The Tweed

Summer just around the corner

THE TWEED Leon McClymont

The blue water has arrived and the water temperatures have risen, with 22ºC on the 24s and 23ºC at the 36s recorded at the time of writing.

This push of warm current in of pearlies and tusk fish on the 36s when using squid and cut bait on paternoster rigs, or jigging slow pitch jigs 120-220g.

This time of year the bigger schools of snapper should be pushing into deeper water along the East Coast, but don’t let that ruin your plans for an inshore snap this

Nicholas Pearce with an absolute beast bull mahimahi. summer! I have found some of the biggest snapper captures in recent years on shallow reefs over the summer months, especially in the north coast area. The big resident fish will move in on an easy feed by feeding on scraps of bait balls left behind by fired up schools of pelagics, such as tuna and mackerel. So having a bait on the bottom whilst targeting the pelagics this summer can really pay off.

Mackerel still haven’t turned, but I can only imagine that the first for the season off Tweed shouldn’t be too far away. Be sure to get your wire traces and tow baits prepped and ready.

Longtail tuna and massive schools of mac tuna are plaguing the shore breaks and inshore reefs from Fingal to Byron, feeding on schools of pilchards and white bait. I have found over previous years the Spanish mackerel are never too far behind the schools of mac tuna, generally a week or two.

We usually see a run of spotted mackerel also for a week or two before the Spanish seem to turn up. Hopefully the weather gods look after the

has brought the juvenile black marlin along with it. There are reports of large numbers of hook ups from the Gold Coast down to Cape Byron, all in shallow waters, which has the inshore fishos excited. The bigger models seem to be found from the 36s out beyond the shelf.

Plenty of mahimahi are hanging around the FADs, with some good-sized ones amongst them. The ticket to the show seems to be plenty of berley, cubing pilchards or cut bait to get the fish excited and feeding. Then either sending a piece of berley rigged with a hook back in the mix or a livie.

Good reports have come Flathead have been plentiful throwing divers or bent minnows in the shallows. If casting lures ain’t your thing, then white pilchards and blue bait is a great option for easy river fishing.

In the coming months, land-based pelagics are on the menu for summer in the Tweed region. I’ll be covering a few things, such as weather, currents and some techniques to target them, from baiting/ live baiting and spinning lures from breakwalls and ledges in the next issue. So if you’re looking to tick off your first land-based pelagic be sure to check out the next couple issues.

HEADING UP NORTH

I couldn’t wait for the pelagics to turn up on the Tweed. So after watching a warm current and good weather window for a few days I made the decision to make tracks and do a quick trip up north over the long weekend. I had called a mate and enticed him up with the run down on what we could have on offer.

After speaking and getting excited we decided it would be best to leave that night, even though we had minimal time to organise and pack, driving overnight and arriving at the ledge just before first light.

Upon sun up it revealed crystal clear blue water and I was filled with excitement at

Dale Richards scored a new PB jack going 82cm.

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Tweed region this season, and the whole East Coast for that matter, and fingers-crossed we don’t get as much rain as predicted. It could put a huge delay to the start of the season or, even worse, major flooding to the region once again and a season write off.

The river temperature has also risen bringing the mangrove jack on the chew with plenty of early season jacks showing up which is good to see, there are still schools of tailor and trevally also in the river hunting small baitfish. Top water surface lures or hardbody divers are great for targeting these species, which will tend to be feeding more on dusk, dawn or overcast days. CJ with a longtail tuna off the top on a recent trip up north, on a ZF hand-made lure.

Nicholas Pearce managed this early morning golden express.

the sight of it and the conditions, I fished all morning with only one missed hook up on what seemed to be a quite ledge. With my mate dwindling in energy and myself from a combination of several roadies on the trip up, no sleep and the scorching central QLD sun I decided to leave the ledge and set-up camp.

An hour later camp was set up, my mate was going to sleep in the swag and I could only imagine what could be swimming past the ledge – I couldn’t resist and took off in the ute back to the ledge. Making my way down the track with another local mate I tee’d up with, we were shocked to see how good it was and even better we were the only two on the ledge.

That afternoon I saw several pods of long tail and about a dozen Spanish past by but we only managed to turn two fish that missed the hooks with what seemed to be a half attempt at a bite from the tuna.

The next morning was a different story, wind was blowing from the north and the water was not as clear. We arrived at the ledge at 4:30am and by 6am my mate had managed to stay connected to a nice long tail on a popper. The fish had turned on for the rest of the day with huge amount of sighted fish and several hook ups, but only a few landed due to sharks and pulled hooks. We both managed to lose a Spanish each, I got connected to a good fish and in moments I got sharked. Just before that hook up, my mate had a high speed aerial attack only metres from the ledge leaving us both gasping, which looked like a 15-18kg Spanish mackerel in full flight and had snipped him off before re-entering. So very disappointing we didn’t manage a Spanish.

Until next month soak ‘em long.