QUEENSLAND The Tweed

Pelagic season is in full swing

THE TWEED Leon McClymont

The warm water has well and truly arrived with temps of 26.5ºC in close on the inner reefs, 27.5ºC chasing pelagics then it’s all about temperatures and currents, as this is where you are most likely going to find the fish. So, be sure to check these as it can be often overlooked.

If the current is pushing

offshore the cool water will be mixing with the warmer water out wide where the bait will be pushed as well. The pelagic fish will be congregating on current lines, up dwellings, and drop offs in search of a feed. If the current is pushing the warmer water onshore then the pelagic predators will be sure to transit the inner reefs in the search of bait. On rare occasions these pelagics have even been sighted from shore breaching and feeding on bait or, even rarer, catching one of these trophy fish land-based, which is an angler’s dream. Once you have decided on where you are going to target and you’ve got your spread out, then there are a few other things to keep an eye for. To give you a better chance of a hook

up, look for birds working in the distance, debris in water, such as logs and other floating items, and bait balls on the surface/or below. Keep one eye on the sounder for the bait balls as you could be passing fish sitting deep and not interested in coming up for your offering – this is when it can pay to pull the spread in and send a pre-rigged dead bait or a live bait down to the desired depth.

All these may seem like random little bits of useless info but when the time comes all the little things can count for big things in the boat.

The inner reefs have been producing good spotties and Spanish mackerel with several local anglers making the best of the brief good weather windows and hitting the water between rain showers and work hours. Don’t forget the humble bread and butter species, such as snapper and pearlies, whilst everyone is tossing berley overboard in the hope to lure in schools of mackerel the bottom feeders take advantage of these free offerings. I’ve caught big mulloway and huge snapper as Spanish by-catch trolling dead/live baits in shallow water.

As for the rivers and estuaries they have all had

a good flush and are starting to recover with the dirty water pushing out over the last month. Mulloway have been the number one target for Tweed anglers with catches of 20kg+ models coming in daily from the beaches, headlands, break walls and even up in the rivers, which has seen some absolute beauties like Blake Hawkins specimen caught in the Tweed River recently.

Local anglers have been making the most of the recent good weather windows to catch decent sized Spaniards.

at the 36 fathoms, and 28ºC at the 50s. This has seen the arrival of plenty of juvenile black marlin, mahimahi and the odd wahoo terrorising anglers trolled baits, skirts and hardbodies with reports of several hook ups and strikes making for some exciting action.

The fish have been showing up from 30m all the way out to the shelf so it can be hard to find the fish on any given day. Like most fishers, the night before I check the swell/ wind predictions, tides and bite periods. If you’re Blake Hawkins with a big Tweed River mulloway.

A pre-rigged dead bait for trolling and dropping.

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