Fishing Monthly Magazine | January 2023

Page 16

Southern

OLD

Running of the bulls THE TWEED

Leon McClymont

The weather has turned it on here on the Tweed Coast with some extremely good fishing conditions with plenty of bait running. The schools of pilchards and shoals of whitebait migrating through our

mackerel haven’t been on my target list just yet. Most seasoned anglers will target other species until it’s worth putting the time into chasing them as it can be a slow day trolling round or soaking baits when they simply just aren’t there. So with the mackerel still on the shy side, the FADs have been where all

the current has been running north some days and I have found many boats struggling to find/figure the fish out. Many seem to be getting frustrated and creeping closer and closer to the FAD thinking this will get the bite thereafter. After another unsuccessful deployed bait I soon realised that the fish were sitting on the other side into the current and much wider, at least 50-100m off the FAD, as there were a few boats around and the current had some pace.

The author with a huge tea leaf trevally. They don’t get much bigger than that. narrow it down a bit more to where the fish may be hanging. Once sounding the fish, just be patient and keep bypassing/circling the fish to entice them hit your lures, or even better switch baiting can ensure a definite eat. Back to the inshore speedsters, by the time this article goes to print I hope the mackerel are in full swing. I have seen small numbers of spotties being caught as they tend to be the first arrivals showing up that little bit earlier than the Spanish each year. Floating pilchards back in a berley trail is the ticket to the show or small spinners are also a great piece of artillery for casting whilst

6-8 usually does the trick. There are also plenty of GT and other trevally species around as they move down from the Coral Sea. Cobia are also starting to show up on the inshore reefs, such as Fidos and the Mud Hole. Having a bait on the bottom and one on the top will cover both bases for a cobia, as they are bottom feeders and top feeders, so you just never know which one will get the bite. A berley trail is also a very good technique to use as they are a scavenger eater and a berley trail will often lead a fish right up to the boat where a bait or livie strategically deployed on its head will

Steve Dale with a quality mangrove jack extracted from a rock bar. waters has the fish gorging themselves whilst the food is plentiful. With the current playing tricks lately and running north and the water temp jumping up and down,

the attention has been. They have been firing with good numbers of large mahimahi and some extremely large bulls getting caught, which is great to see. As mentioned before,

Kristen Frey with his PB bull mahimahi going 110cm.

Timmy Parrott with a nice GT on the troll. 16

JANUARY 2023

Rather than drifting through the organised chaos we just simply sat a good distance off the FAD in gear and drifted our livies/baits back. I found that the fish reacted well to berley. Ensure to cast your livie away from the boat with a decent cast to keep the bait from returning to the boat for cover. Mahimahi have extremely good eyesight and can follow a lure or bait flying through the air. We hooked up almost instantly! We had two double hook ups and that was enough mahimahi for us and the family, so we left for a different destination with a different species on the target list. We should see a good run of pelagics this season. During a La Niña year, the trade winds are particularly

strong and will push the warmer waters in closer and bring the big fish with it. Plenty of black marlin are being caught, most of the captures have been juvenile blacks in close range, 30-60m depth, with the larger specimens being caught much wider around the shelf and beyond. There is some good water around this time of year for fishing wide off the shelf with plenty of quality sized blue marlin also being caught as of late. Big yellowfin tuna are still on the cards. Finding the upwellings and zero current lines beyond the shelf can be the best place to start looking for big blues and big yellowfin. Once you’ve found good water then locating birds and bait can

The author with a brightly coloured specimen that took a liking to a Tweed Bait pilchard. waiting for the bite. Nine Mile has been the most lively I’ve seen it in a long time with an astonishing amount of kingfish getting about. In particularly, there have been some very large kings with many captures going over 20kg and some even pushing the magic 30kg mark. Slow trolling livies on a downrigger is the best technique for these beasts. If you don’t have a downrigger, as most anglers don’t, a ball sinker above your swivel size

work 60% of the time. Moving into the rivers and estuaries, the jacks have been on the chew. Casting lures into snags, structure or under pontoons is the ticket to the show but if casting lures isn’t your thing, soaking livies and cut baits is one of my favourite styles of fishing for them. The warm nights make for good drinking and relaxing weather, and soaking a bait waiting for the reel to scream off, what more could you ask for?


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Articles inside

Boat Test: Edencraft 6m Offshore

10min
pages 122-128

Freshwater

7min
pages 118-119

Exmouth

5min
page 117

Karratha

4min
page 116

Mandurah

6min
page 113

Lancelin

3min
page 114

Kalbarri

5min
page 115

Metro

4min
page 112

Augusta

5min
page 111

Tournaments

21min
pages 105-109

Victorian Angler Diaries

7min
page 104

Hobart

5min
page 103

Offshore

7min
page 102

Eildon

3min
page 100

Crater Lakes

6min
page 99

Ballarat

3min
page 98

Bendigo

7min
page 96

Wangaratta

4min
page 95

Gippsland Lakes

5min
page 90

Phillip Island

7min
page 89

Port Phillip East

5min
pages 86-87

Port Phillip West

4min
page 88

New England Rivers

5min
page 79

Canberra

4min
page 80

Hunter Valley

5min
page 78

Batlow

5min
page 77

Albany/Wodonga

3min
page 76

Batemans Bay

6min
page 73

Illawarra

8min
page 72

Central Coast

4min
page 70

Port Stephens

5min
page 69

Swansea

6min
page 71

Coffs Coast

5min
pages 66-67

Forster

4min
page 68

Sydney South

5min
pages 62-63

Testing Booth: Tackle Tactics

10min
pages 56-57

Freshwater

14min
pages 48-49

Cape York

6min
pages 44-47

Mackay

5min
pages 34-35

Cooktown

4min
pages 42-43

Kayak: Budds Beach

11min
pages 50-52

Sheik of the Creek

3min
pages 53-55

Bundaberg

6min
pages 32-33

Noosa

5min
pages 30-31

Southern Bay

3min
pages 24-25

REGULAR FEATURES What’s luck got to do with it?

13min
pages 8-11

Jumpinpin

3min
pages 22-23

Starlo: snapper on plastics

4min
pages 12-15

QUEENSLAND The Tweed

6min
pages 16-17

Brisbane

12min
pages 26-27

Northern Bay

6min
pages 28-29
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