NSW
Snapper catches to the rescue this spring COFFS COAST
Rob Taylor
Coffs Coast fishos can’t seem to catch much of a break this year with either flooding rains or heavy seas, or both. There’s certainly been some sensational fishing days in the mix but there’s been some long waits between them. The saving grace has definitely been snapper. We’ve experienced a
fantastic snapper season with plenty of big reds hitting the decks and most anglers are at least scoring a decent feed with each outing. Depending on water clarity, the majority of reds have been between 20m and 60m with the usual bait and lure options finding fish. Trag and pearlies have also been on the chew out a bit wider and some solid samsonfish have crashed a few parties taking baits intended for smaller targets.
When water clarity allows, the creeks and rivers have been fishing well for both flathead and bream and most fishos have been staying close to the mouths during run in tides to chase the higher salinity. Those river entrances with rock walls have been producing luderick and school mulloway so there’s been plenty of fun in the still water. Us locals have also managed to retain some sanity thanks to the impressive tailor run off
Troy Boulton with a beautiful Coffs Coast red taken on a soft plastic.
Local kayaker, Luke Giovanetti, produced this impressive haul of reds from his kayak using Atomic plastics.
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SEPTEMBER 2022
the rocks and beaches, and a healthy start to the drummer season. September heralds the first few days of spring and with the change comes the beginning of the seasonal transition for local fishos. Let’s take a look at what’s on offer this spring. CREEKS, RIVERS AND ESTUARIES Spring is flathead time on our part of the coast and there will be some big lizards in all of the local creeks and rivers. Fishing the sand flats where the big girls lay up in an effort to find some warmer water always works well at this
time of year. Given the shallow water, surface presentations like glide baits and bent minnows come into their own right about now but don’t rule out the usual crankbaits, soft plastics and drifted livies as they all get good results. There will still be plenty of bream about and we should start to see some whiting turn up in the lower reaches and they’re always fun to chase on drifted live yabbies or sandworms. We will also continue to see good numbers of luderick and school mulloway around the rock walls and
mouths so it’s really not a bad time to start hitting up the local rivers and estuaries, ROCKS AND BEACHES As mentioned, it has been a great tailor run this year and you can expect that to continue throughout September with most of the local headlands a sure bet to find choppers. There’s a plethora of surface and sub-surface artificials on offer to chase tailor these days but I find you can’t go past Twistys and Tobies if you want a simple and relatively cheap lure to secure a feed of fish. Bleed and ice your tailor
