Tempting winter fish with fresh baits

really the perfect time to be trying this, and there have been quality numbers caught in this short period.

The beaches both north and south of Ballina have been fishing well over the last month, with good reports of tailor, whiting,

One often forgotten technique along the beaches is throwing soft plastics and blades in the close-in gutters from half tide down. As the lower reaches of Emigrant Creek, although this time of year isn’t the time the big girls come out to play. You will get some nice fish as bycatch though as the jewies (mulloway) start to become more active. The deeper holes along the town stretch and up past the ferry will produce the best chance for a big jewie, with live mullet being the preferred bait on either of the slack tides.

Most of the bream are still hugging the rock walls, but the odd one can be encountered on some of the sand flats during the making tides. There does seem to be some good quality amongst them, and with the water starting to drop in temperature, the big snowies can’t be far off. Fresh prawns and nippers can be productive for these guys, and can be so much fun for kids. You are always pretty much guaranteed to catch some nice fish with fresh baits and quality hooks. I use the Gamakatsu Baitkeeper size 4 or 2; the barbs on the back side of the hook help to hold the bait up the shank of the hook.

If you’re into lure fishing, try a hardbody such as the Atomic Crank 38 Deep. Get your lure tight into the rocks and hang on. With light line these fish can give you some stick, and provide some great sport.

Surface lures over the Porpoise Wall can be dynamite, even through winter, and often better in full sunlight. On the run-out tide as the water is sucking out over the top of the wall and washing a lot of food out, bream will often sit in don’t be afraid to give your normal bream rods a go. They just don’t have the same reach when you land a fish on the rocks, which is what the longer rods help with. bream and dart being caught. Try fresh baits like blue pilchards rigged on 3 x 4/0 longshank hooks (e.g. Gamakatsu Gangsters) for best results.

If you are into throwing metal slugs, try the Gorilla Big Eyes in 20g, 30g or 40g, depending on the size of the swell and run in the tide. The last half hour before sunset is tide drops out you’ll be able to really get in close to these gutters, and blades from about 1/4oz to soft plastics of around 3” will give you surprising results. Quality flatties and whiting hunt close in on the gutters, and will eagerly take both these lures aggressively.

The flathead are pushing up past the ferry and into the tight, ready to ambush prey. Small surface lures or very lightly-weighted plastics can often be really effective in this situation.

The making tide has also produced some luderick along the walls on cabbage during the incoming tide, and peeled prawns or yabbies on the run-out.

If you can find any weed flies it’s worth giving them a crack too, either under a float or fished on a very light weight, like you would float an unweighted soft plastic down a wall.

A lot of old timers will swear by long soft rods for this type of fishing, which are tried and tested. However,

Offshore fishing off Ballina and Evans has been pretty good of late, although we are coming into a transition period as that warmer water from summer cools off and the winter currents come in. There have been decent catches of snapper off the close-in reefs like Reardons and also up towards Lennox Point. When the tide isn’t pumping, try fishing really light jigheadrigged soft plastics up on the top of Reardons Reef. As light as a 1/6oz or 1/4oz isn’t too light. The snapper will come off the bottom and hit the plastic on the drop most of the time.

At the time of writing this report, there are some good catches of mackerel being reported, both trolling live baits and also larger hardbody lures.

Until next month, tight lines.

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