Gold Coast

GOLD COAST David Green

The offshore grounds have maintained a good water temperature around 22°C throughout August and September, and blue and striped marlin have been caught throughout the winter. In October there should be a few blue, black and striped marlin out wide and it is generally a good month to chase yellowfin tuna on the 1000m line. The Gold Coast is one of the few regions in Australia where you can catch marlin every month of the year. As I write this I’ve just returned from a trip where we caught a 300lb blue marlin on the 250m line east of South Stradbroke Island.

The 50 fathom reef has been fishing well for snapper and pearl perch, and there were excellent catches after the season reopened. This month the snapper will drop off in numbers as most of the fish have spawned. There should also be plenty of amberjacks, samsonfish and yellowtail kingfish on the northeast 50 fathom grounds on the higher pinnacles. This year there have been quite a few black marlin on the snapper grounds, with big fish over 80kg being caught

Anglers have been getting good catches of pearl perch. on drifted live baits, or eating hooked fish as they are brought up from the bottom. The grounds in 120-150m have been producing some big pearl perch and bar cod. Deep dropping has become increasingly popular, and this month should produce bar cod, flame snapper and nannygai. The current picks up towards the end of the month and this makes things more difficult.

In closer to shore there should still be a few snapper on the 36 fathom line and it has been a very good season for Venus tuskfish. These are excellent eating and respond well to a simple paternoster rig with fresh squid as bait. Later in the month the current usually starts to run from the north and fishing gets more difficult with the increased run. The 24 fathom reef should produce some nice cobia on live baits this month, and these fish should also start to show on the close reefs from Palm Beach out to the 18 fathom line. Plenty of berley is the key to attracting cobia to your boat. On light tackle a big cobia can take over an hour to land and they are one of the toughest fighting fish around. During the fight they often come up close to the surface and are easily mistaken for sharks due to their brown colouration.

If the westerly winds continue, tailor are a good option. These can be caught spinning with metal lures or stickbaits just out the back of the surf line. It has been an excellent year for tailor and quite a few over 3kg have been caught in the gutters at the top end of South Stradbroke Island. You need to be careful to keep your boat in deep water and watch out for increasing swell. The Zerek Zappelin has been a great lure for big tailor and casts like a rocket.

At night there should still be a few mulloway on the close reefs and around the artificial reefs found in 23m to the north east of the Seaway. Live baits fished just after dark is the best method, and if you can catch a few pike you are in with an excellent chance of catching a decent mulloway. ESTUARIES AND RIVERS

The Gold Coast Sportfishing club’s Flathead Classic is being held in the last few days of September, and with all the winter rain it has been an excellent flathead season. In mid winter, catches of 40+ fish per session were common but in recent weeks things have quietened down a bit. When you find a decent patch of fish they are often quite shy, and ultra-slow retrieves have been the best method. Small soft plastics worked ever so slowly through weedy patches is often the best approach.

At high tide there have been some bigger fish in the shallows, and working shallow hardbodies and big plastics has produced some great fish well over 80cm long at times. As soon as the tide turns the fish seem to leave these spots, returning to deeper water. In October the deep water often comes into its own, and working large soft plastics, big soft vibes and large curl-tailed grubs can be a very effective method. I’m not a big fan of fishing the deep water for big breeding fish, but if you want to specifically target big flathead this method works well on the run-in tide. It is important to handle these big fish carefully as they are in the process of spawning.

Whiting should start to show up in numbers as the water warms up. Casting unweighted yabbies on the first push of a rising tide can be very productive, and if there are small prawns around, poppers and small stickbaits can be very effective. The flats around the back of Wavebreak Island are a good spot to try, and this area also holds a lot of very big flathead. The ideal water depth is around 30cm, and as the tide pushes up the whiting schools are generally quite easy to spot. Ultra-light line is the key to catching these sharp-eyed fish.

Drifting live baits through the main channel in the Seaway on the run-in tide will produce trevally, mulloway and big flathead. Small baits such as herring are also very effective for big bream and smaller flathead. Spinning with small metal lures and soft plastics can produce tailor, tarpon and queenfish when the water is clear. This fishing is at its best when there are white pilchards moving into the Broadwater, and hopefully they will move in this month.

Overall, October is prime time for flathead on the Gold Coast, but there are plenty of good options to try both in the estuaries and on the offshore grounds.

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October is a great time to target flathead.