Central OLD
Expect the unexpected in the coming weeks BUNDABERG
Luke Truant
Inshore reef fishing, within 15 miles from shore, has served up some of the best autumn bites I’ve seen in the last three years. We have been getting heaps of good hussar, Spanish flag, Moses perch, and dark-tail snapper. Many people have never caught a dark-tail snapper before, but they’re becoming more common here so you may well catch one in the future. They look a bit like
like reefy overhangs and caves (we call it ‘hard reef’, where you get snagged a lot). You don’t normally get them on scattered reef. Tuskfish are also making a small comeback in reef areas, and we’ve had some great catches of them lately. The yellowtail scad have shown up at the end leads and out at the FADs (10 miles from Bundy). We have been filling the live well with them, and the results speak for themselves. The red emperor and trout can’t resist a wellplaced livie.
been. Still, we have managed to get plenty of fish through them. Make sure you take out bucketloads of extra sinkers, hooks and trace to replace biteoffs. And if you get sharked, it’s time to move. I had some guests that brought some shark deterrents, to see what effect the devices would have on the men in grey suits. In the past I have tried the $3000 electrified shark repellents with no success, but I was interested to see whether my guests would have more luck. They had brought shark bands and magnets, and put
The dark-tail snapper is a northern species that is becoming more common off Bundaberg. a reef jack – and fight like one too – and they are great to eat. Dark-tail snapper are more of a coastal fish, which I used to catch further north. Now they’re showing up down here more and more, perhaps indicating that water temps are changing. The most common size we’ve been catching has been around 45cm, but one angler caught a really big 57cm one off Mudjimba Island (Old Woman Island) recently as well, so there are definitely some bigger fish getting around. You can catch them in the same areas as you’d catch reef jacks or Moses perch, i.e. in ‘ledgy’ country, with big overhangs or caves. Speaking of Moses perch, we have been catching heaps of them in the last few months. When you fillet a Moses perch, you’ll notice the flesh looks a bit bruised, blotchy and/or red, but they’re actually one of the tastiest fish in the sea, with beautiful sweet flesh. Small wonder, as they’re related to jacks, red emperor, fingermark and other lutjanids. Lately we’ve averaged around 7-8 Moses perch per trip, up to 2.5kg. They are a schooling fish like hussar, so when you get one you normally get several. They 32 JUNE 2023
At the time of writing this report, the scad are really small so you’ll want to use a smaller jig to catch them more efficiently. We have been using the size 8 Wilson sabiki jig lately. Fill your tanks get as much as you can (up to 30 per person), because the big red emperor and trout are much easier to catch when you have livies. Grassy sweetlip (grass emperor) are also on the chew. Lately the best way to catch them has been with a running ball sinker down to a hook, as opposed to a paternoster rig. A paternoster will still work, but not as well. Normally I would favour squid as a bait for grassies, but lately fresh strips of iodine bream or hussar have been working better than fresh local squid, which is surprising. We have been getting the grassies in depths from 15m out to around 50m, with the best catches coming in about 25-35m of water. The biggest specimen from last month was over 5.5kg, which is a very welcome catch. There has been a random run of spangled emperor (yellow sweetlip) in fairly close inshore reefs. Spanglies don’t taste too great, but they pull really hard and never seem to run for cover, so they’re so fun to catch. The sharks at the moment are as bad as they’ve ever
them near the sinker and some above the hook. Other hooks were sent down without shark repellents, to see if there was any difference. Unfortunately, there was no noticeable difference. There are plenty of school mackerel along the coast if you want to put a spoon behind a paravane/trolling board. Alternatively, you can do super-fast retrieves with a slice (or anything that’s shiny and can move fast) from the bottom up on the inshore reefs/ wrecks. A shiny barrel sinker with a 6/0 hook behind it is
actually just as effective as an any slice I’ve used for school mackerel. Just cast it out, let it sink down, and retrieve as fast as possible. The tip when doing that is to use a really long mono trace, so you don’t end up hitting the top guide with your lure or sinker. The Spanish have been harder to find, and when we have found them the sharks have been so homed in on them that we lose lures left, right and centre. The sharks have apparently learned to follow boats that are trolling, knowing there’s an easy meal of mackerel on offer. We’ve been sharked five seconds after hook-up. It’s pretty clear that the ecosystem is out of balance, and hopefully there will be some policy changes in future to help ease this problem. ESTUARY FISHING Blue salmon are kicking around at the moment, and you can catch them fishing the tide changes in the deep sections of the river. If you’ve never caught a blue salmon, there’s nothing like them for fighting power and endurance. A 50cm blue salmon on 8lb braid may take you 45 minutes to land. Every time they get near the boat they’ll do another long run. A simple way to catch them is to look for schools with your sounder, and send down a 50-70mm soft vibe (the brand doesn’t seem to matter). Hard vibes also work a treat for blue salmon – sometimes even better than soft vibes. Hard vibes can have a heavier vibration action which gets the fish going, and if you’re fishing a bit deeper (say, in 10m+ of water) the hard vibes can sink to the bottom faster. They can be cheaper as well, so don’t discount them from your arsenal. When you’re working your vibe, it’s good to do a varied retrieve to see what the fish want on the day. For example, do four slow lifts, pause, and do four small,
Blue salmon are a fantastic sportfish, and great on the plate. short, sharp jigs. Be sure to maintain the connection when the lure is sinking – don’t let the line go slack because (like most fish) they’ll often take the lure on the drop. It’s good to experiment with different lure colours. Some days the fish will eat fluoro yellow, and the next day they’ll prefer brown or gold, so bring a range of colours to see what works on the day. Bear in mind that blue salmon can take your lure in any part of the water column. Sometimes you’ll catch a blue on the first jig off the bottom, and at other times the fish will strike right at the boat. In my humble opinion, blue salmon are the best eating fish in the entire river. They are guaranteed to be the most forgiving to cook or smoke, because of their high fat content. They freeze very well, both smoked and unsmoked. If you’re interested in trying some smoked blue
A Spanish mackerel that escaped the sharks.
salmon, we produce it locally at The Seafood Smokery (theseafoodsmokery.com. au). Our macadamia smoked blue salmon actually won Champion Product at the Royal Sydney Fine Food Awards, so I’m confident you will enjoy it – just bear in mind that it often sells out. With the floods behind us and winter upon us, it’s likely we’re in for an epic bream season. I personally love to use ox heart or lamb heart on lightly weighted or unweighted hooks (e.g. Mustad Big Gun 1/0) cast right into the rocks. I let my bait drift around the rocks, and wait for an enquiry. I use 20lb fluorocarbon leader because the bream can fight dirty in the rocks. We’ve had a really good run of crabs on the large tides, and June is the last month of the year to catch them. You can sometimes get really good catches in June, especially at the start of June, and the crabs are usually really full. • Truansea Charters specialise in 10-hour day trips chasing prized reef targets such as coral trout and red emperor, as well as arm-stretching pelagics like Spanish mackerel. The maximum number of anglers is 6, so you’ll never feel crowded. The price is $350pp (or $330pp if you book the whole boat), which includes all gear, fuel, bait, ice, chilled water/soft drinks and laughs! You’re welcome to bring your own reef fishing gear if you prefer. Other charter options include half-day reef trips, half day river trips and private guiding. To find out more visit www.truansea. com.au, or you can Like them on Facebook or call Luke on 0423 015 490.
