Catching whoppers off the walls

BALLINA

Joe Allan

There have been some good tailor showing up along South Ballina reaches in very consistent numbers, with the best spots being out the front of Boundary Creek and along the front of the Broadwater rocks. The tried-and-tested blue pilchards and metal slugs have been great during the day, but the better fish have been coming at night, also on pilchards and cut baits.

In between the tailor, some quality snowy bream have been showing up. Fresh, smoked tailor on a fresh white bread rolls is something to get excited about!

There have been some decent numbers of mackerel showing up at the time of writing this report, and hopefully these fish will continue to stick around in decent numbers. They’re such good fun to catch, whether by trolling lures at decent speed or throwing stickbaits at them. There are some quality size fish in there too, with a few 20kg (145cm) specimens in amongst them.

In the river, the bigger holes behind the town in Ballina have been producing good numbers of jewfish (mulloway), and this should continue as the water starts to cool down. Live mullet have definitely been the best bait but you will get them on big soft plastics during the day. If you’re chasing the beasts, the best fish have come on the making tide during the night time.

You will find some big flathead will come along as bycatch. These guys are in the holes chasing anything that comes in front of their faces. Just remember, the big girls are the breeders so please, please, please put them back. Once they get big, they’re not that nice to eat anyway. A couple of snaps and quickly get them back into the water so they can produce lots of eggs during the next spawn. It’s great watching a big crocodile swimming back down to the depths.

North and South walls of the Richmond have been fishing well over the last month. Big flathead, jewies and bream have all been thick. The pick has been South Wall on the run-out tide. Try fishing surface lures like the Atomic Pop 50 and crankbaits like the Crank 38 Mid Diver over the Porpoise Wall when the water is flowing over, and you’ll pick up some great bream.

For the jewies, try small blades like the Atomic Metalz in 1/4oz or 1/2oz if the tide is running harder and you can’t get to the bottom. When fishing shallow over the wall, there can be some great visual action as the fish come from the depths to hit your lures.

The freshwater stretches of the river have been fishing fairly tough for the last few weeks. The water is still hot for this time of year; unseasonably hot days during March and April certainly haven’t helped the water to cool down.

The fish are really scattered all over the place, with a recent local competition having fish caught as far up the Richmond arm towards Casino as you can go. Decent fish were also caught halfway between Woodburn and Broadwater. You can still find decentsized fish in patches, you just have to do the time and travel to find them.

Hopefully mud crabs will start to come on in better numbers soon. The water is pretty clean around the town stretch, and I know of a few reports of blue swimmers being caught around the place too.

Until next month, tight lines.

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