estuaries right now. The last couple of years has seen a massive influx of juvenile mulloway and now we are seeing some larger models more regularly in the 80cm to 100cm class. The estuary is also seeing a good run of flathead, bream, estuary perch, trevally and tailor, along with the bait and prawns they are feeding on. As expected, the estuaries and lakes are on fire at the moment, and it looks like they’ll hold the limelight until the game fishing picks up over February. Most lakes were open due to all the rain and large swells. This gave the systems a good flush and a

than anything else. However, the sound of cicadas on hot days suggest a surface bite could be on the cards soon and we could be seeing that this month. The best diving lures have ranged from Cotton Cordells to small diving chubby-style lures of any brand. Small compact 1/8oz spinnerbaits from AusSpin have always been a favourite of ours and have been hugely successful on bass over the years. However, that could change up now as we switch to surface lures and there has been none better recently than the Tiemco Soft Shell Cicada. This lure gets so smashed, it is common that they get ripped apart. There are also a number of cheaper surface lures that will do the

bream and estuary perch to flathead and mulloway. Two other lake and estuary contenders this month are whiting and garfish. We have already had a good run of garfish and that should continue this month. The beaches will become a hotspot for whiting this month and the usual baits of worms and nippers will be the best approach. Some good salmon and tailor are still on the cards and are a bycatch on our headlands and rock ledges. LAND-BASED GAMEFISHING It’s February and into March when the land-based landmarks come on. Kingfish are usually the first arrivals, and then bonito, mack tuna and frigate mackerel take their time and show up whenever

they feel like it. But I feel lucky, after last year and I expect the bonito and mack tuna won’t let me down. Anglers targeting these species spinning lures or using live baits love a good Japanese, handmade, appropriately sized stickbait and they are fun to cast and to watch swim as you eagerly wait for them to get bit. This said, any old cheap metal lure will get you into the action if the fish are there. While mucking around for pelagics there is always the chance for snapper or drummer. INSHORE Snapper have been so consistent from the boat the last few years from 10m to 100m depths and everything in between. It really has been an outstanding run. So I guess this will continue for now until we see something change. Flathead have also been fairly consistent among other reef species for the inshore

boaters. I still haven’t heard anything fantastic from the new artificial reefs and I expect to see the FAD producing this month. It seems the estuaries are on fire and the offshore is taking a little longer to ramp up. OFFSHORE The offshore fishing I’m expecting to be coming on and possibly peaking this month. There is plenty of bait waiting and all we need are the currents to bring the predators down - the main event being the marlin and the sideshow being mahi mahi. Marlin will be found inside the shelf chasing slimy mackerel and the dolphin fish will be swimming around anything floating on the surface including FADS and buoys. It’s really that simple and you can make it as complicated or as simple as you like. Catching marlin is all about finding bait,

finding marlin, using livies or skip baits and bringing them to your baits by using the appropriate teasers. It’s as simple as that. The only thing is that you are working with animals and humans, so anything can happen and that’s what keeps us entertained. Dolphin fish are much the same as in the way to catch them, but it’s more about livies and lures. Always a great catch for its table properties, a day offshore tagging marlin and bringing dolphinfish home for dinner is a perfect day and that’s what makes February a magical time of the year. • For more up-to-the-minute information on what’s biting where, drop into Compleat Angler Batemans Bay and have a chat to Anthony or one of the other friendly staff. They’re located at 65A Orient St, Batemans Bay (02 4472 2559).

When the current pulls up, find the bottom as the author did when he found this ling. FEBRUARY 2023

NSW

Plenty of fishy activity BERMAGUI

Darren Redman djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

There is plenty of fun to be had fishing the reefs and around Montague Island. The fishing for kingfish up at the

ones at that. If you want a big blue, think big! The more commotion you make out the back, the more likely you are to attract a fish to your pattern. Big blues will often turn up from out of nowhere to just scoff a lure, so time on the water and distance travelled

estuaries. There are plenty of them to choose from, and you would need a couple of weeks to explore most of them. Bream and flathead are the most prolific targets, although most other species are also common. How you wish to target the estuaries is up to personal preference. Fish are responding to well-presented lures (both hardbodies and soft plastics), but fresh bait is producing best. The hot spots are the Bermagui River for flathead, bream and trevally, while around the bridge and break walls have good numbers of luderick. Wapengo Lake south is firing, while fresh live prawns are providing good angling in Wallaga Lake. Yes, that is right, match the hatch and use what is on offer, there are plenty of prawns in Wallaga

Bream are prolific at the moment. at present which are of good size. If you are anything like me then I would rather eat the bait, yes prawning is

good with the dark starting the first week in February. ROCK AND BEACH The beaches and

Flathead, luderick and bream are available over the flats in Wallaga Lake, but it’s going to be tough fishing now that the lake is closed to the ocean. rock has been good this season, providing great sport. The kingies have been responding to most methods, from jigs to baits fished in various ways. Leaving the Island, try out from Tilba on The Step for sand flathead. These fish are in good numbers in depths of around 40-50m. South of Bermagui, most of the regular reefs are holding good numbers of morwong, snapper and perch, while out from them large tiger flathead and gummy sharks are also gracing anglers’ bags. Now, if marlin fever has ever taken an adrenalin rush on you and you just have to have one, this February is prime time. Right now we’re in the heart of the season, so let’s go get some. Stripes, blues and blacks are all there, following the many schools of baitfish. Out over the Shelf in the deep water of the Canyons, blues are patrolling, searching for large prey in the form of striped tuna, small yellowfin, albacore, and dolphinfish. This is the time to troll lures, and big 68

FEBRUARY 2023

is often a must. That said, don’t expect frantic action. If you want that, maybe think about the small striped marlin concentrating on the Twelve Mile Reef. The beauty of the stripes is just that – at close quarters the colours on these fish are truly spectacular from the electric blues, subtle purples to golden bronze they are amazing creatures. Often schooling in vast numbers, methods of targeting them will vary from live baits to lures, and now the more exciting option, switch baiting. This is where anglers will troll lures without hooks, teasing the fish to the back of the boat where the lure is replaced with a pre-rigged bait, resulting in an instant hook-up. Blacks are lurking around with the stripes and are varying in size. They will respond to lures although live baits in the form of mackerel, frigates and small striped tuna will produce best. ESTUARY FISHING If you don’t own a boat big enough or if offshore is not your scene, try the

Some good-size whiting are being caught.

adjacent rock platforms are being visited by a host of species, ranging from small pelagics like bonito, kingfish, tailor, and frigate mackerel (mainly off the stones), through to salmon, tailor, large whiting, bream plus even a few mulloway. Heading south, the beaches of Barragoot, Cuttagee and Murrah have been producing most species, while up north at Camel Rock has seen some good jewfish catches. The main headland at Bermi has had most of the land-based action, with just inside Horseshoe Bay around the old wharf providing plenty of entertainment. Mystery Bay and Goalen Head have produced their share of action, with the odd good kingfish being captured or lost. There have also been a few sightings of marlin patrolling the coastline, although no reports of any hook-ups just yet.

A mix of species on offer TATHRA

Darren Redman djsxstreamfishing@bigpond.com

Tathra has one of the most unique boat ramps in Australia to access the open ocean. The facilities here are first class with great cleaning stations right through to the parking along with the monitoring of vessels from the local marine rescue. Leaving Kianinny Bay ramp the choice for anglers is where to go, what type of fishing you wish to do and how to go about it. Now what’s up north? After leaving the entrance of Kianinny Bay the last headland north you will see is Aragunnu. Just around To page 69

Late summer will produce many different species in the Tathra area from the ocean, beaches and rivers.

LIGHT, POWERFUL, DURABLE…

From page 68

the corner there is Goalen Head, arguably the best reef complex within this area. Here you will find a mix of reef fish which include the most sought after snapper, morwong, perch, kingfish and more, all of which are fishing well at present. Pelagics are up on the surface in the form of small tuna like bonito, stripies, frigates and there are schools of slimies which all attract larger predators in the likes of marlin and sharks. Slightly south of Aragunnu, sand flathead are in good numbers out from Wapengo and Gillards beaches in around 25 metres water depth. Wider will have you in the mix of some very nice tiger flathead, gurnard, and a few gummy sharks. There are more reef complexes out from Nelsons Headland which are also fishing well, here this area is also worth a look for those large game fish. Tathra Bay is also playing host to plenty of sand flatties if you don’t want to travel too far. Straight out the front of Kianinny provides a mix of reefs, sand, and gravel bottom features. This area is providing very mixed bags of a lot of the species already mentioned. So going south White Rock is not far and is providing good reef species, mainly morwong and snapper. You can fish wide or close to shore where jigging with soft plastics is often successful. Further south out off Bournda Island is flathead heaven. Most species are here in varying depths where they have been accompanied by some excellent gummy sharks. There is plenty of action on the Wharf with slimies and yellowtail being ever present. Mixed in are trevally, some garfish, tailor of a night, while schools of predator fish in the form of salmon and small tuna are

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Salmon are a lot of fun to catch. regular visitors. Some sharks are present in the form of hammerheads and whalers that often will take a wellpresented frigate mackerel under a balloon. Most beaches are firing within the area with salmon being most prolific. Tailor are a night-time option along with jewies, small whalers and gummy sharks. Through the daylight hours whiting and bream are in very good numbers which are a regular catch in the shallow gutters on worms. The estuaries are not to be left out were the Bega River and surrounding systems are all firing well. The good prawn season is responsible for excellent fishing here and there are still plenty in the Bega River. Used live they have accounted for many large flathead, plenty of

bream and estuary perch or try something different by using them unweighted in shallow water over the sand flats for whiting, this can be exciting producing some very big fish. Tailor are growing quite large in the Bega River providing some good light tackle angling especially of a night. Some anglers have been using fresh strips of tailor as bait for good results on jewfish and large flathead in the river. Brogo Dam is fishing excellent of a night or early morning. Some of the fish there are reaching a good size with 40cm fish being encountered regularly. For some very exciting angling try surface lures of a night this form of angling can be very exhilarating as well as scary.

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A nice brace of summer bream. FEBRUARY 2023

NSW

How to Gulp for Aussie bass HUNTER VALLEY

Nick Price

Lake St Clair continues to fish well on surface over the weed, fly fishing, reaction baits to the edge and now also bass are deep. Lake St Clair has been producing the goods and when the bass are biting, good numbers are being caught each session. This month I will focus on deep bite techniques, remembering that Gulp! curly tails are the standout lure for this type of fishing. February is the deep

bite at Glenbawn. The fishing over the last eight months has been particularly slow at Glenbawn but with the high water levels and reasonably hot water the fish should be on the chew deep. Surface presentations in the early mornings and at night catch many fish, but make sure you are well prepared when fishing at night - it introduces a whole new level of complexity. Fishing deep with black, curly tail Gulps (gulping) is different from other techniques used for bass. It involves a modern sounder, long, light leaders, a soft action rod, 7g

A fat Glenbawn bass.

jigheads and Gulp baits, with the majority being black and a few other colours thrown in for good measure, such as camo or pumpkin. The fish will be schooled up this time of year. The schools can be huge with thousands of fish. Sometimes the schools are close to timber, sometimes off points and at other times in the middle of a basin. It pays to have a good sounder with a transducer that is set up to read when you’re running at a reasonable speed so the schools can be found. Mark the schools on your sounder maps with a waypoint. When Gulping, if one school is not biting, move to another school. If you have the schools marked then you can come back later in the day and hopefully they will be in a biting mood. Basically, move between schools and find those that are biting. It can be a mistake to sit on a school that is not biting. They may start at some point but it can be hot waiting in the middle of the lake during a scorching February afternoon. So tip one - find schools and mark on your sounder map. Sounders are very important! Come and see Liz or myself in the shop if you want some advice or help with

this. Once you’re on a school, drop your Gulp down into the school. Watch your Gulp on your sounder. Slowly wind your gulp up through the school. The emphasis is on winding slowly. Watch the fish and see how they react to your Gulp. Are they following, are they ignoring or are they swimming away? Adjust your technique to the behaviour of the fish. Assuming the fish are active, interested and following the Gulp. Keep winding slowly up through the fish. This is where a slow action, soft rod becomes important. If the fish start biting the Gulp, do not strike. Repeat, do not strike. Keep winding slowly. The fish will suck in the Gulp and the slow action, light rod will gradually load up and the fish will be hooked. A slow action light rod like used for trout fishing is preferred for gulping for this reason, rather than a fast action rod that is used for the majority of impoundment bass fishing techniques. If the fish are quiet, not following the Gulp but not swimming away then other techniques can be used to seduce the bass into biting. These include winding up through the fish and stopping, pausing for a period of time,

There are lots of carp being caught, both in Glenbawn and in the trout streams. referred to deadsticking the Gulp. Another trick is to wind backwards! This can be tricky and causes tangles with less experienced anglers. My favourite is to stop just above the bass and tap the butt of the rod, causing subtle waves to move down the line and the Gulp to vibrate, sending these vibrations out which are picked up by the lateral lines of the bass, with the Gulp mimicking a wounded baitfish or insect. TROUT SLOW As the water warms up the trout slow down. The marginal trout streams below Moonan fish poorly this time of year and without consistent rain to keep the water temperature down there are often fish kills. During February it is more

productive to head further back into the Tops when hunting trout. In previous years there have been big fish kills, let’s pray that the water temperatures stay cool enough that all the trout in the more marginal streams stay active and alive. March is a month where the water is still hot and the fish are deep and the deep Gulp! bite continues. As the month progresses and the water cools the fish can start to transition. Next month I will discuss transition fishing. If you’re heading up to the Barrington, Glenbawn or St Clair, please drop into the shop at the turnoff to Glenbawn in Aberdeen and ask about the different techniques and what they are biting on. We stock all the quality tackle that you need.

Temps drop and fishing hots up NEW ENGLAND RIVERS

Adam Townsend

We are well into the New Year now and January proved to be another awesome month to be out on the water with plenty of quality fish being caught around the New England area. With Summer coming to an end in a few weeks’ time, fishing conditions should be more favourable with air and water temperatures starting to gradually cool again as we head into the nicer weather of the Autumn months. One thing that has been pretty noticeable of late in many of the rivers and impoundments around the area is the amount of bait life - both above and below the water’s surface. The number of native guppies, shrimp, crayfish, insects and lizards that are living amongst the weed beds and structure is really good to see and it has been showing with the quality of fish being caught as well. I would say it is a pretty bold call but with so much bait around and the rivers flowing nicely as well as dams still sitting relatively high, It could honestly shape 70

FEBRUARY 2023

Redfin have been fired up in recent weeks and are fun fish to target this time of year. Lipless crankbaits, blades and small spinnerbaits are favourites for the redfin perch. up to be one of the better seasons the area has seen in a while now. The major impoundments

such as Pindari Dam and Copeton Dam have stayed close to full capacity for several weeks now and with

the water levels also being more stable, it definitely gives the fish a chance to relax a lot more which lets them feed in patterns more regularly and consistently giving every angler a better chance at successfully finding and catching those exact fish that are out actively looking for a feed. There are many of really good lures on the market these days but I find sticking to the basics and what works best will always catch fish and as the old saying goes ‘’if it isn’t broken, then don’t fix it’. I definitely stick by that. Throwing surface lures and

The New England area holds some beautiful fish in many of its creeks, rivers and impoundments and this beautiful rainbow trout is a prime example. One of the better trout the author has caught over the years and even better, it was caught on the 4 weight fly setup using a small nymph fly making for some epic fun.

Diving hard bodies have always proved to be successful lures all year round, however in the warmer months they can come into their own when natives such as Murray cod are more willing to chase lures in a reaction bite mode. This chunky 105cm cod couldn’t resist the Big M as it got cranked past his log. shallow running swimbaits through the night and either early morning or late arvo has always been a favourite method when targeting impoundment Murray cod, however chatterbaits and noisy baits similar to the chatterbait definitely pull their fair share of fish through the night too. When fishing the impoundments during the daylight hours, chatterbaits also are really good at finding a reaction bite and covering ground really quickly, however if you can find an area where the fish are holding up, then I would suggest a slow sinking swimbait or another life-like lure which

can be slowed down would definitely be worth a try. Although the water temperatures are starting to cool down, it has not slowed the golden perch down, with plenty of quality fish being caught out on the open flats trolling lipless crankbaits as well as some good fish in the timber on soft plastics. Targeting the inlets where water is flowing in can always be fruitful fishing when other methods are not really working as well, for both the Murray cod and yellowbelly. Copeton Dam was sitting around 95% at time of writing with Pindari Dam To page 71

NSW

Try actively fishing your bait BATLOW

Wayne Dubois waynedubois@westnet.com.au

Constantly dropping water levels in our southern impoundments have almost become the norm during the summer months and dropping dam levels normally mean shut down

fishing, but this certainly is not the case at Blowering Dam where plenty of fish are still being landed and the dam itself still holding at or near capacity. As the dam does slowly drop the resident yabbies, shrimp and crayfish no longer have freshly flooded weed beds and grass flats to hide in and must constantly keep

on relocating themselves to keep up with the dropping water level. Resident fish, especially native fish, are clued onto this and take advantage of the easy pickings these conditions are normally associated with. It goes without saying that anything that resembles any of these tasty morsels will give you a good chance of

Daniel Minogue and his family have been avoiding the busier dams and having some great success trolling Angel baits for Tantangara trout. Seems the big brown trout don’t care if those big lures were designed for natives or not. From page 70

still sitting at full capacity. I generally touch on this in most reports, however be very mindful when boating around the impoundments, with so much unknown structure under the surface and floating debris about it can be dangerous at times, especially if skiing during the day or moving spots during the night. The local creeks and rivers have been flowing

ever takes one solid rainfall to give the rivers a good flush back out again. In saying that, most lures have been getting attention from the natives, however throwing wakebaits, diving crankbaits, spinnerbaits and swimbaits have been the most consistent of late. As mentioned earlier, with so much bait around and water visibility pretty clear at the moment, it definitely pays to slow

Topwater Murray cod and rainy days go hand in hand. Matching the hatch can pay huge dividends and with so many lizards around, this healthy Murray cod ate a wakebait style lure replicating exactly that. nicely for several weeks now, although the slime has built up pretty quickly over the hotter periods making it a bit harder to present a lure in many spots. It is not always a bad thing though, as it just creates another fishing opportunity in the sense that now weedless frogs or other weedless type lures can be thrown in those areas now and it only

if extra weight is needed and cast the yabby out into a likely looking area, allow it to sink to the bottom then lift the yabby up around 50100cm off the bottom and allow it to sink back down to the bottom again and repeat the process all the way back to your boat or the bank. You will be surprised at how many more fish you will catch by using your yabby actively like this. Most Murray cod, redfin and especially golden perch prefer a moving bait so to increase your chances next time you’re on the water actively fish that bait. Big yabbies used off the bank will give you a very good chance of hooking a big Murray cod or golden perch and small yabbies used either from the bank or from a boat near some timber, points or drop offs should see you in on some redfin action. REDFIN Redfin can also be targeted with lures either by casting or jigging with ice jigs, blades, spoons, plastics, vibes or rattlers. If you’re not into casting or jigging lures trolling will also account for

down and keep an eye out for what bait is around, as fishing can be very visual this time of year and we all know matching the hatch is definitely the key to catching quality fish. The full moon will be above on the 6th of this month, with the new moon falling on the 20th. Good luck to all getting out on the water this month and tight lines.

It’s not just the natives sitting in the shallows picking off crustaceans, the redfin are also clued onto this, especially big redfin like this. Anything that is a yabby or resembles a yabby will be eaten. putting a bend in your rod. Bait fishers can’t go wrong using a yabby on a Paternoster rig that will hold the bait up in the fish’s faces whilst you have a lure fish or cook some dinner or whatever it is that is stopping you from holding the rod in your hand. Fishing this way with yabbies works fine but the best way to fish a yabby is ‘actively’ like you would with say a soft plastic or a blade. Basically, rig your yabby on a hook or a jig head

plenty of fish and best lures to use when targeting the redfin are the Wagga made AC Slim Invaders but any small hard body less than 60mm in length will give you a good chance of hooking into a few redfin. When targeting redfin this way you will get even better results when a small 1-2” soft plastic or fly is added to your line about a metre or so above your chosen lure. This set up really stirs up the redfin’s competitive nature and can be the difference

Casting or trolling - yes that’s right trolling with lipless crank baits like the 60mm Balista Juggernaut pictured is a great way of hooking into plenty of golden perch this month. between fish and no fish on really tough days. COD AND YELLOWBELLY Big Murray cod and golden perch are worth targeting with lures this month as well as most fish are very active seeking out the relocating yabbies. Skirted jigs or soft plastics that have a yabby like appearance or action are probably your best bet this month. Just remember to use these lures very slowly with lots of pauses and with your lure in contact with the bottom almost all of the time. You would have to be very lucky to catch even one fish with these lures if you simply constantly retrieve the lure through mid-water. If you haven’t got the patience for this style of active fishing then straight cast and retrieve with spinner baits, chatterbaits or Angel baits should see you get some action at some stage. Trolling with big hard bodied lures in the 90200mm range are ideal for targeting Murray cod in those snaggy trolling runs as these lures are super buoyant which makes them ride over even the nastiest of snags with ease. When these lures are trolled with your rod in

your hand you can feel all the snags quite easily and you can feed slack line out when needed or lift your rod to ride over snags and you will find when used this way they will very rarely snag up. The golden perch are worth targeting on the troll this month as well but although you will still catch the odd golden perch on the above-mentioned lures slightly smaller lures are needed for more consistent success. One of the greatest trolling lure styles for golden perch are lipless crank baits, these lures are mostly underutilised as a trolling lure and most people only use them for casting but they do work unbelievably well when trolling for golden perch and they also work well on almost every species of freshwater fish that swims including Murray cod. Most brands on the market do a great job but the Insanity Tackle Slap Walkers are probably the most versatile lipless crank baits as they have three tow points meaning you can adjust your trolling depth by simply changing holes. Until next month good luck, good fishing and tight lines.

Big natives like this Murray cod won’t be far away from the bank as they take advantage of the constantly moving crustaceans. FEBRUARY 2023

Canberra

ACT

Non-stop action after big lull CANBERRA

Toby Grundy

The Murray cod fishing across the ACT has been excellent over the last few weeks. This could be attributed to a variety of factors, ranging from the weather right through to more people fishing during the warmer months, or perhaps it is simply that the fish haven’t seen lures

walls opposite the Carillion and at the entrance to the Molonglo. It is quite easy to locate a school by simply walking the bank and casting grub style plastics in natural colours on a 1/8oz jighead. Cast about 5-10m out and then letting in sink before slow rolling it back. If a redfin hasn’t hit the lure within the first few casts, move and try again. As soon as one fish hits the lure, stick to that location and you

action at present is quite slow. The same can be said for the natives, as the fishing has been uncharacteristically quiet for February, with only a few big yellas and one or two sizeable cod landed by anglers fishing from boats and kayaks targeting the middle of the lake. That said, there have been a lot of undersized yellas caught near the dam wall by anglers using small vibes and blades. This bonanza of tiny natives does bode well for the future, and hopefully once the water clears up a bit the bigger specimens will turn out in similarly large numbers. Lake Ginninderra is producing good numbers

well to creature style plastics rigged on a ned rig and bounced along the bottom near the weed beds, which sit just off the old police jetty. This is also a great place to cast surface lures late in the evening and if all else fails. The carp will eat a grub soft plastic twitched along the bottom at the sandy bay near Diddams Close. The Murrumbidgee is still running a bit fast, but this isn’t affecting the fishing action. There have been cod caught in a variety of locations from fast water through to traditional snags like sunken logs and big boulders. The surface fishing has been good and swimbaits and spinnerbaits

The surface fishing has been very good lately. for so long due to flooding events and heavy rain. Whatever the reason, the action is fantastic and is such a welcome reprieve from all the fishless sessions throughout last year and even during certain periods in late January. The most exciting part is that the fishing should get better and better as we head towards March and April, and if the large numbers of big cod caught

should run up a cricket score of fish! The yellas are also on the bite and can be found in similar locations to the redfin. The same grub tail plastic on a 1/8oz jighead will catch golden perch, as these fish are also feeding on the small baitfish that hold close to the edges at this time of year. The cod are also on the bite and can be caught around the edges

The cod are biting. are accounting for small to medium-sized cod right through the middle of the day. Most of the larger fish have been caught at dawn or dusk, but there have also been a few metre fish caught during a short bite window between 2-3pm. SURROUNDS Googong Dam is my pick of the local and surrounding fisheries for February. The action on the dam has been superb of late, with plenty of metre fish caught over the last few weeks. Most of the bigger cod have been fooled into hitting large plastics,

Casting spinnerbaits parallel to long sandy banks is a good strategy. but there have also been a number of fish caught by anglers using surface lures in the middle section of the dam. The big golden perch are also on the bite and can be caught either by walking the bank to Shannons Inlet and hopping blades near the sunken shrubs, or by heading over to Bradleys Inlet by boat or kayak and jigging the deeper points. The reddies are hitting surface lures, so take a few small poppers and a light spin stick if fishing from the bank and as soon as the reddies start busting the surface, cast out and retrieve the popper at a fast rate.

The reddies are fired up and hitting anything that moves.

Sam Hancox with a nice catch. are anything to go by, cod season 22-23 will live long in the memory as one of the most eventful and exciting for some time. LOCAL LAKES Lake Burley Griffin is fishing particularly well at the present time for small to medium-sized redfin. Enormous schools of redfin can be found in a variety of locations ranging from the points at Yarralumla Bay through to the concrete 72

FEBRUARY 2023

of Black Mountain Peninsula by casting spinnerbaits or swimbaits. Lake Tuggeranong is a bit problematic at present. There was a significant algal bloom in the lake around the start of January and this has affected the fishing right across the waterway. While it is still possible to catch a few decent reddies, this time of year is usually the time to catch big numbers of reds on the surface, but the surface

of native and pest species for anglers using a variety of techniques, ranging from slow rolling spinnerbaits parallel to weed beds or twitching paddle-tail plastics along the ledges opposite the mall. There have also been several nice cod caught on surface lures, with paddler style lures proving to be the best choice if fishing the lake at dawn or dusk. The yellas in Lake Ginninderra respond really

Ben Lane landed this 100cm fish soon after sun-up.

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FEBRUARY 2023

A snapshot of Victoria’s snapper prospects FEATURE

Ross Winstanley

Analysis of basic fish and fisher data, collected over three decades, points to glowing prospects for the recreational snapper fishery in Port Phillip Bay. First, record recent recruitment or spawning success ensures the healthy state of Victoria’s western snapper stock over the next decade. Second, data from creel survey interviews illustrates how Victorians take full advantage of the accessibility of popular fish stocks in the Bay, particularly snapper. AUSTRALIA’S HEALTHIEST SNAPPER STOCK While Australia’s other major snapper stocks are

catches of pinkies from 2022. From 2024 onwards, when above 40cm long, they are expected to join the stock of adult snapper. At this point they will substantially increase Victoria’s western snapper stock numbers, joining the spawning migration into the Bay and other inlets between November and January each year. After spawning, they will disperse across coastal waters ranging between Wilsons Promontory in the east, and Kangaroo Island, South Australia. From about 2027, the adult stock will be further enhanced, by the 2022 recruits. HOW CAN WE BE CONFIDENT ABOUT THIS? Victoria’s fisheries

Figure 2: Annual commercial snapper catches from Port Phillip Bay, 1993/94 – 2020/21. fully or over exploited, Victoria’s western snapper stock goes from strength to strength. Since 1993, the Victorian Fisheries Authority has monitored annual recruitment to this stock by surveying the numbers of 0+ year-olds, at 35 sites in Port Phillip Bay. Trawl surveys in March record the numbers of 3-10 cm snapper, reflecting spawning success over previous months. These annual ‘recruit’ counts have proved to be reliable predictors of fishing for pinkies 4-6 years later and, further on, for adult snapper. Victoria’s 30-year snapper recruitment monitoring program has revealed two of the three best annual boosts to the stock, in 2018 and 2022 (Figure 1). Already grown past the legal minimum length, 28cm, the first (and best) of these – the 2018 ‘recruits’ – should be prominent in recreational 74

FEBRUARY 2023

researchers’ long-term commitment to research, monitoring and assessment of the snapper stock, its biology and fisheries provide a solid basis for predictions. As well as sound knowledge of snapper growth and recruitment, we have prior experience of boom recruitment events and their subsequent impacts on the fisheries. The peak recruit numbers of 2002, 2004 and 2005 produced an upsurge in recreational and commercial catches of adult snapper through the 2010-2014 boom period, as reflected in Port Phillip Bay commercial catches (Figure 2). Then, as the figure shows, the combination of ‘removals’ by overall fishing pressure, and natural mortality, depleted the accumulated stock of large adult snapper quite markedly after 2014, returning to levels consistent with the longerterm trend.

Figure 1: Annual abundance of snapper recruits in Port Phillip Bay. The Andrews Government’s imposition of an upper limit of 88 tonnes on the Bay commercial snapper fishery will prevent the sort of upsurge in catches seen between 2010 and 2014. In fact, we are yet to see whether the eight commercial Bay fishermen can consistently take 88 tonnes each year. WHAT THE FUTURE LOOKS LIKE From the almost 30-year data sets on recreational and commercial catches, and annual spawning success in the Bay, the VFA’s Queenscliff researchers have been able to predict an index of likely future numbers of adult snapper. By factoring in the historic link between adult numbers with creel survey

catch rates, they have also estimated recreational fishing catch rates 6-7 years ahead (Figure 3). As this graph shows, adult numbers and recreational catch rates in the Bay look set to be ‘good to excellent’ until at least 2028. Further, average or above recruitment events in future years may extend the good times into the next 10-15 years. Of course, the signs also look good for the fisheries in open coastal waters off central and western Victoria. SOME CAUTIONARY WORDS After exceptional recruitment in 2018 and 2022, if history is repeated, we can anticipate a return to a period of much lower recruitment, as occurred following the 2001, 2005

Figure 3: Adult abundance index (black line), and observed and forecast angler catch rates (pink).

and 2014 peaks. This is quite predictable as the 0-3 year old juveniles spawned from 2023 will face stiff competition from the recent bumper year-classes of larger juveniles and young adults. In theory, if environmental conditions favour high recruitment, new recruits may face stiff competition, and probable predation, by abundant older year classes in the Bay until they disperse across coastal waters after a couple of years. In the longer term, it would be foolish to be complacent about the western Victorian snapper stock. We know enough about the environmental conditions that are vital for successful spawning and larval survival, and the critical importance of

the first few months after spawning. Everything hinges on environmental conditions in the northeast of the Bay from November to January, and those conditions are dictated by river flows and water temperatures. So far, so good, but Australia’s experience with global climatic extremes this year point to the threats posed by climate change. In the meantime, continuation of the VFA’s recruitment monitoring, creel survey, commercial catch recording and angler diary/app reporting, will be vital to tracking the future trajectory of the western snapper stock. SNAPPER ANGLER TRAVEL PATTERNS As a postscript to this account focusing on the snapper stock, some detailed analysis of a decade of creel survey data reveals some interesting facts about angler travels when fishing for snapper in the Bay. In January 2022, VFA researchers published a study titled ‘Angling to Reach a Destination to Fish—Exploring the Land and Water Travel Dynamics of Recreational Fishers in Port Phillip Bay, Australia’. They analysed data from 6,035 boat-based creel surveys, from 20 Bay-side ramps, between 2010 and 2019. The analysis showed that most anglers lived close to the Bay, within the Melbourne, Mornington, Geelong, Bellarine and Surf

Figure 5: Average hours spent fishing per fishing block in Port Phillip Bay, for all years and species combined. Figure reproduced with the author’s permission. Coast regions. However, some travelled long distances, from extremities of the state, or even from interstate, particularly when targeting snapper. Figure 4 shows the

most popular travel routes, over land and water, by anglers targeting snapper. The concentration of interest among residents from Melbourne’s northern and eastern suburbs is clear.

The travel routes shown represent about 50% of all surveyed trips on land and over 80% of trips on water. On average, snapper anglers launching from Bellarine ramps travelled

Figure 4: Map of the most popular snapper fishing trips over land and water in Port Phillip Bay. Figure reproduced with the author’s permission.

furthest on land and the shortest distances o n - w a t e r. Anglers launching from Melbourne and Mornington ramps travelled significantly further on water to fish, with those targeting snapper from Mornington averaging 14.3 km. Snapper were the most popular species targeted from most ramps, particularly in the Melbourne and Mornington regions. While snapper fishing effort was spread throughout the Bay, much of it was focused on deeper waters in the northern and eastern regions where adult snapper spawn. Figure 5 shows the average hours fished, for all species combined, for each fishing block. Two factors help to explain why, overall, snapper anglers averaged longer distances on water to fish than those targeting other species. First, the larger adult snapper tend to frequent deeper offshore water. Second, both juvenile and adult snapper occur in highly-mobile schools which cover wide distances, across a range of bottom habitats. WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF THIS ANALYSIS? As well as being of interest to anglers and value to fishing-related businesses, ‘geospatial’ analysis and modelling

taken from land and water travel and ramp use like this provide an important and realistic basis for planning facilities for recreational fishing. This is crucial at a time when the Government is intent on increasing recreational fishing and boating participation in Victoria. Understanding ‘travel dynamics’ is also essential in order to investigate the economic contribution of recreational fishing, and how this is spread across the state. By examining data collected across 10 years, trends in travel and usage patterns can be particularly valuable for planning upgrades and new facilities. For snapper anglers there were some clear trends. For those launching from the Bellarine region, land travel distances increased noticeably over time while on-water distances decreased. Similar but less marked trends occurred for Melbourne region trips. The most striking increases in on-water distances were for trips launched from the Mornington region, targeting the highly mobile snapper, including the central Bay waters. Knowledge of anglers’ launching and on-water activities is clearly useful for the VFA’s angler education and information services and for planning compliance schedules. FEBRUARY 2023

VIC

The pelagics are turning it on PORTLAND

Nigel Fisher

G’day everybody, I hope you are enjoying the holiday period, and getting out for a fish. The influx of people into the town has been amazing, and I’m sure February will be just as busy. It’s a great time to chase some exciting fish in Portland and the surrounding areas. Kingfish and school tuna have certainly turned it on in the last few weeks, and you don’t have to travel too far to have a crack at them. We have seen some land-based kingfish off the breakwater,

with sizes ranging from just undersized up to 80cm+. As the water gets even warmer, fishing land based off the Snapper Point area can be a great way to target kings also. Boat fishing for kings and tuna has been good, and some of the hot areas have been the Anchorage, Water Tower around Town Reef, then along Minerva Reef to Julia Reef. Kingfish have been showing up in the shallow water, anywhere from a couple of metres to around 15m, and the tuna can also be in shallow water out to 30m. So far our kingfish have been up to 18-20kg, although most of the fish have been around

3-6kg (that’s around 6090cm long). We have seen a couple of different schools of tuna lately. Some schooled fish have been quite small (well under 10kg), while others have been averaging 1015kg. This is quite common at this time of year. As the months go on, we will start seeing bigger tuna as the

We have seen some great catches of flathead and gummies coming from the Bridgewater area when the weather has permitted. There are also snapper and sharks back towards Cape Nelson lighthouse. At this time of year, we also see some big makos lurking around the deep water, and they can put on an

Brad with a nice kingfish picked up on the troll.

Tylah christened his new combo with a kingfish, which was released to swim again.

Young Charley, holidaying from Queensland, enjoying his first fishing trip in Portland.

season moves in again. We have also had a great season so far on our King George whiting. Again, landbased and boat-based fishing has been productive, with fish averaging 40cm+. Landbased areas to try include the breakwater, Town Jetty, Trawlers Wharf and some beach areas. If you have a boat, some popular spots are Blacknose Point area, water tower and Northshore. While you’re fishing these areas, there’s also the chance of catching a good pan-size snapper. Minerva Reef up to Julia Reef is a real hotspot for some good snapper, gummies, school sharks and more.

almighty display. Remember when targeting makos that you are on the ball and treat these great fighting fish with respect, as they can do some serious damage if not handled properly. The shelf has also been fishing well when the big boys can do the trip. The Horseshoe area has been productive, with some great size blue-eye, pink ling, gemfish and more. There are certainly other

options and fish to be caught in our area at this time of year, so call in and say g’day to the crew at Portland Compleat Angler and grab some local knowledge and grab all your fishing and bait needs. You will find us at 61 Bentinck Street, Portland or you can contact us on 03 5521 1844. You can also find us on Facebook under ‘Portland Compleat Angler’. Cheers and happy fishing.

Dale scored a couple of nice gummies off the beach at Bridgewater.

Balmy fishing sessions WARRNAMBOOL

Mark Gercovich mgercovich@hotmail.com

February is perhaps one of the prime months for offshore angling here in the southwest of Victoria. When conditions are right, all the popular game species of fish including kingfish, tuna and mako sharks are available. Additionally, there are plenty of bottom fish, from snapper to gummy 76

FEBRUARY 2023

shark in closer, and sorts of tasty critters out deep near the shelf. After such a disappointing spring weather-wise, and plenty of dirty water around, the summer tuna and kingfish have shown themselves on cue. They have provided plenty of line-burning excitement for any angler who has come across them. All the usual haunts have produced fish at one time or another, with some good kingfish to over a metre long being taken. There have also been some schools of big

salmon cruising around as well. True, it can be a little disappointing if you were hoping for tuna or kingfish, but salmon are still good fun to catch regardless. King George whiting and squid have been biting well on all the local inshore locations in recent weeks. They will still be a great option on those warm, February summer evenings. A warm night on the beach is always a great option for anglers at this time of year. The beaches west of Port Fairy, such as Yambuk, To page 78

Poppers can be effective on the summer tuna.

Your fishing licence fees at work New jetty on the Glenelg Your fishing licence fees have helped the Glenelg Hopkins Catchment Management Authority build a replacement jetty at Pritchards Landing on the Glenelg River. The all-abilities jetty has retained its ‘L’ shape from before, but now extends 1.5 metres further into the river for greater depth during low tide.

Before

New pontoons enable boats to be tied up safely, making the ramp more efficient on busy days. There’s also a walkway with handrails to ensure the jetty continues to function at all water levels. Pritchards is a popular spot in the Lower Glenelg National Park, offering fishers the chance to tangle with bream, estuary perch and mulloway.

After

Cutting boards at Hastings Thanks to the Westernport Angling Club and fishing licence fees filleting your catch at the Hastings boat ramp just got even easier with the installation of high-density polyethylene cutting boards on the cleaning tables. The club installed the boards to protect knives from the steel surface and provide a less slippery work area. Trigger nozzles on the hoses have been installed too. These upgrades complement Better Boating Victoria’s finished works on the Hastings boat ramp pontoon, which has created more space for boaters to tie up when launching.

VIC

Time to catch yourself some summer specials COBDEN

Rod Shepherd

It seems we have a great snapper season unfolding. Fish have been caught right along our coastline in depths as shallow as ten or so metres. As long as a rubbly or reefy bottom shows up on the sounder and the boat is anchored on the outer side of the tidal flow and sitting pretty, you’re in with a chance. The use of a berley bucket preferably rigged up to and allowed to slide down the forward anchor rope which will disperse berley right under the boat should help things. Nannygai, morwong, big whiting and rock flathead have been the bycatch. Of course, there are usually parrotfish around ready to pinch your bait. Keeping clear of any weed beds can lessen the nuisance fish. Most of the snapper From page 76

Fitzroy and Narrawong, are always worth the bit of extra effort if you are after a decent gummy shark, bronze whaler or school shark. At the time of writing this report, the mouth of the Hopkins River is still very large after the spring

are small pinkies but the odd bigger one are about. In fact fish to 80cm have been caught lately. This is the exception to the rule, but by the looks of it this scenario is on the improve. Some schools of barracouta are also cruising around inshore and the heads make the perfect bait for Snapper especially if an inch of neck meat is left on the head. A double snelled hooked rig using tuna circle hooks is the go with the main hook poked down the neck and protruding out of the mouth with the sliding snelled hook pinning the flesh at the top of the head If a decent snapper doesn’t take this bait, a gummy shark sure won’t refuse it. The Hopkins bream appear to have finished with their spawning run and are switching from softer baits to harder ones like crab. Fish have started chewing on the coral again

to previous months, which had been subpar. Plenty of bream and estuary perch have been falling to a variety of methods. The good news has been some sightings of mulloway, so hopefully a few captures will present themselves soon, and I will have more to report in the next issue of

wearing those chopper teeth down again so fishing reefs and rock wall edges has been paying off. The Kinnears Hut area is still firing with the odd mulloway thrown in. A school is apparently in the river and feeding along the channel edge from the pumping station up to Kinnears. If targeting the mulloway any small mullet or salmon should be filleted with the skin left on and fished unweighted. Big bream will also take this presentation. The mulloway are measuring up to the metre mark but most are about 80cm. Some nice estuary perch have responded to hard bodied medium diving lures worked in the same areas. In the coming weeks as the weather warms the perch should switch to surface feeding after dark and bibless lures or plastics worked across the surface along with flies fished on a floating line.

due to the danger of snake encounters at this time of year. It’s not worth the risk when there are other angling options available. If conditions derail your seafaring plans, all is not lost – it’s only a short trip to Lake Bullen Merri, which has been fishing exceptionally

Lake Bullen Merri has been fishing well and can be a good option if the sea conditions aren’t favourable. floods, and this has caused some very low tides. This can make navigation somewhat difficult, so please be wary if you’re travelling on the river. The river has finally stated to clear up, which is great to see, and it has been fishing well compared 78

FEBRUARY 2023

the magazine. Smaller systems like the Merri, Yambuk Lake and the Fitzroy Rivers have continued to fish well for bream, and can be a good option if the bigger systems are busy. The long walks along trout rivers are best left alone

well of late. With the new ramp, large boats can be easily launched, and you can fish lightly-weighted baits of pilchard pieces in a berley trail like you might for snapper, only here you can catch chinook salmon, tiger trout and rainbow trout.

Plenty of Hopkins perch are being caught, with most methods attracting hits. Many are active during the daylight hours, and night-time is even better. PRODUCT NEWS

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VIC

Plenty of surface activity GEELONG

Neil Slater slaterfish@gmail.com

The Barwon River in Geelong has cleared up a bit which has made lure fishing a little easier. Especially upstream

pilchard pieces, pipis or raw chicken. Things are looking up for land-based anglers with Rippleside Jetty recently received repairs and new lighting thanks to the City of Greater Geelong. Corio Bay Anglers club helped organise line bins for St Helens for

Cam with a ripper Bass Strait snapper. around Fyansford where anglers have caught some redfin around 30cm on lures. Kelvin Baldwin has caught a few of the stocked estuary perch using lime green single-tailed grubs, and says he expects a few of these stocked estuary perch to approach 30cm this year. It would be worth flicking a few small surface lures round to try and tempt an estuary perch around dawn and dusk as well. European carp have bitten their collective heads off over the last few months with solid fish to 4kg succumbing to bread and sweet corn kernel baits. Both Wurdee Boluc Reservoir near Moriac and Stoney Creek Reservoir near Anakie have remained relatively full and have been producing redfin and trout. Hugh Hanson has been fishing both and landed redfin to 30cm with a bit of consistency and a few small trout to 40cm using soft plastic lures. Corio Bay has seen good numbers of silver whiting along the shipping channel and around Cunningham Pier. Silver whiting make fantastic bait for just about anything from snapper to squid to kingfish. Snotty trevally have also shown up long the Geelong waterfront and local piers. These trevally are excellent eating and caught be caught on

anglers to dispose of waste fishing line. Where line bins are not available, anglers are reminded to take their waste line, or any waste, home with them. I have seen some complaints on local area

social media platforms and I promised that person I’d mention it here so please make sure you bring your rubbish home with you. Australian salmon schools have popped up randomly around Corio Bay, Queenscliff and Bass Strait. Those around the Rip and Bass Strait have been real chunky at 3kg while those inside Corio Bay have still tipped the scales at a respectable 1-2kg. Remember, best bet when you find a school of surface feeding salmon, never troll lures through the middle of the school or you’ll scare them off. Best bet is to figure out their direction, move ahead of the school, switch off the motor, wait for them to come to you and cast lures into the mayhem. Snapper captures have been excellent in the region of late with solid fish up to 6kg caught in Corio Bay, around the Bellarine and down along the Surf Coast. Soft plastic enthusiasts have caught pinkie snapper along the Geelong waterfront and near Limeburners rock wall while plenty have been caught on bait from St Helens, North Shore, around the local piers, Point Henry, Point Wilson, Clifton Springs and Port Arlington. Those targeting snapper in Bass Strait and along the Surf Coast have found them drifting in 50m and first and last light around the inshore reef areas and from the rock platforms along the Great Ocean Road.

Max with his best calamari at 37cm (hood) from Point Lonsdale. Lots of pointing, shouting, ink and excitement!

Dave Reynolds took long time mutual friend and landlubber Cam Edwards out for his first trip offshore from Barwon Heads. I was looking forward to hearing about Cam’s hours of seasickness but it would seem he coped just fine, unfortunately! Cam also managed to boat a ripper snapper fishing the spoil grounds in 50m. February is prime time for yellowtail kingfish and southern bluefin tuna in Bass Strait and along the Surf Coast. Launching from Sorrento, Phillip Thompson and a mate headed for the outer Rip primarily in search of school tuna. As they went

Nathan with a tuna he caught on a soft plastic in 50m off Barwon Heads.

The kings are in town! Philip with one from a big school on the Nepean side of the Rip. through the Rip, they noticed plenty of surface activity on the Point Nepean side with a few terns diving on the commotion. They deployed the lure spread thinking they were in with a shot at a tuna but as they drove around the area, they saw a stack of kings on the sounder! Within a few seconds, both short corners screamed off with the Halco Laser Pros drawing the bites. The kings were mixed in with a huge school of XL salmon to 3kg which keep rods bent for the morning. The lads managed to sound up some serious schools of kings down deep throughout the point Nepean side but they didn’t have any jigs or live baits onboard so they left them for another day. The Rip is a hot spot for kingfish anglers using deep jig and live bait techniques. Kingfish love live squid or small but legal length salmon suspended deep here. There has been some expensive rods and reels go overboard here as there has been some big fish hooked over the last few years so make sure you’re hanging on! Out off Barwon Heads and the Surf Coast, kings and tuna can show up in anywhere from 5-60m of water so it pays to keep the eyes on the horizon for birds and surface activity

if it is calm enough. Southern bluefin tuna have been busy in Bass Strait with fish from 5-40kg talking skirted and diving lures. Sometimes, they are feeding on the surface which can make for some exciting lure casting. You should have a mix of poppers, stick baits and small metal lures as

for a snapper. As they were drifting their baits, Nathan thought he would bounce and plastic off the bottom just for something different. After about 20 minutes with nothing, Nathan decided to burn the plastic up as fast as possible when *bang* a little school tuna grabbed it and he had a ball fighting it on a light 4-9kg rod and 4000 size reel! The Commodore of Lorne Aquatic and Angling Club, Keith Miller, reports the pier is still out-fishing the boat anglers much to the boaters’ embarrassment! Lorne pier fishos are hauling in huge snapper, trevally, salmon, flathead, King George whiting and calamari. The water is warming up and there are lots of baitfish being gorged on by hundreds of dolphins. The boat fishing is still going well with plenty of flathead, small pinkies and big gummy sharks being caught offshore around Lorne. Fish HARD – die happy! • Catch a few around Geelong, Bellarine Peninsula

Hugh has been doing well at Stoney Creek and Wurdee Boluc reservoirs. sometimes they are zeroed in on a particular size of bait and refuse all other offerings. Nathan Wright fished with a few mates out off Barwon Heads in search of tuna recently. They lads headed over near 13th Beach for a troll and landed their first fish in 18m of water. After a few hours of nothing, they went out to the 50m line to try

or Surf Coast to Lorne recently? Send in a report to slaterfish@gmail.com with ‘FMG’ in the subject field or give me a call on 0408 997348. Please include where (without giving away your secret spot!), when, what on and who caught the fish. Pictures are always great, but please make sure they are at least 1MB (file size). FEBRUARY 2023

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Incredible fishing for snapper PPB WEST

Alan Bonnici alan@fishingmad.com.au

The fishing around February is generally considered one of the most productive time of the year. Our local fish species far and wide thrive in these warmer water temperatures and the variety of fish you can target in good numbers is simply amazing. Recently my fishing has been incredible catching countless snapper, whiting, flathead, squid, snook, redfin and even getting stuck into some top water trevally and bass. Let’s start talking about snapper. This time of year, we are at peak water temperature and some snapper will venture offshore seeking cooler water temperatures, while the snapper that remain will be widespread all around the bay. Dedicating some time on

your sounder during this time of year is critical. Some days they will be out deep near the shipping channels and other days in close as shallow as 3m deep. You will also find the catches can be at any time

of the day so hitting the water at 3am isn’t necessarily essential, although it is not a bad idea to fish first light and be off the water before the heat kicks in. I must admit I’m not a

massive fan of the insane boat traffic at ramps this time of year, so often I’m found fishing on my kayak in the shallow waters with good mates. On the yak, the snapper fishing has been incredible and the key for me this season has been to find the shallow reefs and bait. Moving around on the yak staring at the sounder will often show thick bottom and schools of yakkas or even salmon. These are great grounds to catch snapper. I’ve caught many of them and all on soft plastics – ranging from 2kg through to 6kg. The fish have been a tad finicky this season so I’ve found dropping down leaders to 12lb, 8lb and even on occasions to 4lb has helped greatly. Especially when you’re marking fish on the sounder but not catching.

The author with a summer snapper. thrive in the warmer water temperatures and come on strong and in big numbers. I’ve been fishing around Corio Bay and catching bags of whiting. Again, I

prefer targeting these fish on soft plastics over bait. It’s a lot more fun and a lot less messy. I also find when the whiting are on your typically To page 81

February fishing is hot!

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Mark with a 60cm snapper taken on his kayak.

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I had a great session at Werribee last week with my close mate Mark. We bagged out on snapper in 30 minutes after stumbling upon a big school around Werribee. Both armed with 4” and 7” Gulp Turtlebacks rigged on a 1/8oz 3/0 jighead we worked the edge of the reefs and bagged out on snapper quickly, ranging from 45cm to 70cm. It’s so much fun on light spinning gear. Mark used a light Shimano Zodias and Vanford combo and me using a NS Blackhole Tarantula and Shimano Twin power FD combo. The snapper fishing has been great, but I will caution that results may be inconsistent this time of year with those water temps above 20°C. FLATHEAD AND WHITING To me February is more known for the whiting and flathead fishing. These fish

It’s a great time to target bass on topwater lures.

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Looking at stand-out locations in February PORT PHILLIP

Gerry Morsman

This month sure did have a lot to offer for our recreational anglers, and our fishery seems to be getting better and better across Port Phillip Bay and Western Port. There were reports coming in thick and fast this month, and there were definitely some standout areas for all species, which I will discuss in this report.

near the shipping channel, which means you may have to cover a lot of ground to find where the fish are biting. Scott Humbles reports that fishing out off Mt Eliza in 20m of water has been doing the trick for him. Silver whiting has been the stand out bait on twin snelled 5/0 Gamakatsu circle hooks. Constant berley on first light will get the fish going, and that goes for most of Port Phillip Bay. There are still reports of fish being caught around

early morning or late in the evening. Most areas along the coastline in the sand just off the reef will hold whiting, and there are some very good-sized fish in the mix. If you find yourself being bombarded by small pinkies or leatherjacket, the best option is to just move to the next spot. Another spot that is producing good numbers of fish is a place called Bird Rock at Mount Martha. Anchor up around 20m off the rock itself and you will find yourself in around 5m of water with the perfect ground to catch whiting. The best baits for all these areas have been squid strips, pipis, mussels and, if you can get it, cuttle fish works very well. Portsea is getting good reports near the pier on the incoming tide, and so

Scott Humbles says silver whiting was the bait of choice at first light. has Sorrento in the boat moorings. You will see them just as you are driving out from the Sorrento boat ramp.

Learning how to cast on her own, Ally Day caught her first squid and did everything herself. SNAPPER The snapper tend to move around to the same areas each year around the same time, like clockwork. However, you still have to find the fish in these areas as Port Phillip Bay is a massive piece of water. All the reports for this month have been out wide from Mornington to Frankston in around 20-22m of water, out From page ###

catch the bigger ones on soft plastics. I was fishing at Avalon last week on my kayak. I found a good patch of flathead and whiting and decided to anchor in 3m deep. I caught whiting after whiting flicking 4” Turtlebacks in pumpkinseed colour rigged on a 1/12oz jighead and a 8cm stinger assist. The whiting were ravenous and smashing soft plastics on the drop. As I was about to pull in the last for my bag limit, I looked to my left and noticed a massive dorsal fin slowly swimming towards me. I could see a huge shadow which slowly circled my yak. It was pretty scary and confronting especially in such shallow

Carrum in 16m over the mud flats. Fresh squid and silver whiting are the stand-out baits there. KING GEORGE WHITING Plenty of good catches of King George whiting have been reported lately, with Mornington and Mouth Martha being two of the stand-out locations. The key is to fish either in the dark, waters anchored up. I decided to pull up the anchor and call it a day just in case. Later that evening I had an influx of messages from FishingMad members and followers saying that a 10ft mako was spotted in that exact area that day and had been curiously sussing out boats. Not much fun when you’re on a 14ft kayak made out of very thin plastics. TREVALLY AND BASS As mentioned at the start this month I have really taken to topwater fishing for trevally and bass out on the yak at the top end of Bellarine Peninsula and on the Barwon River. I’m catching trevally on surface lures, flicking Daiwa Slippery Dogs and Bassday Sugapens and along the banks of the Werribee

Aaron Day found good numbers of squid around Mt Eliza using Majorcraft squid jigs. River catching bass flicking cicadas, Micro Pompadours and stickbaits. I’m even getting some on sub-surface lures like Micro Tappys and cranks. The action has been so good and nothing quite beats a surface boof from an angry trevally or bass. It’s an additive form of fishing that makes the heart skip a few beats and both these species fight incredibly hard especially on light gear. If you haven’t done this style of fishing, I highly recommend it as it’s a lot of fun. That’s it for now, have a great month’s fishing and don’t forget to follow my fishing adventure on FishingMad. Until next time, good fishing everyone. Feel free to contact me directly to share

your fishing experiences, photos and catches around Melbourne, Port Phillip Bay and beyond which we can feature in next month’s article. • You can contact me by email at alan@fishingmad.com.au. Please consider becoming a FishingMad member at www.fishingmad.com.au/ member for fishing reports, workshops, podcasts, and exciting monthly giveaways. Also, don’t forget to follow my fishing adventures on the FishingMad YouTube channel www.youtube.com/c/ fishingmad and social media on Facebook page www. facebook.com/fishingmad. com.au, Instagram page w w w. i n s t a g r a m . c o m / fishingmad.com.au and on Channel 31 Tuesday evenings at 9:30 pm and Saturday afternoons.

GUMMY SHARK As expected, people targeting snapper are catching gummy sharks as by-catch. The more common areas you will see this happening are out deep in around 20-22m of water off Mornington, and moving down towards Safety Beach on the edges of the shipping channel (of course, you have to stay out of the actual channel itself). It is very difficult to specifically target them in these areas and consistently catch them, but you are always in with a chance. The southern channel off rye and Sorrento have been seeing consistent reports of quite good-sized gummies. Fishing in the night seems to be the more favourable time to target this species with fresh flesh baits like Australian salmon and trevally if you can get it. Gummy sharks have an exceptionally good nose so fresh baits are key to catching big gummy sharks. SOUTHERN CALAMARI If you want to target

large squid, you can’t go past areas such Portsea and Sorrento. Fishing on the slack tide is the go, using 3.5 size squid jigs over the broken ground. One of the better ways to target big calamari is fishing offshore, and the hotspots lately have definitely been areas such as the back beaches around Portsea and Flinders. These areas hold very reefy structure with a huge amount of prey that large calamari love to feed on. Getting in close on the drift using large jigs around the 3.5 to 4.0 size is effective, and the reports have been thick with a lot of anglers getting their bag limit in no time. Another very effective way to catch squid is to drop a jig down on a paternoster style rig with a sinker heavy enough to get to the bottom over reefs of up to 35m of water. Big calamari aren’t shy of heading out to reefs of these depths to get themselves a feed, as these reefs are full of life.

Cooper Day getting the job done in around 3m of water off Mt Eliza. FEBRUARY 2023

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The fishing is good down here PHILLIP ISLAND

Craig Edmonds

Because of circumstances around the country with flooding and simply the cost of living not allowing people to go too far, we have had lots of new people to the area over the Christmas

of a few years ago, they are going to need support. Whether it’s a simple day’s drive, leaving a bit of money behind in the cafes or shops, or an extended stay – every little bit will help. Sadly though, after speaking with visitors from those areas it’s not looking like a lot will be open by Easter, so maybe

Jett was happy with this pan-size snapper. period. The overwhelming sentiment from many of these visitors has been, “I didn’t know the fishing was so good down here.” Although the flood waters have mostly receded, there are hundreds of other challenges before many of these areas can re-open. When they do, like the bushfire areas

think of a bit of a winter getaway. I am positive they will appreciate it. Over the last couple of months we’ve seen catches of school tuna by the dozens, kingfish to 15kg, mako sharks to 100kg, flathead to 2kg, salmon to 2kg, bucket loads of mackerel and yakkas, even pilchards

on the bait jigs, snapper to 6kg, whiting to 1kg, calamari to 3kg, 20kg plus gummies, 25kg plus school sharks, then throw in bronze whaler sharks, garfish, mulloway, elephant fish, ‘couta, pike, trevally, gurnard, thresher sharks, arrow squid, leatherjackets, abalone, rock lobster, bugs and that’s without mentioning the species you don’t normally take home. If you need an answer as to why locals love this area so much, that’s why. In the whole time we have been in the shop it’s the healthiest the waterways have been and probably the reason that caravan parks are getting more and more enquires from groups wanting to head down for a fishing trip. It’s not only the variety of species that is making the fishing so good at the moment it’s also the wide areas that they are being caught. We are getting reports from most corners of the bay in the boats and while the bigger snapper have all but gone there are still plenty of pan sized pinkies around. The whiting have been beyond good for months and despite seeing some smaller ones around, next year’s stock, bags are containing plenty of those close or over the 40cm mark. Gummies and schoolies are almost as good in the bay as they are normally offshore and customers have reported more 15kg to 20kg this season than we have seen in 10 years. But they haven’t disappeared from offshore either with those looking for them finding just as good numbers off Kilcunda as well. Even the jetties have fired up with all the expected species and to the surprise of some who though they had a good salmon on discovering that kingfish can also be caught. We also had reports of kingfish from those fishing in Cleeland Bight for whiting or calamari with everyone catching kings in the bay telling us the same story, they were casting lures into a school of salmon and caught a king.

MARLO

OCEAN VIEWS CARAVAN & CAMPING PARK

Hopefully that rain La Nina has buggered off and we can get back to some normal settled weather and have the Autumn weather we are used to, warm days, calm winds and great fishing. This period now for the next few months traditionally is when offshore really comes alive for everyone. Summer, despite the weather event we are in is always unsettled and while we have some good days it’s usually the bigger boats that head out, whereas through the Autumn we get days in a row where it glasses out offshore and the smaller boats can get amongst the fishing out there. If you are in a smaller boat, or any boat for that matter and unsure of heading offshore get some local advice as to the best winds and sea conditions. First time don’t try to go as far away as your fuel tank will let you, just do a couple of short trips onto the flathead grounds to see how you and your crew handle being offshore. I know plenty of people that can fish in the bay, even in very windy choppy conditions but 100m outside the bay with the gentlest of swell turn a shade of green. If you are unsure, take a couple of travel sickness tablets and keep your head up. Probably the main reason that people get unwell offshore is dehydration and will give you all the similar signs of sea sickness so keep up the fluids and don’t change from your normal routines. This will help you have an enjoyable day on the water, in the extreme speak to your GP, as they can prescribe medicines that will help also. POSITIVE CHANGES Twelve months ago we had the biggest change to our business since we purchased it back in 2006; we moved! While there have been

Thomas with a tasty catch of whiting. challenges over that time, as a whole it has been extremely positive and beneficial for all. We have been able to expand into many products our customers have been asking for, increasing our product range by almost 25%, with plans to increase it even further. With the recent changes to the retail tackle supply not far from us we are finding that we have a new customers with some different demands in their tackle needs and are currently working our way through that. Because of the increased space we have now been able to introduce

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John with a cracker kingfish.

Daiwa to our range which now gives us supply from all of the major and almost all the minor tackle suppliers so we can better service our customers. We are endeavouring to keep all our prices competitive for everyone without any fancy gimmicks, simply concentrating on service. While we have many ideas on the direction, we want to grow the business the best way is from feedback from customers, so please don’t hesitate to have a talk to us about ways to best supply your needs the next time you are in.

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Fantastic fishing offshore MARLO

Jim McClymont mcclymont@net-tech.com.au

We are into a brand new year, along with a brand new boat ramp at Cape Conran. By all reports it is a significant improvement on our last one, with many boat-based anglers singing its praises. The Snowy River entrance is good and deep after all the water that has flooded through the The kingies are in good numbers at the moment. estuary giving anglers another entrance point to arrived in good numbers of weeks earlier. Bass Strait. But wait, that following the big bait Big bronze whaler is not all, the kingfish have schools that arrived a couple sharks are here in good numbers giving the shorebased game angler plenty of action with their heavy gear and a catch-measurerelease policy giving local anglers plenty of fun trying to outdo each other. With the deep entrance all the extra water is ideal for big schools of fish to enter the estuary. Huge schools of salmon and tailor are coming in with the tide and moving well up into the estuary around the islands. Reports of big schools of luderick are also gathering close to Anglers have been enjoying good catches of kingfish. the entrance on their way

to disperse into the entire system. The bream arrived earlier and already have moved up both rivers and into both Lake Corringle and Lake Curlip. Schools of estuary perch can be found intimately schooling on snags and other structures in both rivers. Summer is also the time of year the prawns, on reaching maturity, move out of the mangroves and reeds and gather on the sand flats that run from the Marlo Jetty all the way down to Frenchs Narrows awaiting the right tide to make their run to the ocean. The same sand flats are where the big dusky flathead are waiting for their annual prawn feast that they share with all the people who like to go prawning either for bait or eating. Most of the anglers who chase the big dusky flathead wade in the shallows and spin with lures. The surf beaches are also firing, with plenty of salmon, tailor, flathead, mullet, and gummy shark on the chew. The offshore fishing, as I mentioned, is fantastic

Warren Fenner with a gummy on a sunny day. with plenty of big flathead, salmon, morwong, gurnard, squid, barracoota, pinkie snapper, wrasse and lots of gummy shark. I

nearly forgot big schools of kingfish are haunting Marlo reef and Tamboon reef giving anglers plenty of options.

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Gippy Lakes alive and well GIPPSLAND LAKES

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

For this month’s report I want to update you on just how healthy the fish stocks are in the Gippsland Lakes and its streams. Without flooding rain events the whole system has settled down and over the next six months we could be in for some of the best fishing any of us have seen for many years now.

big girls got to spawn successfully and further boost bass stocks into the years ahead. It has been well documented that there was virtually no bass spawning in the Gippsland Lakes for possibly two decades and by about 2005 only very large mature fish were present in the rivers. Not a sign of small bass anywhere. Then a colossal restocking program kicked in with more than a million bass being released into the whole of Gippsland over a decade or more.

some of the biggest as well. Right now they are being caught from the barrier near Bairnsdale right up to and past Glenaladale, especially for those kayaking down the river. Surface lures and spinnerbaits are very effective deep in the snags but soft plastics and hard bodies just as deadly. Be warned however, some massive carp live in the river as well and I’ve done battle with these ferals up to 8kg and after a long drawn-out exhaustive battle, I’m just happy to get my lure back! BREAM IN THE LAKES The big bream are back hunting in the shallows out in Lakes King, Wellington and Victoria. It won’t be long before I give you reports from Hollands Landing because the month of February is when I find they are really eager to attack lures again.

There’s still plenty of colour in the water at the moment and this is also very good news for bait anglers with frozen prawn your best option for this time of year. The lower Tambo around the snags at the river mouth will be a go to area especially for slow twitched hard body lures and the same goes for the timber at The Cut down at the mouth of the Mitchell River. For those who know the Nicholson River well, they have already found bream upstream from the railway bridge. Concentrate on the rock walls and the snaggy edges up to the backwater and don’t forget surface lures at first light. DUSKY FLATHEAD It was a little sad that the last four years were very slow for big dusky flathead here in the Gippsland Lakes but that has all changed

This perch might be a small catch but it’s a win for fish stocks across the Gippsland Lakes. After three incredible years of spawning backed up with re-stocking, young EP like this one will ensure the future of this species. BIG BRAWLING BASS One of the biggest features this summer has been the number of bass turning up. Late last year we found a lot of females that were fat with eggs in the lower reaches of all the rivers where they enter the lakes and some of them were over an amazing 60cm. I really hope all those

The results have been mind-blowing and today we now have a stunning bass fishery and the recent captures prove this beyond doubt. The upper Latrobe and lower Thomson Rivers in the west are full of bass from 30 to 45cm. The Mitchell River is a mighty stream and holds the best number of bass and

The shallows of Lake Victoria are back on the map, and the bream are big and eating Twitch 40 hardbody lures.

The rivers are holding many big and very healthy bass this summer. this summer. Although the number of flatties are still well down some big fish up to 80cm have been caught which is terrific news. A few fish have been caught around Duck Arm and even down to Nungurner. I’ll keep you posted on how the flathead bite goes as the lakes continue to clear of coloured water and the angler effort increases. ESTUARY PERCH I’m glad the bigger estuary perch around 35 to 40cm are still being caught in the Mitchell River around the highway bridges and even a few kilometres further upstream. The real joy for me, however, is that I’ve been catching much smaller

perch from 25cm even down to a tiny 15cm! Not often we celebrate pulling in constant numbers of small squeaky fish but these baby perch are making my heart sing. Not only does it prove that the adult fish can take advantage of big rain events over the last 3 years to reproduce offspring in huge numbers but it also means the next five years will hopefully see an explosion in capture rates for those of us who love to target EP in the Gippsland Lakes. Already I’m starting to catch a few modest numbers of larger perch to 42cm over the last month but I expect this to improve over the next few months.

All set for a great year ahead LAKES ENTRANCE

Steven Pryke

We have had a good start to the year, with plenty of warm days and finally a bit of dry spell that’s letting the lakes settle from the large amounts of rain we’ve received. At the time of writing, the lakes and river have all slowly settled, and river heights have come back to normal. LAKES ENTRANCE Our small coastal town has been flat out lately, with visitors from far and beyond

coming to see the spectacular lakes, beaches and fishing this region has to offer. King George whiting have become a massive drawcard for anglers who want to fish the lakes. With the hard-fighting nature and great eating quality of these whiting, it’s a win-win situation. Areas such as Flannigan Island have been great areas to start your search, and anglers have also been catching good numbers of fish throughout the lake system as far upstream as Paynesville. Fresh baits of pipi and mussel have been working very well, as usual.

Australian salmon have been all over the place, with schools being seen smashing baitfish early in the day.

aggressive fish. The local shark scene is well underway, with plenty of big bronze whalers being

The bream fishing has been awesome in recent weeks. A hungry lure-crunching bream.

Large schools of salmon have been prowling around the gutters. 84

FEBRUARY 2023

Throwing surface walkers such as Bassday Sugapens has been deadly. Our local beaches have been full of action, with large schools of salmon working the many gutters in search of prey. Casting metal lures is a great way to find these hard-fighting and highly

caught along our coastline. LAKE TYERS The lake has continued to go from strength to strength in recent times; it has been the most consistent I have ever seen it fish. The bream fishing has been awesome, and the shallow water hardbody bite has become a stand-out

way to catch them. Casting small jerkbaits like the Atomic Shiner has become my favourite way to catch them, especially in the prawn patterns. Heading upstream, the many fallen trees have offered up some great snag fishing, with bream and estuary perch being found hiding close to the sticks. Small wormhooked soft plastic grubs cast

up tight and slowly worked back has been a deadly approach. HAVE YOU BEEN FISHING? If you have been out for fish lately and have a great pic, feel free to send it to stevenprykefishing@ gmail.com with a short description and you could be featured in an upcoming edition of Fishing Monthly!

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East Coast

Flathead, gummies and whiting PORT ALBERT

Brett Geddes b.geddes@bigpond.com

It’s been so nice to finally get a taste of Summer and with increased water temperatures, the fishing has also fired up. As the holiday crowds head back home and the water traffic slows up it seems our catch rates have also improved. We are now heading towards the best weather of the year so let’s get fishing.

have been attacking my Hurricane lures especially the Red Devil Sting 37 blade or the soft plastic Sprat 85. There’s no real secret to getting flatties on lure as we all know they are hungry eating machines but there are a few tricks to vastly improve your catch rate. Always go to a heavier lure or jig head in running water because you must make contact with the bottom more than the lure is free swimming. Retrieve with the flow and not against it to also achieve

the deadliest method I know. It also results in a big bycatch of whiting, trevally, snapper and even flounder, luderick or leather jackets. Over at Welshpool I see there are also plenty of flattie captures but I don’t think they are being caught in the same numbers and not as many rockies either. KING GEORGE RULES SUPREME Speaking of whiting, they too have remained in big numbers over summer and seem to all be around 36 to

Another big bronze whaler tagged and ready for release. Lucas Smith with one of many summer bronzies from the 90 Mile Beach. FLATHEAD GALORE It has been the best flattie season I can remember at Port Albert with numbers well up but the sizes have been outstanding. I’ve seen so many reports and pics sent to me of yank flathead at 70cm to 74cm and I’ve landed so many at 55 to 65cm myself. The bite can be so hot that on three occasions I caught between 30 and 40 ripper flatties all on blade lures. With most of the yanks going 45 to 50cm it’s been nice to release a lot of the bigger fish during their breeding season. Rock flathead have been the real stars over summer and on some days I’m getting at least 12 a session or more. It’s also very exciting to see a lot of much smaller rockies at around 20 to 25cm that will provide great fishing for next year. They are mostly wonderful healthy fat fish up to 48cm that provide superb dining and I notice that they are bringing around $70kg at the markets. Once again the rockies

that outcome. When the tide slows or in shallow water you can pull across the current. In very deep water I will drift and teabag blades vertically with small hops and this is by far

40cm. As usual you tend to get these weird bite windows where they feed flat out for an hour or only fire up on certain times of a tide. Maybe it’s just big schools of mobile fish but you rarely

get them biting for hours on end. The more bait I try on them and the more I talk to other anglers I’ve come to realise they really will eat just about anything if it’s presented at the right size – not too big or small. I’m talking baits like mussel, blue- or whitebait and fresh fish like salmon or trevally. The grass whiting have also kept on biting and on some trips I land more of them that the KG’s. Both readily take my blade lures and stay hooked as long as I keep both stinger hooks sharp. SURF SHARKS A real highlight for me recently was finally getting on the beach with shark gurus Steven Pryke and Lucas Smith. They showed me just how deadly drone fishing can be along the 90 Mile Beach and I was amazed at how busy they could get at certain tide times. On the run out tide they were getting bites every 5 or 10 minutes and with 6 rods between us, it hardly left time to send out the drone for another bait drop. Twice I was ordered to stop taking pictures and grab a bouncing rod as they were letting another shark go or baiting up the drone. We also cast normal surf rods out and caught a few fish but on the day they were a lot quieter. Other trips the boys hardly use the drone as the fish are in closer. Lucas tagged and released a cracking 10ft bronze whaler he says would have gone around 300kg and Prykey grabbed his game rod as a big shark rapidly screamed off around 150m of line before spitting the hook. The large bait came back in with some huge teeth marks in it! Most of the catch was small gummy sharks around 2ft long and one came in that was almost hand sized that we reckon may have only

Rock flathead and whiting are some of the finest dining that Port Albert can provide.

Whiting, flathead and a nice pinkie were just a few fish from a big Corner Inlet haul. been a few days old! I suppose the boys landed about 12 gummy sharks and a few flathead for the session before the whole bite shut down for about three hours. Sadly, the drone had a rare hiccup and end up hitting the water about 400m out. It had severed the line and tangled up with two of its props and Prykey said that had never

happened before. Lucky that Lucas flew out on his surf ski to rescue the $2000 craft that will easily be repaired. With that many little gummies around the future looks to be bright for surf anglers. Thanks so much fellas for a fun trip and I will be re-spooling my rods with 500m of braid ready for your drone.

Harry Morris caught this flathead on a Berkley Gulp Sandworm at Turners Beach in northern Tasmania. FEBRUARY 2023

East Coast

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Bemm stays open for fishing BEMM RIVER

Robyn Sturgess

In January the entrance was still open and the fishing was unbelievable. The channel, just past the storm hut, has been a hot spot for flathead, which have been taking plastics in recent weeks. The bream have also been biting well on frozen prawn in the Siberia and Mahoganies area. Please be mindful that the water level is still low. For those who know their way around the inlet, Bobs Bay has been producing nice flatties and bream. Further upstream the fishing has been slow, but anglers are still reporting

catches of bream and perch early in the morning and late in the afternoon. The salmon and tailor are also great fun on the incoming tide at the entrance. All ocean beaches have been producing salmon, tailor and bream on the incoming tide. As always, make sure your safety gear is up to date and start thinking about booking your Easter holidays now as the season continues to improve. • For on the spot and up to date fishing reports check out Robyn’s website: www. bemmaccommodation.com. au or ‘like’ us on Facebook – Bemm River Holiday Accommodation Phone: (03) 5158 4233/Mob. 0427 584 233 Email: bemmaccomm@ bigpond.com.

Members of the Happy Hookers Angling Club with their catches.

Anglers homing in on concentrations of fish MALLACOOTA/EDEN

Kevin Gleed captainkev@wildernessfishingtours.com

The weather over the holiday period delivered a mixed bag, with some great summer days amongst the cold, winter-like days. The town always comes to life in summer, with fishing being the major drawcard.

As with all waterways, the people who know the area well and fish it regularly will typically enjoy consistent catches, while the newcomers often struggle. However, this year in Mallacoota, even the anglers who regularly fish the area had to work hard to catch fish. It’s a big estuary system and it can take a while to find concentrations of fish, and catching them has been a challenge, even for the experienced fishers.

Still, the results are definitely there for those who persist. Dusky flathead come on the bite over the summer months, and plenty of fish have been caught right through the system. Flatties have been caught in the Bottom Lake right through to the rivers above Gypsy Point. Plenty of good eating size fish have been reported, along with a few larger fish over 80cm. The main channel out to the John Bull

marker is a great area worth putting in the time. Yellowfin bream have been caught in the same area, with the Goodwin Sands also producing some good fishing. The black bream are spread throughout the system, and from all reports catching numbers of fish hasn’t been easy. Sand whiting have also been on the chew, with good catches of fish being reported towards the

front of the lake. The most productive baits have been fresh, local nippers and worms. The entrance is flowing well, allowing good movement of fish, and there is a good chance the fishing could still improve if the weather perks up. Boats heading out to catch a feed of fish offshore have been doing well. Plenty of sand flathead have been reported, with

tiger flathead also being caught in numbers out a bit wider. Once again, an early start is the go to beat the persistent summer northeasterly wind, which makes the fishing and travel a testing experience. Those anglers interested in putting in time chasing a few bass will find fish on the bite upstream. The good weather days will give you the best chance of catching fish.

including 276 undersize. Officers had observed three of the men duck-diving in the intertidal zone, aided by a fourth man ashore who allegedly acted as their look-out. Three bags of abalone were allegedly removed from the water, concealed in the men’s wetsuits, and taken to the alleged look-out man’s van nearby. One of the divers got into a second car and allegedly tried to leave the scene, but was arrested. The other two divers were also arrested, as was the look-out man despite his alleged attempt to blend in with the crowds

who were at Green Point to celebrate the new year. Officers returned all the abalone to the water, seized the men’s wetsuits and placed the van on a retention notice for six months. The men will be charged with a variety of offences including taking undersize abalone, exceeding the catch limit and possessing a commercial quantity. If you see or suspect illegal fishing, please call the VFA’s 24/7 reporting service, 13FISH (133474), to speak directly to a Fisheries Officer. You can remain anonymous. - VFA

FISHERIES NEWS

Boat seized in big illegal abalone bust Two people have been apprehended in Port Phillip Bay and had their six-metre boat seized for allegedly taking more than ten times the daily bag limit of abalone. Director of Education and Enforcement at the VFA Ian Parks said Fisheries Officers were conducting a routine patrol on jet skis near Point Wilson on 27 December when they boarded an aluminium boat in which a man and woman appeared to be fishing for whiting

FEBRUARY 2023

with rod and line. “The man in charge of the boat presented a cooler containing a small quantity of King George whiting and a bag of 10 legal size abalone, which the pair claimed to have dived for earlier in the day,” Mr Parks said. “The daily bag limit for abalone is 5 per person per day. “A search of the boat allegedly revealed two intricate concealments of more abalone onboard, the first containing 71 freshly shucked (removed from

shell) and 18 whole abalone. The second concealment allegedly contained 17 whole abalone, making a total of 116, including the 10 abalone initially presented to officers. “The pair were escorted back to the Werribee boat ramp where they had launched, and the dive gear, catch and boat, estimated to be worth around $50,000, were seized by Fisheries Officers on the spot. All the whole abalone were returned to the water alive.” Mr Parks said the pair

will be charged with a number of offences, including exceeding the daily bag limit for abalone, possession of a commercial quantity of abalone, concealing fish taken in contravention of the Fisheries Act, possessing shucked abalone on Victorian waters, and hindering and obstructing Fisheries Officers. Another illegal abalone haul was seized at Green Point in Brighton. Fisheries officers apprehended four men who had allegedly taken 311 abalone,

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The Murray is starting to fall ROBINVALE

Rod Mackenzie codmac@bigpond.net.au

With Christmas done and dusted and a few extra kilos added to an already expanding mid-section, the chance to wet a line during the holiday period has gone.

blackwater flows that kill our native fishes. Their numbers have exploded to the point that anglers searching for a feed of yabbies are pulling nets loaded with hundreds of small carp, with not a yabby in sight. There’s been no big yabby runs in our local waters of the Murray River since 2010-11 after the first major

using either bait or fly. The word on the blackwater is that the leaf matter breaks down to beneficial carbon in a short time frame of just a few days, yet months on and the river is running black as ink as the water flows out of the bush. It has even managed to start killing fish 60km inland in catchment dams that hold water for farming purposes, including drinking water for livestock! Even though the fish deaths at the location I went to fish were redfin, it still shows the ferocity and killing power these blackwater events have unleashed. We are now several months on into the flood and the waters are still toxic. To anyone that

still thinks these events are normal and have been going on forever, you are either connected financially or have no bloody idea. On a brighter note, another flood raging on the Darling River has transformed this waterway into a magnificent fishing paradise almost overnight. Golden perch by the bucket and yabbies thicker than the hairs on a cat’s back have anglers revelling in the big rains and the bounties of a river in natural flood. I have made the drive several times this past month, and every trip was one to be remembered. On the downside the mosquitoes have had a great breeding season, and their numbers

A brace of goldens for Darcy Hann.

Young Darcy Hann has been enjoying the good run of perch biting on bait in the Darling River. The river’s still high, but the peak of the flood has gone through in our local waters. Still, running black several months on it’s hard not to wonder when it will return to its normal state. Local reports are zero, other than carp that are all but indestructible and actually enjoy the

blackwater event. What a mess our fishery is in! Many anglers who experienced the great angling we once enjoyed are waiting for the river to fall back inside the banks so the true damage can be seen. Until then, in most sections carp in the backwaters might be the only challenge for those

Clinton Hann has eaten so many yabbies this past month from the Darling River that he has started growing claws.

on dusk and dawn bring the still of the bush alive to the drone of buzzing wings. To wake up in the swag with the thousand beady eyes sitting on the flywire screen waiting to sting the oversized prize inside is not a great way to greet the dawn. Take this on board if you intend to spend time up the river. Be prepared with bug spray and cover with the right clothes,

as these little pests can ruin a trip without even trying. Other than the bounties of the Darling River, I wish I had better news on the local fishing. We will watch and hope as the Murray drops away that something will be left of our once vibrant fishery. Until then, I’ll be keeping the mozzie spray at the ready and focussing on yabbies!

Stormy topwater bite SHEPPARTON

Nick Brown teamriverrats@hotmail.com

The Goulburn River continues to bounce back after the floods, with heaps of reports coming in this past month. Anglers have taken advantage of the stormy conditions with some crazy top water sessions with fish over a metre reported off the top. The new Bassman Wake

Walkers have been a big hit with some big fish now being caught on these new lures. If you’re not chasing a topwater bite, spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits have been great lures to target both yellowbelly and cod. Those fishing during the day with bait have reported cod, yellowbelly, carp and silver perch with Trelly’s chicken baits and scrub worms accounting for most of these fish. Areas such as Murchison, Arcadia and in the heart of

Kaleb Oxley with a solid Kialla Lakes yellowbelly.

Shepparton have been hot spots. As the temperature keeps rising in February the fishing should continue to improve as long as we don’t get a flush of water down the river. BROKEN RIVER It was a great lead into Christmas and over the new year period for the Broken River with plenty of fish being caught from Benalla to Shepparton. The best thing about the Broken lately is it has fished well for all types of anglers. Fishos using bait have reported heaps of fish around the 40/60cm range with chicken and night crawlers working best. Casting black and green Bassmans or orange and black 4D Spinnerbaits saw cod up to 68cm caught along with plenty of yellowbelly. The trusty Pompadour was the standout topwater lure in this period with the surface bite going well around Dookie, Benalla and upstream of the junction. KIALLA LAKES One of the best periods of fishing is now to be had at Kialla Lakes with so many yellowbelly and redfin being caught. These fish seem to be in

Mark Whitford with a yellowbelly from the Goulburn River. very healthy condition and are most likely river fish the moved into the lake system during the floods or the relocated yellowbelly from either the channels or Greens Lake. These fish maybe a tad small but they are super aggressive smashing small crank baits and chatterbaits regularly. If they are not biting the lures mentioned above switched to a beetle-spin rigged plastic especially around weeds. IRRIGATION CHANNELS The local irrigation channels are fishing well for cod with reports coming in from all directions. The channels near the Waranga

Basin, out towards Katandra, Shepparton east and Murchison have produced legal-size cod this season, which has been great to see. The usual spots such as drop bars, syphons and bridges have been the best spots to fish. Those fishing with bait has found that nightcrawlers have been the bait of choice for those chasing carp, redfin and yellowbelly. Chicken and cheese have been the best baits for cod. Spinnerbaits and crankbaits have worked well those casting lures with plenty of legal sized fish being reported. WARANGA BASIN Redfin are going crazy

at Waranga with heaps of reports of good-sized fish around the 28/35cm range being caught regularly. Trolling in around 10/12ft with the small Codgers and Old Mates has been a successful depth with those fishing deeper using the Crazy Deeps. Fishing off the bank with small crankbaits or jerkbaits is producing fish so is using blades or plastics on points or off the banks. Bait fishing while drifting is another great way to target redfin in the basin as long as it’s not too windy. Worms and small yabbies are great baits at Waranga this time of year. FEBRUARY 2023

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It’s raining cod! YARRAWONGA

Tony Bennett codclassic@bigpond.com

Lake conditions are returning to almost ‘normal’ as the flood water that hit throughout November has all but cleared up. With plenty of boat traffic about, anglers will be best served heading into the timber on the northern side of the lake to seek a bit of solace and calmer water. There’s no method that outshines others when it comes to lure fishing at this time of year but above all, fishing in the shallower margins with surface lures during the lower light periods is the most fun, and tends to return some bigger cod. For the bait brigade, it was proven over the Cod Classic weekend that bait outdid the lure fishing 64% to 36%. The choice of bait is up to personal preference, but the top three performers continue to be cheese, bardi grubs and chicken. The next four months are Mulwala’s most productive, so keep an eye

on the weather map and hit it hard as much as possible. Looking back, December got off to a great start. Some people were put off by misinformation they had received about the Yarrawonga/Mulwala region, but many others flocked to Lake Mulwala to celebrate the opening to cod season with the iconic Cod Classic fishing competition. Competitors were greeted with a perfect weather conditions for the entirety of the weekend. In total 1761 fishos took part, landing 700+ legal sized Murray cod. Throw in 70 yellowbelly that measured in excess of 45cm, and over 100 carp, and there was plenty of action for everybody. Todd Downie topped the field, landing an amazing 118cm cod on chicken whilst Ivy Stoeckel took out the juniors with a super 82cm model. Rod Beer’s 58cm golden perch was the pick of the bunch for the adults, whilst Hunter Vonja took out the juniors with a 57.5cm specimen. Dave Taylor’s 86cm carp was the biggest mud sucker taken

for the weekend. Fishing over the Christmas period was consistent, with many visitors coming into the store and telling us of their captures. Again, bait fishing has produced greater numbers, especially down below the weir, but it has not been uncommon for the lure fishos to pick up 10+ in a session. One fish that certainly needs mentioning was caught by local lass, Kayla Orton. Kayla and husband ‘Gubbsy’ took their four boys carp fishing in a small creek that runs off the Murray below the weir. After landing a dozen or so carp in a hurry, Kayla’s well-presented worm was taken by something big. Upon landing it, to everybody’s amazement, it was found to be a 74cm brown trout, a species that is rarely seen in this area. Interestingly, Fisheries recently electro fished the North Gates to save the many cod that were stranded in there during the floods. Fisheries staff managed to relocate 72 Murray cod (including four measuring over a metre), 12

Rowan Thwaites with a 64cm cod taken casting below the weir over the holiday period. trout cod, 18 golden perch and six brown trout! Well done, Fisheries. Below the weir, the fishing has been better than usual, with plenty of catches being reported. The bait fishos have been getting plenty of smaller stuff, whilst numerous lure fishos have been reporting large numbers of both cod and yellowbelly. The competition season is upon us, with a few events coming up over the next

couple of months. The first is the ever-popular Humminbird Da$h 4 Cash, running from 18-19 February. Following this is the His & Hers Partners Classic, scheduled for 4 March. To round out the comp season is the Cod Nationals – four days of serious tournament fishing for the dedicated green fish angler, held between 15-18 March. Until next month, happy fishing.

• If you are visiting town, call into Lake Mulwala Fish Camp & Ski, the shop with the big green cod out the front in Mulwala, or in the heart of the main street Yarrawonga, located between Rivers and One Zac. We are Yarrawonga/Mulwala’s fishing specialists, and specialize in all things ‘green’! For any information on the upcoming events or fishing reports, give us a hoy on (03) 5744 3133.

Fish firing up in the heat BENDIGO

Roger Miles codhuntertours@bigpond.com

It took a long time coming, but the Bendigo region has experienced some warm weather over the previous weeks and no doubt there will be some more hot weather during the month of February. This hot weather has helped warm up the water temperatures and it has had a positive effect on the fishing. The Bendigo region is very lucky as there are plenty of good options locally to go and catch a few fish if you want to. LAKE EPPALOCK Water levels are still very high at this location, although slowly dropping. Water clarity is currently only average at the moment with the water still very tannin, but it is slowly improving from week to week. Lake Eppalock has been very busy with boat traffic over the holiday period. The increased boat traffic is not ideal when you are trying to catch a few fish. The good news is that the majority of holiday makers are heading back to work and we will see a reduction in boat traffic this month. The redfin fishing has been good over the last couple of months, but I am predicting that the productivity in the redfin fishing is going to increase 88

FEBRUARY 2023

significantly over the next few. The best concentrations of redfin are currently being caught in shallow water. Depth ranges between one to four metres of water have been the most productive for the redfin. Trolling small hardbody lures has been working well. Casting soft plastics and blades are good options. Make sure you reduce the weight on the jig heads you are using when you are catching fish in shallower water. Bright coloured soft plastics have been working the best. The numbers of golden perch being caught in the lake has increased over the last month. Good options for the golden perch have been casting lipless crankbaits and trolling small to medium sized hardbody lures. The numbers of Murray cod being caught has also increased over the last month. The majority of the Murray cod that are being caught have only been small. One local Bendigo angler did manage to land a Murray cod measuring over the one metre mark recently. The Murray cod was caught on a small hard body lure. This is a great sign and thanks to some very good fish stocking from Victorian Fisheries more anglers will be able to experience the excitement of catching a quality Murray cod out of Lake Eppalock in years to come. CAMPASPE RIVER The productivity in the fishing below the weir in the

Campaspe River has reduced significantly now that the flooding has stopped and river flows have reduced. This means fish have again spread out throughout the system and anglers need to work a lot harder to catch a few fish. Water clarity is currently only average in the Campaspe River at the moment. The reduced flows are helping and water clarity is currently slowly improving. Golden perch are still making up the majority of anglers’ captures. The three most productive types of lures for the golden perch have been small spinnerbaits, lipless crankbaits and small to medium sized hardbody lures. The most productive colour choices have been bright ultra violet colours such as fluro pink, fluro orange, fluro chartreuses, fluro purple. The numbers of Murray cod being caught has been slowly increasing over the last few weeks. This trend should continue over the next few months as water clarity continues to improve. The productivity in the surface fishing is currently good. With the warm weather there are currently large numbers of cicadas along the river. These are a favourite food source for the Murray cod and a good small profile paddler surface lure imitates this food source perfectly. With the large volumes of water that has spilled over at Lake Eppalock over the last several months there have

been significant numbers of redfin which are now residents in the Campaspe River below Lake Eppalock. This should mean increased numbers of redfin are waiting to be caught in the Campaspe River this season. CAIRN CURRAN The productivity in the fishing in Cairn Curran has been a bit disappointing at this stage. The numbers of fish currently being caught in this location is a lot lower than what it was at this time of the year last year. Unfortunately with the flooding large volumes of native fish who were residents of Cairn Curran are now residents of the Loddon River below Cairn Curran. While this will hurt the productivity in the fishing in the lake in the short term, it won’t take too many seasons of good fish stockings and we will again see the lake improve again. While the loss of fish is not great for the lake it is excellent for the river below the lake. This is what the process of flooding brings with it. The redfin fishing has been slow, but the productivity in the redfin fishing should improve over the next few weeks as the water warms up. The best concentrations of redfin will be caught in the shallow water. Soft plastics, blades and small hard body lures are good options. The numbers of golden perch being caught have been low and trolling small hard body lures around the edges of the lake has been working.

The hot weather has produced a good hatching of cicadas, and the cod are making the most of it. You can get good results on surface lures in low light. Casting lipless crankbaits around the rocky shorelines has also been producing small numbers of golden perch. The numbers of Murray cod being caught have been low. Small Murray cod have been caught by those anglers trolling the edges of the lake in the depth range between three and four metres of water. A small number of quality Murray cod have been caught on swimbaits and trolling large hardbody lures. LODDON RIVER The productivity in the fishing has now reduced below the weirs in the Loddon River now the flooding has stopped. The numbers of fish that were caught in these areas during the flooding was exceptional. With the reduced flows fish are now dispersing throughout the system. Water clarity is still very tannin, but the water clarity is slowly improving as the reduced flows are helping the river settle.

Golden perch are still making up the majority of captures. The increased temperatures over the last few weeks will definitely help increase the feeding activity in the golden perch over the next few months. Spinnerbaits, suspending hard body lures and lipless crankbaits are all great options over the next few months when targeting the golden perch. The majority of Murray cod being caught in the Loddon River have been between 50cm and 65cm. There have, however, been small numbers of large Murray cod being caught with a couple of reports of Murray cod measuring over the metre mark being caught at this location. One of these large Murray cod was caught on a large surface paddler, the other was caught on a swimbait. If you are targeting one of these large fish, your best chances are during periods of low light or after dark.

VIC

Late summer bounty to take home for dinner WANGARATTA

Robbie Alexander

February can be a great time of the year to go fishing in the Wangaratta area, as while some areas start to slow down, others start to pick up! MURRAY COD The Murray cod fishing

yellowbelly are getting caught in the Ovens River and its tributaries. I have caught them on worms and lures. Just recently I caught a small yellowbelly on a spinnerbait. I was fishing with my mate Brett who caught a better one an hour after I did, also on a spinnerbait.

fish really well in February and can continue to do so through much of autumn. If fishing from my kayak, I like to troll small diving lures that get down really deep. I also like to cast soft plastics towards the bank and retrieve slowly back to the kayak, allowing it to sink regularly as the depth increases.

February is usually the last chance to catch a decent feed of yabbies before they start burying themselves in the mud. the plastic to sink, then retrieve it slowly down close to the bottom. This is a dynamite technique when fishing for redfin off

A small and vibrantly coloured Wangaratta yellowbelly that took the author’s Damiki spinnerbait. can still be very good in February. I do find that February can be a bit more hit and miss than January, however there is usually still some great fishing to be found. In the rivers around Wangaratta, the low light periods of the day are ideal times to flick surface lures around, and the best part about February is that sunrise is a little bit later. During the day try fishing down deeper with diving lures and spinnerbaits. If you are using bait, cheese, live yabbies, shrimp and bardi grubs are all great baits. Pretty much any area that you would normally fish for Murray cod will be worth

Something worth mentioning is the amazing return of the Macquarie perch. The Ovens River has a healthy and improving population of Macquarie perch for the first time in over half a century thanks to a huge amount of work across many agencies and organisations. It is critically important that anglers are able to tell the difference between a yellowbelly and a Macquarie perch, as the Macquarie perch are a protected species in all but two waterways in Victoria. They are fully protected in the Ovens River system. REDFIN The redfin fishing is usually really good

especially towards the end of the month as the nights get a bit longer and the water starts to cool down a little. When trout fishing in

Lake Buffalo has a lot of small redfin, but there are some very large ones in there too, if you look hard enough. the bank at Lake Buffalo or Lake William Hovell, or any other lake with redfin in it for that matter. TROUT February can also see the trout fishing start to improve,

streams in February, my goto colour is black. Anything black. I love the black Strike Tiger Nymph colours. There are several variants, like black and gold, black caviar, starlight and so on. They all

work well. Black spinners and even minnows will also work well. The reason that I like black so much in February is because there are a lot of black things in the environment. Crickets are usually quite abundant in February, and there are still March flies, blow flies and cicadas. All of which are black! OTHER SPECIES February can be a wonderful time to catch just about everything in the Wangaratta region. The small blackfish in the mountains are on the bite, and the yabbies are usually still biting well, although they can tend to slow down a bit towards the end of the month. If you’re like me and enjoy catching carp, February is a great time to do that and with the widespread flooding last spring, there are carp everywhere at the moment. So go and catch a few carp, put a bend in your fishing rod and do the environment a favour at the same time!

Anything black will work on trout in February, including this Strike Tiger nymph in bluebottle colour. fishing this February. YELLOWBELLY Yellowbelly numbers are on the up and up in the Wangaratta area. With each season, more and more

and getting even better in February. I love late summer and early autumn for catching redfin. Both of the main lakes William Hovell and Buffalo start to

If bank fishing, I like to wade out (especially on hot days) and cast soft plastics. I could do this all day long. Depending on how deep the water is, I like to allow

An 82cm Murray cod caught early in the season. These fish are still on the bite in February. FEBRUARY 2023

VIC

Mudeyes are on the menu BALLARAT

Shane Stevens

The weather has warmed up in and around the Ballarat District, and so too has the fishing, with excellent reports filtering through. Mudeyes are at the top of the menu. As I’ve mentioned before, our fishing season seemed to be a bit later than normal. This could be due to the very wet year we have had, which kept water temps down and slowed/delayed the insect hatches. Generally the mudeye

and complex aquatic habitats. Once they reach a certain age, they get the urge to leave the water. At this time they will crawl onto any structure they can find that’s out of the water, such as bushes or reeds. At this point the mudeye wing case opens and the mudeye hatches into a dragonfly. Its wings need to dry out before use, which could take minutes or hours depending on the weather. This normally happens late in the afternoon/ evening and night, and this is where the fish feed on them. Anglers can use them as bait, or tie flies to imitate them in their various stages

Nick Whelan has been targeting the mudeye feeders after dark, using Craig’s Nighttime flies, with excellent results including browns to 63cm. Image courtesy of Nick Whelan.

hatches around the Ballarat district get into full swing in late November and early December, just as the mayfly hatches slow down. This season, however, has been totally different, with mayflies still hatching in late December, and the mudeye hatches have only just started (at the time of writing this report). The trout and redfin in our local waters have been feasting on them! For those of you not familiar with mudeyes, they are the larval stage of dragonflies. Most freshwater fish species are only too willing to eat them. There are a couple of varieties of mudeye. First, there’s the bug/spider mudeye, which is generally pretty small – about the size of a 5 cent piece. The couta mudeye is bigger, up to the size of a 20 cent piece. Mudeyes come in a variety of colours of green, black and brown, and they blend into their environment. These creatures can be found in most freshwater lakes, rivers, streams, swamps and dams. Generally the first hatches start around the end of September and go through to end of April, when the weather starts to cool down and they basically go dormant throughout the winter months. Mudeyes live in weeds, logs 90

FEBRUARY 2023

of the migration. The fish can become totally focused on feeding on mudeyes, which then gives anglers the opportunity to catch them, during the day or night, depending on which method you choose. When targeting mudeye feeders, I generally start my fishing session in the evening

and after dark, sometimes all night, using a Craig’s Night time pattern, which is a subsurface fly. If I’m having no luck with that, I switch to a Mrs Simpson, and if that doesn’t work I’ll try a dry fly version of a mudeye, either a Corduliid mudeye or a Muddler Minnow. All flies are fished very slow using either a figure-8 retrieve or slow draw strips. When I use mudeyes for bait, my set-up consists of light line, generally 2kg or lighter mono, a bubble float, a small spiltshot, a size 12 hook and a small piece of foam, which is my depth indicator. I grease my line with a product called mucilin which makes the line float. A floating line allows you to cover plenty of water, increasing your chances of the bait floating past a fish, instead of being stuck in one spot. The way I set this rig up is very simple. I firstly thread the line through the bubble float, allowing this to slide up and down the line. I do not put any water in the float, it is only used for visual purposes and assists with casting the rig out. A lot of anglers put lots of water in their floats, but I believe when the float hits the water with a lot of force from your cast, this can harm the mudeye, and I want my mudeye as lifelike and swimming around as much as possible to attract the fish. I then I place my small bit of foam which has a slit in it. I wrap the line through the slit and around the foam about three times. When doing this I set the depth that I want to fish. This is the distance between the hook and foam. If I want to fish at a depth of 3ft (which is generally the depth I would fish at Wendouree), that is where I

David Jarman has been catching some big rainbow and brown trout fly fishing out of a drifting boat. Image courtesy of David Jarman.

set the foam. If I want to fish deeper, I set the foam at that depth. The small bit of splitshot is only used for weight to assist the mudeye to sink. The foam generally breaks when you strike the fish or when it is fully tensioned. This allows the float to slide all the way down to the split shot, which makes for ease when you are netting your fish. If you use cork or something that won’t break, it makes it very difficult to land a fish, especially when fishing up to 30ft deep, like I do at Purrumbete or Eucumbene. Hopefully these tips will help you catch a trout or redfin on our local waters. WENDOUREE Lake Wendouree has been the standout water over the past couple of months, with the fish continuing to bite morning, noon and night.

These bug/spider mudeyes (dragonfly larvae) were found underneath rocks at Lake Wendouree. Trout and redfin find them irresistible.

Lachy Howlett caught this 50cm rainbow on a pink Tassie Devil at Moorabool Reservoir. Image courtesy of Craig Howlett.

I’m amazed how good the fishing is on Wendouree, when generally it should be slowing down at the moment with the warmer weather finally here. My son Max and I have been mudeye fishing Wendouree during the day, land based from some of the many jetties with excellent results. On one session Maxi landed three rainbow trout all around 50cm, as well as numerous other smaller browns and rainbows. Another lunchtime session rewarded me with a mid 50cm brown trout on a bug/spider mudeye suspended under a bubble float about 3ft down. Nick Whelan, who works at local tackle outlet Rehfish & Co, has been catching some magnificent brown and rainbow trout fly fishing after dark targeting the mudeye feeders. Some recent catches include 63cm and 60cm browns on Craig’s Night time fly patterns. Nick said some nights the fish have come into feed on the migrating mudeye just on dark and other nights it’s been 10 or 11pm and other nights not at all. There has been no real pattern to when they do, it’s just a matter of being there

when they do. David Jarman, who regularly fishes Wendouree with his son Tom, has landed some very nice rainbows and browns including a ripper rainbow in the mid

astounded that you can drive around the lake pretty much any time of the day and you will see trout leaping out of the water, feeding on whatever insects are hatching at the time. The number of anglers you see around the 6km of shoreline, as well as boats and kayaks on the water, is testament to how good the fishing is. We are so lucky to have such a great fishery in the middle of town. MOORABOOL Moorabool Reservoir continues to produce some excellent catches of trout and redfin, despite the reduction in fishable water, due to the weed growth that is choking much of the reservoir. Moorabool’s water level basically hasn’t dropped for the past couple of years. Normally the water level is lowered for domestic and environmental purposes, but

Max Stevens has been catching rainbow trout around 50cm on bug/spider mudeyes suspended under a bubble float, from the jetties that are dotted around Lake Wendouree. 50cm range. David has been fly fishing out of a drifting boat, otherwise known as Loch Style fishing using mainly smaller flies. A Brown Cruncher has been doing the damage recently. The fishing is excellent at Wendouree, I’m still

this hasn’t happed due to the extremely wet weather we experienced last year. The reservoir still has some fishable water though, and those anglers who have found these pockets of water have been rewarded with some excellent catches.

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VIC

Tapping into a prime fishery CRATER LAKES

Rod Shepherd

The good news for trout anglers is that the salmonoid season has been extended due to cooler than normal water temperatures. Not

to mention all the rainfall that has topped up our impoundments. Some sizeable redfin are coming out of Lake Elingamite, with some specimens exceeding 1kg in weight. Most have responded to lures either cast or

Shane with a Bullen Merri tiger trout taken land-based on a Bent Minnow worked along the shoreline.

trolled but down at depths approaching 3m. There are plenty of trout about with browns outnumbering rainbows for a change. Many yearling fish are averaging around 900g meaning that they were released as fingerlings last year, however a few fish are coming in at up to 1.9kg or 60cm in length. Going on these captures it would be the go to let the pan-sized fish swim free and keep a couple of the larger specimens thus allowing a follow through of excellent fighting fish available for boaters. As a rule of thumb, most years see a maximum of 4000 trout released annually, and it would be ideal to allow these fish to spend a minimum of two years in the lake so they can stack on the weight. Lake Bullen Merri has been reasonable for Chinook salmon captures, with the majority of fish coming into

landing nets averaging from 1-2kg in weight. I’m sure larger specimens have been caught but I haven’t had any confirmed reports coming my way of this happening. The lake is considered a prime fishery for Chinooks. Plenty are released there over the course of a year, so the ‘big guns’ are there to be caught. Flat line trolling along with bait fishing with bluebait and pilchard strips in around 10m has seen some quality fish boated. Some rainbows to 1.4kg have also been taken. Bank anglers are using Powerbait in pinks and reds. Live minnows are next on the list followed by scrubworms either fished in the shallows unweighted and allowed to sink or under a float in deeper waters. Most boaters are trolling a variety of lures with medium to deep divers preferred. Between 6-8m seems to be the favoured depth to

Shane Stevens from Ballarat with a chunky Bullen Merri Chinook salmon taken on a pink Tassie Devil flat line trolled. explore as the fish do try and move into the shallows in an attempt to spawn. The big news is the tiger trout are now being released into this lake. This species has really taken off and stacked on the weight in a

short period of time. These tigers are the reason why many boaters have returned en masse to fish here. Plus the fact that the boat ramp is finally finished, The above tactics stated are also working on the tigers.

FISHING NEWS

The Ultimate Fishing Festival Melbourne will be the global capital of recreational fishing for five festival-filled days in February 2023 having won the rights to host the tenth World Recreational Fishing Conference (WRFC), which will include the complementary Ultimate Fishing Expo, at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. Victorian Fisheries Authority (VFA) CEO Travis Dowling said the Ultimate Fishing Expo on Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 February would be a weekend extravaganza of expert speakers and fishing celebrities, activities for the entire family to enjoy, and all the latest in fishing gear, boats and equipment. “Victoria boasts the best recreational fishing in Australia with tuna and kingfish offshore, snapper,

whiting and calamari in our bays, and wonderful inland fisheries home to iconic Murray cod and wild trout,” Mr Dowling said. “ T h e free Expo brings under one roof our popular Murray cod and trout conferences alongside the fishing tackle and boating industry for a one-stop-shop experience for all ages. “VFA ambassador Bachar Houli will be there to share tips and tricks given his love of fishing and a giant 12 metre fish tank will be home to live barramundi. “Boats will be on display, the tackle trade will have stands, and members of the Women in Recreational Fishing (WIRF) network will provide flyfishing casting lessons.” In between activities, take a breather, pull up a seat and listen in to presentations from experts including: • Paul and Jed Worsteling on

a lifetime of family fishing; • Aaron Habgood and Patrick Dangerfield on bay fishing for whiting, snapper, calamari and more; • David Kramer on Victoria’s world class fishing opportunities; • Gawaine Blake on our bay and inlet fishing revival; • Richard Abela on swordfish, tuna and beyond; • Lubin Pfeiffer and Terry George on our trout fisheries; • Colby Lesko and Kate Norman on catching big Murray cod, including at Lake Eildon; • Sascha and Andy Danylchuk from the USA on ‘Keep Fish Wet’ and the latest in catch and release; and • April Vokey on a flyfishing girl’s perspective from North America and around the world. Mr Dowling said the free Ultimate Fishing Expo would feature an unrivalled line up of international

speakers such as Sascha and Andy Danylchuk and April Vokey, who had travelled to Melbourne to present at the World Recreational Fishing Conference the following week from 20 to 22 February. “The illustrious WRFC is held every three years and is the most prominent global gathering of recreational fishing professionals, academics, scientists and industry. “We’re thrilled Victoria is hosting this prestigious event because it’s a reflection of our wonderful fisheries, passionate fishing community and reputation for sustainable fisheries management.” For the Expo’s schedule on Saturday and Sunday, visit www.vfa.vic.gov.au/ ultimatefishingexpo or www. wrfc10.com to learn more about the World Recreational Fishing Conference. – Victorian Fisheries Authority

From page 90

Steve Angee is one such angler who regularly fishes Moorabool chasing trout and redfin. Steve has been targeting the redfin over the past couple of months using soft plastics, with excellent results. I’ve found a couple of areas free of weed, and the redfin have been willing to eat my plastics, including some rippers up to 45cm - an excellent sized redfin in any fishery. Lachy Howlett and his father Craig have also found a couple of areas that are still fishable. The boys have been casting lures and fishing with worms and PowerBait, 92

FEBRUARY 2023

Steve Angee found some clear pockets of water, free of weed at Moorabool, and caught some good redfin including this 45cm model on a soft plastic. Image courtesy of Steve Angee.

The Ultimate Fishing Expo will feature expert speakers and fishing celebrities, activities for families, and the latest in fishing gear and boats. catching a few small to medium sized redfin and rainbow trout. Lachy was casting a pink Tassie Devil lure on one of their recent trips when a 50cm rainbow decided to eat it. It put on an arial display and Craig said he thought it spent more time jumping out of the water, than it spent in the water trying to throw the hooks. We finally landed the rainbow and took a couple of photos before releasing it. Craig also mentioned the amount of fishable water is getting less and less every time they head out. We can expect the weed

to continue to grow with the warmer weather, and it will be a matter of finding those clear pockets of water and targeting those areas. On the flip side to that, there will be an abundance of food that will live in the weed which the fish will feed on, and we should see plenty of bigger fish caught when the water levels drop and the weed starts to die off. Angler numbers will also decline, which mean fewer fish will be taken. This will ensure the smaller fish that were released into the reservoir last year will be of a very catchable size moving forward.

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VIC

Eildon: an angler’s paradise EILDON

Peter Burtchell

This February Lake Eildon is full, full of fish, rivers are running and fishing exhibitions are in full swing, turning Victoria into an avid anglers paradise for fishing action this month.

World Recreational Fishing Conference also being held at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre February 20 to 22. The regional Vic Fishing Expo at Horsham was the brainchild of Peter Fedke, proprietor of Dino Lures. Peter saw an opportunity to create an annual event that

Melbourne events, the Ultimate Fishing Expo, will be the preeminent and largest international recreational fisheries conference attracting fisheries experts, researchers, policymakers, industry and anglers from around the globe. Come faceto-face with the international recreational fishing

For Jake, a moment and memory that will last a lifetime. To catch the trifecta for the week of exhibitions put aside Saturday the 18th and Sunday the 19th to attend both the inaugural Regional Vic Fishing Expo being held at the Horsham Showgrounds in country Victoria and the Ultimate Fishing Expo conducted at the Melbourne Exhibition and Convention Centre then top it off for your final appearance being the 10th Triannual

focused on showcasing some of the fantastic Australian Made or Owned fishing lures, custom made rods, soft plastics, and other general fishing associated products. The main aim of the expo is to allow for anglers and proprietors to browse products that are rarely seen outside of the tackle’s local area. The first of the

Guess who is getting a fishing rod for her birthday? Young Heidi loves going on fishing trips. 94

FEBRUARY 2023

community – the change makers, thought leaders and fishing enthusiasts – for what is set to be a conference of riveting presentations, topical discussions, exciting research, and a chance to reconnect and forge new connections. Running in conjunction with the latter is the 10th triannual World Recreational Fishing Conference and it will take place at the same location, on the MondayWednesday following the Ultimate Fishing Expo. The WRFC is the preeminent and largest international recreational fisheries conference attracting fisheries experts, researchers, policymakers, industry and anglers from around the globe. Come face-toface with the international recreational fishing community – the change makers, thought leaders and fishing enthusiasts – for what is set to be a conference of riveting presentations, topical discussions, exciting research, and a chance to reconnect and forge new connections! Further information on these great events can be found on their Facebook pages. THE LAKE For other times during the month, Lake Eildon and its surrounds will fish very well. Abnormally wet and cold weather saw fishing pressures and fish activity reduced somewhat however

with the rising water temperature yellowbelly and large schools of redfin have become very active. Murray cod continue to feed, however with the amount of easy bait fish at this time of year stealth, bait matching lures and bite times will all play a critical role if you are looking for that trophy sized Murray cod photograph. The guys from Outback Adventures Australia created some very memorable moments as they got away for a weekends fishing on Lake Eildon. Jake Miles, Sam Rogers and Ben Black run a social media page that aims to encourage both themselves and others to have some good times and create great memories exploring the northeast and central Victoria. The trio love fishing Eildon because of the opportunity to potentially run into a huge fish. Topwater is their favourite method of fishing with Cannon Fodder and Triple Banger lures. I am sure we will be hearing a lot from these guys when it comes to their adventures of camping 4-wheel-driving and fishing. Catch them on their Facebook page Outback Adventures Australia and witness their latest metrey. Added to the action on the lake, the Eildon pondage and upper Goulburn will also be great places to try your luck for Murray cod, redfin, yellowbelly and trout. Kate Norman a legendary Murray cod angler was recently captured on camera enjoying some great moments at the Eildon Pondage with baby Heidi in tow. I am sure that in the future we will be seeing a lot more of Heidi when it comes to great fishing photos. If you want to know more about anything fishing at Eildon, you can contact Craig from Eildon Bait and Tackle for lake fishing and

Great mates and great operators, Craig and Jason enjoying a “who has landed the most and that’s my lure” moment on the Pondage. Jason who runs the Eildon Pondage Guiding Services. The two guys are great mates and can often be found competing with each other in their chosen sport as their photograph in this report features. For more information on fishing Lake Eildon, you can also contact the Jerusalem Creek Marina and Holiday Park, a friendly, familyorientated cabin park and houseboat marina, that makes the perfect home away from home. If you’re visiting Lake

Eildon you can stay in one of the floating apartments (boatels), hire a houseboat or fishing vessel, visit the Megabass Elite Pro Store, or book a Megabass Elite Pro Fishing Tour with one of the many leading Australian guides operating from Jerusalem Creek. For more info on all the activities and attractions that Lake Eildon has to offer, visit jerusalemcreek. com.au, give them a call on (03) 5774 2585 or email info@jerusalemcreek.com. au.

Jake from Outback Adventures Australia releasing a metrey.

VIC

LIGHT, POWERFUL, DURABLE…

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Billy Auldist

With weather looking the best it has for a while, the fishing has come along too. Waterways are now well and truly fishable and fishers have been taking full advantage now that most of the bad weather is behind us. The temperatures will soon crank up, bringing the fish into a long overdue activity increase, for which all local fishos have been waiting. Noojee and its surrounding rivers have been very attractive to anglers over the past months with streams finally back to normal. ROCKLEA The water clarity has made all types of fishing more BRISBANE BOATING & LEISURE productive. Lure fisherman 1713 Ipswich Road Rocklea are catching bigger bags of P: (07) 3875 1600as the lure is seen trout now by more fish than it was E: sales@kareemarine.com.au in the murky, rain affected W: www.kareemarine.com.au periods. All types of lures from hardbodies, spinners, NORTHERN GOLD COAST soft plastics and spoons are ONSHORE MARINE taking fish and it is just a case HorizonofShores Woongoolba findingMarina the most popular colour2480 on the day. P: (07) 5546 The Bunyip and Tarago E: onshoremarine@ozemail.com.au rivers are fishing equally W: www.onshoremarine.com.au as well recently with soft plastics being the standout EVERTON HILLS technique. Any smaller HOLT MARINE paddletail or grub-tailed soft plastics along withHills a light 25 Queens Road Everton jighead have been producing. P: (07) 3353 1928 When fishing either of E: info@holtmarine.com.au these rivers you will usually W: www.holtmarine.com.au not catch the numbers of trout that you might catch in CAPALABA Noojee, however the trout here will generally be a betterMIKES MARINE There has also 9 Smithquality Street fish. Capalaba been a few blackfish landed P: (07) 3390 3418 by trout fishers while drifting E: sales@mikesmarine.com.au baits around dusk. The bass that reside in W: www.mikesmarine.com.au Blue Rock Reservoir have SLACKSshowed CREEK up in numbers with

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Callum Auldist showing off a prime local brown trout caught casting a spinner in the surrounds of Noojee. FEBRUARY 2023

Go Behind the Scenery

Tasmania

What will happen offshore this February? OFFSHORE

Kelly Hunt

We’re heading into the second month of 2023 and what a year it has been here in Tasmania already. The usual suspects have been cruising their normal haunts, but the early arrival and good numbers of most species has been nothing short of spectacular. January saw southern bluefin all down the eastern seaboard of Tasmania, from Musselroe Bay all the way down through to the southeast of Bruny Island. They were thick along the coast and hungry. It was a great opportunity to try stick baiting for them. This is an exciting way to fish and I will talk more about

number of families. Broadbill once again started to be on anglers’ minds in January with a few taken. This will continue into February. The Team Seismic boys were down the west and hooked something big and thought it may have been a good sword. After a long fight it was a big shark and not their first broadbill for the season. These lads fish hard and often so it won’t long before they have a sword on board. Look for them on Facebook. February is technically the last month of summer here in Tasmania, but we can still expect some great days on the water. Sea breeze can be an issue, but generally the weather is fantastic. For me it’s the month to

As it turned out we needn’t have worried. The fish were in ‘go’ mode and as soon as the stick bait hit the water there was a gang of blueys looking to inhale it. We had an absolute ball. We quickly realised we were going to catch a lot of fish so we swapped trebles out to big singles and also flattened barbs down to look after released fish. It was stone cold bonkers. Social media has lit up with many crews having a great day out on the blues and also picking up some great albacore. It will be the same all through February with hotspots being Bicheno, Schouten Passage and Triabunna on the east, and Eaglehawk Neck, Tasman Island and Dart Bank to the southeast.

Zak Smith with a very nice King George whiting.

A great photo of a silver trevally caught by Jarvis Wall. this later. The big news has been the schools off Wynyard and on past Penguin and Port Sorell. They have even been spotted by recreational green lip abalone divers in 8m of water. Yellowtail kingfish have shown up early, and some anglers really targeted them well and found some very good fish. Other fishos came across them while trolling the bigger schools of salmon or in their berley trails. The Derwent has a run of early fish. St Georges Bay is holding smaller examples, and the north-northwest has given up some thumpers. Mako sharks have fished well early, and it has been good to see people practicing catch and release. There was a competition recently off St Helens and some fish were hung to win some very good prizes. The point here to remember is four fifths of these fish are tagged. Those that are skilfully taken to win a weight prize are also freezer fillers for a great 96

FEBRUARY 2023

make the last of the daylightsaving bonus as it starts to wane, before we put clocks back in April. The extra daylight after work is such a huge bonus for most keen anglers. BLUEFIN TUNA AND ALBACORE The very early run of bluefin and albacore has been completely off tap. It’s one of the best pre-season starts that anyone can remember. The fish have been plentiful, everywhere and very hungry. They haven’t been spooking when feeding on the surface and this has allowed anglers to take them on lighter spin gear and stickbaits. Big plastics are also a barrel of fun on the eggbeater reels running 80lb braid and an FG knot to tie on some 80lb leader. It was a little light – if we’d gotten boofed by something big we would have been in trouble – but we weren’t sure what the hookup rate was going to be like.

The bluefin numbers are such, the fish are moving into places not seen for many many years. This means they are able to be accessed by a far greater number of people

in boats not often used for the task. Off Devonport or Burnie on a good weather day. You can drag lures in practically any size vessel and be in the mix and half a chance. NORTH WEST COAST In recent weeks it’s been fairly windy so we haven’t had too many reports, but there have been some good catches of King George whiting along the coast. These fish seem to be more prevalent than ever this year. They used to be confined to around the Montague, Duck Bay and Stanley area but now they’re being caught down Burnie way as well. We’ve started catching a few down the Tamar River and Port Sorrell. Fresh bait is the go with pipis and a little bit of squid being the better baits. I recommend using red tubing, red beads and a red

size 6 long shank, baitholder or circle hook. Good gummies are being caught around the traps and using berley will boost your catch rates. Flathead have been scarce in places but certainly down in the Stanley area catches have been quite good. Flasher rigs with a bit of squid have been working fairly well. Make sure you use a sinker heavy enough to keep you on the sand. Snapper are starting to be caught again. Again, Stanleys has been the hot spot but some have been caught off Table Cape and Alberts. The North East and the Tamar have been giving up some real thumpers of late. There have been good numbers of Silver trevally around. Ulverstone and Port Sorell fishing well. They’re not super thick, but their presence is still encouraging.

Fishing Berkley’s Turtleback Worm is deadly on these hard fighting fish. They are sensational fun on light gear. There are plenty of Australian salmon along the coast from Port Sorell through the northwest. These fish have been feeding on very small baitfish around Burnie and elsewhere, with smaller 5-10g chromies working best. This approach could change though, depending on the species and size of bait in the area. A lot of salmon are smaller specimens, but there are a few bigger 6-7lb fish in the mix. In February the fishing should be good overall. Good whiting catches will continue, and flathead fishing should improve. That’s it for this month. Let’s make the most of daylight saving time while we can.

Mason Paul with a solid Northwest Tasmania yellowtail kingfish.

Go Behind the Scenery

Tasmania

All systems go on the Apple Isle HOBART

Andrew Large

Tasmanian fishing has been putting on a show in both the salt and the fresh. Let’s look at your options for the weeks ahead. SALTWATER Southern bluefin tuna have been caught around the Tasman Peninsula, but fishing for this species seems to still be better further south around Pedra Blanca and southern Bruny Island at The Friars. Numerous large schools of 10-20kg fish have been sighted throughout Storm Bay near Hobart. Early albacore have been caught at Eaglehawk Neck, Bicheno, Maria Island and Storm Bay, but they are still very patchy out wide, as is usually the case at this early stage of the season. Anglers seem to do better further up the east coast around Bicheno and St Helens. Makos are now biting well from the very northeast tip in Bass Strait to the very far south regions of Bruny Island. These fish arrived early in December and the numbers got better and better over the next six weeks or so. Tiger flathead arrived a little later than usual and are now running into January and most likely February as well. Good spots so far this year include Marion Bay, lower Mercury Passage and Storm Bay, in particular Adventure Bay off Bruny Island. Good bags of sand flathead are being experienced in most areas this month, and

again were a little slow to get started this year due the large amounts of residual freshwater. The Lewisham area is producing good fish in close, mostly for those using soft plastics. Adventure and Storm bays, Pirates, Norfolk and Blackman Bays have allowed anglers access to quality fishing over recent weeks. Australian salmon are now running well from Dover to Bicheno, with schools being encountered up to 2.7kg. Many schools around Cremorne and Carlton have fish averaging about 1kg.

Morwong perch are now plentiful and biting in 70m of water over rocky bottom. Fortescue Bay seems to be holding healthy numbers of these fish, and it’s a similar story in Boomer and South Maria in 60m of water. Fresh squid baits have been working the best. Sand whiting are in big numbers around the shallower sandy bays, indicating the summer run has begun. Large calamari are available in small numbers around the coast and various offshore bays. Local jetties such as Dru

Tasmanian Devil Spoons have been working well in Tasmanian lakes and rivers recently.

Point, South Arm, Triabunna and Southport also offer good squid fishing, however anglers are experiencing fairly consistent results all along our coastlines in most sheltered bays. Storm Bay in the south is providing consistent fishing for snapper, especially around Betsy Island. Anglers on the east coast have experienced good rock lobster, with the crays running well in most regions, especially over the Christmas period and into January. Kingfish are filtering through in the south, with many fish caught so far. Water temperatures are on the rise and are sitting on about 19°C, so it won’t be long before these fish really fire in the Derwent estuary around Hobart CBD. Tailor have been caught in our estuary systems, and some of these fish are nearing 2.4kg, however most are around the 0.8-1kg mark. These fish are savaging chrome slices and bibbed lures usually intended for salmon. ESTUARY Bream are arriving in the middle reaches of the Derwent and Huon estuaries. These fish are taking bait, lures and flies. Browns River is seeing fish move in over the beach and starting to gather inside the river. Fresh prawn baits should tempt these fish. FRESHWATER Anglers fishing for trout in our lakes and rivers have experienced epic fishing over the last month across nearly all waters. Arthurs Lake is now

Jonathon Nordstrom with a huge tailor for Tasmania, nudging a tad over 2kg. officially back online and fishing well, and anglers are finding good patches of fish. Dry fly fishing has been successful, especially with duns. Anglers trolling have picked up a good share of fish as well. The Tasmanian Devil No 110 is still working really well. Great Lake is now the highest it’s been in many years, and trout have once again moved in over newlyflooded ground. January and February have seen ideal temperatures for feeding trout and both brown and rainbow trout have been patrolling the rocky edges in search of Great Lake galaxia. Good trolling is also being experienced at Bronte

Lagoon, where trout to 2.3kg are regularly taken first up in the morning and at last light. Small trout in Lake King William are smashing nearly anything thrown at them – lure or fly – and have been providing great entertainment over the last month. They’re always relatively easy to tempt, and anything bright and flashy will trick a trout or two in this lake. February is my favourite month for fishing in Tasmania, as nearly everything except striped marlin is available, but with the water temperatures the way they are this season, they might start chewing as well!

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FEBRUARY 2023

BREAM SERIES presented by

Hodges hoists the grand final trophy ABT’s flagship series – the Daiwa BREAM series – came to its conclusion for 2022 with 32 boaters and 22 non-boaters descending upon the black bream haven that is Mallacoota, Victoria. Boaters had to perform at their peak fishing ability over three days to compete for the incredible first prize of an Alloycraft Bass Pro 463 boat and Mercury outboard motor package, equipped with Green Marine lithium batteries and over $15,000 worth of Garmin marine electronics,

tournaments since 2008, Hodges has come painstakingly close to taking out a grand final on two other occasions, with two second place finishes in the 2016 and 2018 grand finals at St. Georges Basin and Lake Macquarie, respectively. “After having been in this position twice, I definitely felt the pressure once I was leading the event,” said Hodges. “I just knew I had to keep my head down and get it done.” Notorious through the ABT ranks for his unparalleled ability to catch

Brad Hodges can finally add ‘BREAM Grand Final champion’ to his already stacked resume! After two 2nd place finishes, he well and truly deserves it.

In second place just under a kilogram behind the win was Mark Crompton. Crommo used his skill with a soft plastic at Mallacoota to climb the leaderboard and achieve his highest place in a GF to date. including the Force trolling motor and LVS34 LiveScope transducer. The non-boaters were also competing for an incredible prize pack to the tune of around $4000 worth of sponsor products from 13 Fishing, Rapala, Sufix lines, TT Lures, Daiwa, Pro Lure, Atomic, Keitech and JML Anglers Alliance. CHAMPION BOATER – BRAD HODGES The old idiom ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ is used to describe a complicated and impressive task requiring patience, and this aligns with the career of long-standing Bream angler Brad Hodges. Having fished ABT

4.5kg on the last day to have it nailed down, and anything around 3.5-4kg would leave the door open if someone whacked them. But, luckily my bag got it done,” said Hodges. Hodges isn’t a fan of fishing around other people in tournaments, so he decided to steer clear of the popular Goodwin Sands area in the lake – where a large portion of the field were sitting – and instead focused, in his words, on an “insignificant” sand flat with broken patches of weed, where no other boats had been. The flat was in

FEBRUARY 2023

Bream being as fickle as they are, the bites each day didn’t come straight away. Instead, he had to wait until the tide change – starting at approximately 9:30am day one, 10:30am day two and 11:30am day three – before the fish fired up. “Like usual when the tide turns the wind picks up and that was the difference for me, I didn’t have a bag before the tide change each day,” explained Hodges. “Then they completely changed from me having to coerce them into eating before the tide change, to them charging down

Scan the QR code to watch the Boater Winners Interview

finicky black bream, Hodges went out and set the tone early. He led the event on day one with a smashing 4.770kg bag, which would turn out to be the biggest for the whole event. This was followed by a 3.890kg day two bag which retained him 1st place, before being anchored finally by a 4.180kg (one of only two 4kg+ bags on day three) on the final day. “I thought I needed

Great Wall of… Tackle? Non-boater champion Bobby Sproule joined the winners circle with an astounding come-from-behind win and in doing so, took home the loaded wall of tackle you can see behind him here.

BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

approximately 2ft of water where crankbaits and soft plastics are hindered by an excess of weed, so a topwater presentation was the obvious choice. For this, he used a 76mm Berkley Pro-Tech Bender from his long-time supporters Pure Fishing, which he credits to landing “at least 10 of the 15 fish I weighed for the weekend”. The topwater outfit was a light spin model Abu Garcia Rayrex Series 2 matched to a 2000 size Abu ALX Theta with 6lb Berkley X9 mainline and 4lb Vanish Fluorocarbon leader.

Angler Brad Hodges Mark Crompton Declan Betts Steven Pryke Kris Hickson Peter Breukel Steve Morgan Tony Pettie Mario Vukic Cameron Whittam

Fish 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15 15/15

Weight(kg) 12.840kg 11.870kg 11.710kg 11.350kg 10.815kg 10.745kg 10.315kg 10.175kg 9.960kg 9.845kg

Full results at abt.org.au

Payout Alloycraft boat/Mercury motor package Millerods

BREAM SERIES presented by topwaters and nailing them.” He found the fish on day two had moved off the weedy flat to sitting on a sandy edge nearby, so he changed to a Berkley Pro-Tech Twitcher 45 crankbait to elicit a reaction from the fish. This ability to adapt caught Hodges his whole day two bag and kept him in the lead going into the final day. Scan the QR code to watch the Field Highlights

For the crankbait he used an Abu Garcia Veritas Tournament paired with a matching Abu ALX 2000 size spin reel, spooled with 6lb Berkley X9 braid and 4lb Berkley Vanish leader. “The bites came a lot slower on day two and I was only able to get my bag and upgrade once,” he explained. However, the change to the edges gave his flat a chance to rest, and he was able to return to it on day three and upgrade multiple times after 11:30am. Now that Brad has achieved what he’d wanted for so many years, will we see him defend his title in 2023 with a guaranteed entry to next year’s grand final? A simple “Absolutely” from the 2022 champion put that question to bed instantly. 2ND PLACE BOATER – MARK CROMPTON Another angler that has been in the hunt for a grand final victory for some years now is NSW angler Mark ‘Crommo’ Crompton. One of ABT’s most dedicated anglers, Crommo finished in second place with a 10/10 limit for 11.870kg, his highest place in a grand final to date. “I definitely feel like I’m due for one,” he laughed to Fishing Monthly. He punched his ticket to the Grand Final earlier in the year by winning the St. Helens qualifying round, proving he is just as dangerous on black bream as he is on their yellowfin counterparts. An angler known for his love of fishing lightlyweighted plastics across the flats, Crommo stuck to those very strengths for the Grand Final. “In prefish I tried to find

A Lakes Entrance local, Sproule knows the secrets to catching big resident black bream. It’s what kept him in striking distance going into day three. them as shallow as I could because I thought those fish would be less pressured from the boat traffic,” explained Crommo. Once he confirmed the fish were definitely going to eat shallow, he also pushed deep to find a contingency Scan the QR code to watch the NonBoater Winners Interview

plan in case the shallow bites slowed down. This forward thinking proved to be crucial to his final result as the bites slowed up on day two and he was able to consistently catch fish and fill his bag. Fishing soft plastics exclusively for the weekend, his go-to presentations were a Juro Firebait (colour 12) or Hurricane sprat 75 (machete colour) rigged on an unweighted Aberdeen hook. The idea was to keep the lure in front of the fish’s face as long as possible, and the best way to achieve that is an unweighted soft plastic. Fishing out of the

Daiwa stable, Crommo had a number of Daiwa combos on deck, however the standout for him was the 7’3” Gekkabijin ‘flats rod’ paired with a 2500 Luvias LT spooled with 4lb Daiwa Morethan braid and 4lb J-thread Finesse leader. This is the model the brand new Infeet AGS is based on and for Crommo, it is his OG flats rod and a proven performer. The technique was fast twitches on a long pause, similar to how one would fish a jerkbait, with the fish often eating it on the drop. To remain as quiet and stealthy as possible in the shallow water, Mark turned off all the sounders on his boat and only had his electric motor running so as not to spook fish. Mark’s vessel – a shallow drawing X-Rider 560 from Revival boats – was also key to the way he fished. This boat allows him to get as shallow as possible without getting stuck where other heavy glass boats would likely not dare to go. Mr Consistent will of course be back in 2023 and with an already impressive

NON- BOATER RESULTS Place 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Angler Bobby Sproule Michael Sammut Stuey Walker Grayson Fong Jarrad Stevens David Shanahan Lance Marsh Tommy Wood Taka Kawasaki Ruth Beeby

Fish 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9 9/9

resume, he will be looking to add that Grand final trophy to his cabinet soon. CHAMPION NON-BOATER – BOBBY SPROULE Bobby Sproule could not have picked a better event to join the winners circle than the 2022 BREAM Grand Final. Not only does he join the winners circle, he joins the elite circle of ‘grand final champions,’ an honour only very few can lay claim to. Non-boating requires a high level of adaptability, and Sproule had no dramas adapting to the techniques of Peter Breukel, Jason Mayberry and Steven Pryke. Day one saw him and fellow Victorian Peter Breukel throwing Hurricane Twitch 50s in iceberg colour across the sand/weed flats at Goodwin Sands. Day two was spent with Jason Mayberry fishing weed edges with hatchet coloured Hurricane Sprat 75s rigged on a 1/40oz TT Hidden Weight jighead. His day one and two bags amounted to 4.520kg, putting him in 4th place going into the final day where anglers are paired with the boaters in their corresponding place on the leaderboard. By chance, this saw him paired with 4th placed boater Steven Pryke, a good mate of

Living up to his reputation of being unmatched in ability to catch black bream, Hodges put on a topwater clinic on the flats to claim the Grand Final win he’s been searching for since 2008.

Full results at abt.org.au

Weight(kg) 7.225kg 7.205kg 6.790kg 6.695kg 6.310kg 6.290kg 6.250kg 6.225kg 6.020kg 5.810kg

Sproule’s. “I was really lucky to have fantastic boaters all weekend, but I was especially thankful I got to fish with Prykey on the last day,” Bobby said. “I didn’t feel any pressure, it just felt like I was going fishing with a mate!” Together they targeted fish sitting in around 3.5-4m of water using camo coloured Berkley Gulp Shrimp or Gulp Nemesis in the 2” size. They had them rigged on 1/24oz Atomic Seekerz jigheads, casting them out and letting them slowly waft down to the fish. Most of the time they wouldn’t even hit the bottom before getting eaten. They finished the day at Goodwin Sands rolling shallow diving Jackall Chubbies in pink eye brown suji shrimp colour, and with just 45 minutes left in the session, Sproule caught his final upgrade and his best fish for the weekend. He knows that fish made all the difference, saying, “Without a doubt that was the fish that won me the comp. Without that big upgrade I wouldn’t have got across the line.” Bobby’s soft plastic combo for the weekend was a Tackle Tactics Black Mamba 1-3kg matched with a 1000 size Okuma Ceymar,

Payout Epic sponsor tackle pack Millerods

spooled with 6lb pulse X8 and 4lb Daiwa X-link leader. Meanwhile, his hardbody set-up was a Millerods XFLC 7’3” 2-5kg paired with a 2500 size Shimano Vanford, again spoiled with Pulse X8 6lb braid and 4lb Daiwa X-link Fluorocarbon leader. Sproule mounted a remarkable come-frombehind victory to win the event on the last day and take out his first Grand Final as a non-boater by just 20g! FEBRUARY 2023

BASS ELECTRIC SERIES presented by

BASS ELECTRIC SERIES

abt

They say, ‘cometh the hour, cometh the man!’. Well, Peter Bostock must love coming to the big shows because this year he backed up his second consecutive BASS Electric Grand Final win with a third in a row, and sealed his second straight BASS Electric Angler of the Year title. This is how he did it. On October 22, 29 competitors lined up. The weather looked pretty good, with sunny skies and dead

Bostock wins 3rd BASS Electric GF

the water. A couple of winds, a pause and another wind and he was onto his second keeper – another good fish. It was at this point Peter decided he didn’t want to risk this spot by plugging away to try to upgrade two already good fish. He packed up his gear and left the spot in the hope that no one else would sting these fish, and he could return the next day. Peter then went for a drive up into Billies Bay and grabbed a drink, a bite to eat and chatted with other anglers whilst waiting until 1pm when everyone was due in. At the weigh in, Peter took his bag to the scales to see if his fish would be worthy of the top three for the day. Indeed they were,

a little late to the start line and while he was getting his boat into the water, anglers were joking with him about his brightly coloured shorts. Maybe these were his lucky ones! As Adrian counted down and let everyone go from the start line to their desired spots, Peter again cruised over to the spot he had left on day one. Once there, Peter started throwing a Jackall Mask vibe to where he had found fish the previous day, but to no avail. He got a backlash and threw his lure to the other side of the boat to clear the line. When he started winding again, he hooked up to another good fish. A couple of casts later and he

In an epic three-peat, Brisbane’s Peter Bostock won the 2022 BKK BASS Electric Grand Final on Wivenhoe Dam and took home an Alloycraft P395 boat package loaded with Humminbird and Minn Kota electronics for his troubles.

BASS ELECTRIC SERIES

abt

Back at the weigh in, Elyon Cloete weighed in one fish for 1.79kg. John Cianco, who had fished the same area he did on day one, had come in with a great bag of two fish for 2.94kg, which he had caught jigging pink Ecogear ZX blades along a drop off in Billies Bay. It was then Peter’s turn on the scales. His bag of two bass for 3.25kg was enough to secure him a third

John Cianco was the best of the rest. The Grand Final is a winner-take-all event. calm water greeting anglers at the start line. With anglers waiting in their boats and event organisers Adrian Wilson and Charles West having already briefed everyone and checked livewells, Peter was running a little late, but that didn’t deter him from getting down to business once on the water. At the start line, most anglers went up Billies Bay, while others headed north towards Hamon Cove. However, Peter leisurely made his way over to the flats where he proceeded to fish an area he had covered in the previous day’s prefish. Lots of catfish were caught by Peter initially until he found a rocky area where he threw a Jackall TN70 in brown dog towards a tree. It ended up on rocks, and as he pulled the lure into the water and gave it a few winds it got munched by a good bass. The very next cast he put the lure up on the bank on the dirt and hopped it back into 100

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with two bass for 4.59kg. That put Peter in top spot ,with Elyon Cloete in second place, and John Cianco in third after Day 1. On Sunday the weather had changed to a cooler, overcast day with light winds putting a slight ripple on the water. Also, SEQ Water had started releasing water from the dam. Would this change affect the way the bass were biting on the Saturday? Only time would tell. Again, Peter was running

was on again. Peter then moved in on those fish and started fishing ZX blades, but had no success when over the top of them. He could see the fish scatter on his LiveTarget when he presented the ZX to them. Peter then moved back away from the school and caught another five fish, but nothing to upgrade. That was it for day two. It would now be up to the ABT scales to determine whether Peter had enough in his bag to secure the win.

Bostock’s bass averaged nearly 2kg apiece.

RESULTS

Full results at abt.org.au

Place 1

Angler Peter Bostock

Fish 4/4

Weight(kg) 7.84kg

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

John Ciancio Harry Hardman Elyon Cloete Tyson Eveleigh Shane Dekker Christian Manolea Marcus Hope Charles West Brian Ruteledge

4/4 4/4 3/4 3/4 3/4 4/4 3/4 3/4 2/4

6.18kg 5.35kg 5.20kg 4.24kg 3.85kg 3.53kg 2.83kg 2.75kg 2.49kg

Payout Alloycraft P95 Boat and Minn Kota/Humminbird electronics

BASS Electric Grand Final win in a row! Peter used a Shimano T-Curve 3-7kg baitcast rod with a Shimano Metanium reel to throw his Jackall lures throughout the weekend. With this win Peter also took out Angler of the Year for a second year in a row. Congratulations Peter on a fantastic year, you definitely know how to bring your ‘A’ game when it counts! Shane Dekker

East Coast Bream Series Grand Final For the first time in three years we managed a run a full series and able to run the Grand Final. Not that everything went to plan; we had to reschedule one round as well as the Grand Final due to bad weather. Finally, we got to this day, and we thank all the teams for their continued support and understanding. 30 teams lined up on a beautiful morning ready to do their best on the Sydney Harbour. Expectations were high but the harbour had other plans – all teams commented how tough the fishing was. Lots of teams reported plenty of undersize fish, and said it took more work to find fish that counted. Competitors had to do lots of running around and lots of casting to get runs on the board. All in all, the event was a success and we congratulate all teams for making the grand final, especially the top three finishers. Their reports are as follows. 1ST PLACE ($5000) Michael Colotouros, John Nacitaa and Robert Patruno of Team Phoenix said that after the initial comp was postponed to a new date of 6 November, they were confident of the fish being active due to the time of year. “After take-off we went straight to some nasty oysterencrusted structure where we usually bag out within 20 minutes,” Michael said. “Two hours later, we only had two

Bill Maquire Family The top three teams (L-R): 4Castin/Fishon, Phoenix Boats All clear, and Daybreamins. fish in the well! We realised it was going to be a grind fishing the harbour. “Usually, we would fish between 6-8 spots, but the quicky became 15-25 spots – running and gunning all day. It wasn’t until around 10:30 we started boating some reasonable fish in the mid 30cm fork range. “Still not confident of our bag, we went to one last spot where I was reasonably confident to get a good bite, and sure enough in the last hour we boated our last mid 30s fish. “At the weigh-in we were not confident in our 3.67kg bag being in top three, and we released our fish without a pic. We were completely in shock

to see 3.67kg taking it out!” Most of Team Phoenix’s fish were caught on Cranka Crabs, The Muss and Gulp Crabbys. 2ND PLACE ($2000) Dave Masters and Adam Richards of Team 4 Castin said that the East Coast Bream Series Grand final 2022 was a special event for them. “Both David Masters and I are relatively new to bream fishing, and with that lack of tournament arena experience we both considered the year to be more about learning than being competitive,” Adam explained. “We started the ECBS qualifying rounds tailing the field. The best lessons are the hard lessons! We took a lot away from our

first events and worked on our strengths. “We had lost all hope of making the final, but just for tournament arena experience we competed in the last qualifying round at Botany Bay and ended up in a respectable 6th position and only 20g shy of the money. It proved to us how far our journey as a team had come. We knew that time on the water together and getting to know and understand each other’s fishing styles was key to our success. We also become good mates. “A 6th place Botany finish placed us just inside the top 30 for the Grand Final. Our goal was to finish the Grand Final in the top 15, and we

both pre fished in our own boats to cover as much water as possible, and put together a plan. “Starting from near last position isn’t ideal, but the silver lining was that we could see the general direction that most boats headed, which appeared to be west of bridge locations. Not wanting to fish anyone’s used water, we fished the east side of the harbour bridge and put some distance between us and the field. “Tight, accurate casts with Cranka Crabs, and Crabbies rigged with 1/20oz and 1/28oz Hidden Weights connected to 4lb and 5lb leader, proved to be the best approach on the day.

“Minimal breeze, the sun high and clear water – the day had ‘tough’ written all over it. We persisted, cast after cast, and slowly put together a bag of five. I caught the first two for the tank, Dave caught the next two, and with only 30 minutes left we both scrambled, searching for one last fish for the tank. Dave landed a perfectly positioned cast into unforgiving structure and found himself connect to a healthy 850g model, the 5th fish! “In the end, our efforts rewarded us with an unexpected 2nd position finish. Thanks to ECBS for running the event and the other teams for making it so much fun.” 3RD PLACE ($1000) Rasid Ammoun, Rabih Itani and Khalid Aja of Team Daybreamers fished all day west of the harbour bridge. “We fished between the Gladesville and Harbour Bridge, targeting rock walls, boat hulls and poles,” Rasid said. “The fish were on the bite all day, and we had our 5 fish by 7:22am. “The lures that did the damage for us were the Gulp Crabby in camo, ZMan Slim SwimZ in motor oil (on a 1/20oz jighead) and the Eco Gear black blade.” We wish to thank our event sponsors Shimano, Tackle Addiction and the Bill McGuire family, and also the East Sports Club group. They have sponsored our WSBB fishing club since 2005. Fishing clubs are the backbone of the fishing community, and need support. For complete results, go to www.wsbb.com.au. - WSBB

Tournament Calendar 2023 Date FEBRUARY 4-5 Feb 8-9 Feb 11-12 Feb 14-15 Feb 18-19 Feb 24-26 Feb 26 Feb

Tournament

Location

State

Contact

BREAM R1 BASS Pro R1 BASS Pro R2 BREAM R2 BREAM R3 Venom BARRA Aus Open BASS Electric R1

Swan River Bluerock Dam Glenmaggie Dam Gippsland Lakes Mallacoota Lake Awoonga Richmond River

WA VIC VIC VIC VIC QLD NSW

abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au

MARCH 26 Mar

BASS Electric R2

Clarence River

NSW

abt.org.au

APRIL 22-23 Apr

Rapala BASS Aus Open

Clarence River

NSW

abt.org.au

MAY 2-4 May 6-7 May 7 May 20-21 May 23-24 May

Daiwa BREAM Aus Open BREAM R4 BASS Electric R3 BASS Pro R3 BASS Pro R4

Sydney Harbour Hawkesbury River Lake Macdonald Boondooma Dam Somerset Dam

NSW NSW QLD QLD QLD

abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au abt.org.au

Add your tournament or competition to this list by emailing jthomas@fishingmonthly.com.au Just supply a date, venue, tournament name, telephone number and contact name. FEBRUARY 2023

101

2022 Cod Classic - cod galore! Heading into the 23rd Yamaha Cod Classic, things were looking great for what promised to be a BIG return post COVID… but then the floods hit! With them an estimated 800-1000 competitors couldn’t or didn’t come for various reasons. However, at the close of registrations, 1761 excited anglers were locked in and ready to go (1516 adults and 245 juniors). The weather forecast for the weekend was outstanding, and it turned out to be accurate. The gates opened at 4pm on Friday 2 December,

TOURNAMENT RESULTS Cod Catch & Release Dean Herberte - Deniliquin Carp Boat Stephen Kirby, Toolamba Fri Adult Lucky Door Matt Dempsey, Shepparton Sat Adult Lucky Door Jamie Carns, Bonnie Doon Mega Raffle Nicholas Ruwoldt, Yahl Biggest fish Longest Cod Adult Todd Downie 118cm Longest Cod Junior Ivy Stoeckel 82cm Longest Yellowbelly Adult Rod Beer 58cm Longest Yellowbelly Junior Hunter Vonja 57.5cm Longest Carp (Open Section) Dave Taylor 86cm

Nicholas who had travelled all the way from South Australia. Jamie Carns of Bonnie Doon enjoyed the serenity at Mulwala for the weekend, and was lucky enough to win the Saturday night lucky door Yamaha/Quintrex/ Humminbird boating package. Sunday’s fishing conditions were perfect once again, giving anglers one final chance to catch a legal-sized cod, 45cm+ golden perch or carp to get themselves into the prize draws. Plenty more Murray cod photos were returned for verification, but the only movement in the leader board came from the juniors, with six-year-old Ivy Stoeckel (Paringa, South Australia) bringing in proof of capture of her magnificent 82cm cod. This propelled her to the top of the juniors leader board, whilst Todd Downie’s 118cm fish remained unbeaten. Matt Rogers took out his second Hobie Australian Canoe & Kayak Cod Fishing Champion title, landing a 65cm cod from his yak. All up, the fish numbers were outstanding, with 703 MOST PRODUCTIVE METHODS Bait Hardbody Lures Spinnerbaits Unspecified bait or lure

Winners are grinners! with numerous trade stalls, various food vendors, the first round of the Australian Pro Casting Championships, and ‘Cod Talk’ featuring Thomas ‘The Captain’ Pinter SPONSOR LURE BREAKDOWN StumpJumper Bassman Spin Wright Jackall Wilsons Predator Codger Gidgee Custom Craft AC’s Mud Guts Bogan Native Pimp Daddy Kuttafurra Cod Dog Balista Halco 102

FEBRUARY 2023

40 31 17 13 10 6 4 4 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 1 1

and Stephen Booth. This kept participants entertained on the Friday night. After an event briefing, the first of the lucky door prize boats was drawn. The lucky winner ended up being Matt Dempsey of Shepparton. Winners had to be present, and it was found out later that the first young fella who’d had his name drawn out happened to be down the Ski Club playing the pokies! Oh well, maybe next time! Saturday’s fishing conditions proved to be amazing, with light winds and plenty of sun for the duration of the day. Competitors weren’t sure how the lake was going to fish; a recent drawdown followed by plenty of water passing through the lake made it fairly dirty. Never fear though, Lake Mulwala ‘The Home of the Murray Cod’ produced a plethora of cod never before seen in

terms of numbers of cod caught per angler. At the end of the day, anglers lined up in droves to have their day’s catch recorded. Todd Downie from Koondrook was one of the best performers. He tied on a chicken bait and had it engulfed by a massive 118cm cod. He was comfortably in the lead for the Champion Angler title on Saturday night, with four hours of fishing to go on Sunday morning. Saturday night saw all competitors converge on the Mulwala Football Ground to see the evening’s proceedings unfold. In excess of 120 major prizes were given away through junior and adult lucky door prizes and the Mega Raffle. The first major boating package winner on Saturday night was Nicholas Ruwoldt, taking out the Mega Raffle. It was a great reward for

431 146 107 19

Bait breakdown Cheese 192 Chicken 88 Bardis 78 Worms 36 Yabby 25 Sausage 5 Shrimp 4 Corn 2 Dim Sim 1

A total of 703 legal cod were weighed in during the event. cod measuring in excess of 55cm, 70 golden perch measuring 45cm+, and 110 carp caught during the competition. 63% of the cod were caught on bait, whilst the remaining 37% were taken on lures. All the division winners were presented with their goods, followed by many ‘Catch and Release’ prizes for those who had caught good fish. Stephen Kirby of Toolamba was the lucky winner of the Open Carp prize draw boat. He didn’t get too excited with his speech, but was stoked to be going home with a brand new boat! Dean Herberte of Deniliquin won the adult’s ‘Catch and Release’ draw boat. He was one happy angler, but could not convince his wife what he had won. She was a nonbeliever and thought he was telling her porkies! A massive thank you goes out to our many sponsors and

FISH NUMBERS 703 legal Murray cod 302 x 55cm-60cm 248 x 60-65cm 88 x 65-70cm 55 x 70-80cm 7 x 80-90cm 1 x 90-100cm 2 x 1m+) 70 Golden perch (45cm+) 110 European carp volunteers who support the Cod Classic. Your assistance is appreciated and we could not do without you. The biggest thanks of all must go to all our loyal competitors who have supported the Cod Classic over the past 23 years. You have been the ones who have made this into Australia’s largest and most popular freshwater fishing event. We look forward to another successful event in 2023, minus COVID and floods! – Tony Bennett, 2022 Cod Classic Event Director

Lake Mulwala Cod Nationals is at the top of the tree for keen cod fishers, including Stephen Booth from Wilson Fishing.

Product News

New Daiwa releases for the start of 2023 Daiwa has released three new reels to kick off 2023 – the 23 Saltiga, Steez A II and 23 Airity – and also a brand new rod, the Infeet SK. 23 SALTIGA Arguably the most sought after and longawaited release in recent Daiwa history, a small-size Saltiga is now available, and it’s the best mid-size saltwater spin reel that Daiwa has ever produced. Airdrive Design debuts for the first time in a true heavy-duty saltwater reel. As was the case with the introduction of Airdrive Design with 22 Exist, lower start-up inertia was the goal. By redeveloping the shape of the rotor assembly, Daiwa engineers were able to both reduce the weight while maintaining the strength. Daiwa has totally

saltwater intrusion. Daiwa’s Magseal technology in both forms are also equipped, with a Magseal above the pinion gear to stop water ingress from above, and Magseal Bearings installed each side of the drive gear to prevent ingress from the handle or handle screw cap. 23 AIRITY The newest model Airity is Daiwa’s lightest ever traditional spinning reel, breaking the 150g barrier. Airdrive Design incorporates four elements to deliver a reel which enables precision control from the angler. Airdrive Rotor is the most noticeable difference in 23 Airity, with the flowing lines and smooth design of the new rotor delivering lighter start-up inertia and fluid reeling, even under heavy loads.

23 Saltiga

re-engineered the bail assembly of 23 Saltiga, with a distinct new shape. The bail arm maintains its hollow, tubular stainless steel structure but is now thinner and lighter than before. The new shape guides the line perfectly into the roller, which has also been redesigned with the implementation of Twistbuster III to reduce line twist even more. All of these features are built upon Daiwa’s renowned Monocoque (MQ) body, a solid one-piece aluminium body which enables the fitment of a much larger drive gear, increasing torque and power. It also makes the reel much more impervious to the elements, further sealing the gearcase from

Steez A II

Airdrive Bail is a one-piece tubular hollow bail arm which has evolved from Daiwa’s original Air Bail design. Airdrive Bail is lighter and thinner than previous models, further improving start-up inertia and delivering truly refined reeling. Airdrive Spool has also been installed, and incorporates Daiwa’s famous Longcast ABS spool lip, but is now lighter than before, reducing the force required from the oscillation system to move the spool up and down. That results in a lower resistance when retrieving. Finally, Airdrive Shaft is hidden inside the MQ body and is double supported by special collars inside the pinion gear. That further reduces friction and minimises power loss through the drive train of the reel. The Monocoque (MQ) body remains from the previous model, crafted from a single piece of treated Magnesium. The MQ body of 23 Airity is incredibly light and supports a Tough

23 Airity

Digigear drive system that is both forged and machined from a high-strength alloy to deliver smooth and reliable performance for years to come. There 23 Airity is available in a range of sizes, from 2000-5000, to suit a host of freshwater, lighttackle and inshore fisheries throughout Australia. STEEZ A II The Steez A baitcaster is elevated to another level with the 2023 release of the new Steez A II, which features Daiwa’s new Hyperdrive Design. Hyperdrive Design features the four key pillars of Hyper Armed Housing, Hyper Tough Clutch, Hyper Double Support and Hyperdrive Digigear to deliver ultimate body and gear strength and refinement, and flawless casting performance and reliability. Baitcaster excellence begins with the Steez’s aluminium frame and combines with Hyper Armed Housing to create a rigid platform, perfect gear meshing and strength, whilst maintaining optimum reel weight and balance for all day use. Hyperdrive Digigear delivers a new age in Steez gearing, with its advanced design resulting in a more powerful retrieve and reduced winding effort required under heavy loads. Spool design and performance goes to another level with a new generation ultra-lightweight 34mm G1 Duralumin spool. It partners with Daiwa’s Mag-Z Boost braking technology, with a unique two-stage magnetic brake system increasing casting distance and performance, particularly in the later stages of a cast when lure and spool speed begins to slow. Steez A II is kitted out with a 90mm swept handle and larger profile handle knobs, making it perfectly suited to the rigors of Australian baitcast use straight out of the box. INFEET SK Infeet rod design continues to evolve to

meet the needs of anglers and advancements in technologies, with the new Infeet SK series delivering some new actions and Fuji’s popular SK (Skeleton) reel seat configuration. Apart from the skeleton reel seat, Infeet SK also boasts some additional unique features, most notably a combination guide train of a Fuji titanium SiC stripper guide followed by a nearfull set of Daiwa’s AGS carbon fibre guides. Lighter than titanium, AGS deliver unmatched responsiveness, sensitivity, and lightness in the hand. Blank technology is performance-focused, with HVF Nanoplus graphite

combining with X45X Full Shield technology to eliminate blank twist. The result is a rod that casts insanely well for its size, and feels crisp and responsive when casting and working lures. As with all Infeet rods, a distinct red and blue colourway is used to designate the action of the rods, with fast action rods boasting red highlights while moderate or regular action rods are adorned with blue. The Infeet SK range features four models (two blue models and two red models) in both light and ultralight actions to cover a broad range of light tackle techniques and applications.

Infeet SK

FEBRUARY 2023

103

South Coast

Summer means salmon in the South East! ESPERANCE

Murray Johnson

Summer is in full swing on the South East Coast, and it’s a great time to be planning a trip to the area. Winds will tend to be northeasterly in the morning, with first light around 4am, and then they usually swing around to the southeast by lunch. It’s always best to plan your fishing for the morning, or later in the afternoon when the

wind drops off. With big tides and warmer waters, plenty of opportunities will arise to fish from the beach or boat. LOCAL FISHING Local waters around town have been firing. The tanker jetty is still producing larger squid, with some boating 4550cm tubes! Plenty of big herring, small skippy, the odd gar and occasional bonito and small bluefin are a chance fishing this area as well. Bronze whalers are about

Lachy Warren with the first harlequin for the year. Image courtesy of @lachy_warren.

in good numbers through this area and will take a liking to any well-presented shark rig. BEACHES Beach fishing around town has turned up plenty of salmon, with lots of them going 6kg. In Esperance there is good salmon fishing all year, however at this time of year they school up in big numbers to prepare for their migration north. Choice beaches are the aptly-named Salmon Beach, Fourth Beach and Ten Mile Beach. Those with a 4WD can access some great fishing at Munglinup. This area is producing good tailor, skippy around 1kg, plenty of big herring and bronzies on top of the numerous big salmon. The best rigs are standard paternosters with 4/0 gangs, and local mulie for bait and a bottom star sinker. Lure fishers have been doing well with Halco Twisties and other metals. Another lure taking plenty of tailor and salmon has been the Storm So-Run Heavy Minnow, with pilchard and white colours getting the best results. Heading east, there has been good fishing at Alexander Bay, Duke of Orleans Bay and Thomas River. These areas are all producing salmon, big herring, bronze whalers and lots of smaller mulloway.

Heading out to Israelite Bay, 4WDers will find that the tracks are dry, so the access is very good at the moment. Out there heaps of small mulloway are getting caught, with some anglers reporting 10-20 a day! These fish are mostly small, but some of these fish are reaching a metre long. Flathead are another popular target in Israelite Bay, with some recent reports of fish to 70cm. There’s also heaps and heaps of salmon to 6kg, and lots of bronzies in the 90120cm range. Any northerly wind will make for good beach fishing conditions along most of these beaches. BOAT FISHING We’re at the start of the bluefin run, with plenty of smaller fish around Charley and Cull islands, and through to Woody Island. The bay has been producing plenty of snook, big herring and sand whiting still, with the occasional King George whiting coming from weed and sandbanks. The best whiting have been going 5560cm. Fishing around the islands has seen lots of good groper, queen snapper, smaller nannygai and sweep. Heading out early to fish wide, you can expect nannygai to 65cm, breaksea cod,

A heavy hitter on Boxing Day. Image courtesy of @ttfishing08_87.

harlequin, samsonfish to 25kg, and smaller kingies to 8-10kg. The bigger schools of SBT are cruising out wide, and as usual you’ll find the schools by looking for birds working. Trolling shallow divers like the Halco Laser Pros or Black Magic Jetsetter is another good way to find schools. NEXT MONTH We should see more warm water in March, and with it there should be better numbers of tailor and salmon. The squid will taper off a bit before returning in winter. There will still be plenty

of big herring and bronzies available off the beaches. The weather will also settle even more, meaning we’ll get more calm days and less wind – perfect for getting out wide! • Established in 1986, Southern Sports and Tackle specializes in the supply and servicing of fishing equipment. They have an extensive knowledge of the local area and provide all brands, whether you’re fishing from beach, jetty or boat. Come and chat to the friendly staff at Shop 16, The Boulevard, Esperance or phone 08 9071 3022.

Salmon not the only fish biting! BUNBURY

Whiteys Tackle and Camping

Let’s start with salmon. These hungry beasts are approaching, and each year they seem to be arriving earlier and earlier! The salmon give the shore-based angler a consistent sport fishing target and depending on water temperatures, we should start seeing an increase in numbers over the next month. Leave the bait at home and try flicking a lure at these schooled-up fish. From the beach schools will looks just like a weed bed, only it moves! If you want to just tie on and cast away with little to no fuss, grab a metal slice in the 4080g range. When a school of salmon is coming your way, don’t cast directly into the middle of it, but rather try to get your lure landing 5-10m in front of the leading fish and watch as the fish that lead the pack peel off and brutalize your offering. Ideally a 6-10kg graphite rod in the 9-foot range (in the boat a 7-footer is 104

FEBRUARY 2023

perfect) will work perfectly, being strong enough to cast large lures and put some real grunt on the fish, but without taking all the fun out of it. A commonly forgotten target during salmon time are the biggest on offer, the sharks! There is a select few in the area that are keen shark fishers. The sharks like to follow the schools of salmon for an easy feed. Quite often the shark fanatics will catch a salmon and sent it back with a nice new nose ring intended to be the dinner for our friends in the grey coats. This can definitely be a heart-pumping experience!

TAILOR At this time of year there is nothing better than heading down the beach after work and relaxing with the sand between your toes, the waves lapping at your feet while enjoying the afternoon seabreeze! These conditions usually get the tailor hungry and aggressive, which are a great target for those throwing metals, hardbodies and soft plastics. Casting the ever-reliable metal slugs into likely gutters for some highspeed spinning usually works well. Use metal slugs in 10-70g range, with the weight determined

A few tailor have been coming from Forrest Beach.

by what your rod is capable of casting. If you’re unsure, look for a gram rating on the rod blank. If flat out non-stop spinning is not your style, try a bibbed minnow. By twitching and pausing the lure during the retrieve, the lure will imitate an injured baitfish sounding the dinner bell to get the chopper tailor excited. When the tailor are being fussy (whether it be from angler pressure or from an overabundance of baitfish), my go-to technique is a mulie on a 3/0-4/0 chemically-sharpened gang with little or no weight, tied on to a 20lb fluorocarbon leader. This technique requires a more handson approach, and a slow retrieve with pauses thrown in can convert fussy feeders into hook-ups. Dalyellup and Forrest beaches to the south are a popular option, and so is a little bit further north towards Myalup and Preston, which has turned on some red-hot fishing at times. OTHER SPECIES Black bream are firing in the Collie River, and at night mulloway and bull shark captures have made

Hudson with a 36cm bream that won him a prize in a recent Blackwood River bream fishing competition. for some great fun. The most productive way to target mulloway and bull sharks at night is to present a nice live mullet on a light setup, as mulloway particularly can be fussy eaters. A few good throws with a cast net in the estuary should gather you enough baits for a night. Keep them in a bucket with an aerator and you will find they will stay alive until the

end of the session. – Ben White • Whatever your preference, get out there and give it a go! The boys down at Whiteys Tackle and Camping in Treendale live local and fish locally, so if you have any questions on what you have read, or to just say hi, pop in and the crew will always be happy to chat.

South Coast

Augusta getting the attention it deserves AUGUSTA

Anthony Gillam

So there went Christmas; gone in a flash of coloured lights, presents under the tree and an overindulgence of all the things we know we shouldn’t have too much of, but do anyway. The Bussell Highway heading into Augusta was like the Kwinana Freeway on a long weekend, with all manner of SUVs, 4WDs and

place there is not much news on the open waters, with very few people venturing out into the deep other than those who have been chasing kingies and samsonfish. Those who did head out report that there seems to be plenty of samsonfish around anywhere that has structure, but yellowtail kingfish have been a little scarce. Jigging heavy knife jigs has been very effective, with anything that has a bit of sparkle seeing the most hits. Fish

A 43cm King George whiting taken off the rocks by the author using squid strips on a paternoster rig. family wagons loaded to the hilt with all the loot from Christmas ready for their first use. As each year passes, the numbers climb dramatically of those people continuing on to Augusta instead of stopping in Margaret River. Everyone in the west has been concerned with the government contemplating a 9-month ban on demersal fishing for the huge area of the coastline from Kalbarri to Augusta. This was a subject that was hotly debated in all areas of fishing, with it having huge ramifications for commercial fishers, recreational fishers and those with businesses like myself who derive a large portion of their income from tackle and bait sales. As we suspected, after the huge uproar from everyone the government decided to increase the ban period by four months, which was probably what they wanted in the first place. It is still a devastating blow, however people will carry on and see if they can make it work. Unfortunately, it will probably just transfer fishing pressure to other areas not subject to the ban and increase the take of other vulnerable species such as whiting. As the ban has been in

have been generally in the 15-20kg mark, so plenty of arm-stretching action to be had with these fish that don’t give up until they hit the surface. The whiting action in the bays continues to be the lifesaver for many people with the ability to catch a solid feed for the members of the family. The sand whiting, as usual, are in huge numbers anywhere in Flinders Bay and Hamelin Bay. They love sandworms,

squid strips or fish pieces drifted on a paternoster rig right near the bottom. If you are lucky there have been some big King George whiting and flathead also landed from the same areas. Beach fishing has been generally confined to the early mornings up until around 11:00am when the southwest winds have been picking up to 20 knots plus, which has made it practically unfishable on the Augusta side. Only those at Hamelin Bay and Boranup are able to brave it. Speaking of Boranup, the Christmas break traffic on Bob’s Track down onto the beach has been like a highway. The phenomenal amount of traffic each way make it a nightmare for people, especially those inexperienced at sand driving and 4WD etiquette. The track has been severely impacted by people running tyres with too much pressure and driving too fast. The entrance down on to the beach has been severely damaged, making it hard for all users to get down onto the beach as well as on the return journey. Deepdene and Cosy Corner have been fishing well for whiting, herring and skippy, but the former has also been ripped up by the amount of traffic and there are now areas of really loose sand that has captured the unaware, resulting in a few costly rescues. The lesson there is that slow and steady with low tyre pressure will get you there and back without angst and a blow to the hip pocket. The beaches around the Augusta side have been full of King George and sand whiting, with some thumpers coming from the fishing jetty at Dead Finish and further up the beach towards the marina. Squid, sandworms and cockles were doing all the damage. In the Hardy Inlet and Blackwood River, the

A Hardy Inlet haul of King George whiting taken while kayak fishing in 2-3m of water. whiting are everywhere, with people being able to bag out consistently. There have been huge numbers of yellowfin and King George whiting, and with the clarity of the water lately it has been possible to sight fish to the bigger individuals. They are happy to take lures or bait, but glass shrimps are by far the best presentation for yellowfin. Talking to some of the customers of Augusta Xtreme Boat Hire, they have been picking up fish on the East Augusta side near the jetty area and up throughout the Sticks. Trolling a small lure through the channel has also found the tailor and herring, with many legal-sized tailor making for some great fun on lighter gear. They also report seeing crabs up in the Dead Water area, however they don’t seem to want to get into drop nets and are too deep to scoop. Hopefully this will change as the new year progresses. Black bream fishing has been good as well, with plenty in the vicinity of Molloy

Island and the Molloy Island Caravan Park, which can be easily accessed by land or water. Soft plastic grubs and hardbodied lures are great if you are in a boat, as you can slowly work along the riverbanks and cast into all the nooks and crannies you

juvenile pink snapper, which have been a bit of a nuisance, although they are great fun when fishing for whiting. As always, find a safe fishing spot and remember to use berley to bring them around. Rock fishing is dangerous at times, and careful

A typical pink snapper off the rocks for this time of the year. Small and feisty, they are great fun and release well.

A couple of happy tourists getting a taste of the Blackwood River during the holiday season.

can’t reach when land-based fishing. From the shoreline you can try river prawns for the good chance, but these can be destroyed quickly by large groups of juvenile black bream. If this is happening, try chicken skin, which they love to eat and will stick on your hook much longer and give the bigger fish the chance to get to the bait. Rock fishing has been lots of fun lately, as there has been plenty of the normal species around such as herring, skippy and leatherjackets as well as plenty of demersals. Many demersals are undersized

consideration of where and when you fish is paramount. Unpredictable weather can quickly affect the fishing conditions and slippery rocks are a recipe for disaster. Please remain vigilant when rock fishing; wear a life jacket and tie off to something solid. • You can hire a life jacket for free from Augusta Xtreme Outdoor Sports at 66 Blackwood Avenue Augusta – the local tackle shop, boat hire and font of all local fishing knowledge. Look for the big green sign on the roof, it’s right next to the BP Service Station in the centre of town. FEBRUARY 2023

105

West Coast

Demersal closures force change METRO

Jacob Crispe

New demersal closures have been well publicised here in the West and have now been put in place. Only time will tell how this effects rec angler behaviours and the businesses rec fishing supports. All I will say is your local tackle store is a great place to gain knowledge and the right advice. They have their fingers on the pulse and will be able to point you in the right direction to learn the basics and hopefully get a bend in your fishing rod. SWAN RIVER With an extended hot weather pattern continuing in the Perth metro area, your fishing options in the Swan River continues to push further up the system. The usual suspects like flathead, bream, tailor and mulloway continue to take

Matt Petrillo from AFW loves getting out for a stretch on the local beaches with the roaming tigers. Always a safe catch and release with Matt on the job.

(Point Walter, Matilda Bay, Alfred Cove and Como flats are good starting options). The flathead fishing has been the best I can remember and the bonus has been the number of flounder caught as bycatch. Again, the most I can ever remember. Tailor have been holding in the deeper water beyond the flats, with some nice sized herring mixed in with them. Smaller stickbaits and metal lures are great options to target them. They can be great fun to catch and can also be your saviour if the flathead haven’t decided to cooperate. Bream will be spread throughout the system (Causeway to Guildford) and tend to be more structure orientated. Hard body lure anglers have been doing very well throughout the warmer months. Long pauses during a slow rolling retrieve seems to be the key to success.

Young Ayden Z is all smiles with an excellent Swan River tailor caught spinning metals off the back of the flats in east Freo.

Dom ‘The Fish Tucker Man’ Magoo with a lovely haul of fresh blue swimmer crabs.

Jordy Z with a solid double of big flounder from casting bibbed minnows on the shallow flats near Point Walter.

the headlines but species like flounder and giant herring are showing up on a more regular and welcome basis. Most of the action is revolved around the flats on the river

There are plenty of family friendly areas to wet a line as well (Garvey Park is a great one). Peeled prawn baits are best and should result in the kids or even the parents

A nice mixed bag of King George and sand whiting caught by Dom Magoo using fresh caught squid tentacles as bait. 106

FEBRUARY 2023

picking up a bream or two. The mulloway fishing seems to have gone next level, with fish sizes averaging between 12 and 20kg. Fishing the turn of the tide is preferable (high to low) and live baits are your best option. Legal tailor, bony herring or trumpeter work a treat, with many seasoned mulloway anglers preferring a small octopus style hook (4/0) rather than bigger hooks. Places worth checking out are the E-Sheds, Mosman Bay, Narrows bridge and the Fish Market Reserve in Guildford. ROCK WALLS AND BEACHES All of the rock walls in the area have been fishing well and this should continue. Fremantle Sailing club,

Evelyn Crispe with a nice little black bream she caught casting peeled river prawns. She used a wide mouth hook to prevent the hook being swallowed for a healthy release.

West Coast

Macks and tuna are on the chew right now KALBARRI

Stephen Wiseman

Hot weather has started to change inshore waters, and warmer temperatures have brought the mackerel around. A few locals have had some action with a few reported strikes, but I haven’t seen a mack in a box as we go to print. Boat anglers are doing well on pink snapper, and some nice baldchin groper have made a welcome addition to the catch. One angler pulling his pots was disappointed to have no crays, but the octopus in the pot went over the side on a hook and was hit hard by what turned out to be a sizeable baldy of 670mm, and the pots had only been pulled in 10m out the front of Back Beach. Further north, one local

charter operator decked some nice reds and topped up the catch with plenty of good-size pinks around 650-700mm,

he also managed a good hall of crays which was divided among the anglers on board. Blue manna crabs have

been on the march in the river, with catches from the pens to well upriver to Gregory Rock. Some very

South Mole, North Mole and Cottesloe Groin are all worth checking out. Squid numbers and size have all been good

and first light will see many rock wall anglers setting up a berley trail and focusing their efforts of herring and skippy. Some good captures of

King George whiting have been reported and I expect this will continue. As I always mention it is worth having a heavier outfit with you as sharks can be an option too, while February can also find samson fish in close to shore and a catch of a lifetime for any rock wall angler. Fishing on our beaches will be all about our breadand-butter species. Sand whiting, yellowfin whiting, tailor and herring will be

ban in place your fishing options are reduced to what was in place in the past. Squid and King George whiting are always options on our inshore grounds. Weedy areas with larger sand patches in 8-12m of water are best for the King George whiting and weedy areas in 3-6m of water for the squid. Mind you it pays to have a squid jig ready to go anyway as they can turn up at any time in these types of areas. Skippy are also an option

The author with a tuna from January last year. nice muddies have also been in the catch, and are full of meat according to a holidaymaker who had his

nets by the local launch ramp. Some nice mulloway have also been taken around the sand spit, and a few around the commercial jetty. Some undersize specimens have been caught from the jetty and kept, sadly mistaken for big whiting despite signs and ID boards on the jetty. Tailor are still to be found in all the regular spots from the river, Chinamans, Back Beach and down at Wittecarra and Red Bluff. Regulars along the cliffs have reported schools of tuna smashing bait out from Pot Alley and down at Natural Bridge, so the action should start to change with tuna and macks on the chew, like this time last year. Safe fishing, and check your safety gear before you go to sea.

Miss Ev and Miss Charly love fishing with their dad. It’s not always about catching trophy fish. Those smiles say it all.

Mitch Harrison having fun shore jigging flounder from the Swan in east Freo.

Young Jordy Z is no stranger to big flathead like this one, caught wading the flats with his Dad the Z Man.

The Z Man himself Peter Z mixing it up catching squid just out of Freo using a fly rod and a home-made fly!

your main targets. The key will be to find a nice gutter, get a burley bag set up and try and bring the fish to you. Port Beach, Floriet Drain, Mullaloo, Trigg and Scarborough beaches are all worth a look. INSHORE/OFFSHORE With the new demersal

around the reefy areas. As mentioned, the samsonfish do come closer to shore at this time of the year, so maybe have something to target them on board, if you happen to come across them. Out wider the FADs will still be great options for mahimahi, tuna and the

occasional wahoo. Trolling a spread of lures will also be worthwhile as the warm weather has plenty of Spanish mackerel, kingfish, bluefin tuna and yellowfin tuna about. To have success doing this, it is all about trolling the contours/depth changes and keeping an eye out for bird activity. Fishing the edge of the shipping channel is always worth doing for sand whiting, while those looking to chase trophy sized King George whiting, it is a great time of year to target them in the deeper water off Rottnest (25m). Big strip

baits of fresh squid is your best option. Fish sizes can average over 50cm (with much bigger also reported) and the odd big flathead is caught as well. Although the new demersal ban is now in place, we are lucky in the Perth metro area that there are still plenty of fishing options available to us. As I said support your local tackle store and they will always look after you. They always know where they are biting. I hope you get out for a fish and I will catch you next month. FEBRUARY 2023

107

West Coast

New year, new rules LANCELIN

Peter Fullarton

From 1 February we commence the first of the new demersal bans for 2023 and new rules apply to bag limits, size limits and fishing gear.

blue groper). • The dhufish boat limit has been removed, so an individual angler can catch up to two dhufish and four may be landed from one boat. • Removal of size limits for WA dhufish, baldchin groper and breaksea cod to limit barotrauma.

this year is relevant to the time dhufish will be releasing their eggs, though I doubt it will do much good for the future of the fishery while the commercial sector can still fish the breeding schools that form at this time of year! The bans are planned around the school holiday

Daniel with a lovely snapper off the drone drop taken about 300m out.

A cracker double! Often multiple dhufish will be caught of the one spot, and once a boat limit is met, it’s best to move to new ground in search of different species to avoid unnecessary mortalities of released fish. In a nutshell, this is what was proposed late last year: • A boat limit of four demersal scalefish per vessel. • A mixed species daily bag limit of two demersal scalefish (except coral trout, coronation trout and western

• A maximum of one bait or lure per line can be used when fishing from a boat for demersal scalefish. *This does not apply to land-based recreational line fishers who can now fish all year round. The first of the three bans

Eddie with a legal-sized male baldie, probably over 12 years old. Most if not all undersized baldies die if released, and under the new proposed rules anglers will be able to keep these smaller fish to reduce barotrauma deaths. 108

FEBRUARY 2023

calendar to support small towns like Lancelin during peak tourism periods and small businesses like charter boats. I struggle to understand how this plan is a good outcome for the fishery in the long term, and described it to me as “it’s like fisheries have put a bounty on the dhufish’s head!” Larger boats have been limited to landing four fish each, but every boat can now land four dhufish! Charter boats move to tags, so the best return from a precious tag to the customer is a large dhufish. Professionals have been told they may be able to move to quota next year, and they would get the best return on their investment by taking the most expensive fish: dhufish! And the most cost-effective time to do that is when they are schooled up and spawning! If you have half an idea on what you are doing, it’s not at all that hard to target dhufish schools over other species. I really wonder how many large boats that have steamed an hour or more to deep sea and spent a small fortune on fuel are going to keep the first four fish if they are smaller species… The reality is come 2030 we will probably still be in the same boat and further changes may be needed to better manage the dhufish stocks. Another wasted opportunity to make some

changes to protect breeding fish for a long-term benefit to all sectors of the fishery. While the ban is in place, what to do? During February the water should be hitting the magic 24°C. That means the mackerel will be well and truly worth a shot. At our latitudes they rarely come easily, though with enough effort you can normally find a fish or two. They give a fantastic fight and yield a lot of meat, so it is well worth the effort involved. Fishing the darker periods of the moon increase your odds, as they do feed through the night hours when the moon is bright and may not be as hungry by day. Trolling is the most popular method for mackerel, but mix up the spread of lures to cover differing depths and distances out the back. I always run a Halco Laser Pro in the redhead colour, which is nearly always the first lure to go off in a spread! Tuna have been mostly further offshore this year, but schools are starting to appear on the horizon at around the 30m mark. Land-based fishers were thrown a lifeline with

Jinry comes to Lancelin most school holidays, and a recent trip saw a good session.

8-year-old Rhys was showing off his beach fishing skills, outfishing the adults on this occasion!

West Coast

Catch ‘em all in the crossover season MANDURAH

Jesse Choy

Autumn is now closing in, though we can still expect summer weather to be showing its presence throughout the month. As

will come across days where tailor don’t appear to be very prolific, you will find that they can appear as quickly as they seem to disappear along the beaches and in the gutters. Tailor schools are dependant on warmer weather, which speeds up their metabolism

The same gutters you fish for herring or tailor will generally hold mulloway, although you may need to fish earlier in the morning or later at night to give yourself a good chance with these flighty fish. ESTUARY Flats fishing for whiting is still in full swing, with packs of these well camouflaged speedsters getting around much of the Peel estuary. Fishing clean sandy areas with patches of weed scattered around will produce well, though you may need to put in a few casts before you can figure out what the fish want. If you are failing to catch whiting or want to try something else, be sure to

Corey from @tidal_blues caught this nice Mandurah chunk on a diving minnow.

SURF RIG 3-way swivel (crane ideal) Main line

Dready, the avid freshwater man, caught this colourful trout on the wand. a result of this seasonal change, fishing conditions will get a bit more tolerable and longer sessions become much more viable. BEACH Heading down to the local gutters, you can expect tailor, whiting and herring to be on the chew. Though you fisheries making the take of demersal species land-based a year-round proposition. This is great timing for the drone fishers in our region, as now is the time when pink snapper are widespread along the nearshore. During February you don’t need a ‘special spot’. Just dropping near reef, broken ground or even weed beds is a reliable way to land some good snapper. There’s no need for a long drop either, as that’s more likely to get snagged. Around 175m is all you need to get the bait out to be into the ‘snapper zone’. Some spots are even reachable on the cast! Near shore snapper fishing is best at dawn through to mid-morning, though you can catch them at any time of the day. At night a lot of rubbish fish start sniffing out the baits, and it can be a pain unhooking a stream of Port Jackson and carpet sharks, as well as rays. Beach casters shouldn’t be disappointed this month; the larger tailor make a comeback after the past few months being dominated by smaller

and appetite, thus you will find flurries of hungry fish passing through during February. If you are still chasing the elusive silver ghost or what is more commonly known as mulloway, time with a neatly presented bait in the water will be rewarded eventually.

3 gang hooks (H size dependent on bait choice)

Scalie, Mulie H (tailor) or Fillet bait H (mulloway)

Star, spoon or surf sinker

A typical beach rig that catches most species. Just change your hook to a smaller single hook for species like whiting or herring. explore other options like herring, tailor and also many of the blue swimmer crabs that are getting around at the moment. If you are after a

bit of fun on fish other than whiting, soft plastics, vibes and metal slices work well in the same areas and allow longer casts. RIVER Whether you are kayaking, boating or land bashing, there is something for everyone when it comes to fishing both of the river systems. Fish are well scattered throughout, so heading to your nearest jetty or bridge is a good option and will produce for the kids. Fishing with very lightlyweighted prawns or pilchard cubes on a small hook works well. If you are a lure connoisseur of sorts, the bream, mulloway and grunter will keep you busy at all times of the day. When choosing your lures, a mix of hardbodies, vibes and worm imitation plastics will work well. When selecting jig heads, opting for weights ranging from 1/16-1/32oz will cover your bases for even the pickiest of fish. FRESHWATER Any of our local dams or streams will generally hold

fish, with the ideal choice depending entirely on what landscape you wish to be surrounded by. Though you are really limited to trout and redfin, it’s hard to come away emptyhanded, and if all else fails you will have at least revelled in the picturesque views. When targeting trout and redfin you can find fish at any time of the day, though a change of light can quite often be where you will find results. The usual spinnerbaits, Gulp Trout Nuggets, hardbodies and soft plastics will all work well when out fresh targeting the most colourful of our freshwater species. The deeper we get into autumn weather, the more comfortable we can expect the fishing to be, which will surely spur on longer sessions for many. This time of the year is the bridge between seasons, with many of our warm water species still lingering and reports of cooler water species likely to arise at the local tackle store any time soon.

Shaun was making the most of the long casts he could achieve with a Dr Hook Hardy Headz lure, scoring a few choppers on the gold version. fish. Big fish are here to breed, and they will be feeding ravenously until they release their eggs late next month. Warming water means dart are going to be found in the gutters, and the stretch through the Defence

Training Area always holds a few this time of year. Herring have been increasing in numbers along the beaches and tarwhine have been in tight up next to any near shore reefs.

Thys from Tackleworld Mandurah has been out and smacking some decent fish. The small soft plastics strike again! FEBRUARY 2023

109

North Coast

Cracking the code for consistent success DAMPIER/KARRATHA

Troy Honey

Good things come to those who wait, and finally, after more than two solid months of 20+ knot winds belting the Pilbara coastline every for what seemed like every single day, we have been rewarded for our patience with some great fishing days in January. If there is one thing to take from a prolonged stint of weather preventing the majority of anglers from fishing, it is the reduced fishing pressure – nature’s way of protecting itself. Windy conditions make diving near impossible due to poor visibility, and getting boats out in rough conditions is not only unpleasant, but very

dangerous. The first week of January in Dampier alone saw two overturned vessels, two boat breakdowns and one sunken boat. It was a week of howling 25 knots or more, and these are not conditions that small fishing boats should be venturing out in, especially if they are not maintained adequately. Fingers crossed we get a couple of tropical weather events that bring lots of rain and fill our creeks and rivers before the season is out, plus long periods in between with little to no winds. The wet season has many fishing options to explore, and as we progress into April and May, the months with the least annual average wind (equal to July and August), these options will begin to include demersals that start to migrate

Sometimes you need to go deep into the mangroves to find the big bucks, as the author regularly does both north and south of Karratha.

Winds keep anglers on the shore EXMOUTH

Barry Taylor

This month’s report has been supplied by Josh Cheong Recently conditions have been very windy, and this has been keeping

tuna that are in good numbers at this time of year. The largest fish reported recently have been around 40-60kg. Sailfish have been getting around as well. Most pelagics have been caught trolling out wide, however recently mahimahi have come in quite close

been present on the west side, but wind is coming from that direction pretty much permanently and has made fishing difficult. To escape the wind many have been flats fishing for whiting, throwing trusted lures such as Jackson Ebi Panics and Pygmy Poppers

the flats fishing for species like queenies, trevally, whiting and everything else on the inside of the gulf should fire up. By this stage the holiday crowds have well and truly died down, and this should create more chances for any looking to find quality fish. • For all the latest news on what’s biting and where, drop in to Tackle World Exmouth at 3 Maley St, Exmouth or give them a call on (08) 9949 1315. You can also view the range at www. tackleworldexmouth.com. au, and see the latest catch photos on their Facebook page. This family business stocks a large range of tackle, from light spin to big game. The staff have a wealth of local knowledge and expertise, and are always happy to help.

James Fitzgerald was stoked with this stunning sail. Image courtesy of @yimtaro.

Exmouth flats fishing at its finest. Image courtesy of @indepthangler_josh. temperatures down, and anglers have mostly stuck to shore-based fishing. There has been the odd day here and there suitable for smaller boats to get out, however the recent cyclone near Broome brought a lot of bad weather with it, and finding good windows has been difficult. BOAT FISHING Those who have gotten out have been after the blue marlin and big yellowfin 110

FEBRUARY 2023

at certain times. They were recently reported in 30m of water near tip of the cape. These fish don’t normally come in this close, but recent conditions have brought in plenty of clean ocean water. Trolling hardbodies as well as casting stickbaits will catch mahimahi. A lot of people have been taking advantage of the wahoo in the area, both by trolling and casting lures. SHORE FISHING Spangled emperor have

inside the gulf. On the tip of cape, there are blue bones looking for their next feed, and they can be fooled with crab imitations, flies, and various baits in the shallows. NEXT MONTH Over the next month the weather will get hotter, so the fishing out wide should get better. The squid that have been quite prevalent will thin out as the mercury climbs, but

A summer sailfish comes to the boat. Image courtesy of @indepthangler_josh.

LIGHT, POWERFUL, DURABLE… Bluebone have been caught tuna, including mac

closer to shore with the cooler water. The wet season also sees the lowest average of barometric pressure. This impacts fish species in shallower waters such as estuary and near-shore species, and also pelagics that frequent the surface regularly. It is believed low barometric pressure allows

and longtail, are schooling up, with the waters west of Legendre holding many schools at any given time – just look for the birds. Your challenge here will be getting them to the boat once hooked as the sharks have been trailing the tuna in this area and creating havoc for anglers, especially

North Coast

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land-based on fresh crab baits from the regular spots around Dampier and Burrup Peninsula. It has been a great option to get amongst some demersal action when the wind has been blowing. THREADFIN SALMON My focus this wet season is to master the art of landbased Karratha threadfin

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BAIT & TACKLE

MARLO

21 Marine Parade MARLO VIC

CARAVAN & CAMPING PARK

03 5154 8268

OCEAN VIEWS • Deluxe cabins HOSTS: Les & Kathy HEYNE • Cabins with ensuite • Budget cabins • Premium ensuite vans • Powered & Unpowered sites • Pet friendly • Undercover BBQ areas in Marlo • Large oval • Kitchen Largest park • Camp fires • Kiosk the beach Short walk to • Coffee shops

RA! H A METRE + BAR AN

CATCES FISHING CHARTERS ON LAKE MONDUR

2 070 130

SU 182

WANT TO STAND OUT

3 010 080

MO 141 193

E MONDURAN HING INFO VISIT LAK FOR UP TO DATE FIS ON FACEBOOK S TER AR CH G HIN GUIEDLINES FIS

TU 152 205

advertise

5 032 101

here

WE 162 220

6 042 110

TH 171 230

7 051 114

Best Brands – Great Advice Now Stocking

products

FR 175

Phone: (07) 3387 0800

8 000 060

Copy and materials can be sent direct to: ads@fishingmonthly.com.au

SA 121 183

LICENCE REQUIRED

9 004 064

MARINE DEALER

AWESOME HOUSEBOAT

SU 124 191

LUXURY 13.6M LONG

10 012 071

• Hot water • Sleeps 8, licensed for 10 • Self contained • DVD player • BBQ • Fridge/freezer

650HTF

ba Prawn Bla “Yam 07 4157 3881doresemail ” info@lakem.com.au

GET ONBOARD

Come in and say hello

BAIT AND TACKLE

YAMBA BAIT & TACKLE “Yamba’s Leading Tackle Shop” “IN THE MAIN STREET” Shop 3, 8 Yamba St, Yamba

PROUDLY OWNED AND OPERATED BY MICHAEL FELSOVARY

TU 134 201

Hooked On Bait and Tackle

12 023 083

174-180 OLD GEELONG ROAD, HOPPERS CROSSING

03 9748 3811 Open 7 Days

(

“The Home of Leavey Lures” • Stocking all Major Brands • Experienced Local Knowledge • Tournament Bream Gear in Stock • Snorkelling gear in stock

Drop in to see Mick & Kelly

MO 132 194

11 020 075

For updates check us out on Facebook

)

WE 141 204

MARINE MECHANICS

13 031 091

02 6646 1514 • OPEN 7 DAYS

TH 145 211

14 035 095

All you need to worry about are the fish

CUSTOMISED MAINTENANCE & SERVICE

FR 152 215

to meet your individual boating needs

18 HAWKINS ST, EAST BUNBURY, WA 6230

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES PROVIDED…

(08)

Outboard service & repairs Complete boat & motor fitouts Electrical accessory installations

SERVICE CENTRE

KRIS OAKLEY MARINE SERVICES

5 Quality Drive, Dandenong South 3175 Victoria Email: krisoakleymarine@hotmail.com Phone: (03) 9794 5524

9791 1499

15 043 103

Northbank Fibreglass Boats @northbankboats

Advertisers wanting to be involved in this directory can FREECALL: 1800 228 244 or email nkelly@fishingmonthly.com.au FEBRUARY 2023

SA 172 235

4 020 091

For all your fishing tackle needs

112

1 055 115

www.marlocamping.com.au

HOLIDAY RENTAL

GUIDELIN

Tim

SA 160 223

54 55 25 59

00 00 25

00 09 14 34

09 14 25 50

20 12 26 03

23 00 16 07

16 42 59

00 01 17 36

45 42 49 11

25 19 20 43

02 57 49 15

39 34 19 46

16 13 50 19

55 52 24 55

35 33 00 32