Brisbane

from Fishing Monthly Magazine | December 2021

Boat test: Arvor 705 Sportsfish

A festive fishing feast

BRISBANE Gordon Macdonald

masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

With the end of 2021 looming, many anglers will look back on their fishing year with a smile on their face. Over all it has been a good year despite the weather not always being ideal and time spent on the water limited due to that virus thing people keep talking about. With hot weather now upon us, there will be some great fishing in the coming weeks.

Pelagic species, such as mackerel, tuna, bonito and cobia, will be on fire. Bottom dwellers including tuskfish, grass sweetlip, snapper, cod and even mulloway will still be caught with regularity. In the estuaries you can expect good numbers of flathead, cod, mangrove jack, threadfin and several other species. After recent rains, prawns should be available in many of the rivers. Setting a few pots could easily reward with both mud and sand crabs. You will be able to score a seafood smorgasboard for the family by targeting some of the following options. MACKEREL

One of the more popular Moreton Bay targets at this time of the year are mackerel. School mackerel are caught year round and spotted mackerel can turn up at any time over the coming weeks. Last year, spottie encounters were low in the bay but hopefully they will be back in healthy numbers soon.

During the warmer months, baitfish are a lot more prevalent in the bay and this often results in surface feeding schools of mackerel. This melee is often visible from some distance away due to the surface boils of slashing fish and the sea birds which are often wheeling overhead awaiting their chance to pluck a few baitfish from the surface. Spotted mackerel attack in slashing strikes, which often results in sprays of water pushed skyward.

The schoolies are less methodical and will often turn the surface into a boiling errant mass of baitfish soup. Both will respond to the same approaches. When surface feeding fish are sighted, a chrome slug can be cast in the general direction and then immediately retrieved once it lands. You cannot wind too fast for these speedsters to catch the lure. If they are following and not striking then you are simply not winding fast enough. Reels that return at least a metre of line per turn of the handle are highly desirable. Graphite rods between 2.1m and 2.4m allow great casting distance with the 30-50g chromed slugs and slices generally used. Braided line (commonly 15lb to 30lb) and 30lb to 50lb fluorocarbon leaders complete the outfit.

Casting to the edge of the school is generally best and will limit the bite offs that can occur when you cast into the middle. Mackerel are tail biters and will snip at the tail of fast moving prey to immobilise it. This is fortunate as that is where the inline single or treble hook is on a chromed slug or slice. However, if your lure is fluttering down as it sinks then the mackerel will engulf it in its entirety, generally biting through your monofilament or fluorocarbon leader. Some try using wire leaders but this will rapidly decrease the strike rate so is not desirable.

Mackerel can sometimes be found around the shipping channel beacons. Here they can be targeted by vertically working slugs or floating down gang hook rigged pilchard baits. The measured Mile can be a popular yet productive spot. Several boats will anchor in the vicinity and float out pilchards or small live baits. Mackerel are generally in numbers and it can be chaos when a school moves through and everyone gets a strike or two.

Trolling spoons (Halco Barra Drone or Kimberley Spoon #3 and #4 are popular) behind a paravane or trolling board is a great way to score mackerel when trolling the edges of major channels and bank systems. Deep diving minnow lures to around 120mm in length are also productive when trolled 30-40m behind the boat on 10-20lb braid. Good numbers of mackerel should be around for a few more months yet so you have plenty of time to score a tasty feed.

MANGROVE JACK

Hot days and nights are ideal time to be chasing mangrove jack. The warmer water increases their metabolism making them hungrier and more aggressive. Add into the equation a rising barometer and you are usually in for some red-hot red dog action.

Casting lures to structure such as bridge pylons, pontoons, mangrove snags, rock bars, rock walls and any other current altering obstacle and you are in with a chance. Soft plastic shads and diving minnow lures are most popular but you can also use topwater offerings, blades, soft vibes, soft prawns, baitfish profiled flies and numerous other offerings. The closer you cast to the structure the better your chance of enticing a jack to strike.

Live baits fished around these same areas will also work a treat. Anglers commonly use herring, pike, yakkas, slimey mackerel, mullet, banana prawns and even silver biddies. These are usually presented with a minimum of lead adjacent to these structures and in the deeper holes around bridges.

Early morning, late afternoon and night sessions offer some great opportunity for scoring a mangrove jack. Flathead, estuary cod, trevally, bream and occasionally others are taken whilst targeting jacks. THREADFIN SALMON

With the regular showers and storms we have had over the last few months plus rising water temperatures, threadfin salmon have moved down most of the major systems and are now regular catches in the lower reaches again. Rainfall lowers salinity, which forces the prawns out of the feeders creeks, drains and shallows and down the system.

The Brisbane River always has good numbers of threadfin at this time of the year and they are regularly found in schools down towards the mouth. They are often very noticeable on well dialled in marine electronics as their large air bladders produce a prominent return. However, just finding them is often not enough as they can sometimes be quite difficult to tempt, especially with artificials.

Good offerings to try will include soft vibes, blades, paddle tail plastics, prawn profiles and even jerk shad plastics. These are worked through the schools of threadies, which are generally close to the bottom along the edges of the decline into the main river basin, the fronts of the jetties, along the ledge in from the sewerage shute, the dredge holes near the mouth and the swing zone. At times they can be seen well in under the jetties ,which makes them hard to target (you must remain a minimum of 30m from the jetties) and even harder to extract if you do get a hook up.

At night they can sometimes be found around lighted areas such as docks, bridges and riverside restaurants as they are tempted by the crustaceans and baitfish species held in the area by the illumination. Live baits of mullet, herring, banana prawns, pike and biddies can all tempt threadies when fished close to the bottom with a minimum of lead. Those hot, humid days with storms building can offer some of the best thready action during the warmer months. PRAWNS

A select few prawners have managed to get a feed of medium-sized banana prawns during most of the winter period by doing

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night time sessions to areas of the Brisbane River and other systems. However by now, good numbers of banana prawns should be found on occasion in systems such as the Brisbane, Caboolture and Pine rivers.

How good the run will be depends greatly on the rainfall we receive during late November and early December. This lowering salinity will force the prawns down the systems to areas where they can be targeted by the prawners. Deep holes along these systems will often see the prawns lift and show around the tidal changes. You might be able to get out and get a few prawns for the Christmas feast and their numbers will be on the incline in coming months.

LONGTAIL TUNA

There’s a decent chance of finding a few longtails in Moreton Bay over the coming month. The warmer water temperatures commonly see good schools of baitfish in the bay and these are often closely followed by longtails. The numbers and individual size can vary a lot. Sometimes there will be large schools smashing it up on the surface and at other times you may only find a few individuals cruising around looking for morsels to engulf.

They can be very easy to hook at times and downright frustrating at others. It pays to try different profiles until you find one that is to their liking, if at all.

It’s amazing sometimes how a 20kg fish will only be interested in a 2cm long offering and will refuse anything larger. Sometimes they will just be cruising around in a casual manner and slurping up micro bait which are virtually clear with just a black dot for an eye. Obviously this is virtually impossible to find a replica of that which can be cast on a spin rod.

Early in the season the baitfish are fairly small therefore I will often resort to casting small baitfish profiled flies in an attempt to get a hook up. Small-profiled chromed slugs will sometimes be small enough to get their attention yet still heavy enough to cast a reasonable distance on braided line. Even when they are eating small baits they may eat a larger offering at times so it is always worth trying a stickbait or pencil popper if all else fails.

Longtail numbers might be sporadic over the coming months but it is always worth having a spin rod rigged and ready whilst transiting throughout the bay. CRABS

The warmer months are the best for crabbing. Whether you like to target sandies or muddies, setting a few pots during December will generally reward. Periods after serious rainfall are usually prime for targeting muddies as the lowering salinity pushes them out of the upper reaches and out into the main system. Pots set along the edges of submerged ledges, at the mouths of drains and gutters feeding out of the mangrove expanse and in the deeper holes will generally reward. Safety pots are best set with fish frames and heads, whole mullet, chicken carcasses or even a few pillies in a fine mesh bait envelope.

Sand crabs can be caught in the same pots and with the same baits yet are commonly found around the mouths of the rivers and further out into Moreton Bay. The surrounds of the bay islands, the deeper channels between them, submerged ledges and contours out in the bay and the edges of the sand banks are prime places to set your pots. Ensure that your pots are adequately labelled as per fisheries regulations or you risk forfeiture or a fine. Have a proper crabmeasuring device aboard and check that your floats meet regulations. Milk, petroleum and other bottles are not permitted because if someone hits them they may puncture and sink which results in a derelict or ghost pot which kills marine life. Ensure you can identify different crab species and be aware of size and bag limits which vary for different species. The Fisheries Queensland website will have all the information you need to be legal.

CONCLUSION

During December there are a lot of great angling targets as well as crustaceans to be caught. You can often target several species in the one session with some planning around the tides to optimise your chances.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas I am sure many of you will be out and about gathering fare for the festive spread. With heightened numbers of anglers on the water, many of them inexperienced, a little more patience is often needed on the water and at the boat ramps. I hope you all have a great festive season, stay safe on the water and get some awesome new tackle under the Christmas tree.