Southern Bay

SOUTHERN BAY

Nick

Whyte August is a bit of a breadand-butter species month in the southern bay area. Bream, tailor, winter whiting, squid and snapper are all plentiful and great targets this month. miss. Around the Amity Rock wall is also worth a look this time of year. Remember to limit your catch, don’t catch your limit.

Squid started off a bit small last month but are in full swing now. Any weed bed or broken rock areas are worth a cast. Light leaders down to 4lb will make a live baits the rewards can be great, but you can also spend a lot of frustrating fruitless hours in waiting. Drifting the bar entrances with big paddle-tail plastics like the 6” McArthy paddle-tails can be very productive when the fish are present. Concentrate your efforts around the near tides or the tide changes

Seb with a decent southern bay mulloway.

Bream are scattered throughout the Pin region. Any deeper hard running water areas in sight of the bar are producing a lot of fish. There’s a lot of small fish mixed in but probably 1:1 ratio of legal versus undersized. Lure fishing with small vibes or small prawn imitations close to the bottom have been doing the job, or bait wise go pump a few yabbies and you can’t big difference to your catch rates. Weedy area’s in the Rous and Rainbow channels as well as the Pelican Banks and rocky headland areas are all great places to start. Once you catch one or two, work the area over for a little while.

Big mulloway will be patrolling our bar entrances this month with all the tailor and mullet running. For those keen to soak big around the moons.

There are still plenty of tailor getting around with loys of choppers inside the Pin bar, especially on the top of the tide with the cleaner water pushing in it brings all the bait along with it. Small slugs like the 20-30g Mustad Mezashi casting jigs and larger stick baits, like the Zerek 115mm sinking Zappelins and topwater lures have been doing the job as well. And don’t forget about the trusty old floating pilly. There have been some better quality around the central bay islands and are a great target on larger topwaters poppers. I find cup-faced poppers in the 100-140mm range will attract the larger fish. Working the edges and flats of the shallow reefs are the best starting points. South West Rocks, hole in the wall and the spit beacon at Peel are all worth a look.

Snapper have been in reasonable numbers of late. Smaller presentations have been doing the most damage. The 3-4” lures seem to account for more than their share of big fish and I think matching the bait size they are feeding

is more important. Working along the edges of the reefs early mornings and late afternoons in the low light periods should see the best results. Make sure you adhere to the closed snapper and pearl perch season from July 15 through 15 August.

Those keen on a feed of winter whiting need to be having a look around the western entrance area of the Rous. There seem to be a few good reports coming from there. Try and drift to find the fish, and once found throw the pick and work the area over. Once the bite goes quiet, repeat again. Worms and squid strips have been getting the best results.

If you have a great capture from the southern bay you would like to share email them through to nick@techfishing. com.au. Till next month, Tech-it-easy.

We make windows and windscreens for everything including: A nice Moreton Bay tuskfish caught on a Zerek Fish Trap.

Hairtail are a common by-catch this time of year.

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