Queensland Fishing Monthly April 2020 by Fishing Monthly

ISOLATE YOURSELF OUT ON THE WATER!

MP O

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Features

ETITIO

EW • •N F T HE

Stacer 519 Crossfire model comparison • Bar Crusher 615BR with Suzuki 150hp • Hurricane Lures Sprat 65 and 75 soft plastics • New Toyota Prado •

D IN

Tried & Tested

Boating & Kayaking

Heading wide in FNQ • Why not Wyaralong? • Does colour matter? •

PFD knowledge • Kayaking at Turkey Beach • Choosing a kayak for your needs •

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TOOWOOMBA TOOWOOMBA 07 4637 9511 07 4637 9511

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April 2020, Vol. 32 No. 6

Contents NORTHERN NEW SOUTH WALES

Yamba 18

Ballina 20 SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND The Tweed

Southern Gold Coast

Jumpinpin 25 Gold Coast Canals

Gold Coast

Southern Bay

Brisbane Offshore

Brisbane 32 Northern Bay

Noosa 35 CENTRAL QUEENSLAND Rainbow Beach

Hervey Bay

Gladstone 40 Bundaberg 40 Lake Monduran

Rockhampton 42 Yeppoon 43 Mackay 44 TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND Whitsundays 46

From the Editor’s Desk... FISHING EXCITING, WORLD A WORRY It seems as though this world is changing daily and the challenge is to be able to mentally get over the noise and focus on what’s important. And with everyone wanting an opinion, sometimes it’s better to just think and act locally. At Fishing Monthly, we’re no different from everyone else. We’re a small group of people collecting and distributing information. We don’t know whether we’ll be the same shape after the current epidemic, but you can rest assured we’ll give it a go. What you can be assured of is that we’ll stay on point. We’ll talk nearly always about fishing and fish. God knows we could all use a break from the sensationalists and panic-spreaders. With a dearth of sport, you might be interested in

this. The Tasmanian ABT BREAM Tour has just wrapped up with a flotilla of boats travelling across to the Apple Isle and joining the keen locals to enjoy the amazing bream fishing that the state offers. We saw our first international angler take an ABT title with Singapore’s Mike Sutcliffe taking the win

on the second event of the Tassie Tour at St Helens. Of course, all of this positive activity sits under the impending cloud of tighter shutdowns and disruption from COVID-19. We assume that this editorial will be out-of-date by the time it hits the shelves. Let’s look broadly, however.

Fishing may be one of the best things you can do. When the footy and cricket are shut down because of cancellation of mass gatherings, we will still be able to wet a line at our local. Also remember to spare a thought for your local tackle and boating businesses. These guys are members of your local community and it’s probably a great time to spend a few dollars and help these guys out in a time of uncertainty. Looking for a way to avoid all of the negativity and the rest of the media talking you into depression? Grab your copy of Fishing Monthly and lay down on the couch; we’ll talk about what’s biting and what’s coming into season where you are. Sometimes you just need to shut off the TV, log out of social media and enjoy the basics. We’ll be here for you.

Ayr 47 Townsville 48 Cairns 49 Cairns NFZ

Port Douglas

Hinchinbrook 50

Back to Basics

Camping and 4WD

Cooking 72

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Managing Editor: Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

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Editorial Manager: Jacqui Thomas

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Website: www.wp.fishingmonthly.com.au

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Field Editors: Jason Ehrlich Wayne Kampe

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Why not Wyaralong?

Office Manager: Marie Dykstra

Lucinda writer Jeff Wilton won the battle with this solid dogtooth tuna in FNQ. A Jeff Wilton image.

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OUR COVER

Heading out wide in FNQ

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Get out of your comfort zone and head out wide LUCINDA

Jeff Wilton jeffwilton83@hotmail.com

For most anglers, getting the chance to head out into bluewater is an exciting time. No matter where you live, any time the boat is pointed in the opposite direction of land there is a sense that something exciting could happen! I’m lucky to call Lucinda in North Queensland home, so heading east means I have the Great Barrier Reef and many tropical islands as my playground. We have

the two closest reefs are about 45km away so they’re reachable in smaller boats on a good day. All the reef systems off Lucinda can fish very well and, as long as you have some good current pushing, then normally the fish are active, especially around the tide changes. However, sometimes you can’t help but ignore all the closer stuff in favour of something a bit further out. SAFETY PREPARATIONS There is something special about heading out wider, when the water changes into a deeper blue

It can’t get much better than a double hook-up on GTs over a flat sea. just in case the weather turns nasty and you have to travel home quickly. Make sure you notify at least two different people where you’re going and what time you will be back. Keep

add that if I’m not home by midnight they should contact the coastguard. It is also a great idea if it is possible to radio in to your local coastguard on departure so they have you on record and

course, anybody heading offshore must have a working and registered EPIRB. This is vital equipment and is a last resort to get help. SPECIES ON OFFER The further you head out the less fishing pressure there is, which normally means greater catches. There is no need to change any gear or techniques that you would normally use in closer if you’re chasing the regular species, but heading wide means the chance to tangle with species that are not as common in closer reef systems, like jobfish, mahimahi, yellowfin tuna and the mighty dogtooth tuna. Finding small isolated rocks and pinnacles in the middle of nowhere is what dreams are made of and the excitement of a sounder screen full of life is addictive. I have spent countless

Vinnie fought it out with this typical-sized school dogtooth. a massive list of amazing fish to tangle with from tasty emperor, nannygai and trout, to sportfish, such as GTs, cobia, mackerel and marlin. A lot of people think that heading wide means booking a charter boat, but with the right preparation your trailer boat can get you into some mind-blowing fishing. When most NQ anglers plan to head out to the reef, their trips are normally around the closer reef systems. We are lucky, as

and you rarely see another boat. It can be a little daunting but if you make sure you have adequate food and water along with all safety and emergency equipment, there is no need to worry. Water is by far the most important requirement and everybody on board must have a lot. In summer you can drink 5L in a day, so double that for everyone on board just in case. Having confidence with yourself and your boat is

necessary, as out there you can feel very small and radio or mobile phone contact with the mainland may not be possible. Most boats are equipped with gauges that measure your fuel usage and the distance travelled accurately, so running out of fuel should never be possible. When planning a trip, the first thing you want to do is map out approximate distances to your destination and back home. It’s important to leave yourself plenty of extra fuel

Toni caught this beautiful coral trout, which will make for delicious fillets. in mind that you should add a few extra hours to your arrival time home, because you don’t want people to start searching for you if you decide to fish a few more hours. For example, if I say I will be home around 8pm, I’ll

then when you return, radio in to let them know you’re safe. These little things will give you peace of mind if something goes wrong. If possible, try and head out with another boat for the ultimate safety net. Of

hours travelling from one spot to another in hope of finding something exciting. Sometimes you get lucky but be prepared for plenty of searching and not a lot of finding. Charts that show contour lines is the place

TUNA ALLEY

Named after the legendary 15-mile stretch of sand cutting through the deep blue Bahamian waters where the Bluefin tuna migrate north.

GREEN MIRROR: Enhanced vision and contrast for fishing inshore and on flats. • Copper Base • 10% light transmission

APRIL 2020

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This sort of view makes casting arms twitch!

to start and marking areas such as depth variances or hard turns in these contour lines will give you an area

and plastics. The same can be said with nannygai and emperor if you’re dropping big baits into deeper waters,

the reef itself. Good tidal movement will push baitfish (normally fusiliers) together, making them easy targets for

Green jobfish are lots of fun and great eating. to search. When the plan is to find new ground, I would suggest setting a few trolling rods and putting them out while moving around. There are plenty of lures that can be trolled at faster speeds, just make sure you rig them on gear that can handle the possibility of big powerful fish. When you push further out, it shouldn’t be difficult to get a few trout in the icebox by dropping baits or jigs

but you will have to navigate sharks anywhere you go. When I go wide, I always spend a few hours getting some of these tasty fish in the icebox. My main target of choice is usually giant trevally. GTs are at the top of my target list because they are powerful, grow to impressive sizes and they will always give you a run for your money. I fish for them on the reef edges or isolated bommies inside

GT. The best time to fish is a few hours after low tide when the water is pushing up onto the reef and there are at least a few metres of tidal difference. Throwing large poppers and stickbaits into these bait schools will soon attract attention. You will be fishing over shallow coral bommies, so make sure your gear that is up to the task of heavy drag settings and furious battles. This is where good use of the boat will help push odds

in your favour, as towing a fish away from the reef edge or trying to get directly over the top of a fish diving deep will help reduce lost fish and gear. By-catch while chasing GT will be mackerel and red bass, both of which fight great and mackerel are a welcome addition to the icebox. Dogtooth tuna are not a common capture from smaller trailer boats but if the time is put in, they are achievable. These fish normally live in deeper waters, hanging around outer reef systems or over isolated pinnacles. Anyone that has read or watched anything on these fish will know they are one of the best fighting fish in the ocean. Dogtooth can rip hundreds of metres of braid in a minute and will normally head straight for the bottom or the reef edge to destroy you. In most cases, especially with bigger fish, there is nothing that can be done except hang on and give chase with the boat. If you can survive the first few minutes, the battle is half won and you just need to tend with the ever-lurking sharks that love eating them. The major problem with most spots that hold schools of dogtooth tuna is the fact that sharks will nearly always be there as well. If you decide you want to tangle with these fish, make To page 12

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From page 11

sure you upgrade your gear. You need to hold a good amount of braid and be able

some of the best sashimi you can eat so they wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be wasted. Make sure you bleed them very well and stick them

for you to talk about on the run home. I have one such memory of a trip a few years ago; we were trolling while searching new ground when the rod went off and a wahoo came to the boat. While we were getting ready to gaff the fish, about 50 mahimahi came

out of nowhere and just swam along with the boat. What followed were some hectic moments where we all hooked and fought mahimahi while their mates swam around with them! Another session when we were catching small yellowfin tuna, we were

Watching trout chase down stickbaits in the shallows is thrilling.

Locked and loaded! to crank up the drag to tire them out. I normally jig for them with metal knife jigs that are dropped to the bottom then ripped up the entire water column. Dogtooth tuna will rarely if ever bite you off; their teeth are more similar to a mangrove jack than a mackerel. Once hooked up, it can help to follow the fish with the boat away from the area you were fishing to hopefully eliminate the shark problem. Larger fish will normally die during the end of the fight as they give everything they can in the battle, but they make

in lots of ice. Green and rosy jobfish are also more prolific out off the wider reefs. These fish normally hang in schools around deeper rocks and rubble. If you can find them it will normally mean bent rods all round in the boat, as they are aggressive and will eat baits, plastics and jigs without hesitation. It is not uncommon for these areas to also have yellowfin tuna schools chasing bait, which can be a lot of fun. Even on slower days, there is normally always something memorable that happens

This kind of activity on the sounder is perfect for jigging.

casting plastics into feeding schools when a dogtooth tuna of 50kg+ got half airborne and ate a yellowfin tuna like it was a jellybean right beside the boat! That thrill just keeps me coming back for more. PLAN YOUR NEXT TRIP If you feel that you want to push your horizons a little more, plan well and do it. Keep in mind that everything out there seems to be bigger and nastier, so upgrading all your gear can be necessary. Rods obviously need to be up to the task, matched to reels that are strong with great drag systems. In prolonged battles, a sticky drag will end in disaster or will make fights last longer then they need to. Soft plastics should be tough and durable, as it can be very frustrating

WATER BALL AST

APRIL 2020

ACTIVE TRANSOM

getting a plastic to the bottom in 80m of water to get a bite and it is no good any more. Jigheads and assist hooks need to be strong along with any split rings or swivels. Last but not least, no matter how good your terminal gear is, a weak knot or faulty braid will mean game over immediately. Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be lazy, check everything. Part of the enjoyment for me is the preparation for a trip out wide. I can have a cold beer or two and spend a few hours in the fishing room going over everything while I pack. I hope this article sparks the desire to push a little out of your normal routine and widen your horizons. With the right conditions, preparation and a little luck, anything is possible.

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Does colour matter? NSW STH COAST

Steve Starling www.fishotopia.com

It’s the perennial question on the minds and lips of so many lure and fly anglers: does the colour of your offering really make any difference to your overall fishing results?

the part of the colour spectrum visible to them is often a little different to what we see. For example, some fish can detect reflected ultraviolet light, which is invisible to us, while differences in tones from the red end of the spectrum that are obvious to us may be much less discernible to our fishy friends.

of the spectrum), perceived colours are rapidly altered with increasing depth or horizontal distance through the water. The exact rate at which this loss of colour occurs varies with the strength of the sunlight (directly overhead or low on the horizon, cloudy or sunny conditions and so on), the clarity and colour of

Shallow water predators such as Spanish mackerel have eyes that are just as sharp as their teeth!

The size, shape and action of this Shimano Baku Tiger jig most likely played a much greater role in enticing this snapper to bite than any perception of its colour at a depth of 45m. There are all sorts of theories about what fish can and can’t see. Some folks insist that fish view their underwater world in black and white, while others claim their vision is poor. Fortunately, there’s

However, there’s another vital consideration we need to factor into the great colour debate: water (even very clear water) progressively absorbs light of different wavelengths. This means that colours effectively

the water, and the presence of any suspended matter such as weed or plankton. Even in very clear ocean currents far from shore, less than 25% of available sunlight hitting the water’s surface will penetrate much further than 10-15m of water. By the time we get down to around 100m, the remaining light may be as little as 0.5% of what’s available on the surface. It’s pretty gloomy down there! As already mentioned, red is the first part of the spectrum to disappear, and this colour is typically gone

within 5-6m (less in dirty water). Orange disappears next, then yellow, followed by green and then purple. Blues (both the tones of blue visible to our human eyes and also the shorter, ultra-violet wavelengths that many fish can see) penetrate deepest of all the colours. This scientific phenomenon has a profound impact on the way things look underwater to us and also to fish. White or silver objects will typically appear bluish underwater, with the darkness of that blue increasing with depth. Red objects will begin to look dark grey or even black within a few metres of the surface. Down at 15-20m, even in clear water, the world appears to be composed entirely of shades of grey, blue and black; to both our eyes and those of the fish. It’s worth stressing that this loss or alteration of visible colours occurs in both the vertical and the horizontal plane. So, 10m of vertical depth has roughly the same impact on light waves and the visibility of reflected colours as 10m

of horizontal separation between an object and its observer. In other words, a red lure may look dark grey or black when viewed at a depth of 10-15m, but it’s also likely to look black or at the least very dark grey when viewed from the side at a

Natural colours that mimic food items often work well on bream but a little bit of glitter doesn’t hurt either. distance of 10-15m, even if it’s up in the surface layer. At face value, this phenomena of spectrum loss at depth would appear

Light levels and colour intensity fade rapidly with depth and lateral distance in the water. Lures often look very different from when they are in your hand to when they’re even a metre or two under the surface. been some solid science to investigate this over the years and these days we actually have quite a few solid answers. According to scientists, most of the popular fish targeted by anglers — and especially predators living in relatively shallow, clear water — have very good eyesight. Also, the majority of these fish can definitely perceive colours, although 14

APRIL 2020

‘vanish’ one after another as ‘white’ sunlight travels through the water column. With increasing depth (and with increasing horizontal distance through the water), the colour in sunlight is absorbed and the amount of visible light also diminishes. Because absorption is greater for longer wavelengths (the red end of the spectrum) than it is for shorter wavelengths (the blue end

to make a mockery of the importance of colour in lures anywhere beyond shallow, ultra-clear flats fishing. However, most experienced anglers know that lure colour can sometimes make a difference, even in

What was more of an attraction for this cheeky little Murray cod: the flash and vibration of the Hell Yeah chatterbait’s metal blade, the pulsing action of its skirt, the silhouette of that soft plastic trailer, or the proven freshwater combination of black and purple? You be the judge!

deepwater jigging scenarios. Maybe we’ll never understand exactly why this is so, although it’s certainly an interesting subject to ponder! Similarly curious is how many deepwater species are red themselves — a colour that effectively doesn’t even ‘exist’ down where they live. While I accept that colour can be a critical component in lure and fly choice on its day, I generally rate colour down the list of key selection criteria when choosing a lure or fly; well below things like size, shape, action and running depth. In my opinion, far too many fishers get completely hung up on the colour question, often at the expense of other factors that are at least as important to their chances of success. By all means, consider colour when selecting lures and flies, but don’t let it dominate your thinking!

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Tech Tricks

How to catch a cephalopod – spelling it out BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

Cephalopods include many different species of aquatic molluscs such as squid, nautilus, octopus and cuttlefish. Worldwide, it’s estimated there are 500 species of squid, 120 species of cuttlefish, six species of nautilus and 300 species of octopus, making cephalopods a sizeable and important part of the marine environment.

lightly deep-fried. The tentacles can also be cooked in this manner. E – EGI Egi is a rough translation from the Japanese term for a squid lure. This prawnshaped slow sinking jig has several rows of barbs at the rear. This is used to catch squid and cuttlefish. It is usually cast out and allowed to sink before being retrieved using varying techniques. Egi come in an array of sizes (most commonly #1.2 to #4) and varying sink rates. Some egi are designed

and UVB rays to heat the cloth up to 1.5°C warmer than the water to make it a similar temperature to a baitfish or crustacean. Just like lures, anglers often have a favourite egi for a particular area or situation. When the squid are fussy, having an array of different egi sizes and colors can be the difference between success and failure. P – PE LINES Polyethylene or PE lines offer anglers some great advantages when chasing squid and cuttlefish. These

Specific braids, rods, reels and lures go a long way to ensuring positive results when targeting squid.

Squid have exceptional eyesight and will hunt prey in the shallows in the dark, making them an ideal target for land-based fishers. The two most commonly caught squid species in our neck of the woods are tiger and arrow squid. C – CALAMARI The most common mainstream word used to refer to squid is calamari – the culinary term for the cooked version. This gustation is commonly a

to be jigged vertically for deepwater fishing. The Japanese egi are generally the best quality and there is often a lot of technology that goes into the coatings of these jigs so that they feel realistic to the squid. The cephalopod is more likely to grab it and will hold onto it longer,

thin lines cast exceptionally well due to their low diameter, especially in windy conditions. Additionally, the thin diameter aids in allowing the jig to sink at its intended rate and every little tap on the jig will be registered by the angler due to the near zero stretch. There are

Egi come in numerous sizes and an endless array of finishes, coatings and colours. crosscut ring or flat piece of the squid tube (main body) that is wrapped in crumbs or some other coating and 16

APRIL 2020

which increases hook-up rates. The Yamashita Live Warm Jacket has a cloth coating that absorbs UVA

many purpose specific PE lines (often labelled as EGI lines) designed for squid fishing. Apart from having

the attributes of most high quality PE lines, these EGI PE lines are coloured to provide exceptionally low visibility in the water. H – HOPPING Hopping is a popular retrieve employed by those eging (casting and retrieving egi). Once the jig is cast out, it is allowed to sink (often close to the bottom structure or weed bed) before the rod tip is lifted abruptly to hop the jig upwards, just like a darting or spooked prawn would. An additional pause will let the jig sink again before the sequence is repeated. This is a great retrieve for deeper water as you can probe a good portion of the water column. Another popular retrieve is a straight wind with occasional twitches of the rod tip to make the jig dart laterally. Pauses can also be added to allow the jig to sink slightly. This retrieve is often used in shallow water when you don’t have sufficient depth to hop the egi. A – ANY ROD AND REEL All kinds of light rod and reel outfits can be used for targeting squid. Many will use the same outfit they utilise for bream, bass, flathead or trout fishing. However, you need to ensure the rod is capable of casting the weight of the squid jig without snapping the tip. There are specific squidding or eging rods that possess a mid-flex taper. This gives a tip stiff enough for great casting with enough mid-length flex to avoid tearing egi barbs out of a lightly hooked squid. These rods are commonly 7’6”9’6” in length (2.25-2.85m) to assist with distance casting and hopping the jig

in deeper water. Reels can also be specific with many finesse reels fitting the task admirably due to their micro adjustment drag pressures and light physical weight. Many of these have a double handle for faster winding to quickly pick up slack line or set the barbs once a take is detected.

L – LEADER Leader is extremely important for eging. It can offer good abrasion resistance against the weeds, kelp, rocks, barnacles and pylons that are often hit during a squid fishing session. Fluorocarbon leaders are preferred, as not only do they offer good abrasion resistance but they

When squid are lightly hooked, specific egi rods, finesse drags and good technique can turn the odds in your favour.

Tech Tricks also have extremely low visibility in the water. This is important because squid have exceptionally good eyesight and may shy away from anything that looks suspicious.

amongst some squid. Often the squid can be sighted before a jig is even cast to them and you can see the stalk and the take by the squid, which can be a lot of fun.

will know when you have been successful, as the squid will instantly change colour. The head and tentacles can be pulled away from the main body (hood) and then the inner gut can be pulled

the jig set. Squid will lunge backwards during the retrieve and a light hookset may tear out. Purpose built rods aid to prevent this due to their flex. When using stiffer rods,

Specific fluorocarbon leaders can greatly increase your chances of scoring wary squid and will greatly limit egi loss. Many companies make specific egi leader designed for different water depths and situations. For example, the Sunline Egi SV-I Leader is a light pink coloured fluorocarbon and is designed for heavily fished areas. At times you can throw an egi out on a 50lb monofilament hardline and catch a squid, but when they are being pedantic, which is usually the case in more heavily fished areas, having the specific tackle and rigging will make all the difference. O – ONLY THE BEST WATER Often it is only areas with quality, clean water where you will find squid. If the water is murky or has suspended sediment then the likelihood of squid being there is much lower. During the cooler months, westerly winds are common. These will produce clear, cool water around the foreshores, offering land-based anglers great opportunity to get

Additionally, squid tend to hang around structure such as rocks, reef, rubble or weed beds, as these areas hold prey species while still having great ambush potential. Even an area of discoloured bottom can offer good squid fishing, especially along the channel edges in Moreton Bay. You may look into an area of crystal clear water and not be able to see any squid, but they are masters of camouflage and will seemingly appear out of nowhere once an egi is presented. Arrow squid are often in better numbers in the channels and open water areas while tiger squid are more commonly found in the shallows and structured zones. P – PROCESSING Processing squid is fairly easy and is best done as soon as possible after capture. Firstly, kill the squid by cutting the tendon between the head and the hood with a knifepoint or egi spike. You

out, preferably without piercing the ink sack. You will feel a slightly harder section inside the tube. This is the pen and it can be grasped and torn out as well. Push your thumb in where the wing attaches to the hood and remove both wings plus the mottled outer skin of the tube. The skin can then be removed from the wings and the tentacles can be cut away from the head just below the eye. The tube can be cut into rings or split up the side and flattened before scoring with a knife to ‘pineapple’ it. There are a myriad of ways to cook squid, but the best texture and taste will come from cooking with high heat for a short time. O – OFTEN LOST THROUGH ERROR Often anglers lose squid because of their incorrect retrieval technique. The barbs of a squid jig do not have a second opposing barb like a hook, so constant pressure is needed to keep

wind as you would with a fish. Keep the rod tip high and wind slowly. Once at close quarters, use a net or special squid gaff to secure your prize. You can safely grasp the squid between the hood and head. Face the head and tentacles away from yourself and the boat as the squid may unleash a spray of ink at any time. D – DARKNESS Darkened hours can offer some quality squid fishing, especially for inshore waters. Squid are less likely to feel conspicuous in the shallows at night and their amazing eyesight gives them the advantage while hunting prey. Areas where lights constantly shine, such as jetties, bridges, bankside walking paths and waterside restaurants will attract baitfish and small crustaceans. These are top prey offerings for squid so

LED headlamps for spotting squid in shallow waters at night, even before they cast. However, in heavily fished areas this can sometimes spook the squid and make them hard to tempt. S – SKEWERS A skewer is essentially a metal rod with several rows of barbs on one end. The rod is inserted lengthways into a baitfish (such as a pilchard, slimy mackerel or yakka) and then the leader is attached to the end. They are often suspended beneath a float and are a great way to catch squid around the bay islands, the whiting grounds and in the channels while drifting along. Once the float dips, a slow wind is all that’s needed to secure your prize. Often success rates on arrow squid are a lot higher with a baited skewer than with an egi. Hopefully these tips

Skewers are great for presenting baits while drifting – a low effort way to score both squid and cuttlefish. lower the rod tip slightly with the lunge of the squid and keep your drag settings light. Do not pump and

both arrow and tiger squid are common in these areas. Shore-based anglers may use high-powered

will help you increase your capture rate on arrow and tiger squid over the coming months.

APRIL 2020

Hit the water early in the holiday season YAMBA

Dave Gaden

April in this part of the world usually means great mackerel fishing offshore. With the very welcome heavy rains we experienced in February, the late summer run of these fish got pushed wide as they tried to find some clean, warm water and baitfish. April and May will see them starting their journey north and they won’t be in a hurry. The most common mackerel species we get here is the spotted mackerel, or ‘spotties’ as we call them. We get better than average size spotties,

Andrew Symons with a good wahoo. Anglers can expect more of these this month. your guard, and then one of the lines will go a lot harder and faster and all of a sudden you’re tight to a big Spaniard. Light drags are a must, as is a very sharp gaff

Don Causley was happy with this quality snapper.

Brett Sawyer caught this Maori cod from the southern reef. with many fish going well over a metre in length and over 8kg in weight. They get so thick some days that you can literally sight cast to the fish at the side of the boat with pillies,

targeting the bigger fish in the shoal. For some reason the spotties seem to lose all their fear and just swim alongside the boat, waiting for you to feed them. It really is the sport of kings!

Along with the spotties there will be a nice spattering of Spanish mackerel and wahoo this month. You can get a bit complacent on a hot mackerel bite, lowering

Oliver (14yo) with a tasty Venus tuskfish.

with a wrist strap. I can’t count the amount of fish I have seen swim away with a gaff in their side because the gaffer didn’t have a wrist strap. There will still be good mahimahi on the FAD and wider grounds around the trap buoys this month, and quite often the later run will have much bigger fish. Live baiting them is great but there are plenty of days when they will only take half a pilly or a strip of fresh mullet flesh. As always, throwing a handful of chopped pilly at the FAD or buoy each time you approach it will get them in the mood for a feed, and keep the fish coming to you. If mackerel are not for you and you’d prefer a feed of snapper, my advice this

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month is to head wide to between 40 and 50 fathoms. The grounds northeast and southeast of Yamba at this depth will be alive with good plate-size snapper between 40-50cm. They seem to like the kind of ground you would usually look for when targeting pearl perch: a fairly flat, hard bottom with wire weed. The snapper will be very easy to see, as there will be a mountain of small baitfish above them in this depth. I recommend short drifts with paternoster rigs and big sinkers. I use 3 x 6/0 Mustad Demon hooks out here with fairly small bait (about the size of your thumb) of pilly, squid and mullet on each line, and a triple hook-up is very common. You will also find plenty of other fish out here when those big shoals of snapper are about. Most days will produce pearl perch, blue morwong, pigfish, kingfish, samsonfish, amberjack and more. The southern reef off of Brooms Head will have some quality fish around the 40m mark. The nice exotic species like Venus tuskfish, Maori cod and Moses perch will be there, along with the snapper, pearl perch and flathead. Up north around South Evans there will still be quite a few of these fish but the trag should dominate your catch here. The ground just outside South Evans bommie in around 30m of water is where I would fish. You get a really good, long drift in this area, usually going parallel to the coast covering all the good ground, and just when you think it’s time to motor back and have another drift, you’re tight to more fish. Before you know it you’ve drifted 2nm. ESTUARY FISHING In the estuary this month things should be looking pretty good. With the good fresh we received in February cleaning out

Harry (10yo) with a good pearl perch. the river after the long dry spell, the fish should be a bit easier to find. Flathead should be in good numbers around the entrance to the lake and further upstream at the Broadwater. With the river looking so good I don’t think you’d have to go far anywhere from the lower reaches of the river to find a feed of the delicious dusky. Blackfish or luderick came downstream in big numbers with that fresh, and we can expect them to hold in the lower reaches as the food will be there for them. The best spots should be Learners Corner on Freeburn Island, the Old Ferry launch at Iluka and the Peninsula near the Tavern. Gathering weed shouldn’t be a problem as the wet fills the drains and it becomes readily available. Crabs have been great

this year, and my dad would have said “This is your last chance” because he always said you catch crabs in months with an ‘R’ in them. I am sure there are still crabs to be caught in May but it’s a great old saying and I’m not one to argue, so get out there and have your last big feed before September. CROWDED RAMPS April brings with it the school holidays, making places like Yamba and Iluka very busy. With this being one of the best times to fish both offshore and in the estuary, you can imagine that the limited launching facilities might get a little full. When you’re at the ramp, try to be patient with those boaters who are less experienced than yourself, and lend a hand if you can, knowing full well that the mackerel will like you to be out on the water early.

Trevor Beetson with one of the quality spotties you can catch this month. APRIL 2020

Flushing away all our worries BALLINA

Joe Allan

Reports from the freshwater stretches of the Richmond and Wilsons rivers have been patchy. Reports of people catching 60 fish one day and then going back the next and getting between 5-10 have been common.

The whole system has had a flush and will be better for it. The best lures are spinnerbaits with silver blades and lipless crankbaits with bright colours and loud rattles. The noise and flash is what’s attracting these fish in this dirty water. The creeks around Bangalow and Corndale are worth a cast now that they’ve cleaned up a little. Just down

size everything that you’d normally throw in the main river. You’d be surprised how big the fish that live in these small creeks can get. Small 2” plastics and bream or trout size crankbaits are what you should throw. The surface fishing is still going really well too, and hopefully continues for a while. If you’re after a feed of flathead, try the stretches

between Pimlico Island and Broadwater. Whitebait and fresh prawns are the go if you can get them. The prawns are on the move at the moment, so if you can find them you’ll find great numbers of tasty fish. The best hooks for these are number 1/0-2/0 Gamakatsu Long Shanks. The longer shank in the hook keeps the line away from their teeth, which while only small can cut through some pretty tough line. If you’re into using lures, try tolling

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Aaron Swanson found a couple of nice bream from dirty water in Emigrant Creek.

Ben Rampling with a stonking mulloway caught from a local beach on a Croaker Lures Jewie Jewel.

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some hardbodies that will get down past 3.5m easily in the holes around the Wardell Bridge and areas close by. Bright colours are best. Once you’ve found the drop-offs, it’s always good idea to have a 3-4” soft plastic with a 1/4oz jighead and 3/0 hook ready to go. The mackerel are showing up in good numbers between Brunswick and Evans. Livies are still the

go at this stage, with yakkas and slimies being the best options. Close in reefs are like Black Head, Flat Rock and Snapper Rock down at Evans Head are firing. The beaches around Ballina and Lennox Head have been fishing really well and should continue to get better. Look for gutters on Patches Beach and back to South Ballina, as well as the beaches along Seven Mile

Beach north of Lennox Head. There have been good catches recorded of tarwhine and flathead on soft plastics and blades. With plastics and blades, try 1/4oz weights, however if it’s too windy this might be a struggle. There are still good numbers of pipis around and these little morsels are great fresh bait for most bread and butter species. Just remember you’re not allowed to take these from the beach they were found on. The rock walls have produced some good size mangrove jack and while they’re not in good numbers like they were in summer, the better size specimens have come out to play in recent times. They will become less active now that the water is cooling down. The breakwalls have been seeing some good mulloway towards the bottom end of the tide. This dirty water has certainly stirred them up, with some really good size fish being caught. Live mullet seems to be producing the best catches upriver in the holes, however down on the walls try big deep diving crankbaits. Until next month, tight lines!

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Storms dictate where to fish THE TWEED

Anthony Coughran

The summer storms have been shaking things up over the past month in the Tweed, injecting a lot of fresh into the systems. There are fish kills from run-off, there’s bait being pushed around, and changes in water temperature. All of these factors determine where and what to fish for. The floating debris and river/creek influence on offshore waters has fired up the mixed reefies, mackerel,

mahimahi, wahoo, kingies and billfish. The bait moving in the rivers has the soapy mulloway and trevally on the chew. The run-off has fired up the beaches and headlands, with a few big mulloway caught off the beach in recent weeks. Bass are also taking advantage of the run-off and flooding creeks and rivers. OFFSHORE We have had an awesome pelagic season so far, with lots of blacks, wahoo and mahimahi being caught off Tweed reefs over the past month. The floating debris, FADs, buoys and markers

Kane Blenkinsop with a toothy Spanish mackerel.

have been fishing best for mahimahi. Trolling skirts past and pegging and ripping 20-60g metals past these structures will normally result in a hook-up from small to medium mahimahi. For bigger specimens, try trolling the 24s, 36s and the 50s. There are lots of black marlin from the 24s out to 200m lines, and blues on the 100-400m lines. Purple 6-9” skirts are still fishing the best. Once you have located the fish, live baits are the best way to achieve success on the blacks and blues. There’s the odd wahoo on the 24s and 36s, and on the backside of 9 Mile and South Reef. They are being taken on hardbodies, highspeed bibless trolling lures and 100-200mm vibes. Spanish mackerel have been around their usual haunts – 9 Mile, 5 Mile, South Reef, close reefs, Kingy and Windarra Banks – and they are mainly hitting trolled baits, especially bonnies and slimies. The bite windows don’t last long though, and the fishing can be hit-and-miss. It’s a similar story with spotty mackerel; there’s only the odd one around the

close reefs at the moment. If you want to try your luck, you can float out a pilly or other bait while drifting. You can also have success by ripping metals past schools or trolling pillies. Try Fidos, the Cook Island yellow marker, Kingy and Hastings bommie. Close reefs that are copping the fallout from the storms and run-off are fishing well for mixed reefies. A few packs of snapper, kingfish, tuskfish, spangled emperor, pearl perch and sea perch are patrolling these reefs, capitalising on the floodwaters flowing over them. Fishing dusk and dawn with plastics and baits will definitely score you a feed, and if you’re lucky you may score a larger model. Unfortunately there are lots of sharks, as is usual in summer, and it can be hard getting your catches past these taxmen. Some great spanner crabs are being caught this month between the 24s and 36s, and it’s well worth soaking a trap. There’s also lots of bait around, and good places to try include Point Reef, Kirra, the yellow marker and 10 Minute Reef. ESTUARY We’ve had a great

Leon McClymont has been catching big mulloway off the rocks. jack season this year, with massive numbers being caught in the Tweed and Tweed Coast. The bigger models are being caught at night on live baits around heavy structure by anglers using heavy gear. Very large live baits are the go, such as 20-30cm mullet, 20cm bony bream, 30cm whiting, 15-20cm herring. You can also have success using whole fillets and heads. There are still heaps of smaller to medium size jacks being caught on lures, and the most consistent option seems to be 3-5” paddletail plastics rigged weedless. Other good artificials include 90mm prawn plastics, 90-150mm hardbodies, 20g vibes, 70-150mm surface lures and swimbaits. Working these lures with the

current and allowing them to get as close as they can to the structure will get the best action out of your lures. This will entice these reds to come out from their cover and smash your lures. Some great black-spot cod are being caught as jack by-catch this month, and have most anglers thinking they are onto a good jack. The whiting are still up in the skinny water, taking yabby, beachworms and bloodworms drifted along the skinny water banks. Most catches have been coming at night, but you can still score a feed during the day. If you’re after a big elbowslapper whiting, surface lures are the best option. Anglers fishing live herring around the bridges at night are scoring big

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trevally around the lights. The run-in tide has been fishing the best. Some big crabs are moving around with the run-off, and the deeper holes and river/creek junctions have been holding the better numbers and sizes. Just watch out for bull sharks ripping holes in your pots. If you want to do battle with a bull shark, you need large baits on medium to heavy gear and a bit of patience. Eel, whole fish, fish heads, large live baits, stingray flaps or guts are your best baits for these sharks, but even bullockâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s heart, liver, lungs or even some old meat will do the job. Wire is necessary for the bigger ones, but 80-150lb leader will stop them up to 1m. Bullies up to 1m can be quite tasty if they are dispatched and prepared properly, and soaking the fillets in milk can help with this process. All sharks over

light are fishing very well. Once the sun is established you can switch to jig spins, spinnerbaits, hardbodies, swimbaits, plastics, vibes or blades.

Mark Anthony Coleman is good at finding structure that produces red dogs. Bait fishers have been catching some good bass, mullet, carp, tilapia and catties on worms, grubs, maggots and flavoured dough. You can also try soaking a pilly wrapped in

A solid Tweed snapper caught by Nathan Hardy. 1.5m are protected and must be released quickly and unharmed. BEACHES The rains and storms have shaken the beaches and headlands up. Some big mulloway have been taken off the beaches and around the headlands in recent weeks, and the best way to catch them has been with live baits, dead baits and whole fillets. There have also been great catches of dart, whiting, bream, flathead and odd tailor coming from the beaches. Small baits like strip baits, whitebait, half pillies, fillet strips, worms and pipis are fishing best in the gutters. SWEETWATER The rains and storms have really shaken up the fresh systems and have filled up all those dried-up or shrunken pools. Fishing rapids, drains, overflows, spillways, waterfalls, weirs and upper systems has been very productive of late. Surface lures at first and last

and big bass have been on fire lately. FISHING FORECAST The storms will continue to work their magic and fill the waterways, dams and

wool for eels. Their teeth gets stuck in the wool and you just pull them up on the bank, and then they will usually drop off. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s lots of fun for the kids, and a great way to score eels for a feed or for shark baits. For the more adventurous freshwater fisho, try the upper Clarence. The cod

systems this month. This will dictate where to fish in the river and creek for jacks. Finding where the bait is holding up will be the key to finding the red dogs. Soapy mulloway will be taking advantage of these conditions this month, and will be found in the various holes and around the mouth. We can expect the whiting to push up into the cleaner, skinny water, so find the banks with clean water to score a feed of these tasty fish. Flathead will be sitting in the holes under the fresh, eating the whiting seeking shelter from the fresh. Trevally will sit around the bridges eating all the bait getting flushed past, and you can catch them on various artificials and live herring. Mud crabs will be working in most systems throughout the Tweed Coast this month. Mackerel, kings, billfish, mahimahi and wahoo will continue their dominance of offshore reefs, and will only get hungrier and more numerous. Finding bait schools will help you in your search for these predators. If the weather is no good for heading offshore, bass will be a great option. The back creeks will still hold fish in bad conditions, and you should focus your efforts around drains and overflows. Caution is advised during heavy rain.

Kristain Frey caught a big Brunswick Heads tailor by spinning metals from the rock wall. APRIL 2020

Fresh is always best SOUTHERN GOLD COAST

Mark Ward markward222@bigpond.com

Unfortunately, we have seen so much rain and poor weather that I just haven’t been able to get out for much fishing lately. Hopefully, that will all change this month. The forecast is a lot better and it’s typically a good month to be on the water. Summer species, like

mangrove jack and whiting, are all still on the chew but as the water starts to cool and the prawns begin to run, bream and flathead will fire up in the rivers and creeks and the bass will still be hot. ESTUARIES The rivers have benefited from a very good flushing and the fishing should respond well to that. Prawns will start to run early and that will do a lot to excite the fish. Mangrove jack and trevally

will still be around in good numbers with some of the bigger fish usually being caught in April. Flathead will be more active and well spread out. Small fish will be in good numbers but they are still great fun on soft plastics. Try the canal mouths, the flats in the Tweed and Currumbin Creek as well as the Nerang. Bream have been more active as they start to move downstream in preparation

The author caught this solid Hinze Dam bass on a Hot Bite Gang Banger G2 spoon.

Mangrove jack are still about but it’s been a tough year, so persistence is the key.

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for spawning. The bigger fish are being caught around the structures of the rivers and creeks. Jetties, bridge pylons and rock bars have been producing most of the bigger fish. It’s a great time of year to target them on lures, as they are still very aggressive and willing to take a surface lure as they do in summer while they are also improving in size and numbers. Bream will be keen to take a surface lure while the water is warm and the prawns are all flicking around on the surface but for the same reason, so will whiting and flathead. Fishing for flathead on surface lures is only a new thing and there are a few lures that will do the job. I like to use Bent Minnow style and skirted lures. These will dive when twitched but are designed to float back up to the surface before being twitched again. Making a little splash as you twitch them is a good way to attract some attention from flathead laying in wait. Whiting will be keen to take a prawn off the surface as well and this month is arguably the best month to try it. Bassday Sugapens are perfect for whiting. The lure needs to be moved a lot faster than flathead lures but surprisingly enough, flathead will still take a Sugapen meant for whiting. FRESHWATER Fishing the dams has been a great option, especially after the rain has filled them up and brought plenty of food to the hungry bass. Hinze Dam has been good for schooled fish that have been responding to reaction lures like spoons and Clarrie Hall has been very different with most fish coming from the edges caught on plastics or surface lures. I’ve had a number of sessions in Hinze rolling spoons to schooled fish on the points. Just about every point has schooled fish but

it was a case of working out what depth they were biting at and finding a flat or a point at the right depth. Once I worked out the pattern, the fishing has been amazing. Spoons are ideal for working though these fish and are becoming a very popular way to target bass. They are heavy metal lures that can be thrown a mile and sink very quickly, so they are ideal for covering a lot of water fast. My preferred spoon is the Hot Bite Gang Banger G2 in the happy ending and ayu colours. Some local guns use bigger 30g spoons and seem to land the bigger fish with them. The best retrieve is a simple slow roll. It might be better described as a ‘moderate’ roll; it needs to be just fast enough to get the lure to wiggle its butt and entice a strike.

You can do a lift off the bottom and drop or even a vertical jig but if the fish respond to those retrieves, you’d be better off using a vibe or a blade. BEACH It’s always a good time to fish the beach but April is a bit of an in-between month. There are always whiting and dart as they will bite all year round and the whiting fishing has been excellent all year. However, tailor are not on yet. The odd patch of small fish will be around with a legal fish amongst them but we need it to cool a little before they fire up. With the rain we saw some mulloway landed around the rock walls and open gutters. Hopefully this will continue as it gets cooler. Kingscliff and beaches to the south have seen a few caught and night is by far the better option.

Lots of smaller flathead will be spread throughout the creeks and rivers. This one was landed on a plastic flicked in the canals.

Prawns attract the predators JUMPINPIN

Mick Morris gembait@tpg.com

April is a fantastic time of year to fish the ’Pin with cooler weather, dropping water temperatures and plenty of fish on offer. There should be plenty of banana prawns about in the main channel between Jacobs Well and Cabbage Tree Point, and from the Logan River all the way to the top of Macleay Island near Karragarra.

Snapper up to 5kg have been caught using live banana prawns around Karragarra, Rocky Point, Cabbage Tree, Steglietz and Jacobs Well. There is often the odd threadfin salmon lurking about in the mouth of the Logan River to Marks Rocks, as they love a feed of prawns as well. Some of these threadfin can be in excess of a metre and over 10kg so be sure to use the appropriate gear, as they fight hard and can really test you. Bream will be in the thick of it and as the water

worms, yabbies, gut and flesh are the best baits and will almost guarantee a haul of bream. Deeper holes, especially those with structure should hold good schools of bream and berleying up will certainly improve your chances. Try chasing mulloway on the smaller tides with live mullet, pike or large flesh baits around the deep water of the ’Pin bar, the Grave or in the Logan. They are not easy to catch and put up a great fight, so keep persisting when mulloway fishing as the fish of a lifetime can be just another cast away. The flathead season continues to roll on with thumpers to 80cm being caught and April should

be no exception. I’m mad on trolling for flatties and there is nothing better than that first hit of the day. Trolling allows you to cover a lot of area in a small space of time and by doing this you can learn where they congregate. I use lures that dive 2-6ft and only work the areas that there is weed and the lure is in contact with the bottom. Try around the back of Mosquito Island, the flats near the Powerlines and the Pandanus weed banks and it won’t be long until you’re hooked on trolling too. If you love a feed of whiting, arm yourself with some bloodworms, beachworms or yabbies and head out to the sand banks off Rocky Point,

A solid haul of local banana prawns amongst the boats near Rudy Maas.

It’s one of the best times of the year to catch crabs. Use your sounder to locate schools of prawns that look like small puffs or look for surface activity when prawns shower across the top of the water. Just remember to only take what you need so that there is plenty for everyone. These prawns will attract bigger fish like snapper and this is a great time of year to catch a few.

temperature starts to drop off, the bigger fish will start feeding up in preparation for their breeding season. Targeting bream is a fun and relatively easy way to get into fishing and the calm protected waters of the ’Pin provide a haven for them with plenty of food and structure. If you are chasing bream then prawns, squid,

A sounder full of prawns ready to be caught.

Tabby Island, Fishermans Channel, Slipping Sands, the Gold Bank or the Never Fail Islands. There should be tailor about at the ’Pin bar with small schools chasing baitfish, so try using small slugs if you can see the fish feeding or try feeding out an unweighted pilly into the current and see if they will come to you. Muddies should still be around in good numbers so try for them around the mangrove-lined banks and drop-offs around the top of the tide near the river mouths, and Mosquito and Tabby Tabby islands.

This time of year, sandies are on the move from the bay down the main channel from the western side of Macleay Island to Cabbage Tree Point and on the weedy banks around Pandanus Island. Be sure to keep an eye on your pots and be respectful of other people’s. • Thanks for all your reports and please keep those fish coming in! If you’d like any advice or up-to-date info on what’s happening at the ’Pin, drop us a line at Gem Bait & Tackle on 3287 3868 or email gembait@ tpg.com.au.

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Diverse species on the bite GOLD COAST CANALS

Josh Dunn Instagram: @josh__dunn__

April is an exciting month, as you get to witness the transition in season where warm meets cool. You will see a diverse range of species caught, with tailor starting to get around in the Broadwater and still a solid amount of mangrove jack haunting baitfish in the canals. Whether you are fishing land-based from the headlands or beaches, boat fishing or even kayak fishing, tailor are an awesome species to target. Lately, a few have been showing up throughout parts of the Broadwater. Although they haven’t been big, they are still plenty of fun so we should be in for a good season. These fish become very active at certain times, so having the right tackle ready is vital. I normally recommend a flathead set-up with heavier leader, around 25-30lb+. Tailor have razor-sharp teeth, so upping the leader is a good idea if you want to save your lures. Fishing for tailor regularly will increase your knowledge on how these

predatory fish work so you can experience a whole other level of sportfishing in the estuaries! Mangrove jack are still out and about, as well as a

few flathead and trevally. The prime bite for these species has been early morning and afternoon, with the morning bite stronger in winter and afternoon better in summer.

Winter species thrive off that chilled morning sunrise and summer species love late afternoons when it’s warm and the bait are moving and sitting around the heated rock

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Jackson Clarke caught this jack in the early morning.

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walls and structure. In saying that, the amount of by-catch and midday bites proves that when something is hungry it won’t wait around to eat. In the next month, we will see more overcast and rainy weather, so the fish should feel more comfortable coming to the surface to feed and following lures out further from shelter.

This weather also cools temperatures down, both water and air. April is a great month for fishing where you still get a taste of summer species as well as a glimpse into what winter has in store. Continue to persist and learn different things, especially if the bite gets tough. See you on the water!

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Autumn’s fighting fish on offer GOLD COAST

David Green

As we head into April, you may see a few black marlin on Spot X and Deep Trag, but in general most of the fish have moved south. Instead there should be more striped marlin, as well as plenty of blue marlin, Spaniards, spotted mackerel and wahoo. April is also a great month in the estuaries, particularly if you like prawns and crabs. The prawn run this year has been excellent, despite the earlier dry conditions. There are generally good numbers of sand and mud crabs throughout the system this time of year. OFFSHORE There is the possibility of increasing numbers of striped marlin turning up this month as the water cools slightly. Live baiting using slimy mackerel is generally a much more reliable method than trolling lures. Out wider, April is one of the best months of the year to target blue marlin in 200-400m of water off the Gold Coast. The Riviera Grounds,

Chris caught this Spanish mackerel from 24-fathoms offshore. Jims Mountain, the Kink and the Tweed Canyons should all produce blue marlin this month. If the winds are light, these fish are a challenging target for trailer boats. I use a spread of five 37kg outfits and troll a spread of medium

to large skirted lures. Most fish we encounter are in the 120-150kg bracket but about one in ten is a fair bit bigger than this. The fight is quite spectacular, particularly at the start. In closer to shore, Spanish and spotted

mackerel should be around in good numbers. Once the water from the recent floods cleared, the mackerel started to show in numbers on the close reefs off Southport and they responded to metal lures, pilchards and live baits. Some big spotted mackerel over 5kg should turn up this month and when the inshore current is running Palm Beach and Mermaid Reef have been fishing quite well. Trolling live baits from a downrigger is another deadly method worth trying and is a great way to target Spanish mackerel when they are fussy. April is also a great month to target wahoo and the most reliable spot is the Tweed Heads Nine Mile Reef. While it hasn’t fished well for a couple of seasons now, early indications are that there are quite a few wahoo around with some good fish amongst them. The Nine Mile is about an hour’s run south of the Seaway entrance. When the current runs hard from the north into a southerly wind, the point of the reef tends to stand up and in a medium to heavy swell will break.

The author with a wahoo that was landed around the 36-fathom line. Most of the fishing action is close to this ledge so you must take care when skippering here. Methods to try for wahoo include high speed

trolling with weighted skirted lures, slow trolling larger live baits such as small tuna or fast trolling skipbaits, stickbaits and minnows. I’ve caught quite

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a few wahoo trolling at speeds over 30km/h and the strikes at this speed are extreme! Bottom fishing on the reefs should improve this month as the current generally drops. The 36 and 50-Fathom reefs should start to produce a few snapper and pearl perch and live baits should find a few yellowtail kingfish and amberjack in the same spots. In closer to shore, a few mulloway can be tempted on live baits at night and early

evening. Live tailor, pike and slimy mackerel make the best baits. RIVERS AND ESTUARIES Most of the prawns have been around Jacobs Well through to Cabbage Tree Point and the run generally persists into April. Later in the season, the prawns are larger and, on the run-out tides, tend to be found in deeper water. A good cast net is all that is required. Most anglers have been able to reach their bag limit quickly in recent weeks.

This month should see plenty of mud crabs around in the smaller tidal creeks and rivers. For reasons unknown, both Coombabah Creek and the Pimpama River have been extremely poor for crabbing this season, but there have been plenty of crabs in the Coomera River and sand crabs have been in quite good numbers around the weed beds in the central Broadwater. April is a good month to live bait in the Seaway. At this time of year,

Michael Green scored this big muddy.

a lot of adult mangrove jack move towards the entrances before heading offshore. There are also reasonable numbers of 70-90cm mulloway as well as the odd bigger fish. One effective method is to head offshore, catch live slimies and yellowtail on the 12-Fathom Reef then head back in to drift them through the Seaway. The hole at the end of the north wall is one of the most productive spots to fish, with big bream also a possibility. While it is quite early in the year, there may be some decent flathead fishing this month. After the recent floods the estuary has flourished and the big fresh has pushed a lot of fish out of the rivers into the main part of the Broadwater. Flathead should be concentrated around the sand flats between Crab Island and Tipplers Passage. Most will be smaller fish up to 50cm, but the odd big fish can still be caught on the top of the tide using big soft plastics, swimbaits and shallow running minnows. Spinning metal lures can be quite productive on bigger tides near the Jumpinpin entrance. As the tide pushes in, a lot of baitfish follow and tailor

A quality mulloway from the Jumpinpin Bar. are usually in attendance. These are great fun to catch on light tackle and love small metal lures wound at a medium speed retrieve. Occasionally, giant trevally and tuna also enter the

! W O LE N

Jumpinpin entrance. Overall, April offers a lot of variety for the Gold Coast angler. There are plenty of options and if the weather stays stable, the fishing should be good.

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APRIL 2020

Rain has refreshed prawns and stirred up crabs SOUTHERN BAY

Nick Whyte

This last month has seen a lot of rain around the southern bay, which should stir up the mud

crabs and flush a lot of prawns from up the rivers. It will make for a great few months of fishing. Prawns have been thick this month. Redland Bay and around the southern

end of Macleay Island have been the most productive spots. The western side of Karragarra and Russell islands will also be worth a look. The prawns aren’t always in the deeper holes so it pays to have a drive

along the bank edges to see if you can spook them. Using your sounder and finding patches of prawns away from the rest of the boats will see you bagging out in no time. Try and work the smaller tides and concentrate around the tide changes. Tuna and mackerel have been fishing well one day and super finicky the next. Most of the action has been from the north of Mud Island. Try not to spook the schools by coming in too hard and fast. Small

all worth targeting. Small soft plastics or hardbodies is a great way to target these species in the shallow water, as they make for great fun on light gear. Try to find larger pieces of coral, big schools of bait or jut-outs in the reef to target these fish. Anything under 8lb leader is dancing with danger if a bigger fish is hooked. Dusk or dawn will be the best time to target these sometimes finicky feeders. Down near Jumpinpin, the best fishing will be

good numbers around the bottom of Russell Island, the banks in front of Slipping Sands and the bank at the mouth of Duck Creek where Squire Island used to be. Yabbies and worms have been the top offerings but surface lures have also been great for targeting whiting. Fishing in shallow water with a medium fast retrieve and a long narrow profile popper is the way to go. Flathead have been in great numbers down around the lagoons at Pandanus and Never Fail islands.

Richard Lucker with a beautiful mulloway.

Sammy Hitzke scored this haul of prawns from Macleay Island.

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stickbaits or plastics with a small length of wire have been productive some days, but larger plastics or stickbaits around the 120mm size have also been effective. Remember to be considerate to your fellow anglers and don’t crash somebody else’s school, let the fish work towards to you. Peel Island should fish well this next month in the shallows. Bream, snapper and sweetlip are

in sight of the ’Pin bar. Whiting, flathead and bream will all be great targets and in good numbers, with mulloway schooling around the bar and best targeted around the turn of the tide. Big live baits and big paddle-tail plastics will be your best bet. Try and sound around the dirty water lines or find large schools of baitfish and the mulloway shouldn’t be too far away. Whiting have been in

Work the edges around the weed with smaller 3-4” soft plastics. ZMan 3” Slim SwimZ or MinnowZ in a chartreuse pattern are my go-to this time of year. Trolling small hardbodies is also a productive way to cover ground to locate schools of fish. If you have a great capture from the Southern Bay you would like to share, email it through to nick@ techfishing.com.au. Until next month, Tech-it-easy!

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Nabs and Danh got into a couple of nice Moreton Bay mulloway. 30

APRIL 2020

Offshore looks promising for targeting pelagics get some growth on them. On the bottom fishing scene, the close in reefs off Point Lookout in depths out to around 45m tend to fish well this time of year for mixed reefies like Venus tuskfish, pearl perch, Moses perch, southern fusilier and the like. Paternoster rigs with fresh strip baits normally get the job done. Out on the wider grounds, juvenile snapper will be worth targeting on the 90m line between Square Patch and Deep Tempest. Last year we saw juvenile and adult snapper turn up in reasonable

BRISBANE OFFSHORE

John Gooding

Lately I’ve been landlocked putting the new boat together, but I haven’t missed too much with the weather and rain that’s been about. At least the rain has pushed out to the bush where they’ve needed it most. We’ve seen plenty of strong southerlies through February and early March, limiting offshore fishing, but when it’s been accessible some decent pelagics have been caught. In Moreton Bay, there’s been a few school and spotted mackerel around as well as the odd school of longtail tuna. The usual haunts, like The Group off Point Lookout and the close in coffee rock in front of Moreton Island, have seen a few Spanish mackerel getting boated. Reports

numbers on the 29, 33 and 35-Fathom reefs from around mid-May, so keep an eye on the sounder when you’re moving around. For those wanting their backs stretched, the 35 and 42-fathom lines along with the isolated wrecks should see plenty of ambos keen to inhale a livie! • Until next month, enjoy your fishing, take care on the coastal bars and if you’d like to join me on charter (max. 8 persons) give me a call on 07 3822 9527 or 0418 738 750 or visit my website at www. outlawcharters.com.au.

A solid mahimahi from one of the new FADs.

This group bagged a decent haul of ambos.

from the Gold Coast have claimed reasonable catches of both spotted and Spanish mackerel from the Seaway south to Palm Beach Reef. April can be a very productive month for mackerel fishing in the South East, as the quality normally gets better. With the fish seemingly fairly widespread, now is the time to pick your location, moon phase and weather pattern to get out and nail a few of these quality table and sportfish. Mahimahi are a good option at the moment, as the new FADS along with the ever-consistent wave buoy off Point Lookout have all been producing. As I’ve mentioned previously, the newer FADs will hold fish more consistently once they

This quality amberjack ate a floatlined pilly.

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April action awaits BRISBANE

Gordon Macdonald masterbaitertackle@hotmail.com

It’s been a productive summer for most anglers, with quality pelagics and many other desirable species on offer. As we enter the cooler months, the

However, most warm water species will still be on offer for quite some time and anglers can capitalise on the variety of target species over the coming months. The weather is cooling down but the fishing is still hot, so get out and chase the quality pelagic and demersal species available.

Chris Deeks’ solid longtail from Moreton Bay made for quite a few feeds of sashimi. prevalence of certain species will begin to change. Species like snapper, sweetlip, tailor and mulloway will begin to appear in better numbers.

LONGTAIL TUNA Late February saw the arrival of good numbers of longtail tuna throughout Moreton Bay. Increased

baitfish activity actually meant that all tuna and bonito species have become more abundant. Even though mac tuna and bullet tuna were prevalent, longtail are most desired amongst keen anglers for their size, fighting prowess and eating quality. Although they are the number one target, the lesser tuna species are also a lot of fun to catch and many anglers take the opportunity to score a few to turn into quality bait for the colder months targeting snapper and other species. Small whole tunas and bonito make great troll baits for species such as Spanish mackerel and wahoo. Fillets can be salted, making ideal baits for snapper, tailor, bream and many other species. The tuna heads and frames make excellent crab baits. While many only target longtail tuna for sport, they are ideal table fare when lightly cooked and eaten immediately or served raw as sashimi. Longtail tuna will accept a wide variety of lures including stickbaits, chrome slugs and jighead rigged jerkshad plastics. Fly fishers also have great fun chasing longtail tuna and often have the upper hand when it comes to getting the bite, as their small profiled fur, feather and synthetic offerings often imitate the bait well. Even a dead drifted fly can be slurped up by a cruising longtail. Specimens in excess of 25kg can be encountered in Moreton Bay and any fish over 10kg will give you

School mackerel have been very consistent for many months, although they have rarely been found smashing bait on the surface. a good tussle on 10-15kg tackle. Specimens hooked on stickbaits are often easier to land, as the larger lure often prevents them from closing their mouth properly and this seems to tire them quicker. Additionally, many anglers will cast stickbaits on slightly heavier tackle. Popular stickbaits include the Duel Adagio, Nomad Madscad, Duo Press Bait,

non-existent during the last few months, there have been decent numbers of school mackerel around. Schools have rarely been found feeding on the surface but anglers who look in other areas and probe the channels and bank edges with trolled lures or drifted pilchard baits have been scoring them readily. Although the size has been nothing to get excited about,

SNAPPER With air and water temperatures cooling off over the next month or so, anglers will notice an increase in the number of snapper throughout Moreton Bay. These fish will be found around the artificial reefs, shallow rubble grounds surrounding the bay islands and the numerous wrecks throughout the bay. Snapper are a great target for lure and

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As inshore waters begin to clear, land-based anglers will have a good opportunity to score a few tasty tiger squid. Rapala X-Rap Magnum Prey and Molix Stickbait 120. The ZMan Jerk Shadz 5” and 7” in bubblegum is the most popular jerkshad option. Live bait such as slimy mackerel, yakkas, pike and other small baitfish can be deployed around the beacons and current line edges. Bait fishos usually get good results with one bait fished close to the surface and another mid-water. MACKEREL Although spotted mackerel were almost

they have commonly been of legal size (50cm+) and offer anglers a great feed of tasty white fillets. I have scored many of mine while trolling spoons behind Yamashita paravanes, which allow you to cover a good area of water and get an offering deeper in the water column where the mackerel are patrolling. School mackerel are often found right throughout the cooler months and anglers should have several months of decent fishing ahead of them for these succulent silver slabs.

bait anglers, as they will take a wide variety of offerings. Snapper are often very opportunistic in their feeding habits and can be easily tempted by well-presented offerings. Often at this time of the year we see some of the larger specimens coming in from offshore as they prepare for their breeding season. These fish are often a lot deeper red colour than the resident bay fish and somewhat more aggressive. Common lure styles for targeting snapper include soft and hard vibes; soft plastics

like prawn profiles, paddletails, jerkshads and curl tails; micro jigs; and even trolled lures. Soft vibes and soft plastics (commonly rigged on a jighead) are generally cast upcurrent and then worked back with a series of hops or even a slow wind and twitch retrieve. Micro jigs are ideal for the deeper areas such as some of the artificial reefs and can be quickly presented to fish sounding immediately below the boat. Minnow lures, mainly deep divers, are trolled around the fringes of the bay islands, rubble grounds, artificial reefs and coffee rock areas. I like offerings such as the Nomad DTX 85mm and 100mm, RMG Poltergeist 80, Atomic Hardz Shiner 85mm and Duo Realis Fangbait 120DR and 140DR but many deep diving offerings will work. Trolling these lures close to the bottom or at least in the lower third of the water column will have them in the zone. Mackerel, sweetlip, cod, mulloway and the occasional other species will also fall victim. Most decent quality baits will appeal to snapper. Many fishos like to present a large offering such as a whole squid, fillet bait or butterflied fish so that smaller ‘pickers’ will attack the bait, creating commotion and some degree of berleying. The large and often wary snapper lurking on the fringes will eventually be tempted to have their turn at the bait too. Numbers of snapper will increase in the coming months and anglers will most likely notice a lot of juvenile fish. Although they can be annoying, treat these smaller pinkies with care and release them quickly as they will someday be the large knobbies we all aspire to catch. BRISBANE RIVER April offers anglers some quality fishing in the Brisbane River. Heavy rains

pushed prawns down the system and better numbers of threadfin were recorded around the mouth and even out into the bay around the first two western end lead beacons and the flats either side of the river mouth. These threadies will start to move back up the river as the water temperatures drop and numbers of prawns again migrate back upriver. Anglers fishing live baits from shore-based locations often get decent numbers of

fished close to the bottom with the better results often coming on the rising tide. You can get these fish on soft vibes or plastics, but the bite can often be tough if they are fixated on prawns. Mulloway can be caught using the same techniques and offerings. Fish the fronts of the larger jetty systems (adhering to exclusion zones), the declines into the main riverbed, around the bridges at night and the dredge holes towards the

Bridge to the mouth. They can be taken on an array of natural and artificial baits. I have even had some good sessions using the fly rod to cast heavily weighted and slightly overdressed Clousers down along the dredge holes at the mouth. The Oil Pipeline and Clara Rock are popular spots that continually produce decent snapper. Most of the larger specimens I know of (80cm+) have been taken on

Prawns have been fairly abundant so far this year but there is no telling when they will disappear. Take advantage of them while they are still plentiful. threadies, especially at night when the prawn school movement is heightened. Spots such as the Colmslie Jetty, Newstead Jetty, Luggage Point, New Farm Park, Gateway Bridge and Mowbray Park are just some areas where anglers will deploy live banana prawns, herring, mullet and pike. These baits are generally

mouth and you should be in with a good chance. Periods with decreased boat traffic, such as the darkened hours, are the most worthwhile. Estuary cod, flathead, bream and several other species will also be on offer. Snapper enter the river during the cooler months and are most common from the Gateway

small live mullet or decent sized banana prawns. The shallows at the mouth of Boggy Creek and on the Boat Passage side of White Island can produce decent flathead at times. Most will drift these areas and cast jighead rigged plastics or troll with small minnow lures while under electric power. Hopping plastics

around the rock wall where the Boat Passage meets the Brisbane River, along the Caltex Reach rock wall and the Sunken Wall will produce a mixed bag including snapper, bream and estuary cod. It isn’t too late to catch a few sharks in the river, although cooling water temperatures will have slowed them a little. A 15-30cm live catfish rigged on a snelled hook rig with at least one hook in the tail and suspended under a float will soon get their attention. Bull and other whaler sharks are available right along the river’s length, with better results often coming from further upriver. Setting a few pots may even score you a few buck muddies, especially if we get some sizable downpours. PRAWNS It has been a decent year for prawns with good numbers available within Moreton Bay at areas such as the Saltworks, eastern end of Lamb Island, Jacksons Hole, Powerlines, out from Nudgee, Clontarf, Deception Bay and Redland Bay Channel, just to name a few. The rain during February really kicked the action off, although the Pine, Caboolture, Brisbane and Logan rivers were producing for some time before that. I have had no difficulty getting a full limit every trip and usually culled many of the smaller prawns when they came up in the net. A quality 12ft top pocket net is almost essential for this pursuit if you are serious. It should still be worth checking out these areas over the next month or two but how long the prawns hang around is anyone’s guess. Many different factors determine their prevalence and longevity. Some years they will be around well into August and other years they have disappeared before

May. Usually a cluster of boats in a single area will mean that the prawns are on, although sometimes everyone turns up for the party except the prawns. They can be on one day and gone the next, especially in areas such as Deception Bay and Nudgee where the trawlers often work at dark. SQUID With cooler water temperatures and clarity hopefully improving throughout inshore areas (dependent on lack of rain and wind), squid could be a serious target throughout Moreton Bay. The areas on the eastern side of the bay such as the weed beds along the front of Moreton are regular producers of tiger and arrow squid. However, as water quality improves in inshore areas like the Wynnum and Manly foreshores, Wellington Point, Victoria Point and Redcliffe Peninsula, anglers will notice an increase of squid numbers in these zones, especially during darker hours. Check out my Tech Tricks article in this issue for tips on improving your results on these cephalopods. CONCLUSION Cooling air and water temperatures during April can catalyse a gradual change in the more prominent species encountered throughout Moreton Bay, the Brisbane River and other systems. However, many of the warmer weather species will still be around and anglers should still be able to score jacks, cod, crabs and many other species at will. Cooler mornings and night sessions may require an extra layer of clothing but overall conditions can be very pleasant. This month offers anglers a great opportunity to get out and score some quality catches before the colder conditions arrive.

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Keeping colder fishing hours NORTHERN BAY

Steve Nash

As water temperatures start to decline in the creeks and river, autumn fishing will start to heat up. Bream and tailor will begin to turn up around

Yellowfin bream are opportunistic feeders with a diverse diet. Some of their favourite food sources include shellfish, crustaceans and small baitfish. Targeting them on small plastic crustaceans, smaller crankbaits or suspending shad lures will be effective

Adam Hagan doubled up on Scarborough snapper. the creek mouths, feeding up before they start their spawning season. Juvenile snapper will also be a more common catch on the inshore reefs inside the bay and will beef up in size at the approach of the cooler months. RIVERS AND CREEKS Bream Throughout the northern bay, bream have started to move around and school up in the deeper holes, bridges and rocky areas. Areas, such as Pumicestone Passage’s main channels like Gallagher Gutter, Poverty Point, the Ted Smout Bridge along the mouth of the Pine River and the trawlers in the Cabbage Tree and Caboolture River will also hold bream.

target them, as low light levels make it easier to use heavier leaders. Using 6-8lb leader with 8lb braid in the early mornings is great. As the sun rises, you can drop your leader down as low as 4lb. Dropping the leader can be very effective in increasing your bite rate, but this can sometimes be your undoing with that one cheeky bream dragging you into structure and busting you off. You may also face the odd solid by-catch of cod or a decent juvenile snapper stealing your favourite bream lure. Flathead Reports of flathead were significantly quiet last month in many of the local fishing spots. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the flathead have moved on. There have been many tagged flathead recaptured in areas where they are known to populate after one month to up to five years or even longer! A lot of the data gathered has shown that

When bream are sitting deep, a small blade can produce results. while working over and around rocky structure. If fish are holding deep, small blades can be a good choice. Early morning or night fishing is the best time to

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early in the morning before moving to deeper water as the sun rises. MORETON BAY The inshore reefs at Scarborough have been fishing well with some quality size snapper and pan size juveniles being the main catches. The occasional good size tailor has landed on deck as well as the odd

methods such as trolling 4-5m hardbody rattling divers, like Rapala X-Raps or Atomic Shads, can get some good results with snapper. Live or large strip baits have also been productive for those who like to soak, cast and wait. A small split shot crimped close to the hook or a small 00 running sinker will make your bait look a

the majority of recaptured flathead linger around their initial tag and release point and some have not left the area at all. This leads us to assume that perhaps they

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Lee Edward scored a handful of bream from around the Ted Smout Bridge.

Over the next month, tailor numbers will start to increase.

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haven’t packed their bags and left town; they may simply not be in the mood for eating lures! The main takeaway is that anglers should be persistent. Keep casting, working through different lures and methods, and you will be guaranteed to hook up eventually. Looking ahead, with the mass run-off of dirty water from the creeks and an approaching drop in the water temperature, flathead will start to hang out in shallower water. They will typically warm up in the shallows

Quality snapper can be found fishing at night. grunter bream, and these catches should increase over the next month. Early mornings before sunrise is key to fishing this area. Fishing it while drifting can produce better results as opposed to anchoring up. Being as quiet as possible upon arriving to your fishing spot can mean the difference between going home with a feed or not. Kayaks and boats with electric motors are the most effective way to keep the noise down. Soft plastic grubs and 3” paddle-tails on 1/6oz jigheads can work very well when the fish are on the chew. Other

let the fish run with your line before striking. If they feel the least bit of resistance the odds are that they will drop the hook, but if you let them run until you feel them stop and readjust the bait, sometimes a larger fish will steal the bait off them. Solid by-catch of tailor and juvenile snapper will be a lot more common during this time of year when fishing at night, as small schools of these fish will start to turn up in rivers. When they do show up, try changing your tactics e.g. up your leader size. Don’t be afraid to fish up in the shallows, as some good fish have been caught in less than 2m of water but remember to be super quiet. DAMS With the recent downpours, the local dams have risen substantially, some to full capacity! Bass in the impoundments have taken a bit of a dip in numbers and size. One can only think that they have scattered towards the inflows of the creeks, capitalising on the bait schools being flushed from the upper reaches. There has been a spike in catfish captures and redclaw numbers are also on the increase, as they feed on newly flooded areas. Keep a keen eye on weather changes as we begin to approach the cooler weather and water temperatures. The temperature can drop quickly, causing fishing to be red-hot one day and shut down the next. With the Easter holidays in the middle of this

A typical northern bay model. lot more natural and will not snag up as easy. Upon feeling that initial bite, it’s wise to

month, please be careful and considerate in and around the waterway.

Plenty of anglers will be heading offshore NOOSA

Peter Wells

With the change of seasons and slightly cooler weather, autumn is a great time to get offshore as there are plenty of options for anglers. You can bounce the bottom for reef fish, fish the surface for tuna and mackerel or set up mid-water for those big Spanish and cobia. By far the best times seem to be in the morning, with the wind tending to pick up later in the day and then dropping again in the evenings. Sunshine Reef has again featured highly for smaller boat owners with plenty of quality reef fish hitting the decks. Coral trout and grass sweetlip have been in abundance along with good numbers of juvenile snapper, pearl perch, Maori cod and cobia. Strip baits on paternoster rigs and live baits with a running ball sinker right down on the hook have been very successful on reefies. Baitfish have been abundant with plenty of Spanish mackerel and tuna being caught on slugs cast around feeding schools. Getting to the north of the schools seems to be the best bet, as they tend to feed to the north this late in the year. Working the edges of the schools will see you get more than one cast into them before they get spooked, as the fish

For those in bigger boats, a run to the Hards, Double Island and the Barwon Banks has been worth the effort. Fishing the deeper sides of these reefs has seen a good haul of snapper, pearlies and quality goldband snapper. Some big amberjack are also in play and have been smashing knife jigs. These fish pull like a train with plenty of anglers finding themselves under gunned, breaking rods and hearts. To the south, the Gneerings and Currimundi reefs have had juvenile snapper, grass sweetlip and Maori cod on the chew. Try

Jack Dekort landed this 120cm mackerel off Sunshine Reef while kayak fishing.

Peter Fedorniak took this beautiful snapper off the Yaroomba rocks after the rain. quality baits like pillies and local squid to ensure better catches. The Caloundra 12 Mile has been the place for quality longtail tuna and Spanish mackerel. Longtail have been hot for small baitfish presentation slugs while Spanish have been taking live yakkas and floated dead baits down the

Kalani Love caught a 43cm mangrove jack from the Twin Waters area. tend to circle. Bait has been quite large so using bigger sized slugs and stickbaits has been productive. Halls Reef and Jew Shoal have also been worth a look with some nice snapper and cod as well as the pelagics coming from both reefs. Up on North Reef, it has been all about the afternoon bite with plenty of quality reef fish on offer including snapper, pearlies and trag jew in good numbers.

are the shallow sand bank and bars on the incoming tide when the fish come up to feed on worms, yabbies and peeled prawns. Woods Bay has seen some great trevally action as they chase the bait in on the incoming tide. Soft plastics like the Keitech 4” Easy Shiners have been perfect for the job. Surface lures first thing in the morning have also worked a treat. The Lucky Craft G-Splash has been great if you like to pop, or if you are into surface walkers then the Bassday Sugapen is hard to beat. Flathead have been

berley trail. With Easter and the school holiday soon upon us, the amount of boat traffic on the Sunshine Coast rivers will greatly increase. Getting out early will be the key. Fishing down toward the mouth of the Noosa River is a great place to get a feed of whiting. These feisty little fish punch well above their weight and are great on light gear. The best grounds

plentiful in the river, with the lower sections of the river producing nice fish on soft plastics, live and dead baits and even trolled lures. These fish are holding in the deeper channels just off the sand and mud banks. Live prawns are the number one bait but if you can’t get them, bumping a suspending hardbody along the bottom can quite often raise a fish. Bream are also growing in reported sizes. In another month or so, these fish will start to spawn with plenty of bigger breeding fish in the system. Fishing around pontoons and structure is a great way to find the bigger fish. Try to make your bait or lure look as natural as possible, with very little weight or unweighted to get that natural looking fall through the water column. Work the shadow lines of pontoons and the fish will dart out and hit your bait or lure. This year has been great for getting a feed of crabs. With all the fresh in the systems, the crabs will be up and looking for those deeper holes or heading downstream for more saline water. There is nothing more attractive to a muddy than a bit of fresh mullet. Remember your size and bag limit of 7 per person, with a maximum of 14 crabs per boat no matter how many people are on board. You can only take the bucks and they must measure 15cm across the carapace. On the beach, dart just keep on coming. Tailor are also starting to come on the bite and Noosa North Shore

and the area north of Teewah are two of the hot spots. Mulloway are high on the hit list of most beach anglers and the southern beaches around Coolum and Marcoola have seen a couple of captures. Fresh mullet, local squid and large clumps of beachworms have all made their mark. If you like to use your own live worms, most beaches are holding good stocks. To maximise your results, drop in and grab yourself a whole mullet and scaler bag to use as a stink bag. A prawn or pipi to encourage them out of their holes and arch their backs is also a great idea and will give you a better chance to grab them before they disappear. • Don’t forget to check in to www.fishingnoosa. com.au for all the latest up-to-date info on fishing and bar crossings. The knowledgeable teams at Davo’s Tackle World Noosa and Davo’s Northshore Bait & Tackle at Marcoola can provide you with the right equipment, bait and advice to ensure success!

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Hot offshore bites RAINBOW BEACH

Ed Falconer

Some unstable weather has meant anglers have only seen a few days offshore, but when you can get out there the fishing is hot! OFFSHORE More quality snapper have come on the bite and floating pilchards are the best way to catch them. Pearl perch are starting to turn up

in better numbers and this should continue as the water temperature starts to drop. The bigger pearlies have been falling for soft plastics rather than bait. We’ve been consistently picking up nice red emperor on the wider grounds along with big numbers of tuskfish, Moses perch and hussar. ON THE BEACH Some big catches of whiting have been coming from around Double Island

Point with baits of live beachworms. Big dart have been caught in the deep gutters at Inskip Point. APRIL Similarly to last month, as long as the weather behaves plenty of pelagic and reef fish will be on offer. • To enjoy a day on the water with Keely Rose Fishing Charters, phone Ed Falconer 0407 146 151 or visit www. keelyrosefishingcharters. com.au.

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Ray was pleased with this beautiful Rainbow Beach snapper.

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Dave McInnes was fishing the mouth of the Caboolture River up near Beachmere. He caught this impressive grunter on a 3” ZMan Slim SwimZ in midnight oil colour from his kayak. APRIL 2020

Deluge of fishing after the autumn downpour HERVEY BAY

Dane Radosevic

It’s fantastic that after such a long period of drought we have finally received some muchneeded rainfall across South East Queensland. The southern regions of the Fraser Coast copped the brunt of the

downpour, sending the major river systems into minor flood watch and giving them a long awaited flush. This should see the rivers, creeks, local bay waters and the Great Sandy Strait fish exceptionally well over the months to come. A decent run of prawn this year can be expected post rainfall and a good

A trio of quality coral trout caught while tea-bagging soft plastics over some of the ledge country near the gutters.

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season is well overdue! Many should find the prawning fairly consistent from here on, with the lead up to the new moon a particularly favoured period to find prawn on the move in quite large masses. The larger gutters in the vicinity of River Heads should prawn quite well and is a regular starting point for most locals, or alternatively try up one of the many feeder creeks of the Mary and Susan rivers. The larger main land creek systems down the Straits should also provide some exceptional prawning options. This freshwater influx has also had a major positive impact on the mud crabs, giving them a much-needed flush, with good numbers to be found around the same areas as mentioned above. For the really keen anglers, going in search of those hard-toget-to creeks and drains will always provide the best results, as they cop less angling pressure. It is almost impossible to predict what’s next, with anomalies such as possible cyclones or further rainfall all possible. Based on the current situation, the lower reaches of the major river systems are cleaning up rather quickly and looking very promising with an abundance of bait moving back upriver. This should see good numbers of both barramundi and threadfin salmon lurching around and they will be a very likely target for bait and lure anglers. It may be a little early yet, but over the course of the next month we can anticipate bream numbers to increase and schools to congregate on many of the rock bars throughout the lower reaches of the Mary and Susan rivers. This time of year, the spring tides are typically quite large and can make

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APRIL 2020

Jack Rhodes scored a solid green jobfish while reef fishing across Breaksea. fishing difficult, as they only allow for a short window of opportunity on the turn of tide. Therefore, putting your efforts in on the neap tides should make the fishing much easier. Although this is the current situation, keep in mind it is very possible we may see another lot of torrential rainfall yet, which in turn will send the river running quite fresh once again. The Great Sandy Strait will be a great area to go look at and systems with a good run of prawn are particularly good options, as this is a prime food source for predatory species like barramundi and threadfin salmon. The last of the ebbing tide will typically be the best time for targeting structure like snags and rock bars with a variety of paddle-tail soft plastics, suspending hardbodies or prawn imitation lures. Grunter should also be a prime target species and are often caught in their biggest numbers around the bottom of the tide on fresh flesh baits of squid or prawn, small curly tail soft plastics and soft vibes, often around a gravel bed, on a deeper corner or adjacent to a drain. If you’re fishing around the drains and across the flats, catching a flathead or two as by-catch won’t be uncommon. The likes of

mulloway, mangrove jack, barramundi, cod, trout and queenfish can be caught either live baiting or hopping soft vibes or prawn imitation lures along many of the ledges that run parallel to the western side of Fraser Island. Post flooding, these areas can hold some extraordinary numbers of fish, particularly if the bait is thick and holding in the area. The western Fraser creeks will also be worth a prospect, as mangrove jack and grunter should be on the hunt and there’s the possibility of a school mulloway or barramundi from any of the major snags in the deeper holes. Inshore, the bay’s waters and islands have been fishing well. The shallower fringing reefs will provide a good feed of grass sweetlip, blackall, blueys, cod and trout if you’re fishing live baits or tea-bagging soft plastics. The deeper artificial wrecks and gnarlier structures will typically provide some of the better quality captures but the sharks have been an absolute nuisance, making it very difficult to land a fish. If you focus on lesserknown areas, you should be able to get some good grassy sweetlip and blueys in the run with solid trout a great possibility on the turn of tide. Nannygai can

be found this time of year and respond well to fresh baits or a well-presented soft plastic. The larger spring tides can often generate some exceptional sportfishing around the inshore islands, particularly those fishing topwater. Queenies and giant trevally are suckers for a skipping pencil or bloop style popper ripped through the current lines. Light tackle sportfishers can have some great fun finesse fishing soft plastics to the edge of the rip, often finding mixed schools of diamond and golden trevally and queenfish. Although they’re often smaller in size, there is every possibility to score a trophy fish in this area. The herring schools seem to have been a little scarce from the regular haunts like the Urangan pier and local channel markers, which has made the pelagic fishing a little dull. However, all it takes is for a few schools to show up again and the school and grey mackerel will show up hot on their tails. Platypus Bay is a fantastic location to put your angling ability to the test and now is the perfect time to do so with the annual run of longtail tuna imminent. Schools of fish have been found from as far south as Coongul Creek, but the more consistent

schools are being found west of Wathumba Creek and spread throughout the ‘pocket’ to Station Hill. Come equipped with the usual array of slugs, sinking stickbaits, soft

reefs and sunken structure within a few miles of the beach. Just make sure you spend the time to sound around, as they typically stay pretty mobile. Nannygai will be the

well this time of year for coral trout and the like, however the constant growing angling pressure and current shark situation may make life a little more difficult, especially

strip baits. The pelagic activity this time of year can be a nuisance for those specifically targeting reef fish but for sportfishers, there’s great fun to be had with mackerel, trevally and cobia often found across the larger patches of reef. Wherever larger masses of bait are present, drop a soft plastic or jig down and work it through the school to great effect. Keep an eye on any surface activity as school size yellowfin can be found in quite good numbers this time of year and they are a superb table fish. Correct handling makes all the difference to the quality of the taste of the tuna. Firstly, brain spike the fish before making three incisions: one either side at the gills and one directly into the gullet with the twist of the knife, all while keeping the

tuna in an upright position to allow as much blood as possible to pour out. Then gut the fish and stuff it full of ice before slipping it into an icy cold slurry. This will slow down the cooking effect created by the lactic acid build-up and prepare a much softer and tastier flesh. Weather permitting, the shallower reefs and shoal country across Breaksea will provide topwater enthusiasts with some great action on heavy tackle with GTs, Spanish mackerel and possible wahoo, cobia or kingfish available. As per usual, ‘no run equals no fun’ and the bait needs to be present in the area. Nervous bait in the area is a great sign and worth pursuing. The reef fishing out this side and further to the north up towards Elliot will be firing. It will be prime time to target red

emperor, nannygai and coral trout, especially to the north on the flat country. Fishing larger cut and whole baits like hussar or iodine bream fillets, whole cuttlefish heads and tiger squid can make a big difference in your bait lasting through the relentless attacks of hussar and smaller demersal species to give the more prized targets time to hone in. Unfortunately, escaping the relentless sharks may be your biggest issue if you stumble across a patch of good fish. Alternatively, if you’re after a mixed bag the shallower 30-50m reef country, rubble patches and bommies should provide a good variety of tuskfish, wrasse, mixed emperor, coronation trout, lipper, hussar and Maori cod, with good chances of green jobfish if you’re marking fish mid-water.

The author’s GT fell victim to a floating stickbait cast into an anxious bait ball. plastics and flies in the arsenal to cater to the bait they are feeding on. The sharks are definitely going to be a nuisance as per previous seasons, so be prepared to move around on schools to try and avoid being taxed as much. It always pays to sink a soft plastic or jig down below the feeding tuna schools as often you can pick up a variety of trevally, queenfish, mackerel and even a possible cobia feeding on the scraps down below. However, they can be more specifically targeted over the shallower coffee rock,

preferred target reef species throughout Platypus Bay and wide of Rooney, with good numbers to be found over the rubble patches, wrecks and wonky holes. Good catches will come from day fishing with bait, but a night mission will provide the better quality fish. Sweetlip, Moses perch, blackall, cod and the odd trout may also come off some of the reefs and wrecks wide of Rooney, with the possibility of a reef jack and grunter if you’re fishing throughout the night. To the west, the gutters typically fish exceptionally

if you’re fishing the more commonly known country. Trout will respond best to live baits, particularly pike, or tea-bagged soft plastics across the ledges or more isolated reef structure. A mixed bag of sweetlip, cod, tuskfish, hussar and potentially early season snapper will respond best to fresh baits in the form of pencil squid, mullet fillets or bonito fillets. You are quite likely to cross paths with quality nannygai and red emperor in certain locations, particularly across the flat country to the north. They will respond best to big, fresh

Spanish mackerel are an exciting species to target on topwater.

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Fishing is fresh after flushing out the systems GLADSTONE

Dylan Christie

Now that all the systems in the region have had a good flush, the fishing has stepped up a notch and plenty of quality fish have been

sitting towards the bottom. The new moon is when the prawns are most active and at the moment the creeks and rivers are teeming with good size prawns. If there is lots of fresh throughout the system, it’s worth trying the deeper holes as the water will be

Mangrove jack captures have been excellent lately. caught. The fish are fired up, but so are the sharks, so you will have to go hard to secure your catches. Prawns and crabs are also well and truly on the move. The larger tides are always great for chasing muddies, but make sure to push your pots right up the back of the gutters and even the back of the mud flats. With the flush, neaps can also be quite effective for crabbing the deeper holes, with more of the salty water

saltier towards the bottom. There have been small weather windows allowing people to get offshore. Out on the wider reefs, reports of big numbers of coral trout and red-throat have been coming in. For anglers fishing the deeper water, red emperor as well as some beautiful Venus tuskfish are kicking around and as it cools off, their numbers should ramp up. Wrecks are well known for holding large numbers of fish and these latest

weather windows have really showcased that with beautiful big cobia, nannygai, grass sweetlip, grunter and even the odd snapper all coming from the wrecks throughout the region. Trevally species can be quite plentiful around these areas and make for some awesome fun on jigs, vibes and plastics. The harbour has been consistently good and as it cools and the water clears, it will only get better. There are plenty of grunter and trevally at the bottom end of the harbour on the channel markers, and if you’re lucky enough the odd cobia and nannygai should be around as well. These fish can be targeted with fresh bait like squid or herring, however it’s worth trying plastics and jigs as some good fish have been taken on artificials. Up into the harbour, the flats around Southend and Facing Island are producing good grunter and blue salmon. The salmon aren’t plentiful just yet, but the size of the fish makes them worth targeting. The grunter on the other hand are really good quality fish and in some of the best numbers the harbour has seen for years. They can be taken on a host of different baits as well as lures and plastics. Barramundi continue to be caught around the wharves and bund walls. The making tides leading up to the moon have been the go, with fish over a metre being caught consistently. These fish will happily take a big live mullet as well as large paddle-tail soft plastics and even larger hardbodies. Live herring and squid have been the undoing of some beautiful golden

Trevally species have been plentiful offshore. snapper when fishing the rocky outcrops around the islands and bund walls. Estuary fishing of late has been spectacular with everyone having something to report. This was to be expected, as we haven’t had a good flush in the rivers for three years. We recently ran a mangrove jack competition and many local anglers found out just how good the jack fishery is around the Gladstone region. While the competition was on we heard of plenty of by-catch, from barramundi to the protected Queensland groper. Barra fishing has been quite good since the freshwater influx stirred up all the bait.

Calliope and the lower end of the Narrows have been standout locations for barra. The upper reaches of Auckland Creek are also worth checking out, with the overflow of Lake Callemondah drawing in both the saltwater fish as well as the fish that spill over the wall from inside the lake. With the amount of prawn throughout South Trees, grunter are absolutely chewing their heads off and live prawn bait is your best option. The mouth of the Boyne River and Lilleys Beach are holding some elbow slapper whiting at the moment, so make sure you head down there with the family and grab a few of them while they are still around.

Your best bet is the making tide, which is perfect because you can sneak around to Wild Cattle Creek on the low tide and pump some fresh yabbies on your way. • For all the latest info on what’s biting and where, drop into Pat’s Tackle World at 23 Lord Street, Gladstone or give them a call on (07) 4972 3692. The team have their finger to the pulse to what is happening in the area, and are sure to point you in the right direction. You can also find news, catch photos and special deals on their Facebook page (www.facebook.com/ PatsTackleworldGladstone) or check them out on Instagram (@patstackleworld).

Super-sized Spanish mackerel BUNDABERG

Luke Truant

Last month we were getting fantastic catches of grass sweetlip and red emperor, and we can expect this action to continue through April. Venus tuskfish have also been plentiful. If you’re after a feed

of grassies, look for them in good reef structure and send down fresh, locally-caught squid. If you’re targeting red emperor, sound around for them in 40-55m water and use large baits such as cuttlefish (whole or head), squid or big strip baits. If you find yourself getting bitten off by sharks, don’t waste your time trying to get your catch past the

taxman. Instead, move a decent distance away, and fish areas with little structure, such as rubble patches or individual small rocks. Large structures and ledges are where the sharks tend to give you the most trouble. Spanish mackerel have not yet turned up in big numbers like previous years. However, the ones we’ve been catching

have been a good size, with specimens up to 30kg, some of the smaller specimens up to 15kg caught on lures, all the really big guys have been caught on floating pilchards. Whenever you anchor up to bottom fish you should always float a pilchard out the back. It can be taken by all sorts of species, including Spanish and school mackerel. I’ve seen

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There are some big Spanish mackerel on offer at the moment.

When you’re bottom bouncing you should always float a pilly out the back, as you might pick up a jack like this. plenty of snapper, spangled emperor, green jobfish and reef jacks take these pilchards, sometimes in 50m of water. The inshore reef fishing has been pretty good too, with good catches of school mackerel on spoon lures behind a paravane, all around the local area. There are have also been a steady amount of Spanish mackerel inshore, with good catches in the Two Mile area.

The rivers have started to clear up now that there’s less freshwater flowing, and there have been really good catches of mud crabs. The crabs really fire up when there’s not too much fresh. If the river is running really fresh, set your pots closer to the mouth in the eddies either side of the tidal flow. Anglers have been getting great catches of To page 41

Mondy barra are out to play LAKE MONDURAN

Rob Howell

Autumn is here and winter is on the way. Many anglers believe that barra will not bite during these cooler months but I’m very confident in saying

southwest and south direction early in the mornings, before it swings to the southeast and east during the day and late afternoon. These winds are fantastic for early morning and late afternoon bite sessions. The best areas to fish in these wind conditions are

bite times other than the early morning and late afternoon, keep in tune with the Angler’s Almanac for guidance. The predicted bite times can be highly accurate even though tidal movement does not influence the lake. The lake’s level dropped fast over the summer period and as a result, the majority of barra were pushed out into deeper water. Since then, February and March were very wet, so the lake’s level has stabilised and feeding barra are back in the shallows. Suspending hardbodied lures have still been outstanding performers in deep or shallow water. Jackall Squirrels and Lucky Craft Pointers have been the go-to lures and are best used casted to or along the weed edges and retrieved with

subtle twitches with a pause in between. Alternatively, you can just slow roll them back to the boat. Soft plastics like the 6” ZMan SwimmerZ, Zerek Live Mullets and Jackall Rhythm Waves have also been successful. Another common practice these days is jigging Zerek Fish Traps straight up and down when barra are moving underneath the boat. This method is highly successful and addictive when the bite comes from close quarters. The Bundaberg Toyota Golden Barra competition has ended and some anglers were lucky enough to score $1,500 worth of Rapala gear for catching the biggest barra per month on a Rapala lure. Burnie Ward caught a 98cm barra on a Rapala X-Rap to win the January prize, Thomas Thomas Rowley won a monthly Rapala prize pack with his 88cm barra.

Burnie Ward caught this 98cm barra on a Rapala X-Rap and scored the monthly prize pack in the Golden Barra competition. this theory has truly been debunked at Monduran. For the past few years, bites throughout winter have been just as good as the warmer months, if not better. The prominent wind through April comes from a From page 40

cracking mangrove jack in recent weeks, along with some really big grunter. Many jacks are being caught on paddle-tail plastics during the day or

points and bays from White Rock up to Two Mile Creek on the Kolan River system. Just remember to fish on the side where the wind is blowing, so when the wind swings around as the day goes on you will need to move with it as it changes. For other predicted strip baits fished at night with a really light sinker around good structure. The big grunter don’t need the good structure like jacks do, preferring to sit in the deeper holes.

Large-mouth nannygai are suckers for a big cuttlefish head.

Gary Parks caught this hefty barra on a Rapala lure. If you put in the effort to gather beachworms, there are some really big whiting on offer at the moment. If worming’s not your thing, you can still have success on pumped yabbies. Anglers trolling hardbody lures along the rock walls have been catching some monstrous estuary cod up to 70cm. They’re really firing at the moment, probably because of the increase in bait following the fresh. While you’re trolling there’s also the chance of a barra. If you specifically want to target barra you should focus your efforts on the tide change or in the eddies behind good structure. These fish like to chill out and wait for the food to swim to them! Good lures include soft vibes such as the Samaki Vibelicious and Zerek Fish Trap. When it comes to hardbodies, I recommend floating crankbaits that will bounce up and over the structure. Dark colours are good in dirty water. APRIL FISHING This month we’ll see the barra winding down in the salt, and if you don’t target them soon they’ll become really hard to catch. Jacks will slow up a bit too as the water temperatures decrease by the end of April. If you’re targeting jacks in cooler

conditions, wait until the middle of the day and fish up on the rock structure where they’re sunning themselves. The best fish to target this month will be Spanish mackerel, as they’ll really start to show up in good numbers. Inshore is your best bet, trolling baits like yellowtail or gar. Offshore you should look for bait holding over good structure, and troll over it. A popular target offshore at this time of year is the largemouth nannygai, and you can catch them on live baits or big dead baits. Cuttlefish heads are a favourite of mine, or live yellowtail. If you’re using a livebait, I recommend rigging it on a single hook through the nostril/mouth or shoulder area, because the fish are always swallowed head first. Trophy nannies like rubbly areas in around 40-55m of water. If you want to catch them on lures, the best option is to jig for them with big octopus imitations. • 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 $300pp (or $275 pp if you book the

Rowley took out December with an 88cm barra and Paul Porter won the November prize with a 91cm model. If you are looking for a great destination for the Easter holidays, look no further. We have a heap of activities on offer for kids over this period, including movies under the stars, a slip and slide, reptile show, sand art, craft and a huge Easter egg hunt. For the adults, our famous Sponsor a Barra Raffle raises money to restock this awesome fishery and there

are over $1,000 worth of prizes up for grabs. • Our team here at Lake Monduran look forward to seeing you in the near future for some barra action. For charter, houseboat and accommodation bookings please contact us by email info@lakem.com.au or call us on (07) 4157 3881 or my mobile 0410 599 147. Check out my Facebook page for up-to-date barra info, Lake Monduran Guidelines Fishing Charters.

whole boat), which includes all gear, fuel, bait, ice, chilled water/soft drinks and laughs! You ware 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 call Luke on 0423 015 490.

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Barra have been bountiful in the Fitzroy ROCKHAMPTON

Clayton Nicholls clay94_fishing@live.com.au

The rains and flows set in for March, shutting the fishing down a bit.

which have been picked off with the classic 14A gold Bomber. Finding access to any of these creeks is the key to fishing in town at the moment. Port Alma on the other hand is still getting the clean

particularly well, especially Black Banks and Fishing Creek. The bit of freshwater flowing has really fired it up and got barra and jacks on the chew. Prawn imitations like the Savage 3D Shrimp XD and shallow

This NFZ threadfin salmon was landed on charter.

Nathan from Guided Fishing DownUnder put a client onto this beautiful chrome fish. Luckily, all the rain means a lot of areas experienced run-off and plenty of barra were caught. The rains and flows even helped a few areas like Port Alma and Keppel Islands fish well. FITZROY AND THE NARROWS The mighty Fitzroy is still pumping with fresh water, but there are still several areas where fish can be found amongst the flow. The section behind the bowls club through to the bridge/crossing in Kershaw Gardens will hold fish in the slack water. Another great place to fish is Gavial Creek, although it will be easier to fish with live baits as there is not a lot of walking and casting room there. Alligator Creek up in the fresh has been holing a few fish as well,

flow from Gladstone and has been fishing quite well. One of the local guides, Nathan, has been putting his clients on to some great barra and salmon. The best time to hit the port is on the neap tides and it is well worth putting in a big day of looking, as the fish will sit in all different areas at every point of the tide. ESTUARIES AND OFFSHORE With a couple of good breaks in the wind here and there, many anglers have been able to head out and target pelagic and reef species. The reef has been really fired up with lots of quality trout, nannies and reds being caught. The estuaries are all firing at the moment with a good number of prawns around, especially in the causeway. Corio Bay is fishing

diving minnow imitations like the Rapala X-Rap 8 and 10 have been very productive. FRESHWATER LAGOONS The freshwater has been a very viable option with all the rain, with anglers not only targeting

A great barra caught on charter.

the lagoons and creeks but also hitting any of the areas with visible flow. Roopes Bridge has been flowing over for some time on and off depending on the amount of rainfall a few days before. Sunset is definitely when you will see the most activity.

The banks of all the fresh are quite flooded and a lot of structure is under the water that normally wouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be, so there is a lot of ground to cover, but it is easy enough to walk along and fish it. A big dumping of rain seems to fire the fish up afterwards, particularly on surface lures. I think the rain knocks any insects out of the sky because you can see the flailing around on the surface and the tarpon tailing them and eating them. CRABBING Crabbing is pretty good at the moment, with many people catching bucks in Corio and Coorooman. Areas of the port that arenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t flowing as heavy will also be holding some crabs. Lifting the pots every hour or so and moving any non-producers has certainly yielded better results but you get less time for flicking lures this way. When you are filleting fish, freeze the skin, off-cuts and frame pieces into the crabbing mesh bags so you can just zip tie them in your pot on the day and save a lot of messing around.

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APRIL 2020

Heavy rain has refreshed the river system YEPPOON

Scott Lynch ifishcq2@bigpond.com

The long dry season and the late wet have had a huge effect on fish movement in the area. The Fitzroy River determines

baits (cast nets are illegal in freshwater). A number of locals have tanks and ponds at home, where they keep plenty of bony bream until the fresh starts to run and bonies take over as the top bait. With the large volume of water pushing downstream,

found barra and mangrove jack. The crabs down here are worth the travel too. Coorooman Creek and Causeway Lake have small catchments and are often a great alternative when the other systems are in full flow. They also tend to clean up quicker and the usual estuary fish all start to feed earlier than the river. Coorooman’s grunter and golden snapper have lifted in numbers since the rain. The rocks at the water crossing are often overlooked as anglers go up or down the creek to ‘better spots’. Many times we have caught barra, golden snapper, jack and serious bream when the creek is quiet elsewhere. Corio Bay and Waterpark Creek have a large catchment and can flow fresh for weeks after a decent local fall. The whole system changes once the tannin-stained water

Joel Brook caught this hefty NFZ threadfin. Despite the beaches and the bay being a bit dirty, there were some fine whiting and blue salmon taken recently. The gutters north of Yeppoon have been turning out whiting and flathead in very shallow water at your feet. Beachworms, yabbies

bay have disappeared completely and probably won’t be back for a month or two. On the bright side, catches have increased at the spots outside of the river’s influence. Doggies and the odd spotty have been taken at the patches just south of Barren and out behind

Zac Moss showing the kids how to catch Fitzroy River barramundi. the health of Keppel Bay and the many estuary systems that drain into the bay. Juvenile barramundi try to navigate past the barrage that holds back the saltwater to get up into the fresh so they can avoid predators living in the saltwater. In the fresh section, the barra that have grown out in the creeks are working their way down to the salt where they can become part of the next season’s breeders. While there is major flow happening, you have to change tactics if you want to land a fish in the river. The flow brings down lots of critters, from frogs to snakes and lots of the freshwater fish species that the local barra feed on. This is the one time of the year that live baits can perform consistently better than lures in the town reaches of Rockhampton. We have numerous lagoons in the area that all hold either bony bream, spotted or spangled perch, which make fantastic baits while the river is in flow mode. The local fishos have different methods of capturing their bait including bait jigs, small flies and small

you will need to work the eddies and structure along the edges. The best time is immediately after local storms and showers big enough to push clear freshwater into the dirty brown river and make a distinct colour change. We have several creeks that rely on localised rain to give this clear discharge into the river such as Moores Creek, Nankin and Gavial. While the local rain events are impacting the river, swimbaits and plastics should return to form and make working the obvious run-off spots much easier. I take various lures and find that shallow bright lures are the ones that get results for me. The delta area from Port Alma to Connors Creek and The Narrows are producing some quality king salmon, golden snapper and bream at present. The holes and rock bars out of the dirty brown main river are good starting points. There are a bundle of small creeks with enough features to keep you busy for weeks if you don’t know the area. Several times over the years when the river is hard work, we have gone looking for spots in The Narrows and

Suzi Kaboozie landed a fine Spanish mackerel just off Yeppoon. covers the area. This makes different spots turn on or off. Some of the best days have been fishing almost freshwater in Waterpark. Mangrove jack, barramundi and king salmon are the fish that return to feeding much quicker than a lot of other species and can be very aggressive when you get the timing right. All the little rock bars right down to the bay hold fish at some part of the tide. I like it when water first starts to cover the rocks and creates a current line and an eddy. Because the creek takes so long to fill, you can start down the front and work the best part of the tide at each spot heading upstream. This also works in reverse, but you don’t get as much time at each spot on the run-out. We use bright shiny lures mostly and vary the depths to the particular location. I prefer prawn coloured or white plastics in the clean water and will switch to dark or black when the water is muddy.

and peeled prawns were the pick for whiting and flatties and live yabbies have tempted blue salmon. Beachworms are in as good numbers as ever from Iwasaki to Sandy Point. All the extra nutrients in the bay have definitely bumped up the worm size. Mackerel in the

the Keppels. Spanish have been mainly school size with an occasional horse thrown in. Manifold and up through Army country has been great. The wider islands to the shoal country are also producing lots of Spaniards. This time of year the bigger baits are giving the best return,

although fishers using stickbaits and poppers are nailing quality fish too. All the structure and patches along the flood colour change are showing plenty of fish. Grunter, nannygai and grass sweetlip have moved into the bay’s edges and have been on the chew. The flood effect has even showed dividends with the numbers of reefies around the islands. Some of the largest coral trout for years were caught on the reef drop-offs and plate edges over the past days. The small prawn, crabs and other critters being pushed out of the river has got everything into a feed pattern. The offshore guys are frothing, as wonky holes that were previously silted up are flushed and looking good for the coming season. Already reports of big nannies and the odd red are coming in from wonky holes just out from the islands. Once a bit of weed and growth starts to appear, they will improve further. Over the last month there were some top catches of red emperor, jobfish and red-throat from the patches out near the shoals. The better fish are always going to be wider, but when you are getting good fish at half the distance it pays to look close.

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Beautiful days ahead in Mackay MACKAY

Keith Day habdays@bigpond.net.au

April brings beautiful autumn weather to Mackay, with less humidity, slightly milder temperatures and clear skies. The fishing remains

those creek systems to fire through April even if we get more heavy rain. These systems are not huge and clear pretty quickly after flooding. Chase the barra around small side gullies, colour changes, rocks and stand-alone mangroves using live baits, lures or flies. Live prawns or mullet

and you will get fined for trespassing. The action will continue in the dams, with all three firing up well so far this season. Eungella’s barra action will taper off around mid-April with the cooler temperatures, as this dam is on the western side of the range and

Darcy Mulherin made the most of the good conditions to nail this beautiful saltwater barra. red-hot with plenty of summer species and a few of the winter ones starting to turn up. The barra season in the salt has been great and will continue this month on the back of the storms, which saw heaps of prawns about in the creeks and along the beaches. Most of the run of prawns has now moved out to the adjacent beaches but there is still a reasonable number for baits in the creeks. Barra in the NFZ around Seaforth have gone absolutely nuts during March and I expect all

are the most reliable live baits and big paddle-tail plastics have been scoring plenty of fish. Surprisingly, the topwater action has been pretty quiet in the salt. Closer to the city, the rocks around the highway bridge will continue to yield barra. The harbour is often overlooked, but there are some huge barra residing there – just make sure to go at night to avoid the day boat activity. Live baits are the best bet, but plenty have been taken on lures. Be aware there are ‘no-go’ areas for recreational craft

quite elevated. Kinchant and Teemburra dams will be the places to chase a huge impoundment barra through April. Don’t forget the habitat structure that is now in place in Kinchant – recent survey work by DAF showed plenty of big barra either adjacent to the structure or right on top of it, as it has now settled and attracts algal growth and forage species. The coordinates for the different structures can be found on Mackay Regional Council or DAF website. They also appear

on the MAFSA Facebook page, so it is worthwhile checking them out as a starting point for fishing Kinchant Dam. MAFSA members topped up all three dams with barra over the summer as well. The Pioneer River fishes well in the freshwater reaches for barra as MAFSA stocks all three weirs. Tag returns show that while many of these fish stay in the same general area, others move out in floods and have been recaptured from such diverse locations as Mackay Harbour and Fitzroy River in Rockhampton. Sooties are on the chew in the freshwater, but MAFSA has not been able to secure fish in roe at the right time/ stage so the hatchery has been shut down for this summer/autumn. We will have to wait for next summer when we hope to crack the production mark of 1,000,000 sooties out of the hatchery. The 2020 INDT World Sooty Championship has attracted plenty of attention with nominations rolling in from near and far. Most anglers are local, but this year so far we have nominations

Joseph Vella caught his first ever barra, a 107cm model taken on a live prawn. run-off and winds, we will see the early start of the pelagic run along the coastline. Small mackerel species and tuna will be around if the conditions are clear, and Spanish mackerel will also start to put in an appearance in close provided we don’t have massive run-off. Late April may see some movement of snapper into more southern areas, but usually their numbers pick up during May. Easter weather is either beautiful clear days with little or no wind, or absolutely pelting with rain and plenty of run-off floodwaters. Either way there will be fish available and if it is flooding, then king threadfin will be on the menu in the creeks and estuaries along with barra. Kings will often be found

threadies. Depending on the run-off, the usual estuary and creek species like flathead, bream, whiting and cod will be around. These fish generally don’t bite well in flooded creeks, but if the rain gods don’t dump on us then they will be about. Mud crabs will continue to be on the move. If we get heaps of rain, they will be found right away from any cover and in the more open areas at the mouths of creeks and estuaries. Muddies have been really on the chew and readily caught, but watch out for pot robbers. Oily fish frames or a couple of pilchards in gutter guard will attract any muddies in the area. There have been lots of undersize ones caught, which bodes well for next

Tim Swan got rewarded with a nice Spaniard near Round Top Island.

Chris Gartner cracked a PB with this Wivenhoe bass, taken on an RMG Poltergeist. At 51.5cm, this is a great fish in anyone’s books!

APRIL 2020

from Capalaba, Dalby, Barcaldine, Mt Isa and Cairns. Only 120 anglers can nominate so if you haven’t already, get yours in – go to MAFSA Facebook page for directions to the online booking. Back down in the saltwater, there will be plenty of other species on hand to satisfy any angler. Depending on rainfall

in the same areas as barra, but you can also look for them anywhere the steeper mud banks have freshly collapsed to create eddies or along what seems to be bare sloping mud banks. Side scan sounders come in handy when searching along these areas. Live prawns if you can get them are the go-to bait, while soft vibes seem to be the most reliable lures for

year’s crab numbers. Make sure you check and size your muddies, as there is no excuse for female or undersize crabs to be in your possession. April is one of my favourite months, with cooler weather and plenty of fishing options in either fresh or saltwater. Why not come and join us in paradise? See you at the ramp.

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APRIL 2020

Wet weather heralds an absolute ripper season WHITSUNDAYS

Mick Underwood

The wet season is in full swing and we’ve made the transition from being a regional dust bowl to being bright and green and full of life. Due to the heat and the

yet to meet an angler who doesn’t like tangling with these fish. Outside of the creeks, fishing over the last few weeks has been all about staying close to home and hammering away on any shallow reefs and rubble patches. Up until just

a little, but there are still some to be found, so you can get stuck into the inshore pelagics. Recently, we’ve been hooking into some cracker tarpon out on the fringing reefs. These fish are a real challenge to try and keep a hook set into. With a combination of their hard,

Big goldspot cod have been coming to hand when targeting reef fish.

The recent grey mackerel bite provided quality light tackle entertainment. humidity, a lot of people don’t like this time of year but I do, as it’s when everything comes to life. The only downside to the wet season is that lawns and weeds in the garden

recently, it has been a tough season for species like coral trout, but they have come to life now and are providing oodles of entertainment for the tinny brigade. The bait schools have thinned out

Giant trevally should be a viable shallow water target this month, so bust out your poppers and some heavy gear. grow way too fast, keeping you away from the water for a few precious hours each week! A good wet season helps to set the stage for a good year of fishing ahead for just about every type of fishing but the first positive effects are felt in the estuaries. The rains stir the crabs up and there have been plenty of happy crabbers recently. Prawns have also been easy to find and catch. With all the water draining off the flood plains and into the river systems, the barramundi run-off fishing has been going well with plenty of good fish getting caught. Mixed in with the barramundi have been some aggressive mangrove jack and golden snapper, and I am 46

APRIL 2020

bony mouths and their ability to leap all over the ocean, a lot of these fish have won their freedom by spitting the hooks when they back flip a metre out of the water. April is one of my favourite months of the year to be on the water. The monsoons are abating and the water temperatures are just beginning to fall, which seems to be a cracker combination for getting a good bite happening. Amongst other species, I often get to catch some of the best giant trevally for the year and if this is the case again this year then I won’t be complaining. When you get the chance to tangle with 20kg+ beasts up in 3m of water, that’s just a blast. Big poppers work well in this water, as do slimmer pencil poppers if there are any garfish hanging around. I have just started to see a

few small schools of these fish and I am sure that they will only get thicker over the coming weeks. Another top-notch fish that will be a viable target in the shallows this month is golden snapper. Try looking for these fish on

the shallows. If you intend on having a crack at these guys, be sure not too fish too heavy with your tackle – I generally don’t go over 20lb line and 40lb leader. Casting soft plastics into the distance and then hopping them along the bottom back

use soft plastics or shallow hardbodies, but drifting with unweighted whole pilchards is a good tactic as well. This year I intend to nail a few with poppers. Small to medium sized poppers work the best, but be sure to give a good pause in between each

Queenfish aren’t common over the warmer months. When they are caught, they’re generally top models like this one caught by Michelle Halls. the shallow rubble patches in the back of Edgecumbe Bay, as that is where I generally find them when they are in

Lachlan Valler caught this blue salmon on a hardbodied lure.

towards you is a reliable ploy. Around any mainland and island headlands is good turf to look for these fish as well. If the fish are hanging around these locales, they will be a bit deeper, so send down some micro jigs or fresh strip baits. Coral trout should be up shallow this month, so land-based anglers will be able to get a few. The rocky headlands around either end of Dingo Beach will hold these fish, as will any of the rock bars that jut out from the beaches along the shores of Cape Gloucester. If you like to fish out of a yak or small tinny, this is the time to be getting into the action. The fringing reefs in Gloucester Passage and out in front of Dingo Beach and Hydeaway Bay all hold good numbers of coral trout. Look for areas where there is lots of weed. When targeting trout in the shallows, I like to

bloop of the lure and don’t rip them too fast. Good luck out there this month! I hope that you all catch a few and have fun while you’re at it. • Reel Addiction Sport Fishing Charters specialises in light tackle fishing for all tropical sportfishing species on fly, lures and bait. Reel Addiction operates from the beautiful Cape Gloucester Beach Resort, 40 minutes’ drive north of Airlie Beach. Combined fishing charter and accommodation packages are available. For more information, contact Mick Underwood on 0413 882 153 or email mick@reeladdiction.com. au. Resort enquiries can be directed to Julie Houston on (07) 4945 7242 or at info@capeg.com.au. To stay in touch with what’s biting, check out the Reel Addiction Sport Fishing Whitsundays page on Facebook.

April menu has variety AYR

Steve Farmer

For most Burdekin anglers, April is a very welcomed month. It’s the start of the cooler period of the year when fishing and outdoor life in general in North Queensland can be so special. As well as cooler temperatures the weather

live or dead whole mullet or herring. Blue salmon will likely be hanging around for a while to enjoy the cooler temperatures, and will eventually be replaced by good numbers of flathead and whiting as water temperatures cool further. Other fish likely to feature in an estuarine catch at this time of year are queenfish and a

Gloucester Island off Bowen will be a great destination this Easter if the weather is calm. is more stable, the seas occasionally drop off to a glassy, winter calm and the cyclone threat is reduced. It

variety of trevally species. April signals the start of one of the more popular times of the year for inshore

four or five months. The best approach depends on the mood of the fish on the day, but drifted baits such as pilchard, herring and other baitfish, and trolled or cast minnows and surface lures will often appeal to these speedsters. The number one trick is to ‘match the hatch’, so carry a range of different sized lures to cater for their tastes. Metal slices or slugs will often do the trick as they’re relatively small but still easy to cast. EASTER ESCAPES Besides a smorgasbord of fish species, April also offers the opportunity for travelling anglers to hit the road and explore and fish new country, thanks to the Easter long weekend and school holidays. Burdekin anglers who don’t mind a couple of hours of towing have some exciting areas to fish and explore just a couple of hours away. To the south are Bowen and the Whitsunday Islands, while to the north three hours towing will easily get you to Lucinda where you can access the Lucinda Sugar Loading Jetty and the bottom end of Hinchinbrook Island and Channel. Allow roughly

This queenfish took a trolled lure just a few hundred metres from one of Bowen’s most popular beaches. used to. The only downside is that accommodation can be booked solid at this time of the year, so if you plan to go I suggest booking ASAP. Over the years, I’ve

visited these spots at various times and while the weather and fishing might not have been spectacular on every visit, these scenic spots are great places to simply be

out on the water or walking and fishing a crystal clear rainforest stream. The old saying that a change is as good as a holiday is certainly true.

Head north to rainforest streams in the Tully region this month. FISHING NEWS

East Coast black jewfish fishery closed

The Lucinda jetty is just three hours of towing from home for Burdekin boaties. is also a time when anglers can enjoy the best of both summer and winter estuary and bluewater fishing. Provided we haven’t been flooded out, the old estuary favourites of mangrove jack and barramundi should still be on the bite. If you fish the right creeks, you might still tempt a golden snapper with well-placed baits or lures. Grunter seem to be on the bite all year round these days and are likely to be fishing well throughout April. Baits that appeal to grunter and many of these quality estuary species are whole squid (as fresh as you can get) and

bluewater fishers, with the imminent arrival of the first Spanish mackerel schools. Each year the Spaniards move northwards through inshore shoal waters and provide plenty of sport and tasty fillets for small boat sportfishers, provided the weather is favourable. As well as mackerel, anglers can also count on other pelagics such as cobia, tuna, queenfish and trevally. Anglers can expect these species to be feeding in waters around the Alva Shoals and Camp Island and along the rocky shoreline of Cape Upstart over the next

two days of comfortable travel and two full days on the water. If you can organise a bit more time off than just the four day Easter break, the coast further north will lure you with places like Cardwell, Mission Beach, the Tully River, Kurrimine Beach and Flying Fish Point promising exciting boating and fishing action. These areas offer a variety of fishing options including inshore bluewater, estuarine and sweetwater, often accessed via roads and launching facilities much better than those Burdekin anglers are

Under fisheries legislation, there is an annual Total Allowable Commercial Catch (TACC) of 20 tonnes for black jewfish on the East Coast. Once the TACC has been fully fished, black jewfish become a no-take species for the remainder of the calendar year. The 2020 East Coast TACC has now been reached, so commercial and recreational fishers cannot take black jewfish on the East Coast for the remainder of the year. The fishery will reopen on 1 January 2021. Any recreational fisher caught taking black jewfish on the east coast will be in breach of fisheries legislation and penalties will apply. Penalties also apply to any recreational fisher caught selling fisheries resources illegally. Black jewfish is the only species where reaching the commercial catch limit will also restrict recreational access to the species, due to its high

risk of black marketing. No other species will become recreational no-take as a result of commercial catch limits being reached. Recreational fishing information has been updated online and in the Recreational Fishing App.

Signage is available at key boat ramps to help notify fishers and through the Qld Boating and Fisheries Patrol. For more information, call 13 25 23 or email fisheriesmanagers@daf. qld.gov.au. – DPI Fisheries APRIL 2020

It’s still hot and wet for now TOWNSVILLE

Dave Hodge

With big tides of over 3m and lots of rain, anglers have been heading as far upstream in the creeks

90mm Bassday Sugapen and Twitching Minnow have both been standout offerings. When bigger fish are on your mind there are more things to consider, and depending on where you hook the fish you’re going to

put whatever lure you choose through some pretty harsh treatment. Solidly-built lures or weedless hooks are the only option if bigger fish are your target and they need to be sharp and strong. I’m usually a 20lb braid fan, but

Spending time on the water, you’ll notice an increase in shark numbers. and rivers as possible to where there should be good numbers of barra. The rock walls, ledges, deep holes and snags in the upper reaches of every system have all been producing some nice fish, so hopefully by now they will have finished breeding and be feeding like they’re starving. Post-flood, the fish have been gorging on every fillet bait cast out. Gar and mullet fillets have been the main baits getting smashed, and the stories and photos I’ve seen lately have been quite incredible. Lure fishers have also been having a ball and 20 fish sessions aren’t uncommon at the moment. Actually being able to spot and cast to cruising and holding fish is what makes this type of fishing exceptionally exciting when the rains are building and with a low predicted to form in the Coral Sea, it’s only going to get better. In the clearer, salty locations, smaller lures that look like a baby gar have been producing. The

APRIL 2020

Run-off fishing can be muddy stuff, but the rewards are well worth it. You may need to muck around with colours to find what’s working best on any given day. in this heat and humidity, and we’ve been consuming up to 4L each in a day and still thirsty by the end of it. Offshore fishing has been quite consistent and big catches of nannygai, trout and all other reefies have filled in the void left by the decreasing mackerel in close. Jigs and soft plastics have become more widely used presentations in the

anglers, and even small baits meant for grunter and the like aren’t safe. Bull sharks have been hassling anglers up in creeks and drains. Unfortunately, at this stage it seems that only when it is too late will anything be done about them. I hope you all have a great experience after the rains and land that fish of a lifetime before sliding

The most uncomfortable, hot, mozzie-infested days are often the ones that produce the best.

In dirty water, the fluoro orange 5” Paddle Prawn rigged weedless can be easily fished in running drains and spindly timber that holds barra and jacks. 48

rod out for a quick swing around the other day, and I managed a couple of 60cm barra in a local creek. If fly is on your list of interests, a straightforward outfit will serve you well. I use an 8wt rod, but I run a 9wt forward floating line over it. The oversized line helps me load the rod tip easier with less line out when there’s no room for a proper back cast. It also allows me to throw a wide range of fly sizes, as while you can throw a small fly on a heavy rod, it’s quite difficult to throw a big fly on a light rod. Most times the standard old Pink Thing is the go and I like mine tied on a 2/0-4/0, but they can be purchased from many tackle shops premade. I use a Gamakatsu SL12 and a metre or so of twisted 40lb Unitika Harisu FC. I leave a single strand of the 40lb coming out of the twisted leader, and then back-to-back uni on 1m of 30lb of the same brand of sinking FC leader. It rolls

this is the time to dust off the 30lb outfits and 50lb leader. Lure colour can become more specific depending on how much colour there is in the water. A great dirty water option that’s tough as nails is the two-hook model Halco Laser Pro 120 in the axel colour. This is when the sediment is really stirred up and contrast is needed to get attention. In more tanninstained water, the king brown and gold with black back colours seem to be the go. I bit the bullet the other day and pulled the old fly

out nicely for me and with the stretchy characteristics of the fly line, it lessens damage caused by gill rakers and sandpaper jaws. I’m sure that there will be plenty of fly specialists that will give you more in-depth advice on the finer details, but this will get you amongst them. We’ve just come off the back of some of the most uncomfortable weather I’ve ever fished in. It’s been much hotter on average and this has understandably kept some anglers off the water. You’ve got to keep hydrated

Even a shoddily tied Pink Thing is going to work when in search of barra. 5-25m marks, as those using baits have been struggling with the out of control shark numbers. Sharks have been harassing landbased, inshore and offshore

it back into the water. What will happen over the coming weeks will be determined by what the weather does, so it’s a bit up in the air for now.

Running behind schedule CAIRNS

Garry Smith garrysmith@fishingmonthly.com.au

Everything weather-wise has been running late this year, which should convert to fish patterns also being

red emperor will be the main players, but not in big schooling numbers. Pelagics will be around in reasonable numbers but will be concentrated around the bait balls rather than widespread. There has been plenty of bait around and

copped a real hiding from spearos. Barra, golden snapper and crays were their main bounty. Once the water dirties again from either rain or wind, angling along the coast should improve, with one less user group chasing the prize.

Decent golden snapper, like this stonker caught by Paul Evans, have been taken around the headlands, inshore wrecks, reefs and islands. late. My expectation is therefore that April will see prolonged hot weather conditions in the Cairns area and a continuation of estuary summer species like barra, golden snapper, salmon, mangrove jack and grunter dominating the agenda, while on the reefs, trout, nannygai and

for the first time in years, I have seen numerous birds working the coast within a couple of hundred metres of the beach. This has resulted in fishing being the most productive along the headlands and inshore. The exceptionally clear water along the coast earlier this year meant the headlands

Salmon, both blue and threadfin, have been a major target in recent months for land-based and boating anglers. The foreshore and gutters around Machans and Holloways beaches have been particularly productive, with quality threadfin up to 1.2m being taken. Most of the larger fish have been

taken from boats but landbased anglers have also been getting in on the action. Live mullet and prawns, along with vibes and soft paddletail plastics have been the most productive approaches. Golden snapper continue to feature on the scoreboard, with quality fish being taken around the headlands, inshore wrecks, reefs and islands. Live baits have been the most productive offering, but vibes, soft plastics and jerk shads have also produced the goods. Trinity Inlet has continued to produce golden snapper but not as many in the trophy range have been taken in the inlet compared to offshore. Good prawns have been around the inlet and along nearby beaches. While they remain, the fishing will be similar. Prawn size has varied but there have been plenty of reports of eatingsized prawns being taken in cast nets. When working the beaches, keep in mind that crocs frequent the area so it’s much safer to chase prawns from a boat. One way to reduce the mud, trash and sand in your boat is to use a low profile plastic tray, which can be sourced from any butcher supply store. Simply lift the cast net into the crate each time and shake it out. The small amount of water that comes in the net each time keeps small fish alive so they can be returned unharmed. I have been using the same tray for around 20 years

Short trips to the closer reefs have been producing quality trout like this one caught by Kerry Maag. and it was a worthwhile investment. Reef fishing has been sporadic, mainly due to the unpredictable weather. Frequent electrical storms in the afternoon and at night has made overnight trips a bit sketchy and day trippers have been suffering from the heat. Quick half-day trips to the closer reefs, rocks, wonky holes and gutters have been the norm, with varied results. Some boaties have scored quality largemouth nannygai and coral trout with the odd Spanish mackerel thrown

in, while others have been sharked out of the game. As the storms settle and the weather starts to cool, reef fishing will become a more viable option for small boats. Fortunately, in the interim, the inshore fishing has been as good as I’ve seen in a long time. Mud crabs have been around in reasonable numbers, with activity centred around large dumps of rain that bring a fresh to streams. While this pattern continues, so will the crabbing.

Quality catches will multiply in coming weeks PORT DOUGLAS

Lynton Heffer www.fishingportdouglas.com.au

As we enter into the last stage of the wet season, the fishing in the tropics could reach a new level in the coming month. The rainfall to date has been generous and we can expect a bit more to fall in April. All the waterways have been rejuvenated so we’ll start to see the real benefits. Ocean temperatures will also gradually decrease in the coming weeks, which will also improve the fishing offshore. Out on the reef, the fishing has been rolling along nicely, with quality fish in smaller numbers. The size of the fish should remain impressive but the next month or so will see the numbers increase significantly. Recent days have seen the big end of the scale when it comes to the likes of bar-cheek trout

Fishing Port Douglas Charters have been amongst the serious GT action. and largemouth nannygai. These have been caught in the deeper waters of 35m and more on isolated patches, wonky holes and bommies

away from the main reef. Fish will gradually move back towards the reef edges as water temperatures fall and you’ll then find a range

of fish in varying depths. During this month and those following we’ll see a current change pushing cooler waters from the south and this initial

period is when all the species will fire up. Numbers will go through the roof and fishing the main pressure points of the reef facing the direct cooler current will yield the best results. With so many calm days on offer so far this year, it has been a brilliant time to surface fish the outer reef in the shallows with poppers and stickbaits. We are hoping this trend continues because it has been awesome with plenty of brutal fish around like giant trevally, red bass and bar-cheek trout. The calm weather makes it easy to identify where the nervous bait schools are sitting on the reef edge and the predators have been right there as well. GTs in excess of 20kg and trout up to 7kg have lit up the waters. Closer to the coastline, we’ve seen some extraordinary fishing as a by-product of the rainfall and explosion of bait life. Schools of GTs to 60cm, big barra over 85cm and others including queenfish, dart,

permit, giant herring and blue salmon have been right up in the shallows on the bigger high tides waiting for the outgoing change. When this has happened it’s been game on and lures, soft plastics, live fish bait, prawns and flies have all received their fair share of action. You’ll be almost shocked at what size fish are literally right in front of your nose. Rivers and creeks have been stirred up enough to spark a lot of fish into motion, with mangrove jack always busy locally along the banks and mangrove edges. Golden snapper have been receptive after dark in the deepest of holes, the bigger barra are still more prominent closer to the mouths and the flats have been holding some ripping grunter on the rising tides. It has been hot work, especially during the day, but there’s been enough to keep you engaged with plenty of bait life around and promising tides. APRIL 2020

Threadies galore in the NFZ CAIRNS

Dan Kaggelis dkaggelis@gmail.com

When I first moved to Cairns five years ago, I asked one of the local

the good news is that there are unicorns everywhere! The end of netting has seen threadfin not only return to big numbers but quality sizes as well. Fish from 1.2-1.4m are now becoming the norm along the beaches

to look after this resource and not deplete it. Chasing threadies along the beaches is pretty simple. They are bottom feeders and use their whiskers to pick up vibrations so any lure that rattles, shimmers or vibrates

when you do find the fish. Threadies aren’t the only fish on the chew in the NFZ; barra have been going gangbusters as well. Last year’s big wet season is proving to be a winner for recruitment, with plenty of fish on the chew all along the beaches and up the creeks. There are lots of small rats around on the snags in the inlet, which is also a healthy sign of things to come. Some more rain will be welcomed this year to keep things moving. The pick of the lures for me have been the Biwaa and Molix shads, especially in white or gold. Jacks have been in

Jacks have loved the Live Target Slow Roll Shiner lately. excellent numbers in all systems and also benefited from last year’s rainfall. The

Live Target Slow Roll Shiner has been my pick of the lures, fished with a slow roll.

Trophy threadies are on the bite right now thanks to the ban in netting in the NFZ. guns around town where the best place to target a threadfin salmon was. I was greeted with laughter as they were considered unicorns, with only a handful caught every year and certainly not in the reaches of town. Five years on and with the Trinity Net Free Zone well established,

from land-based anglers and boaties who are reporting big schools of healthy fish everywhere. It’s not just one or two schools either, with plenty found right through the Net Free Zone and even further north. It’s fantastic to see these fish returning in such good numbers and now it is up to recreational fishers

is going to get their attention. Often it’s a case of finding the right colour and more importantly the right size of lure to get them to bite. Too small or too big and they won’t be interested. Having a range of lures on a range of rods is the best way to chase them. This allows you to try multiple offerings quickly

Barra have been chewing on Biwaa Shads.

Metre-plus mayhem! HINCHINBROOK

Ian Moody info@ianmoodyfishing.com

What a fantastic past few weeks! I have been very lucky in getting all my bookings out on the water so far this year but recently we copped a deluge from a tropical low situated in the Gulf of Carpentaria. It seems as though the wet seasons are getting later and later

in the year and it always concerns me that maybe the barra didn’t spawn in time before the opening of the season, but so far all barramundi caught since February have been fairly lean, so I’m hoping their spawn was back in December. Quite a few metre-plus barra have been caught this year, all of them between 103-105cm. The majority have been caught on live baits of mullet and legal-

sized whiting, but a few surface bites have given my clients double hook-ups on on shallow diving hardbody lures like the Rapala X-Rap SXR12 and the Strada Pro Tera 125. Another species showing up in good numbers lately is threadfin salmon in various sizes between 65-103cm. We have been having a ball chasing them in the afternoon on warmer water on the flats where they have been chasing jelly prawns.

Jayden scored this 104cm barra.

Ben Daley landed a 101cm thready.

A 105cm barra was a top catch for Ben. 50

APRIL 2020

Live baits placed in front of them have done the trick, but a few have succumbed to slow rolled swimbaits.

We have had some pretty oppressive heatwaves in the last few weeks and the water temperatures have

skyrocketed to 36.4°C, the warmest I have seen in this area for a while. To page 51

Wonky holes fire up COOKTOWN

Justin Coventry

The weather has been so good this year. The calm weather is still around and should continue while the wet season is in full swing.

and restocking areas throughout the Cape. Wonky holes have opened up and are attracting large fish to ocean river mouths. These fishing gold mines are amazing to find and produce many PB fish on occasions. It

breeding grounds for some fish species. Obviously this is just a theory, but anglers should be conservative in their approach to fishing and look to only take what they need. I know how hard it can be to leave when fish are biting well, but

Impressive goldspot cod hang around wonky holes.

Some quality largemouth nannygai have been caught recently. Storms are bringing much-needed rain to flush the river systems and opening the highways to migrating barramundi From page 50

Sometimes this can have the same effect on barra as the extreme cold, where they will often stop surface feeding and find a comfort zone hugging the bottom. Because of this I have mostly been live baiting since February. Box jellyfish come along with the really hot temperatures and they

was interesting to talk to a scientist friend who said not much is known about them and there are theories that they may be

if we want our children to experience the same fishing opportunities that we enjoy, we have to make sure we are careful not to take too

have been thick along the mainland beaches from being pushed in by the hot northerly winds. It can be annoying constantly picking out tentacles from your cast net while catching bait, but I have learned they don’t seem to sting you on the pads of your fingertips at all. However, the irukandji jellyfish is one critter you really

need to stay away from as they pack a nasty sting that will send you to hospital. So if you can catch your bait from out of your boat instead of wading through water, you should do so! April is usually the last month for warmer water so I’ll continue to make the most of the bigger tides chasing barra. Usually around the first week of

Rohan caught this well-conditioned barra that measured just under a metre.

many fish from one area. I think we are lucky in some way that the weather is so bad most of the time, as it does force a period of limited fishing pressure on fishing spots and allows time for them to recover. The local waterways and wharf area have been receiving their fair share of freshwater run-off and this brings its own challenges and rewards. Bait is very scarce, but if you’re lucky enough to find it, it will produce results. Using artificial baits is an easier option at this time of year. Soft plastics work well around structure and hungry fish are always looking for an easy meal, especially when bait is hard to find. Banana prawns have turned up in small numbers May we get the first cold weather influences, which initially can shut the barra down as they become acclimatized to the cooler water. When those cooler temperatures plateau, they usually go back to their normal feeding patterns. They will still respond to surface lures once they have settled into the new temperature. I expect threadfin salmon will continue in the shallows during April and good golden snapper catches should start to increase. • Bookings are filling up quickly for the 2020 barramundi season, so now is the time to get in and secure your spot. To book a charter, email us at info@ ianmoodysportfishing. com or phone 0402 339 459 with your enquiry. Check out my Facebook page, Ian Moody Sportfishing Charters, for a special deal on July and August bookings.

and make for great bait or a delicious meal. Migrating barramundi are very hungry and if you see some surface action, it’s usually easy enough to entice them if you can get your lure into the right area. Roly

may work, but sometimes trying something different can be rewarding. April is a great time, as there will be more calm weather to go offshore. With rivers flooding and waterways up, searching

This pair of nannygai were taken from a wonky hole. Sturder, who is a fishing master in Cooktown and spends considerable time at the local wharf, landed a 91cm barramundi at a time that he usually doesn’t go there, so get out and give it a go. Your usual methods

for migrating barramundi is always an option. Mud crabs will be on the move and are easier to target in the river mouths and close bays. There are lots of options and great fishing to be had this month. APRIL 2020

Everything should be eating LUCINDA

Jeff Wilton jeffwilton83@hotmail.com

April is one of the best months to head to Hinchinbrook. Normally, most of the heavy rainfall and flooding has passed and the waterways are back to normal and fishing well. For those thinking of

good catches from locals, especially from those fishing live baits in the deeper holes in the creeks. Make sure you collect plenty of good live baits and anchor or tie up in your chosen location ready for them to move past you or turn on to feed. There are two main ways to target barra: chasing fish that will move by, or fishing

This hefty coral trout was caught from down deep. visiting the area, any of the next few months are great choices. The temperature will be comfortable and best of all, the fishing should be great in the creeks and out in the ocean. HINCHINBROOK CHANNEL It is time to get into barra before the water cools down significantly and they slow down. There has been some

where they wait until they’re ready to feed. When fishing a creek mouth on the incoming tide, you would expect to catch fish as they enter the creek feeding on baitfish, whereas if you were fishing a deep hole around structure you will be chasing fish that are probably already there and the tide running or time of day will switch them on. When you’re using lures, you’re

actively chasing fish that are switched on. Plenty of people struggle with using lures, but normally it is just a case of not using them at the right times or not persisting. For example, a lot of people fish the drains around Hinchinbrook since there are many of them and they offer an easy place to target fish. Most drain areas will have fish around, but often they won’t be actively feeding, you have to already be fishing when the fish turn on. On so many occasions I have watched people move on very quickly from a spot when they don’t immediately catch fish but if they had stayed fishing that spot, an hour later the results would have probably been different. Just because you don’t get any bites or fish does not mean there are no fish in that spot, it just means they are not active yet. When you have limited time it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to fish everywhere. Narrowing down your fishing spots to a handful of creeks or a particular area of the island will help a lot. By concentrating your efforts, you should end up with more fish in the boat. JETTY, ISLANDS AND REEF There are always fish to be caught around the jetty and April is no exception. Queenfish and GTs should be out amongst the pylons with

the odd mackerel thrown in as well. Fishing the bottom for golden snapper is popular with local anglers and we’ve seen great captures of big fish over the years. Live baits are the secret to catching great fish, so put in some effort and secure live squid. The islands will have some good fishing in the deeper water. Find a few isolated bommies and rubble and drop some fresh baits down for reef fish. There are some good coral trout that call the islands home and although they can be difficult to find in numbers, their size normally makes up for it. The odd early season Spanish mackerel will be about as well for those who like to set a few lures and troll, taking in the breathtaking scenery while they wait for the rod to bend. Sharks have been a massive problem out around the reef systems. Most of

A typical Hinchinbrook jack. the time they ruin a good day’s fishing and it is near impossible to get anything past them. I used to think that they were worst around the weeks of the full moon, but now it seems they are bad pretty much all the time. Any well-known spots in the deep seem to always have heaps of sharks in the area. If you can

Mangrove jack are always hungry in Lucinda.

find spots that are fished less, then getting sharked will be less of a problem. As the heat of the summer months are behind us, fishing in April is normally pretty good. The water is a great temperature and you can fish all day without getting sunstroke or drowning in your own sweat with the humidity. Fishing the deep for nannygai is a favourite pastime for locals and heading out at night and drifting over some rubble ground should see everyone getting hooked up. Hopefully the sharks don’t ruin the fun and some great table fish can be brought home for the family. Keep in mind that nannygai can be caught in big numbers, so please be responsible and stop fishing when you have enough for a feed.

Opportune April fishing CAPE YORK

Tim O’Reilly wildrivercompany@gmail.com

April is often the month upon where the rest of the season can be decided. If there is a big, late shock to the wet season as has been the case the past few years, it can be a mixed bag. If no

4WDs will be traversing the ever-smoothening Peninsula Development Road. Barra will be first and foremost on most peoples’ minds, but April can offer a fantastic mixed-bag fishery. Inshore reef fishing will likely be a little limited on the East and West coasts of the Cape. Shallow reef and shoal fishing for species such as golden

especially as the West Coast begins to clear. It only takes travelling about 5km offshore before terrific fishing for pelagics is a possibility. Heading into the northern gulf, schools of queenfish, trevally and tuna should start coming in closer, providing fantastic sportfishing around bait schools. Around coastal headlands and near shore reefs, other silver speedsters such as blue salmon, tarpon, giant herring and threadfin salmon will all be showing up. Over on the Barrier Reef coast of the Cape,

A typical late morning session in a remote Cape creek. anglers might have to wait a little longer for the pelagic fishing to improve and

A fly-caught barra taken from a tiny creek. cyclones or monsoonal trough come south during April, things will settle into dry season patterns quickly. Providing access is possible around Easter in 2020, large numbers of 52

APRIL 2020

snapper and black jewfish will likely be the exception. Both can really fire up this time of year and again in late spring with warmer temperatures inshore. Further offshore should be a better option,

These trevally were caught off the beach.

this will normally coincide with dry season wind patterns swinging into gear. However, stronger winds tend to put the brakes on fishing and this can go on for weeks at a time up until September. Barramundi fishing will be the true gem of April and last year’s fantastic wet season should see healthy numbers of smaller fish charging into the bigger systems. Most of the West Coast rivers will still have a decent flow on and generally cleaner waters in April will make them a pleasure to fish. Targeting run-offs, junctions, aquatic vegetation and backwaters

will be productive. Plentiful baitfish and crustaceans will be hanging around the downstream areas and mangrove complexes of boat coastlines. On top of this, huge amounts of jelly prawns and nutrients will be around the coast, stimulating food chains and brining predators close to shore. Those focused on barra will often see brilliant fishing occur as the higher tides push saltwater back against the freshwater flow. April is quite often the start of this cycle, so be ready to move about the estuarine systems.

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Why not Wyaralong? BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

One of the great things about fishing in our state is the development of new and exciting fisheries from time to time, and the emerging Wyaralong Dam is a prime example of this concept.

the early part of that year. The drought was over with a vengeance! With the dam’s 1230 hectares filled to capacity, the all-important fish stocking took place in due course. Bass and cod were released to go about their usual business of growing fast and loose in a newly stocked impoundment, as

They have an infamous ability to adapt to virtually any conditions short of outright dry land. Naturally, with their habitat hoisted from crusty creek to uncounted kilometres of clean water, these fish have flourished. They have also developed a bit of a cult following as – believe it or not – sportfish!

Carp might not be everyone’s idea of a sportfish but hooking one on fly, as Craig has done here, might change your opinion very rapidly.

Wyaralong Dam has plenty of fishable shoreline, and enough features to make hooking a fish on fly a real challenge.

Bass will take a wide range of artificials. A slowly worked Zerek Flat Shad was the undoing of this fish. Wyaralong Dam is located on Teviot Brook, around 14km west of Beaudesert. This impoundment was constructed in response to drought conditions, but after completion in 2011 it filled rapidly as the result of the huge deluge Queensland experienced in 56

APRIL 2020

they always do. H o w e v e r, the impoundment is not the exclusive domain of these popular native fish. Teviot Brook, a tributary of the Logan River, was already populated with tenacious European carp and Mozambique tilapia, both of which are pest species.

So with Mary River cod, bass, carp, tilapia plus the odd eel-tail catfish and spangled perch in the mix, it’s all good news for the angling community. However, before we discuss the fishing, let’s take a look at what else that Wyaralong Dam offers. THE FACILITIES The well signed turn-off to Wyaralong Dam is accessible via a very good road between Boonah and Beaudesert. Gates open from 05:30 at this time of year, which is ideal for those early risers who like to hit the water at sparrow chirp. Wyaralong is an electric-only dam, but it’s OK for your boat to have an outboard fitted so long as you don’t use it. I believe that’s fair – it’s certainly far better than a complete ban on boats with outboards. For family groups that enjoy fun on the water, the section of Wyaralong Dam near the wall and boat ramp is quite sheltered, which makes it ideal for children to enjoy some canoe or kayak time. And with the nearby shelters, picnic and BBQ facilities all quite close to the public boat ramp, it’s an ideal venue for some exploration and relaxation. The facilities are first class, there’s a playground, and there’s also a 10-lane top shelf rowing course on the lake. Just don’t try to cut through the marked lanes

with the electric motor; it’s better to skirt around the facility. And when all the fishing and picnicking is over it’s pretty easy to return to your car and visit the close by Scenic Rim with all its various attractions. FISHING TACTICS Bass and cod are the main drawcards at this

impoundment, much as they do elsewhere when the weather starts to cool. For this reason, it will pay to do some exploring with your sounder. As I see it, if you can catch bass elsewhere you can catch them at Wyaralong; bass are bass, and can be trick or treat on the day. We recently sussed

some fly fishing there soon to see how things shape up on 8wt tackle. THE IMPORTS Both carp and tilapia are gaining popularity as sportfish, which is not altogether unheard of, and carp are particularly sought after as a fly target. Carp always seem to be remarkably wary and

Wyaralong Dam is surrounded by hills on virtually all sides and is located within easy driving distance of the renowned Scenic Rim tourist area. impoundment, and at the ABT BASS Electric round at the dam late last year some good bass were taken by quite a few competitors in their small craft. Bass and cod are naturally very comfortable in timbered habitat, and there’s plenty at Wyaralong, some within easy sight of the ramp. However, with autumn now upon us we may find bass schooling in deeper sections of the

out a school of these fish on the sounder (holding within the thermocline as expected) and scored a couple on Zerek Flat Shads plus one on a fly without much hard work at all. These fish were in the main basin within easy reach of the ramp, and there were a few other people catching them as well. Cod like cover, and the timbered areas will naturally be where these impressive fish call home. I plan to do

alert, yet will take a wellpresented worm, shrimp or larger Woolly Bugger style wet fly if the you go about things correctly. And with their broad shoulders and big tails they go like Mack trucks when hooked. Wyaralong’s clean water carp are best targeted in the shallows where you might see them tailing or gently sipping surface tucker. A careful, gentle cast might score a hook-up, but the

carp will spook when they detect sudden movement, a popular flashy coloured fishing shirt or detect a splash from clumsy wading or a thump from within

solid at around 35-40cm, tilapia give a great account of themselves on a fly rod. IDEAL FOR THE YOUNGER SET Wyaralong Dam is an

Tilapia are great fun for kids and fly fishers to catch, and Wyaralong is full of them! a boat. These fish have particularly good eyesight, plus a surplus of lateral line sensors, far more than trout have, for example. A 6wt fly rod and floating line is fine for work in the shallows. A 5kg tippet is required to fool the fish, although it’s likely to provide some anxious moments for the angler on hook-up. Tilapia can often be seen cruising the shallows as well, and these fish are suckers for any fly that looks like a worm, or which can wriggle like one. Large and

ideal place for youngsters to get involved in fishing thanks to those prolific carp and tilapia, especially seeing as you can catch them off the bank! Bait fishing is the go, and good old garden worms will work a treat on both species. To catch carp or tilapia, cast from the shore with a worm set-up to be close to the bottom. Most rigs will sit in around 3-4m of water when cast from the bank. It’s recommended to rig your bait under a small float to prevent snagging, and also to register the bite of a tilapia, which can be very quick. This set-up should see a junior angler catching a powerful fish without much more effort than

A perfect view to enjoy while having some refreshments.

There are picnic and day use facilities adjoining the boat ramp. exercising some patience and employing some big grin-style rod work. Carp and tilapia are declared noxious pests and can not be returned to the water, so you should humanely despatch them and dispose of them well away from the water. Also, Wyaralong is a Stocked Impoundment Dam so anglers other than juniors should bring a Stocked Impoundment Permit (SIP) with them. So the question remains: why not Wyaralong Dam? It’s ready and waiting for you!

Wyaralong’s ramp on a quiet morning is an inviting scene.

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Time to mix it up TOOWOOMBA

Jason Ehrlich fishability1@bigpond.com

There was a nice drop of rain across a lot of the catchments last month. This topped up a few of our lakes and even saw the ones in the South East corner coastal hinterland overflowing. Down south and inland, Leslie and Coolmunda even received a nice inflow. Luckily, there are still plenty of places to go fishing this month as the rain hasn’t done a lot to affect water clarity.

We will start to see the fish behaviour change as it cools down. They will respond to different presentations and be found in new areas. As they adapt, we too need to mix it up and keep finding, and then showing them, something they want to eat. During this transition time, it pays to have a few rods rigged up with different presentations. Let the fish be the judge of what you throw and how you work it. It doesn’t matter if you fish for bass, goldens, cod or barra, if you want to continue catching good numbers, you will need to work out what they want most.

SOUTH EAST QUEENSLAND CRESSBROOK CLOSEST TOWN: CROWS NEST At the time of writing, Cressbrook Dam is closed due to high levels of blue green algae. The cyano bacteria present is deemed to be too high for water-based activities. Water conditions

are regularly monitored and you can check to see if the lake reopens at the Toowoomba Council’s website under Facilities and Recreation (lakes, dams and camping). SOMERSET CLOSEST TOWNS: ESK, KILCOY For now, Somerset is still

Gympie

Unfortunately, both Toowoomba lakes are closed to fishing. It really has to make you wonder if the Toowoomba Council are going overboard to protect us from the bacteria present in the water. Surely these two lakes are not the only ones in Queensland to get bacteria in them, but they seem to be the only ones that are closed because of it! A better option would be to allow water access with rules in place to prevent excessive water contact. The prolonged closure is hurting anglers and local businesses! Until next month, buckled rods from the Colonel.

14 31

Weipa

Toowoomba

BRISBANE

IMPOUNDMENT DAM

be until the end of winter/ start of spring that the bigger spoons come in to play and whack the big numbers. Soft plastics, vibes, blade baits and tail spinners will all have their place in the boat. It is all about experimentation. Put different lures in front of fish and work them different ways until you work something out. The bass have been holding in good numbers around the Pelican Point area. Their depth will vary but look from 20-30ft this month. Once you pinpoint the most favoured depth, you will be able to focus on that and find more fish

Gold Coast

24 1 Tinaroo Falls Dam 2 Peter Faust Dam 3 Burdekin Falls Dam 4 Eungella Dam 5 Teemburra Dam 6 Kinchant Dam 7 Cania Dam 8 Lake Monduran 9 Isis Balancing Storage 10 Wuruma Dam 11 Lenthalls Dam 12 Boondooma Dam 13 Bjelke-Petersen Dam 14 Lake MacDonald 15 Gordonbrook Dam 16 Borumba Dam 17 Somerset Dam 18 Wivenhoe Dam 19 Pindari Dam 20 Copeton Dam 21 Moogerah Dam 22 Maroon Dam 23 Leslie Dam 24 Connolly Dam 25 Coolmunda Dam 26 Clarrie Hall Dam (NSW) 27 Hinze Dam 28 Lake Cressbrook 29 Callide Dam 30 Lake Awoonga 31 Lake Samsonvale 32 Fairbairn Dam 33 Koombooloomba Dam 34 Cooby Dam

the land of the giants. You can expect this all to change over the next month or two. The chatterbait bite will slow down a lot more. They will still pull fish but other lures may actually start to dominate catches. Smaller spoons will again come in to play this month and will continue to pull fish into the winter months. It won’t

Bass may start to move closer to the edges and suspend less often as things cool down. Remember to keep mixing it up so you can work them out.

Cairns 1

Townsville 2

3 4

Proserpine 6 Mackay

Rockhampton

Emerald 29 7

Highlighted dams are covered in this issue

Gladstone

30 8

Bundaberg 9

Maryborough

Roma

in similar areas. Keep in mind the fish may move throughout the day so you may need to adjust depth to suit. It seems everything I say this month seems to have some element of uncertainty or change involved. That’s just what happens in these transition times. • Somerset Fishing has their store based at the area above the day use boat ramp. The store is open over holidays and other times from Friday to Sunday. Orders can also be made online via the website www. somersetfishing.com.au. They have an excellent range of gear suited to fishing for bass and golden perch.

BRISBANE

MOOGERAH CLOSEST TOWNS: BOONAH, RATHDOWNEY There will be patches of fish throughout the lake. Finding them on the sounder will be the key to catching them. The flats inside the timber will still be worth a look. Spend a bit of time in the basin too. There are three main areas to search. The flats out in front of The Palms, The Spit near the dam wall and the point over near the waterfall bay can all hold good numbers of fish. With the fish a bit more spread out and To page 59

WATER STORAGE LEVELS Dam............................ % Full           

DAMS Atkinson Awoonga Bjelke-Petersen Boondooma Borumba Burdekin Falls Callide Cania Clarendon Cooby Coolmunda

JAN FEB MAR 5 5 6 60 60 63 3 7 24 20 25 36 65 72 101 61 101 106 31 29 32 57 56 56 0 0 0 23 23 0 1 6 33

Dam............................ % Full           

Copeton Cressbrook Dyer/Bill Gunn Eungella Fairbairn Glenlyon Hinze Julius Kinchant Koombooloomba Leslie Macdonald

6 7 11 37 38 40 3 4 4 86 86 90 8 15 17 3 3 14 83 90 101 71 101 100 55 63 88 29 36 43 3 12 13 74 104 103

Dam............................ % Full          

Maroon Monduran/Fred Haigh Moogerah North Pine/Samsonvale Peter Faust/Proserpine Pindari Somerset Teemburra Tinaroo Toonumbar Wivenhoe Wuruma

48 49 61 61 61 63 30 29 39 57 88 68 68 68 71 4 4 10 64 66 83 86 88 98 63 66 72 18 28 69 44 43 52 61 62 63

For fortnightly updates on Sunwater dams visit www.sunwater.com.au This symbol indicates that a Stocked Impoundment Permit is required to fish these dams. All figures are % readings Current as of 18/03/20

(All levels correct at time of going to press. Dam levels can change at any time, so please check with local authorities to ensure safe boating and fishing.) 58

APRIL 2020

From page 58

not sure of what to do themselves, the numbers are likely to be down this month. Schooling fish can be caught on all manner of lures and you will just need to play around to see what they want. To mix things up, try hitting some edges on the western side of the lake early in the morning. Casting lipless crankbaits, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits will see you in with a good chance of scoring some early fish before you move on to searching for schools. MAROON CLOSEST TOWNS: BEAUDESERT, BOONAH The surface bite should be back on this month. It tapered off a bit when the water got really hot but now it should have cooled enough to get them back to the top. The early morning and

late afternoon are the prime times to be walking and blooping topwater lures around the protected weedy edges of the lake. If you can locate any weed just

of structure fast. You need to stay on the move with the electric motor to cover the water and work out the better areas. Schooling bass should be holding around The Junction and the main basin points. Any of these that have nice flats around 6-9m deep are likely to hold fish at some point. Your sounder will soon confirm their presence. Try soft plastics, blades

WIDE BAY AND SOUTH BURNETT REGION BOONDOOMA CLOSEST TOWNS: PROSTON, KINGAROY

now start to change. Soon soft plastics will take their place as being the better option. To adjust and meet the fish halfway, try adding a small beetle spin blade to

There will still be a few bass chomping Spectres this month but start to mix it up a bit more if you want the numbers.

SUNSHINE COAST REGION BORUMBA CLOSEST TOWNS: IMBIL, NOOSA The dam is again full so launching is no longer a problem. The flooded country would have been prime last month and there may still be a swag of bass, goldens and toga mooching around in the flooded grass and snags. Spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits are great for working this type

below the surface, this is the place to try your luck. During the day, the fish will respond down deeper. Spinnerbaits have been the go-to method but that will

The suspended fish in the lower half of the lake may start to move toward

As lake levels settle and the temperature drops, subtle presentations like fly fishing can produce results.

your plastic. Blades will be another good producer on the deeper fish and you can pluck away at the healthier weed edges with suspending jerkbaits. There are plenty of lures to play with this month so you shouldn’t get bored trying to nut out a pattern. • Charltons at Redbank has all the freshwater lures you could ever need. Some of their staff hit the dam regularly so make sure you pump them for the latest spots and tips. NORTH PINE (LAKE SAMSONVALE) CLOSEST TOWN: BRISBANE, LAWNTON, PETRIE The bigger fish are likely to be caught in the deeper water this month. There will still be plenty of smaller bass mixed with the occasional golden and saratoga around the shoreline of the lake. These fish will munch

spinnerbaits, chatterbaits, lipless crankbaits and blades. Out on the deeper schools, the spoons should dominate catches. A combination of winding and hopping through the fish should gain their interest. Make sure you offer them a range of lures before you give up on them as a simple change from a Gang Banger to a Halco Twisty can be all they require. These smaller spoons would be my pick until the end of winter when bigger ones should get a run. • Tackleworld Lawnton is an ideal port of call for all your fishing needs if fishing the lakes on the north side of Brisbane. The guys can point you in the right direction and help you experience some awesome fishing close to the heart of Brisbane and even further afield.

and spoons through the schools. Casting over them is the preferred approach but if they end up under the boat either drive away or try tempting them vertically with an ice jig or small blade bait. • Davos at Noosaville has all the gear you’ll need to tackle the fish at Borumba and Lake MacDonald. The store caters well for fresh and saltwater anglers. They can be found in the Homemaker Centre on the corner of Mary and Thomas Streets. the banks more where they will hold around the bottom. The depth the fish will be found is still likely to be shallower at 5-8m. Spinnerbaits and lipless crankbaits cast around the flooded shoreline of the lake should pull some nice bass and golden perch in the mornings. This bite may taper off in the middle of the day and schooled fish will become the target. In the schooling fish, try using spinnerbaits as they were one of the better performers last month. Like all the other lakes, it is the month for change, so if spinnerbaiting doesn’t work, empty out your tackle box on the floor and start using every lure to work out what they want. It should be a case of vibes, blades, spoons, tail spinners or soft plastics. There are plenty of lures to play with so put in a big day on them and you are likely to work something out. When experimenting, don’t spend too long on the one school. If it hasn’t turned on in 20 minutes, I’d leave it be and look for another but return later to try something else.

Immediately after heavy rains, reaction style topwater baits, like buzzbaits, can be very effective in amongst newly flooded ground. • Boondooma is a great place to camp right near the water enjoying the view. You could also stay in more style and comfort by booking into one of the cabins overlooking the dam. The kiosk at the main office does hot food and other basic items including an excellent range of proven fishing tackle. For campsites, cabins and bunkhouse rooms call (07)

NEW

4168 9694. • For the latest information jump onto Facebook and check out Matthew Mott Sport Fishing for Motty’s latest fishing reports. BJELKE-PETERSEN CLOSEST TOWNS: MURGON, GOOMERI The dam had a significant rise to just over 21%. Since the level was so low prior to this, the water is quite dirty. It

may start to clear enough for luring this month but make sure you pack some bait fishing gear just in case. As it clears up, vibrating lures like the Smak Fireblade will be perfect. You need to offer the fish something small but with enough presence to be found in the coloured water. To page 60

BASS SIX PACK Colour: GOAT

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From page 59

Spinnerbaits around the shoreline of the lake may also perform well.

• For help catching Bjelke and Boondooma fish, call into Bass 2 Barra. You’ll find the stores at 119

Youngman Street Kingaroy. Matthew Mott also runs fishing charters on the dams and you can reach

him through the store for bookings and enquiries on (07) 41627555. • The Yallakool kiosk is all

set up with a great range of tackle if you don’t happen to have the right lure or lose one. Be sure to call in and

DARLING DOWNS GRANITE BELT REGION COOBY CLOSEST TOWNS: HIGHFIELDS, TOOWOOMBA Cooby is again closed with very little information as to why. It is most likely to some sort of bacteria outbreak as this has been the reason in the past. You can keep up to date with the council website. www. tr.qld.gov.au. LESLIE CLOSEST TOWN: WARWICK There was a good rise in Leslie Dam last month. The water is a bit stained but you can still get away with luring it and it will only clear more as time goes on. While it is on the dirty side, swimbaits will not work as good on the Murray cod. The reduced visibility will hinder their performance. As soon as you can see at least 50cm into the water, they are definitely worth trying again. Until then, bigger lipless

crankbaits, spinnerbaits and chatterbaits will be able to send out the noise, flash and vibration needed to lure the cod. The cod seem to be the most active fish. Despite the rise, the golden perch have been tough to catch. They had a good bite for a week after the rise to 19% but then, as the dam was released back to 15%, they almost disappeared. • You can suss out the fishing and pick up tackle from Warwick Outdoor and Sports at 115 Palmerin Street Warwick. For a small store, it carries a great range at a very competitive price. Warwick is only a ten minute drive from the dam and you can pick up any supplies you might need. COOLMUNDA CLOSEST TOWN: INGLEWOOD Coolmunda had a good rise to around 33%. It flooded a lot of the shallow weedy area below the boat

Thinking outside the box paid off on this occasion. Trolling a heavily weighted Zerek Flat Shad plastic fooled this barra and a few of his mates.

CAPRICORN REGION AWOONGA CLOSEST TOWNS: BENARABY, GLADSTONE There has been a run of the smaller fish lately. The bigger 70-90cm models have been in hiding for the last month. It seems they come out to play on dark, especially around the full moon. With the bigger fish harder to find, the attention has been turned to the 50-65cm fish, which can be thick in some of the treetops

throughout the lake. Locating the best trees is a case of looking for the spindly treetops that are still submerged and in the deeper water on the edge of old creek beds or the basin of the lake. Futter Creek is a good spot to find this type of structure as the trees actually mark the old creek bed. Smaller lures to 100m long are ideal for the smaller class of barra in these trees. Slow sinking suspending lures are perfect for this

AWOONGA GATEWAY LODGE

“ Right on Awoonga’s doorstep. All set up for fishos, with tranquil surroundings. “

This is what anglers are looking for. Barra start to roll through on the side image as it gets darker. This spot deserves some extra attention.

deep water fishing. They can be twitched down and paused. The pause duration will depend on the mood of the fish with a long pause sometimes the catalyst setting fish off. While suspenders and long pauses are good, they can sometimes be frustrating in the wind as they love to bury in the snags. A slow floating lure capable of a bit more depth is the way to avoid hanging up in the timber but still reach the fish. Often it is a morning bite in the trees and the fish are hard to find throughout the day and into

check it out. Give them a call for accommodation and camping bookings on (07) 4168 4746. ramp, so hopefully the fish handle it well as this dies off. The water will stay dirty for ages so bait fishing will be the best bet. Look for the areas away from the flooded weeds. There were acres of these that stood to 10ft tall between the boat ramp and the old riverbed. If you spot open patches near the old creek bed, you should be in with a good shot. Try bait fishing with worms and live shrimp in 3-6m of water. • The Coolmunda Caravan Park is only around 1km away from the lake. It offers camping sites, cabins, caravan facilities, tennis courts, a swimming pool, BBQ shelter and a camp kitchen. Camping is also available near the boat ramp with toilets and hot showers to make your stay more comfortable. To take advantage of this and the great fishing opportunities in the lake, give the park a call on (07) 4652 4171. the afternoon. I’m sorry but small barra just don’t do it much for me and they are just the last resort when all else fails. I would be setting my sights on the bigger fish, and to do this you need to target them specifically to be successful. The windy basin points and bays are where I’d be searching. Unlike in other barra lakes, I move fast. If a spot has no fish in 15 minutes, I am off to the next to search it. The bays and hidden laydowns are

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APRIL 2020

The perfect start to a late afternoon barra session. The Hollow Belly and Barra Jighead combo did the damage but the treble stinger needs some attention after the battle.

To page 61

From page 60

my favourite spots during the afternoon. I prefer to fish a bit deeper but will experiment to see if there are fish up in the thick wed beds. They should still be rolling a little deeper, but by next month the weed is likely to be holding heaps of fish. As darkness approaches, I stake out a spot and give it a good hour or more. This is the time the fish get more mobile and patrol the edges of the weed beds. Watch the sounder closely to see if they are coming through the area on the side image. Windy points that protrude well out into the middle of the lake are good spots to try your luck. When the fish were chewing over the summer months, they loved the Barambah Bony Shad and Zerek 5.5” Live Mullet. These lures are still worth a go, but make sure you work some 5-6” plastics as well. I love the Powerbait Hollow Belly in the 6” size and the Zerek Flat Shad

in 5”. These can be rigged on 1/2oz Barambah Barra Jigheads with treble stingers on the belly. Watch the sounder to see where the fish are coming through in the water column and adjust your retrieve to suit. If I am not seeing fish, I try to fish the weed as closely as possible without fouling up too much. • Justin Nye from Gladstone Fly and Sportfishing runs fishing charters on the lake. He caters to the needs of the angler and can do fly or conventional tackle trips to target the lake’s barramundi. It is hard to beat time on the water and this is a great way to learn more about this lake and its fish. You can contact him on 0429 223 550 or visit the website gladstoneflyand sportfishing.com.au. • Mark from Awoonga Gateway Lodge always has a few productive secret spots to share. The Gateway Lodge is on the way in to the dam after turning off at Benaraby. The accommodation is great with plenty of boat

parking space right beside the comfortable air conditioned, self-contained cabins each with its own veranda. To book in a stay give Mark or Lyn a call on

(07) 4975 0033. CALLIDE CLOSEST TOWN: BILOELA The barra fishing has been steady, but there are

some big fish about. Some can be found around the dam wall buoyline but most will be further up the lake. It is the type of place where you should spend hours on

the sounder to locate the fish prior to your session. Barra are likely to be out deeper where they will suspend in trees during the day. Some of the big flats in the bays can also hold fish during the day, so cover the miles and prepare for the session once you locate them. We managed some barra trolling deep plastics and hardbodies around this time last year. The trees they live around can be hungry, so make sure you have a lure retriever handy. Vibing and working cast swimbaits over the better shows can also be productive, as can be suspending hardbodies if the fish are holding shallow enough. The deep fish seem to disappear as darkness approaches, so this is the time to stake out likely spots and pepper them with soft plastics. Windy points and bays will sometimes hold at Callide and at least have fish swim through. Where they go is still a mystery to me.

fish will be able to move up onto the flooded ground and into the running water. The newly flooded ground created a clear area of around 10m between the shore and the existing weed edge. At low light times and in the dark, this has been a prime hunting

ground. You can either fish it with weedless plastics or surface lures. Stickbait style topwaters have been scoring quite a few fish in this type of country but you will need to use long casts and stealth so you don’t spook the fish. The healthy weed beds are still holding barra in the mornings and at night. You can roll weedless plastics over the tops of them or

work the shoulders and deeper water adjacent with hooks exposed and more weight. In the trees, the barra will hold close to the old creek lines in tree tops. These fish can be vibed or worked with deep jerkbaits. It is a real mixed bag of options this month and that like many of the other lakes is due to the change of season. The rain and

amount the lake gets will also play a big factor in fish location. If the dam rises more, there will be some exciting action right up in the shallows or in the fresh flowing water. • This lake can be tricky to fish if you are new to it and I recommend getting some local knowledge. For all your fishing supplies or a guided trip on the

lake call Lindsay at Barra World on (07) 49454641. Lindsay’s barra tours can be busy in peak times so book ahead. You can also keep up to date by visiting their Barra World Facebook page. Camping is now available for a 72hour period right at the lake with more big plans to upgrade the new facilities in the future.

WHITSUNDAY REGION PROSERPINE CLOSEST TOWNS: PROSERPINE, AIRLIE BEACH Proserpine rose a couple of percent last month and there is still a bit more rain around at the time of writing. If it does get a good rise, the

Dean Sylvester with one of his big Callide barramundi. Could freshwater fishing get any better when there are fish like this swimming around?

FISHING NEWS

Fish are now showing up in strange places Have you caught or seen any ‘out of the ordinary’ fish?

smartphone app that invites you to share sightings of marine life that you don’t

and marine species may be extending their distribution in response to changes in the

photos and stories of unusual sightings, easily view the results from other citizen scientists, and see what conclusions REDMAP are making with those findings. Changes to where marine organisms are living will have unpredictable effects on marine ecosystems and fisheries. We are not sure why some species are on the move while others remain within

their historic ranges. By working together, scientists and coastal communities can begin to understand why marine organisms are moving house and predict the effects that the shifts of these functional groups might have. REDMAP is science by the people, for the people. Collecting the data for such a huge project along the entire Queensland coast can

only be done with your help! Please send in photos of any sightings of ‘out of the ordinary’ marine organisms to redmap. org.au or download our smartphone app and join the ranks of Australia’s citizen scientists! We look forward to working together to better understand our changing oceans. Happy fishing! Blake Spady, JCU

Gary’s Marine Centre

Marine organisms are on the move in Q ueens la n d , an d researchers are hoping to track them with your help! REDMAP is a website and

normally see along your part of the coastline. Over time, REDMAP will use your ‘citizen science’ data and photos to sketch a map of where Australian fishes

marine environment, such as warming seas, habitat loss, and introduced species. REDMAP allows Australians to collect their own marine data, share

3201 6232

217 Pine Mountain Road, BRASSALL APRIL 2020

Easter barra action LAKE TINAROO

Warwick Lyndon

April is a great month to be out enjoying the beautiful surrounds of Lake Tinaroo. As a bonus, the fishing is generally quite good this month and plenty of quality fish are usually encountered.

The Easter school holidays will be super busy, and hundreds if not thousands of people will be out enjoying this magnificent body of water. It pays to remember that this is not always a bad thing and fish can be caught in some very surprising areas and circumstances. I recall last Easter when one switched-on angler was deliberately using

the wash from the ski boats to fish a bank that held feeding barra. The wash had created a strong discolouration in the water on an otherwise flat and lifeless dam, and the fish were using this as cover for hunting. Thinking outside the square like this can make all the difference. The fishing has been steady lately with several

This barra ate a soft plastic slow rolled along an ambush point.

Barra often respond well in low light periods at this time of year.

NORTH SIDE’S

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CANOPY

BIMINI ON RUNABOUT

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good captures of barramundi and sooty grunter. Lots of shallow points and bays, as well as deeper areas with good structure are holding bait and fish. Anywhere that also contains solid rest and ambush points in the form of timber or rock will add to the appeal for predatory fish. Don’t think you always need to find massive trees or lay downs to locate fish; there are many small shrubs and bushes around the margins of the dam and finding this type of structure in a suitable water depth can often be the secret to success. The correct depth to fish will depend on multiple factors including season, water temperature, structure present, time of day, brightness and water clarity. The basic rule is to fish shallow in low light

the intermittent rain has spread the barra out. Good locations to start your search at this time of year include the points and bays around Tinaburra, the Barron River Arm, Severin Arm, Barefoot Bay and the Black Gully to Barrabadeen region. A good quality sounder will help narrow down the exact locations that you should be targeting. If your craft doesn’t have a sounder, don’t despair – you can look out for baitfish activity on the surface, particularly if you are fishing around dawn and dusk. Impoundment barra are intelligent hunters but are lazy, so they won’t be too far away from the food source. Using your eyes to look for suitable structure on the bank can also give you plenty of clues as to what lies

that barra are feeding on are quite large, so it can pay to be using bigger sized baits. This is when I love to throw big swim and glidebaits, as they tend to attract a better class of fish. At other times the bait is smaller and more finesse presentations will work. For example, I recently hooked a decent barra on a very small lure and light line while targeting sooty grunter. I had been fishing the same area for barra over the previous hour with a large lure for no result. With the weather starting to stabilise and the school holidays occurring this month, the lake will be very busy. Please take care at all times and remain patient when launching and retrieving your craft. No doubt the water police and fisheries will visit Tinaroo over Easter, so make

Sunrise and sunset are always good times to be on the lake.

ROD RACK

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APRIL 2020

and warmer conditions, and fish deeper in bright light and cooler conditions. The exception to this is when some of the larger barra hold in the warmer shallow water during the cooler months. Most of the popular spots have been fishing well recently, however

beneath, and therefore where to start fishing. Trolling, casting and bait fishing will all be productive at this time of year, so fish whatever method you are comfortable with. Baitfish should be abundant so try and match the hatch as best you can. At times, the bony bream

sure your craft is safe, that you are doing the right thing and always have your current Stocked Impoundment Permit details handy. • If you want to keep up with more of my FNQ adventures, you can like ‘Wazza’s Fishing Page’ on Facebook or ‘Wazza’s Fishing’ on Youtube.

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Touring with Toyota’s new and improved Prado BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

Mid last year, I was fortunate to do a review of a seven seater Toyota Prado GXL. Although it has mid range specifications, it was by no means short of desirable features for both the driver and passengers. The automatic Prado impressed me, as it did so many things well. Unfortunately, I only had the vehicle for a short amount

The vehicle, now having travelled over 10,000km, provided a much better assessment of performance, fuel economy and other factors that might influence potential ownership. TOW TESTS FIRST I towed the 1.5 tonne (GTM of boat, motor and trailer) Galeforce 4.5 centre console to Monduran Dam for a crack at the barra. As we camped at the grounds near the dam I also had quite a bit of camping equipment in the back of the Prado. All the usual suspects were

noticed the revs seemed to be reduced considerably. In comparison to standard auto mode, fuel consumption of 9.5-9.8L per 100km in cruise control mode was very good. Admittedly the dual lane sections of the M1 and a generous speed limit, allowed free and easy cruising. On the M1, I made good use of the radar cruise control facility of the GXL Prado. When engaged, the radar prevents the Toyota from approaching within a set distance (80m) from a

The Toyota Prado GXL combines sedan car ride quality with creditable off road ability.

The Prado towed the Galey’s 1.3 tonnes with ease. It returned the best fuel economy on the highway in cruise control mode. of time, so I didn’t get to test its full towing capability. I would have also liked to have seen more kays on the speedometer for a better assessment of both fuel economy and performance, particularly when towing. That aside, I have now accumulated some more time in the driver’s seat of

there: Chescold 3-way fridge, big 4x4m tent plus everything associated in setting the thing up with plenty of poles and ropes on hand. Then there was food boxes, clothing, stretchers, table, chairs, the lot! The Prado, with its 2.8L turbo diesel engine and 6 speed auto shifter, made

slower vehicle ahead. With a clear run ahead, the Prado would then accelerate to the pre-determined cruising speed with ease. As it was quite hot (36ºC) during our run to Mondy, we made the best of the climate control air conditioning and set up alternate air temps. I tend to be a little more

PERFORMANCE Performance wise, the Prado has adequate rather than plenty of power for towing – after all, it is not a V6 or V8. Our boat, at 1.3 tonnes, is a fair step under the Prado’s 3000kg maximum tow rating. While the Toyota four-cylinder 2.8L turbo diesel outputs 130kw of power, 450Nm of torque, the engine is also pushing 3.2 tonnes of metal. In fairness, the 2.8 diesel did not struggle, it just changed down a gear or two when necessary. However, overtaking did require plenty of clear road ahead when towing that boat. On the positive side, the Prado’s ride was of excellent, especially considering that this off roader was always in four-wheel drive H. It would take a mighty bad surface to intrude on that armchair ride and about the only negative might be the tendency for some body roll in the corners.

Inside the Prado, there’s nothing but room to spare. Headroom, legroom, sideto-side space – it’s all very generous. Second row passengers have a lot of head and legroom while the third row, well, best left for the younger set. Up front, the driver and passengers’ seats were wide and very supportive and offered a lot of adjustment and comfort. The driver has a press button lumbar support, plus pump adjustable seat height. Controls for most functions are on or around the steering wheel for convenience. THE RUN SOUTH After a run to Wyaralong Dam with the Porta Bote for some fun with carp, I organised a big trip south to fish the trout lakes. An easy run: no glass boat, no camping gear, just a folded Porta Bote on the cross bars spanning the GXL’s roof bars. In the back was fishing gear, a small outboard

engine, Porta Bote seats, clothing, and other camping items. They were all loaded into the rear of the Prado with the second and third row seats folded down. This provided a handy flat floor space of 1.4m wide and 1.8m long. This run really showed what the Prado offered as a long distance tourer. The levels of comfort plus great road holding and ride, ensured easy and tireless driving. I was chuffed to see a neat warning on the dash at four hourly intervals advising that it was time for a break. Fuel consumption (in cruise control mode) with the engine virtually idling in sixth gear, recorded 8.2-8.5L per 100km on the 110km/h limit Newell Highway. Night driving, with the GXL’s auto high beam headlights, was just so easy. As a car approached the lights dipped, as it departed high beam came back up.

There’s a fair array of controls under the big command screen but it didn’t take long to learn how to use. a GXL Prado. This involved a decent run with the boat on the tow bar, and another run with only the Porta Bote up top on the roof racks. 64

APRIL 2020

easy work of towing the fibreglass craft. Surprisingly, the Prado returned best fuel consumption when towing in cruise control mode. I

tolerant of warmer conditions than my dear wife, and opted for a slightly higher setting to avoid frost bitten fingers on the wheel.

Second row passengers in the Prado won’t be short of space or air conditioning. It has its own air conditioning unit in the centre.

To page 65

From page 64

DIESEL DILEMMA As a mid spec model, the GXL Prado comes in two guises with different sized fuel tanks. The one I tested

had the spare tyre on the tail gate and a 150L tank under the floor. The alternative model has a ‘flat back’ with the spare tyre under the floor along with an 87L fuel tank.

A top up can load 150kg on the standard Prado’s rear suspension, and 87kg for the flat back. Given the Prado’s really good fuel economy, the model with the smaller fuel

What would a modern car be without a keyless start up? The Prado naturally has one.

The gear was loaded in for a quick morning trip to Wyaralong Dam. It shows the amount of space available with the seats down.

tank might make a lot of sense if towing heavy loads regularly. On the standard Prado, attaching the boat using the tyre-mounted reversing

SHEIK OF THE CREEK

If not fishing, then what? BRISBANE

The Sheik of the Creek

I’ve been around a good while and I can truthfully say I’ve not met too many people as pathologically infatuated with fishing as my own good self. At times, that part of my personality has been a real downer and has made my life (and wife) miserable for more years than I’d care to admit. But for better or worse, it’s made me into the strange combination of neuroses and habits that I am. The problem is that I’m getting to a stage where I don’t think I’m as keen to go fishing as I once was. Because fishing in one form or another, be that crabbing, prawning, chucking lures, or dropping livies, has formed such a large part of who I am, I’m wondering what is going to replace that part of my life if that fishing urge continues to fall. What am I going to do in the long hours that I’ve previously spent sitting in the rain, smashing into swells, slopping through mangrove mud and hammering that rotator cuff injury with a cast net throw? There are only a limited number of hobbies that I would consider to have a legitimate chance of replacing fishing pursuits. Golf might stand a chance but someone once remarked that it’s a good way to spoil a walk and I tend to agree. The way I play means it can be expensive too; apparently clubs and putters are not cheap to replace, and going through ten or twenty balls a round can create some issues too!

Bushwalking seems hot and pointless just like golf, and tennis is too confrontational. I’m not at my best when competing unless it’s against

don’t see the appeal of tearing things off the undercarriage and sides of my car with large bits of the environment. Ballroom dancing? I’d

run, he would have given me wheels. It’s very difficult to come to terms with less fishing. Maybe there isn’t

children under walking age. I guess that rules out plenty of other things too, like chess, cards or speed dating. Four wheel driving seems pretty pointless to me – I

sooner rip off my own arms and build verandahs with them. Mountain climbing? See ballroom dancing. Running? Absolutely not. If God had meant for me to

a viable alternative. Perhaps as I fish less, I’ll just have to learn to sit around the place doing absolutely nothing. And if I’m doing that, I may as well be fishing!

camera should have been easy, but it did not allow me to see the tow ball, which then involved some guess work as to when the tow hitch was directly over the tow ball. However, the flat back Prado didn’t have this problem as the vision is totally unobstructed. Overall, the camera was perfect in every other respect, with clarity and guidance that made reverse parking a breeze. OFF ROAD WORK The Prado GXL was a very capable off roader. The suspension travel, ground clearance and all wheel drive – with low range and both centre and rear diff locks on command at the flick of a switch – would make it very close to one of the best off roaders available.

Sneaking slowly along rough tracks to trout lake margins proved no obstacle at all for the Prado, with most work done in standard all wheel drive mode, without the need for low range. SUMMING UP As an everyday around town commuter, the Prado is an easy drive with high standard visibility, comfort and performance. On the highway, the high comfort levels, great road manners and driver friendly features all enhanced by the great fuel economy, combine to make the Prado GXL a gem to drive. It combines sedan car ride quality with very creditable off road ability. At around the $65,000 mark the Prado is no cheapie but I believe the value is there.

Ruby was stoked to land this great bream from a Gold Coast canal.

APRIL 2020

30th Boondooma Dam Fishing Competition The Boondooma Dam Stocking and Management Association celebrated their 30th Annual Boondooma Dam Yellowbelly Fishing Competition on the 8-9 February, with a $15,000 custom-made 395 Bluefin

with the amount of people that attended this year’s comp. The atmosphere was second to none, with MC Matthew Mott and Committee Members keeping the ball rolling throughout the weekend.

Bill Smith and Ashley Chandler tied with a yellowbelly of 1.615kg to take out the Heaviest Yellowbelly division. Drifter Deluxe boat/motor/ trailer and safety package up for grabs. The weather was challenging, but all in all a fantastic weekend was had by all who attended. Being our 30th year life member, Alan (Joey) Keates and original members Peter MacDonald, Noel Liesegang and Ken Jorgensen attended and gave an oversight of how the Boondooma Dam Yellowbelly Fishing Competition began in 1990. Mayor Keith Campbell also presenting the club with a 30 Year Certificate. With the combination of drought, fires and floods the committee was overwhelmed

The releasing of fingerlings into the dam bought the community together. Entrants came from all over South East Queensland and Northern NSW to attend this competition. This year saw an attendance of almost 700 entrants, including 170 juniors. Cash and other prizes were presented over the three sessions as well as overall competition winners at the conclusion of the event on the Sunday. The dedication of the love of this comp showed, with entrants Rodney Pearce, Robert Hadwen and Richard Brown rolling their vehicle

on the way to the Comp from Bundaberg with boat attached. Their vehicle was a total write off. They were taken to hospital with cuts and bruises and Robert had to wear a neck brace on the Saturday for precaution. Rodney was presented with a bottle of vegemite along with other prizes for their commitment to the comp. With the recent rainfall the dam was a picture, even though the water level was down to 27.7% The dam fished extremely well for the 2020 event, with 407 fish going through the Catch and Release section and another 245 in the Gilled and Gutted section. The biggest yellowbelly of the event was weighed in at 1.615kg for both Senior and Junior The Catch and Release section consisted of yellowbelly, bass, eel-tailed catfish, silver perch and spangled perch, with anglers using the Track My Fish app to photograph and release the fish, which proved to be success. Troy Harch won the Yellowbelly division, with a fish of 510mm. Rob Thomas won the Longest Bass, with a 530mm fish. The Heaviest Yellowbelly title was claimed by Ashley Chandler and Bill Smith, with a yellowbelly of 1.615kg. They both took home $300 worth of cash, prizes and a trophy Sponsored by Smithfield Cattle Co. The winner of the Heaviest Bass section

sponsored by Barambah Business Services was Steve Sloman, with a bass of 1.320kg to secure $200 cash, prizes and a trophy. Hanwood Fish Hatchery champion Junior Anglers for Yellowbelly was Daniel Humphrey, with a yellowbelly of 1.615kg. The bass was claimed by Reuben Russell, with a bass weighing in at 1.255kg. Once again, we promoted the Catch and Destroy division for the pest fish tilipia in our dam, with the Heaviest amount of Tilapia caught at each session, with the winner receiving cash and prizes, and sponsored by Blinks Baits. The 395 Bluefin Drifter Deluxe boat/trailer and safety package was won by Melody White from Nanango, who will keep the custom-made wrap. This prize was proudly sponsored by Boondooma Dam Fish Stocking Ass., Cunningham Marine and Smak Lures. Congratulations to all the winners and thankyou

to everyone who attended to make it ‘the best comp yet’, as said by competitors. All profit made from the weekend goes back into purchasing more fingerlings, the future for Lake Boondooma. Food and drinks stalls were provided by local community groups over the weekend and the great camping facilities provided by the South Burnett Regional Council were put to great use for campers staying at the dam. The annual competition for 2021 is already in full swing, with this being our

31st year and will be one you don’t want to miss. Stay up to date with the latest info by following us on our Facebook and Instagram pages, and check out the list of our generous sponsors that each year support this comp to ensure that a wide range of prizes and lucky draws are available for all competitors giving away up to $50,000 worth of cash and prizes. Additional information on the local area and past fishing competitions can be found on the Proston Online website, www.prostononline. info. - BDSMA

There were some great prizes up for grabs, with a boat/motor/trailer package being just one!

2020 CATCH & RELEASE WINNERS Longest Yellowbelly............................................................ Troy Harch (510mm) Longest Bass.....................................................................Rob Thomas (530mm) Longest Eel-tailed Catfish.................................................Jodie Carsberg (520mm) Most Fish...........................................................................Chris Gagel (46) 2020 GILLED & GUTTED WINNERS Senior Heaviest Yellowbelly........................Ashley Chandler & Bill Smith (1.615kg) Senior Heaviest Bass.................................Steve Sloman (1.320kg) Senior Heaviest Jew...................................Jodie Carsberg (1.515kg) Junior Heaviest Yellowbelly.........................Daniel Humphrey (1.615kg) Junior Heaviest Bass..................................Reuben Russell (1.255 kg) Junior Heaviest Eel-tailed Catfish.............. Tyler Apps (1.305kg)

TOURNAMENT CALENDAR 2020

APRIL

MAY

4-5 Apr

ABT BREAM Round 5 Mandurah

abt.org.au

5 Apr

ABT BASS Electric Round 2 Coldstream River

abt.org.au

18-19 Apr

Hobie Kayak Bream Series 12 Round 3 Mallacoota

hobiefishing.com.au

25-26 Apr

ABT BASS Pro Round 2 Clarence River

abt.org.au

29 Apr-1 May

ABT BREAM Australian Open Sydney

abt.org.au

2-3 May

ABT BASS Electric Round 3 Lostock Dam

abt.org.au

2-3 May

Hobie Kayak Bream Series 12 Round 4 Blackwood River

hobiefishing.com.au

2-3 May

INDT World Sooty Championship Eungella Dam

MAFSA Facebook page 0400 812 055

16-17 May

Hobie Kayak Bream Series 12 Round 5 Woy Woy

hobiefishing.com.au

Add your tournament or competition to this list by emailing jthomas@fishingmonthly.com.au or calling 07 3387 0800 in office hours. Just supply a date, venue, tournament name and a telephone number and contact name. 66

APRIL 2020

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Hayes bashes Tambo Bridge for 2nd ABT title Melbourne’s Mark Hayes found a mother lode of big bream on the Tambo River highway bridge and milked the pattern for two consecutive days to take the first event of the 2020 Costa BREAM Series. In doing so, he became one of a select group of anglers to win events on more than one Victorian BREAM arena. Boxing a huge 5.60kg on the first day to tie for the lead and following up with a solid 4.64kg on the second day of competition, Hayes outdistanced a red-hot Kristoffer Hickson by nearly a kilogram and was the only angler to break the 10kg mark. His 10/10 bag went 10.24kg; an average of over a kilogram per fish! Running a camera on the second day, Hayes showed his bridge crankbaiting style, running a variety of slowly floating crank and jerkbaits along the pylons to tempt the black bream to duck out a foot from cover and nip at the offerings. Once the fish bit, it was by no means over, with a furious battle ensuing to

when the bream would hit. Hayes prefers slow floating lures with upgraded hooks, like the Ecogear SX43 and Gladiator Mutant. He fished the lures on a Smith Dancing Bream rod matched with a Daiwa Caldia reel (that he won as a non-boater about a decade ago), 4lb Berkley braid and a surprisingly light 4lb leader. “Some people reckon

Melbourne’s Mark Hayes milked the Tambo River Bridge for all its worth to register his second ever ABT win as a boater. A devoted hardbody angler, he rode the pattern to the only 10-fish limit over 10kg. extract the fish from the abundant structure. Some he won, some he didn’t. Scan the QR Code hereby to see him in action – there are wins and losses recorded! “On the first day I had

12 bites and landed five fish. The others made it home into the pylons,” Hayes said, “so who knows what I could have brought in. I tried going hard on them and freespooling them … sometimes that just

made it worse.” Hayes’ technique for cranking bridges is pretty simple: cast parallel and as close as you can to the pylon, slow roll it back with twitches and add plenty of pauses. It’s on the pause

BOATER RESULTS Place Name 1 Mark Hayes 2 Kris Hickson 3 Brad Hodges 4 Jamie McKeown 5 Charlie Saykao 6 Andrew Moore 7 Steve Pryke 8 Steve Morgan 9 Peter Nord 10 Stephen Wheeler

Total Fish Total Weight (kg) Prize 10/10 10.24 $3,000 + $250 Mercury bonus 10/10 9.32 $1,250 + $125 Mercury bonus 10/10 9.23 $1,000 + $75 Mercury bonus 10/10 8.60 $900 10/10 7.91 $800 10/10 7.71 $700 10/10 6.99 $600 6/10 6.76 $500 9/10 6.13 8/10 5.78

Visit www.abt.org.au for entry forms. For general enquiries phone ABT on (07) 3387 0888 68

APRIL 2020

that the 4lb is a bit light, but I use that leader everywhere I go,” Hayes explained. The Tambo River bridge is around one hour and 40 minutes away from the start line, but there’s a lot of 5-knot idling to get there. Hayes left the bridge at 11am on the first day and fished it for the full session on the second. You can see his full winner’s interview on the QR Code hereby!

Hayes didn’t win all of the battles. With bream like this hitting inches from heavy cover, the toll was significant on his dwindling supplies of Ecogear SX43s.

Scan the QR code to see Mark Hayes’ winning interview.

Scan the QR code to see Kobi Rothall’s winning interview.

BREAM AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Hickson scrambles to second place It was a pretty big effort for Kris Hickson to even make it to the opening event of the 2020 Costa BREAM Series. Racing from a relocated Hobie Australian Championships (13 hours away rather than two hours from Gippsland), he drove most of the night to make the practice day and then scrambled to find fish. In case you didn’t know, he won the Hobie AC. According to Kris, he didn’t stop scrambling all weekend. “I started the first day in Paynesville, rotating through some docks and boats that I have done well on in the past. I lost a few early fish and bagged 1.1 and 1.2kg models on a ZMan GrubZ and a jerkbait, but as the session went on the fish dried up,” he said. Hickson then found fish with his Humminbird Mega 360 while traversing a flat near one of his go-to spots. “I spooked a couple of fish and then started seeing them on the 360. It was overcast and rough and I

dried up, leaving him no option but to expand on his flats pattern. He found more fish on flats in the Paynesville area and refined his crankbaiting flats technique. “It was all about bouncing between flats with fish on them and resting them in turn,” he said. Rolling the SX40 with small pauses and upwards twitches of the rod, he chipped away at a decent limit and ultimately, was

BREAM SERIES

abt

only bettered by Hayes. You can see Kris in action and the 360 screen in the highlights video for day two.

DAIWA J BRAID BIG BREAM

Hickson caught a handful of fish on a variety of lures before settling into a flats pattern with his new Humminbird Mega 360 unit. couldn’t see them well on the flat, but they stood out on the new unit,” he said. After that, he went to work with a Ecogear SX40 (colour 390) on his

Daiwa Infeet 722 ULFS rod and Caldia reel spooled with 3lb Sunline Small Game FC. “If I saw a school of bream, I’d put down the

Talon and start working them over. Those two pieces of technology in tandem were deadly,” he concluded. On day two, all of his structure spots had

Rothall wins from back of boat Kobi Rothall also did some travelling to make it to the Gippsland event. Based in Nelson, Western Victoria, he attended the Hobie AC and then travelled back to Gippsland with Steve Pryke to make the tight connection. For the first-time ABT competitor it was well worth the effort, with the Victorian winning his first ever attempt at an ABT event as a non-boater. “I had two awesome boaters, Jamie McKeown and Daniel Kent,” Rothall said. “On the first day, Jamie and I fished the Nicholson River bridge with Cranka Crabs. It didn’t really matter what colour we threw, just as long as they were heavy and we fished them slow,” he continued. “The second day I fished with Daniel Kent and the presentation was totally different. We used ZMan

BREAM abtSeries presented by

GrubZ in 2.5” (gudgeon) rigged on a Gamahatsu Round 25 jighead (1/16oz) and cast right to the edges. If you weren’t right on the edge, you wouldn’t get a bite,” he said. Rothall fished both offerings on a Millerods Grub Freak and Daiwa 2004 Luvias spooled with Yamatoyo Resin Sheller braid and a 5lb Sniper FC leader. Indeed, the first day of this event saw a swathe of ABT newcomers in the top places. Rothall, Nikki Bryant, Leo Yu and Rhys Harris made up the top four after their first day of ABT tournament. This is encouraging news for those sitting on the sidelines wondering whether they should take the leap! You fish with a different boater each day and your learning curve accelerates out of sight. Visit www. for more abt. org.au information.

ABT first-timer Leo Yu burst onto the tournament scene with a bang, dropping a 1.67kg black bream on the scales in his first ever appearance at the weigh in. Fishing with Cam Whittam, he caught the fish on a Daiwa Steez Skybolt 701LFS rod and TD SOL III 2500S reel with 4lb FC straight through and a Cranka Crab (olive, heavy). “I normally don’t fish crabs, but found fish eating the crabs on pre-fish, so I thought that’s the lure I’m going to use in the comp. On day one, we went to Hollands Landing and fished the edges. We would just cast the lure at the right place and not do anything. I think the key was to try not to work it too much and wait for the biggest fish to eat your lure,” Yu said.

Scan the QR code to see the day one highlights.

Scan the QR code to see the day two highlights.

How could Kobi Rothall not like ABT Tournament angling after dropping fish like this on the scales in his first ever event?

NON-BOATER RESULTS Place Name 1 Kobi Rothall 2 Nikki Bryant 3 Grayson Fong 4 Nick Penprase 5 Lindsay Pryke 6 Mickael Hodges 7 Leo Yu 8 Rhys Harris 9 Wayne Mauger 10 Colin Wilson

Total Fish Total Weight (kg) Prize 10/10 7.87 Pro Lure pack 9/10 6.79 Daiwa pack 5/10 4.41 Costa sunglasses 4/10 3.17 Atomic pack + rod 4/10 3.09 EJ Todd pack 4/10 2.94 Samaki pack + rod 2/10 2.27 Tackle Tactics pack + $500 Big Bream + Daiwa J-Braid pack 3/10 2.24 Cranka pack 4/10 2.06 Ecogear pack 2/10 1.60 VMC pack

Nikki Bryant with a bream that nearly delivered her the top non-boater spot. APRIL 2020

Morgan is crowned the master of Metung Steve Morgan has managed to turn the Gippsland Lakes arena from a triple-donut result into a place he loves fishing, mainly through a specialty in a section of the waterway near Metung. Having never landed a 5kg limit on the mainland, Morgan did exactly that on the first day of the first event and followed it up with a pair of 5kg+ bags in the ZMan round. Dropping 5.43kg and then 5.95kg on the scales, he easily out-distanced a fastfinishing Scott Towner and registered an average weight of 1.13kg per fish. Learning his lesson from the first event, where he failed to capitalise on a Lakes Entrance yellowfin bream bite on the second day, Morgan nearly solely targeted black bream in the Metung area after the rest of the field charged out to greener paddocks. With strong wind warnings for both of the tournament days, boaters were allowed to tow their rigs to sheltered ramps across the arena and not face unsafe conditions on the lakes proper. “I was amazed when the entire field chose to

said, “mainly olive heavy, but in areas with no current I used some light models on the second day.” Each time Morgan visits Metung, there’s different docks and banks that fish well. “The hot docks from previous events always seem to change, so every year you need to find where the fish are stacked up,” he explained. “This year, we only found three areas at Metung that produced more than one fish, so on the final day, it was a case of rotating through these areas and picking up a fish here and there,” “When you’re getting less than 10 bites a day, you need to convert them.

After choking with a dying yellowfin bream pattern in the first round, Morgan focussed on black bream in round two and reaped the rewards. All his bream were caught within a kilometre of the start line. leave the checkout point at Metung on the first day,” Morgan said. The only other boat to share the area was Brett Penprase after his boat was too long to launch at the Tambo River ramp.

With the arena also windblown on Sunday, they all headed off as well, leaving Morgan and leading non-boater Grayson Fong the productive area to share with only one other boat. “Usually Metung gets

plenty of attention from anglers at the beginning and the end of the session, so I really think that the rough weather played into our hands for this event,” Morgan said. “I fished Cranka Crabs the whole event,” Morgan

BOATER RESULTS Place Name 1 Steve Morgan 2 Scott Towner 3 Andrew Moore 4 Mario Vukic 5 Steve Pryke 6 Alex Franchuk 7 Geoff Borg 8 Brad Hodges 9 Peter Nord 10 Declan Betts

Total Fish Total Weight (kg) Prize 10/10 11.38 $3,000 + $250 Mercury bonus 10/10 10.73 $1,250 10/10 8.98 $1,000 + $125 Mercury bonus 8/10 8.88 $900 10/10 8.17 $800 + $75 Mercury bonus 8/10 8.00 $700 10/10 7.68 $600 8/10 7.26 $500 10/10 6.02 6/10 5.96

Visit www.abt.org.au for entry forms. For general enquiries phone ABT on (07) 3387 0888 70

APRIL 2020

During the event, I upped the line from 4lb Sufix Advance Fluorocarbon to 6lb Nanobraid and 7lb Yamatoyo Chinu Harris leader after losing a few fish in structure.” Morgan started with a 7’8” Daiwa Crab Rod/Sol III 2004 combo and finished with a Legit Designs Wild Side rod and a 2019 Certate 2500S LT reel. “The main thing I learned this event? Fish the crabs slow. The slower the better,” Morgan said. He donated the prize money to the Mallacoota Fishing Club to help with bushfire relief. All up, anglers donated just under $15,000 in ABT’s Bushfire Fundraiser.

What were the odds on a pair of Queenslanders taking home the trophies from the Victorian ZMan round of the Costa BREAM Series? Morgan and Fong both reside in Brisbane.

Scan the QR code to see the pre show.

Scan the QR code to see the day one highlights.

BREAM AUSTRALIAN OPEN

Towner takes second in smallest boat With the arena opened to trailer boats in sheltered launch areas, AFC legend Scott Towner got to fish Hollands Landing for the first time in an ABT event. Usually a 40km boat ride, plenty of anglers took the hour drive by road to take advantage of the fishing. Boxing 5.03kg on the Saturday and a massive 5.70kg on the Sunday, he was over 1.5kg clear of all other anglers bar Morgan. “I found good fish on the flats at the mouth of Hollands on the calm pre-fish day, but come tournament day, the rough dirty water had pushed the fish back into the channel proper,” Towner said. “I found ‘em within 500m of the boat ramp and went to work with a deep Jackall Chubby in brown suji.” “On the first day, the water stayed clear enough to fish effectively for a couple of hours, but on day two, I got five hours and clean water and landed at least 30 legal fish to help

After slow rolling and twitching the Chubby, Towner switched to fishing a Cranka Crab on a Daiwa Crab rod outfit that he borrowed from Wally Fahey. “After the event I found out why they liked the crabs so much – my livewell was full of crab shells and legs. They obviously form a major part of a bream’s diet at Hollands,” he concluded. Towner’s next stop is Tasmania, where he has

BREAM SERIES

abt

logged multiple 6.5kg+ bags in the past. It’ll be interesting to see if the bream have gotten wiser in the meantime.

DAIWA J BRAID BIG BREAM

Yarrawonga’s Scott Towner has the tournament fishing bug again. He landed second place in the ZMan event from the smallest boat in the field. me upgrade my bag,” he continued. Towner’s tackle was definitely not cutting edge, using the rods he last

wielded in ABT and AFC events over a decade ago. “The Abu Garcia Soron reels still work fine, even if a few are a little

grindy,” Scott said, “but I did replace the line with new Berkley X8 braid and with new leaders I was good to go.”

Fong flogs fellow non-boaters Queensland acupuncturist Grayson Fong is always a threat whenever he graces the back of the boat. The ZMan event allowed him to put a real smackdown on the rest of the non-boating field and drop the two heaviest non-boater limits on the scales to cruise to victory by nearly 3kg. Fishing with Brett Crowe on day one and Steve Morgan on day two, Fong used two different techniques to get the job done. Up the Nicholson River Fong deep cranked Daiwa Spike hardbodies along deep river bends. “Brett and I targeted laydown timber that went out to about 6 or 7 feet of water,” Fong said. The key was to roll the lure frustratingly slowly with small twitches and pauses. The bream would eat the lure gently and hook up on the retrofitted Decoy

BREAM abtSeries presented by

YS25 trebles. He fished the lure on a Daiwa TD Hyper rod (the new grey model), a 2019 Certate and 8lb Daiwa braid with 4lb leader. Grayson hooked seven fish and landed five on the first day to finish the session in first place. As such, he was paired with Steve Morgan as the first placed boater. At Metung with Morgan, Fong threw heavy olive Cranka Crabs to edges of hard structure. As one of only two boats choosing to not trail his boat to a distant ramp, the pair rotated between productive docks and filled their limits one fish at a time. “There was only about four places that we caught fish and it was a matter of fishing them slowly and methodically,” Fong said. It took both anglers until around midday to fill their limits, with Fong eventually dropping 4.8kg on the scales to emphatically take the win.

Mario Vukic anchored the biggest bag of the week (5/5, 6.29kg) with an enormous, misshapen 1.59kg Hollands Landing brute. With a bent back and a tiny tail, it was an ideal tournament fish. It ate a ZMan GrubZ 2.5” in motor oil rigged on a Decoy Nail Bomb weedless jighead. He fished it on a Daiwa Beowulf rod, 2500 Daiwa Certate reel, 12lb Sunline Castaway braid and 4lb Sunline V-Hard leader. “I was fishing 10lb leaders all day until I busted them all off, so I grabbed the 4lb and the big girl bit,” Vukic said. We’ll bet he was glad it wasn’t in prime condition!

Grayson Fong was the only non-boater to bag a perfect 10/10 for the event. His limits of 3.70 and 4.80kg topped the best-of-the-rest by nearly 3kg.

NON-BOATER RESULTS Place Name

Total Fish Total Weight (kg) Prize

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

10/10 7/10 3/10 4/10 3/10 5/10 4/10 5/10 2/10 4/10

Grayson Fong Michael Alexander Nick Penprase Michael Hodges Nikki Bryant Blair Bryant Allan Morrison Wayne Mauger Arthur Amies Jordan Armstrong

8.50 5.69 3.55 3.29 3.11 2.97 2.64 2.41 2.20 2.11

Pro Lure pack Daiwa pack Costa sunnies Atomic pack + rod EJ Todd pack Samaki pack + rod Tackle Tactics pack Cranka pack Ecogear pack VMC Pack

Scan the QR code to see the day two highlights.

Scan the QR code to see Scott Towner’s winning interview. APRIL 2020

Cooking

Marinated baby octopus BRISBANE

Lynn Bain

Baby octopus are eightlegged, bite-sized morsels that taste fantastic when

marinaded and grilled. You could eat the grilled baby octopus either simply on its own with lots of bread, or as part of a salad with a mixture of salad leaves and the marinade spooned over

as a dressing. Below is just one way to prepare these tasty creatures. It’s absolutely perfect for the cool nights we will start to experience at this time of year.

Ingredients • 250g baby octopus, cleaned

• 1 small fresh red chilli, finely

• 3/4 cup dry white wine

• chopped (optional)

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil

• 2 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

• 2 large garlic cloves, finely grated

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 tsp dried oregano

• Freshly ground salt

Place the baby octopus into a pot with approximately two cups of water and bring to a boil. As soon as the water boils, remove the pot from the heat and allow to stand for ten minutes.

Mix all the ingredients in the bowl together, ensuring the baby octopus are well covered with the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow it to marinade for at least an hour in the fridge.

While the octopus is grilling, add the retained marinade to a small microwave safe glass jug and pop it into the microwave. Microwave on high for two minutes. 72

APRIL 2020

After ten minutes, remove the baby octopus from the discoloured water.

Remove the baby octopus from the bowl, retaining the marinade.

When grilled to your liking, place the baby octopus into a serving bowl and spoon some of the heated marinade on top of the octopus.

Place the baby octopus into a large glass bowl. Add the dry white wine, extra virgin olive oil, oregano, salt and pepper, parsley, finely chopped chilli and grated garlic to the bowl.

Heat your grill pan over a medium-high heat and add the par-cooked marinaded baby octopus to the hot pan. Grill the octopus for approximately five minutes, turning occasionally until the baby octopus is cooked through.

Serve the grilled baby octopus with crusty bread to soak up the juices.

FUN PAGE AND COMPETITIONS WATER ACTIVITIES

SCUBADIVE SNORKEL KAYAKING PADDLE BOARD JET SKI KITE SURFING RAFTING FISHING BOATING

SURFING SAILING CANOEING SWIMMING CAGE DIVING CLIFF DIVING PARASAILING ROWING WINDSURFING

Name: Address:

P/Code:

The first correct entry at the end of each month will win the prize pack. SEND ENTRIES TO: QLD Find-a-word Competition, PO box 3172, Loganholme Qld 4129

QLD APRIL 2020

Phone (day):

GEORGE & NEV by Michael Hardy

Complete the Find the Word and go in the draw to win a Fishing Monthly Prize Pack containing a limited edition neck scarf and a Fishing Monthly environmentally-friendly tote bag.

SPOT THE

10 DIFFERENCES

BARRA COUNTRY by Brett Currie

ORIGINAL

FIND-A-WORD

Congratulations to Stacy Parfitt, who was last month’s winner of the Find-aWord Competition! Monthly winners receive a Fishing Monthly prize pack. Prize delivery can take 8 weeks. – QFM

SUBSCRIBER PRIZE

The subscriber prize winner for February is G Walker of Warner, who won a EJ Todd Subscriber prize pack. All subscribers are entered in the monthly subscriber prize draws. Prize delivery takes up to 8 weeks. – QFM

Parker of Roma, D McClurg of Boondall, E Lezuchowski of Darra, M Boyle of Slacks Creek, K Cook of S.C.M.C Nambour, C Rowe of Loganholme, A Tretter of Ocean View, A Ferrari of Deception Bay, R Kunde of Beerwah, B Cowell of Burpengary, E Boettcher of Tivoli, K Edwards of East Innisfail, R Waters of Temora, A Needham of Blackbutt, D Harrison of Millbank, T

Gyte of Aspley, A Robertson of Zilzie, B Tieman of Buxton, G Poor of Boonooroo, P Moody of Kingston, A Hewlett of Mothar Mountain, B Devine of Pialba, J Bugno of Bardon, G Sprott of Glenlee, S Dawson of Gympie, S Mitchell of Buderim, G Edwards of Home Hill, A Li of Fitzgibbon, M Couchman of Roma. Prize delivery takes up to 8 weeks. – QFM

LAST MONTH’S ANSWERS

FIND THE ZMAN LOGO

GUESS THE FISH?

This month’s Guess the Fish Answer: Red Emperor

The answers to Find the ZMan Logo for February were: 10, 14, 22, 26, 33, 36, 40, 44, 46, 79, 80, 81, 89, 102, 116, 118, 120. – QFM The Find the ZMan Logo prize winners for February were: D Hopf of The Palms, J Kelly of Deception Bay, P Cauchi of Kepnock, M Goodwin of Cardwell, K Martin of Dalby, J Hermann of Pacific Heights, P Davidson of Guyra, J Ryan of Yeppoon, S Davies of Emerald, C Couper of Chinchilla, B Barratt of Bucca, C, S & Z

Answer: APRIL 2020

WHAT’S NEW FISHING

PRODUCT GUIDE

DELUXE ZMAN BAIT 1 BINDERS

ZEREK INFINITY BLADE

ZMan soft plastics are best stored in their original packets, and the new TT Deluxe ZMan Bait Binders feature extra heavy-duty rings designed to fit the pre-punched, reinforced holes located in the bottom corners of ZMan packets. Other features include larger, heavy duty zips, carry handle, water resistant, durable material and an internal pocket for storing a jighead tray, leader and snips. Deluxe Bait Binders are available in a Small (single) version that holds approximately 10 packets of ZMan 3” MinnowZ (more packets in less bulky models), and a Large (double) version that is designed to hold around 20 packets of ZMan 3” MinnowZ (more packets in less bulky models). By clipping your ZMan packets straight into the binder, there is no need for clear plastic sleeves to hold the packets and take up space in the binder. It’s also quicker and easier to access plastics and there is no need to remove the plastics from the binder, where they can then be misplaced or blown into the water. Price: SRP $19.95-$39.95 www.tackletactics.com.au

The Zerek Infinity Blade spinnerbait redefines spinnerbait design by providing an extra blade under the chin of the head weight. This addition gives the lure extra attraction through the water, while maintaining the standard spinnerbait benefits of snag resistance, excellent fish appeal and ease of use. Weighing an easy-to-cast 28g and available in 10 fish-catching colours and two blade configurations, the Infinity Blade features silicone skirts, durable hardware and strong hooks. Smart anglers have been adding trailer plastics and stinger hooks, making these lures deadly weapons in the water. During testing, Australian bass and Murray cod found this spinnerbait to be very appealing, and with an affordable price tag, this lure will be a great addition to your tackle trays. www.wilsonfishing.com

NEW EUREKA OCTANE JIG SIZE

In response to angler demand, Eureka Lures Australia has released a new 100g size in its popular range of Octane Jigs. The Eureka Octane Jigs are a realistic squid/octopus imitation designed for slowpitch jigging that have exceptional realism and a tantalising action. Each lure features a solid ring with quality Dacron running to twin assist hooks that feature ultrasharp points that have the fish hooking themselves. Most of the jigs also feature a highly luminous body for added attraction. Eureka Octane Jigs are available in six realistic colours. To find out more on the Eureka lure range, visit the Juro Fishing website. www.jurofishing.com

DAIWA 20 LUVIAS

Made in Japan and featuring Daiwa’s LT Concept, Infinite Anti-Reverse, Silent Oscillation, Air Rotor and CRBB bearings, the 20 Luvias is the lightest, strongest, and most refined Luvias that Daiwa has ever produced. The single-piece Zaion Monocoque (MQ) body not only makes the 20 Luvias lighter, but also improves the strength and size of the drive gear. The new larger main gear is forged and meticulously machined using the Tough Digigear concept, which improves strength and creates an effortless rotation. The MQ screw-in engine plate applies 360° pressure to the main gear to achieve perfect gear alignment and meshing. The result is flawless smoothness, today, tomorrow and long into the future. Finesse perfection continues with Air Rotor providing ultimate rotational balance and rigidity, while a new Longcast-ABS spool increases casting distance and line performance on and off the spool. The 20 Luvias finesse drag is the greatest that Luvias has ever had to offer, with Daiwa’s ATD providing flawless, silky smooth drag control even with the lightest of lines. www.daiwafishing.com.au 74

APRIL 2020

SHIMANO SALTIE

The new Shimano Saltie rod series has been designed and developed for Australia’s northern species. Built tough, the Saltie range includes two spin and four baitcast models with varying actions to suit a range of lure fishing styles. Traditional 5’8” and 6’ baitcast rods popular for barramundi are complemented by longer 6’4” and 7’ models, designed for casting large soft plastics and swimbaits. Saltie blanks are made with Shimano’s TC4 layered graphite construction, which is highly durable and enables great lure action and control. The TC4 construction also reduces rod twist, increases sensitivity and feel, and offers impressive power and fighting performance in a lightweight package. The Saltie range features a durable matte green finish, custom shaped premium grade cork grips and Fuji K guides with Alconite inserts. A larger diameter guide train has also been used to accommodate the use of thick leader, which is often required to wrestle big fish out of structure. Price: SRP $329.95 www.shimanofish.com.au

SAMAKI PACEMAKER

BROUGHT BROUGHT TO TO YOU YOU BY BY

5 6

The Samaki Pacemaker range has been boosted with three new colour concepts and a wicked upgrade. The sleek design has been tweaked and fine tuned to allow you to troll faster with a wider trolling spectrum to attract a variety of species. The new yakka, redbait and coral trout colours let you target new species and matching the hatch with precision, and the slimey mackerel colour has had a valuable upgrade with enhanced detail and chartreuse hints on the underbelly. Each colour has UV attributes to aid in enticing the bite. Pacemaker has an ideal trolling speed of 6 knots for you to target most pelagics, but can be trolled at up to 15 knots. It comes in 140mm and 180mm sizes, with a deep and double deep diving depth allowing you to target species from 2-10m. Other features include a 1-piece stainless welded wire, heavy-duty split rings and VMC 3X Perma steel hooks, realistic fish eye and prism tape inserts. www.samaki.com.au

visit www.tacklejunkie.fish for the latest tackle news - AS IT HAPPENS!

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PRODUCT GUIDE

WHAT’S NEW FISHING

BROUGHT BROUGHT TO TO YOU YOU BY BY

SHIMANO BEASTMASTER 9000 7 The new Beastmaster 9000A electric reel possesses superior power, speed and durability. The Beastmaster utilises the upgraded brushless Giga-Max Motor that offers 10% more deadweight winding power than the previous model, taking it to 19kg from 17kg, and has 25kg of Cross Carbon Drag output. Regardless of the load applied to the reel, the Constant Speed Mode maintains a consistent retrieve speed without loss of cranking power during the fight. Meanwhile, the Heat-Free system allows for heat to be released from vents in the side plate, ensuring reliable performance. To reach the significant depth required, the reel can be spooled with up to 900m of PE8 braid. The new Beastmaster also features an aluminium cold-forged clutch lever and a sharp LCD screen with an easy to operate English menu. The Beastmaster is backed by Shimano’s 10-year warranty and is ready to lift monsters from the deep. Price: SRP $2269.95 www.shimanofish.com.au

NEW 3” DEUS COLOURS

The BIWAA Deus 3” paddle-tail now comes in four new colours. These soft finesse swimbaits are tailored for a wide range of techniques at any retrieval speed, and are ideal for trailers on skirted jigs, or rigged on a jighead for bream and bass. The Deus is injection-moulded using two different densities of plastic. The bottom half contains a denser, heavier salt formulation which allows the Deus to keep a balanced keel, even while rigged weightless. The ventral and dorsal hook slots create a perfect weedless presentation, and a prepositioned hole lets you add nail weights, while not compromising the action. A shrimp based, water-soluble scent is infused into the body and on the outside. It creates a strong scent trail, activating aggressive feeding behaviour. Meticulous attention to detail provides a big advantage in clear water, with a lifelike scale pattern. The tapered speartail design works at any speed, imitating a distressed fish. www.ejtodd.com.au

WILSON LURE WALLETS

Wilson’s upgraded Lure Wallets are available in two sizes, large and small. Featuring a clear swatch to allow you to see what’s inside, these lure wallets are exceptionally functional, allowing anglers to store plastics and spinnerbaits in a convenient and easy to manage way. The Large Lure Wallet is ideal for larger spinnerbaits and 7-9” soft plastics. It features eight zip-lock sleeves that are held in place by three stainless steel rings. The Small Lure Wallet is perfect for 5” and smaller plastics, as well as spinnerbaits up to about 1oz in weight. This wallet features 10 sleeves and a two stainless steel rings. Both wallets are double zippered with easy-pull zipper tabs, and feature a sturdy carry handle to make them easy to transport from home to the boat. www.wilsonfishing.com

CHASEBAITS RIPPLE 10 CICADA

The Chasebaits Ripple Cicada has been designed for Australian Freshwater natives like bass, saratoga, jungle perch and sooty grunter. Whether you are fishing in creeks, dams or lakes, the Ripple Cicada is a great option, especially in cicada season. The 43mm, 6g Ripple Cicada has a soft hollow body that feels lifelike to the fish. It sounds just like a cicada hitting the water, and the fast-acting crawling wings kick into gear almost instantly. Other features include ultra-sharp BKK trebles, robust wing structure, flexible wings and seven colours that will suit all conditions. The best way to use the Ripple Cicada is to let it land and sit for roughly 20 seconds, allowing the ripples to spread out, and then begin a steady slow wind or short, sharp twitches. For more information on the Ripple Cicada or other lures in the Chasebaits range, visit the Chasebaits Australia website. www.chasebaits.com.au

SAMAKI C-12 V3

NOMAD MADMACS

The new Samaki C-12 V3 is the lightest C-12 range of rods ever! The new 40-tonne prepreg blanks deliver the ultimate in strength, casting distance and power. The cork grips are perfectly tapered, and the ultra-light Fuji K and LKW silicon guides enhance the lightweight sensation. This premium rod series includes both spin and baitcast models. The 7’, 3-8lb model has a fast, crisp tip for casting small hardbodies, with a softer belly section to maximize hook-up rates and land big fish on small trebles. The 7’ light 4-8lb is perfect in the estuary for throwing plastics and vibes, with plenty of grunt to land juvenile mulloway. The 7’ medium 6-12lb is a crossover model targeting heavier estuary applications using large vibes, or light inshore snapper fishing. You can use the 7’ medium heavy 10-17lb for jacks and barra on soft plastics, or the 7’ heavy 10-20lb for dam barra, large snapper or chucking slugs at pelagics . In the baitcast range there’s a 6’8” 6-12lb rod for throwing spinnerbaits and hardbodies for freshwater species, a 6’8” medium model designed for football jigs or light barra, a 6’ traditional barra baitcaster, a 7’ medium for chucking vibes at barra, and a 6’8” heavy brute stick for dam barra. www.samaki.com.au

The new Nomad Madmacs range of super high speed trolling lures comes in 3 sizes – 6”, 8” and 10”. Developed specifically for trolling at high speeds, the 6” and 8” are capable of a max speed of 20 knots with the 10” rated at 15 knots. The Madmacs can also be trolled as slow as 5 knots and has an enticing vibrating action even at very low speeds due to the Nomad Autotune system. This feature allows the Madmac to always troll straight and to run perfectly and with an amazing action at a huge range of speeds. The Madmacs run at a depth of around 8-15ft when trolled at slower speeds, and around 3-4ft when trolled super fast. Featuring a machine-stamped stainless steel plate and full body foam core construction, this is one of the toughest lures available. Fitted with super strong BKK hooks and heavy-duty split rings, the Madmacs is ready for battle. Nomad recommends trolling it in the spread with a DTX Minnow to cover the whole water column. www.nomadtackle.com.au

Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au APRIL 2020

WHAT’S NEW FISHING RAPALA X-RAP HAKU

PLATYPUS HARD 13 ARMOUR LEADER

The all-new Rapala X-Rap Haku features Rapala’s 3R System Titanium Release Rig with VMC Coastal Black hooks. The 3R System, when clipped into place under the belly of the Haku, rests snugly in the lure’s belly groove out of the way and protected from weeds and other obstacles. At hook-set, the hook rig will partially release from the body, allowing a direct contact to the fish, from line to hook, removing the lure from the fish’s mouth which helps to reduce leverage that could allow the fish to break free. The 3R System also makes it easier to unhook the fish, as the body of the lure no longer gets in the way. Varied actions can be achieved by either twitching the rod or by imparting a stopand-go retrieve with your reel. Twitching the rod will create a faster turning side-to-side action, while a stop-and-go retrieve allows for a longer, gliding presentation. A fast burn in between the stops will send the Haku fleeing from predators, mimicking a frantic baitfish trying to escape. The durable rig is built with 100lb titanium wire and features a solid connector ring, heavy-duty split rings and premium VMC Coastal Black round bend trebles. www.rapala.com

SKITTER POP AND SKITTER V

With its unique loud popping, cupped plastic lip and balsa wood body, the Rapala Skitter Pop can be popped, blooped, walked and skittered across any aquatic surface with ease. Rapala has now expanded the colour range with the addition of two new patterns (TGS and THB), bringing the total number of colours to 9. Rapala has also released a new size in the Skitter V stickbait – a 13cm version, which joins the popular 10cm model. This topwater lure features an exclusive design that radically alters its action. V-Rap Technology combined with tail-weighed balance allows the lure to turn sharply with a snap of the rod, ending with a soft, long glide on slack line. Boasting excellent attention to detail, the Rapala Skitter V features a translucent body, 3-D holographic eyes, and a premium finish. The 13cm model is available in six colours, and the 10cm version comes in seven colours. www.rapala.com

LUMICA CHAP ON FLOATS

APRIL 2020

BROUGHT TO TO YOU YOU BY BY BROUGHT

Platypus Hard Armour mono leader is Australian made, has increased knot strength and up to 20% more strength and abrasion resistance than its competitors. It’s all thanks to intensive product development and testing to create a product that is worthy of Australia’s only fishing line manufacturer, which has been producing line for over 120 years. Manufactured from premium Japanese copolymers, Hard Armour has superior levels of clarity, controlled stretch for shock absorption and outstanding knot and crimp strength. It is available in both Tough (the ultimate abrasion resistance when extracting fish from cover), and Supple (increased sensitivity and action while still maintaining extreme abrasion resistance). To avoid frustration with spool management and locating the tag end, there’s a Line Tamer for leader control, spool management and simple leader dispensing. Supple leader is available in breaking strains from 20-100lb, and Tough comes in 20-15-lb breaking strains. Price: SRP: $19.90 www.fishplatypus.com.au

DAIWA 20 SALTIGA

Made in Japan and featuring Daiwa’s most advanced technologies, the 20 Saltiga is the ultimate saltwater spinning reel. The new single-piece Monocoque body is machined from high-strength aluminium to provide superior strength and improved sealing. A new G1 Drive Gear is thicker and larger with a newly designed Tough Digigear concept of larger and deeper cut teeth, providing increased strength. Drag pressures have been increased to an impressive 25/30kg, with 10 times the drag durability compared to the 15 Saltiga. All that pressure generates heat, and a newly designed aluminium Radiation Drag Knob delivers improved cooling and heat dissipation. The new ABS Longcast lip design offers improved casting performance and enhanced line management, while a brand-new aluminium Air Rotor delivers more than double the rigidity of its predecessor. Protection from the elements has been elevated with a new screwless rear cover, a reduction in spool porting and a unique underside lip in the spool design, all combining to reduce water intrusion. www.daiwafishing.com.au

15 16

TIEMCO LONESOME 18 15 SWEEPER

Lumica Japan, inventors of the chemical light stick, have now developed a high quality range of LED floats for anglers targeting fish at night and in low light conditions. Lumica Chap On Floats are running floats that are available in both green and red and are visible for 100m. They measure 37.5mm x 29mm and weigh 12.5g. Chap On Floats are water activated and come with 2 x LR41 batteries. These floats are ideal for anglers fishing for trout and garfish at night time. To see more information and videos of the Lumica range of LEDs, chemical lights, deep sea lights and soft plastic squid, visit the Juro Fishing website. www.jurofishing.com 76

PRODUCT GUIDE

EJ Todd, the Australian distributor of Tiemco, has expanded the colour range of the popular Lonesome Sweeper surface lure, bringing the total number of colours to six. The 75mm Lonesome Sweeper is a popular topwater lure for tournament bream anglers. It is rigged with feather trebles, has a neon fibre tail and a jointed body to produce a tantalising yet subtle commotion on the surface that bream, whiting and bass find attractive. This subtle little lure is ideal for targeting spooky fish that are feeding just below the surface. Fished on a twitch and long pause retrieve, the Lonesome Sweeper is very effective for a range of species in both fresh and saltwater. www.ejtodd.com.au

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PRODUCT GUIDE

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WHAT’S NEW FISHING

Newly released Hurricane Lures Sprat 65 and 75 Hurricane Lures is the brainchild of Peter Nord, a super keen angler from East Gippsland in Victoria. Peter has been producing lures since 2006, releasing his newest offerings in late 2019, the Sprat 65 and Sprat 75. Both are small profile plastics, with the 65 being a paddle-tail format and the 75 a jerkbait-style plastic.

aware of with plastics made of this type of material is that they do not play well with others. Mix these plastics with other plastics and you’ll end up with a tackle tray full of unusable mess. The manufacturer recommends keeping the plastics in their original packets and in the plastic sleeves they come in, to ensure they will keep their shape and stay in pristine condition.

The Hurricane Sprat 65 and 75 are classic paddle-tail and jerkshad profiles. WHAT THEY HAVE IN COMMON Both models are made of a FlexiTech 8X tough material. This material makes the plastics very durable, super stretchy and very supple. The advantages this has for the angler are that multiple fish can be caught with just one plastic; you may not even have to change your plastic in a day’s fishing.

The Sprat 65 was perfect to fish the shallow sand pockets and depth changes of the sand flats in Yamba. I was impressed by the suppleness and softness of these plastics. They are very soft to touch, which equates to a natural feel for any predator eating it. Even better, the suppleness maximises the lure’s action, and this is particularly evident in the Sprat 65. The paddletail really rocks and rolls with minimal movement, and it even gets some body roll as well. Both plastics also have a hook penetration guide along the top of them. This helps you keep the hook nice and straight when you’re rigging them, while giving an indicator of where the hook needs to protrude from the lure. Something else you need to be

COLOURS From the moment I opened the parcel of plastics in the office, I loved the colour range that’s available in both the Sprat 65 and 75. Each model comes in six colours, with three colours standard in each and three unique colours to each shape. I had no doubt that all of them would catch fish. The colours are heavily baitfish orientated, and I like the fact that a number of the colours are two-tone and some are also UV enhanced. If you are looking to match the hatch, there is bound to be a colour that is suitable. FIRST IMPRESSIONS The shapes are not unique, but are a clever twist on these styles of plastics. The key is the profiles, which lend themselves to targeting multiple species in our estuary systems. They are subtle enough to finesse fish with if you are targeting bream or estuary perch, while also having a presence if flathead or other reaction type feeders are your preferred targets. Rigging the plastics is also easy. The guide helps you rig them straight, and the relative softness of the FlexiTech material makes getting a hook through it easy. IN THE FIELD My first opportunity to test the two Hurricane Sprat lures was in Yamba, NSW. Yamba is an amazing fishery at the mouth of the Clarence River. It offers all sorts of fishing opportunities for all of our estuary favourites, and that certainly proved to be the case over the Christmas period. My first challenge was fishing the middle wall, in hopes of picking up a mulloway or one of the big flathead that the area is known for. I chose the Sprat 75 because it was slightly larger. I wasn’t sure whether the mulloway or flathead were there because the tailor were in huge numbers right along the wall and nabbed the Sprat pretty much every time one hit the water. It may not have been the test for the lure that I envisaged, but it did show the value of an 8X Strong FlexiTech soft plastic. Tailor are savage on terminal tackle, so any time you land multiple fish on one lure and it doesn’t get destroyed it is a bonus. I left the fish biting because there are only so many 25cm tailor that you want to catch. Once the wall experiment was over it was back to the areas and type of fishing that I love: large sand flats and undulations, which Yamba has an abundance of. It is very visual fishing (you are focusing on fish in 2-3ft of water) and the profile and size of the Hurricane Sprat lures lends itself to this.

Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au

The Hurricane Sprat 65 and 75 are a great baitfish profile, which means the species you can target with them is only limited by your imagination. Once I started fishing these areas I was met with instant and consistent success. I was targeting sand patches in weed and subtle depth changes – areas where bream and flathead love to ambush their prey – and the Sprats matched the hatch beautifully. The small tailor were quickly forgotten as predominantly flathead consistently found their way into the net. I caught fish on every colour in both sizes, which is a great testament for the colours that are available. FINAL OBSERVATIONS Four months down the track and my initial thoughts still stand true: the colours,

The Sprat 75 is available in six colours, all of which have plenty of fish-catching potential.

profile and the suppleness of the plastics makes the Hurricane Sprat soft plastics very effective lures. However, there are a couple of things to keep in mind to get the most out of your Hurricane Sprat purchase. First of all, due to how supple these plastics are, your choice of jighead is very important. Although the Sprats can be rigged on a standard jighead, it doesn’t take long before the plastic will consistently slip off the grub keeper. Hurricane produces a jighead range that has a wire keeper that is very effective in this scenario, but there are a number of other products to choose from that will do the job just as well. My solution was a dab of quality super glue on the grub keeper (not on the head) of my jighead, and it was sorted. You should also definitely take heed of keeping these FlexiTech plastics separate from other types of soft plastic, and I have also taken to unrigging my Sprats after using them and putting them back into the sleeves provided. It maintains their shape and lets me use them multiple times. You can check out the full range of Hurricane Lures at www.hurricanelures. com, and the site also has some helpful tips and stockist locations. These lures are well worth a look. - Peter Jung

Plenty of flathead hit the net while the author was testing the Hurricane Sprat 65 and 75 in the Clarence River. APRIL 2020

Biosonics surveys go prime time

SUNTAG

Stefan Sawynok

February was a huge month for Infofish survey wise, with Lake Somerset, Lake Jindabyne and the Maroochy River on the list for surveys. All up, that’s over 200km of transects, 40km2 of area surveyed, and if you like really big numbers, 451 million cubic metres of water sampled. This month the objective was to take two years of preparation and development and put it all into practice on the water. There were a lot of changes from the addition of a new rig on the water, to new views on the data and a

a long while ago, so pretty much every survey we have done in the past 12 months can be re-run with the latest processing to answer more questions for the client. A QUICK INTRO TO THE BIOSONICS SURVEY Our Biosonics unit is a scientific echosounder – 200kHz, the same frequency that most downscan echosounders operate at. The unit is a split beam unit that produces a cone of sound with an array of receivers that provide pinpointing of objects in the beam. Biosonics transducers come in a range of frequencies 38kHz, 70kHz, 120kHz, 200kHz and 420kHz and up to four transducers can be attached to a single survey unit. We are aiming to add 120kHz and 420kHz

Scientific echosounders have a greater range. The 38kHz unit for example can punch up to 4km in freshwater and over 1km in salt. Our 200kHz unit can hit over 200m+ in freshwater and 200m in salt. Biosonics units can operate at an angle from vertical to horizontal, which allows us to survey the water column from the side and cover much larger areas. Scientific echosounders can detect the size of the fish in the beam. All up, that makes scientific echosounders an ideal tool for surveying very large areas of water for fish. All the same, even with all those advantages there have been serious challenges to overcome in order to get the results.

Aaron Dunlop (front) and Jimmy Reid (left back) taking Brisbane Valley Anglers member Steve Gaudron out on the water to see the biosonics survey in action. technologies are giving fishers an edge and there is quite a lively debate among fishers on whether they are a good thing or not. Unfortunately while both technologies are good at finding fish in a small area, they don’t scale well for larger surveys. As things stand, nets, electrofishers, divers and cameras in good conditions remain the main survey techniques. With the exception of cameras, each

of these techniques has issues when it comes to impact on fish or risks to humans. Biosonics surveys are for the most part relatively low risk, as no fish are sampled and nobody has to enter the water. The equipment can be set up before entering the water and removed off the water. In our case, the survey lines are parallel and start at the same end, so when we finish off a transect we have to shoot on back to

water column from the side is that there is no bottom – which has been one of the certainties of echosounders since their earliest design. This leads to the second challenge – while there is no bottom, there are sides where the beam hits the bottom. In our earliest surveys this presented real problems, as when the beam hits the bottom side-on it makes a mess of the echogram and it’s often impossible to see fish.

Aaron’s latest bracket makes working with the transducer easier and safer on the water. new way to deliver data direct to the client and even the survey team on the water. For the past 18 months, most of our Biosonics technology has been a work in progress; not so much on finding fish but almost every time we were out on survey, clients would ask bigger questions once they saw the data, which increased the amount of processing we needed to do. More than once I had to scrap our processing system and start again, as we either ran into performance issues or new requests that went past the design capabilities of the processing engine. Finally though, we have a good baseline that keeps the team on the water and allows the back room team to make improvements. The good part about our processing system is that by and large we worked out the baseline dataset we needed 78

APRIL 2020

A SAFER APPROACH TO LOOKING FOR FISH Hardly a day goes by at fishing events we attend, particularly inland, where the conversation doesn’t turn to technologies like the Humminbird 360 and Garmin Livescope. There is no doubt that these

Reviewing sidescan images.

Individual fish mapped out at Lake Jindabyne.

the beginning. That requires taking the transducer out of the water and doing that 30 times a day is harder than you might imagine. Our transducer is around 15kg in weight, add to that the mounting and you have an awkward time lifting then replacing the transducer. Aaron has recently added an additional innovation: a pivot so the transducer can be easily stowed for travel between transects or to get out of windy conditions. ACCOUNTING FOR HABITAT The big challenge that comes with surveying the

transducers in the next year to add a mix of greater range and resolution to allow more flexibility in how we survey. There are three key differences between Biosonics Scientific Transducers and the consumer transducers on most vessels – besides costs.

Our early solution to this problem was to create a false bottom by drawing a line on the echogram before the bottom noise kicks in and only keeping the echos in clear water, but that often left us with a tiny amount of data. Our current solution is to take a second set of data, bathymetry recorded on a conventional echosounder. While this often extends the time required to complete a survey, it gave us a map of the bottom to refer to in processing. As a second measure we started recording sidescan, giving a view of the

environment and allowing us to identify things like wood elements. We are targeting 10,000 pieces of wood this year so that we can train new machine learning models to improve our ability to pick out wood directly from the biosonics data. SEDIMENT TYPING One of the advantages of adding the bathymetry survey is we can sample the

Taking that process one step further, if we have a higher sampling rate we can pick up unexpected variations on the bottom, such as fish that live on the bottom, crabs or shellfish where we go specifically looking for difference to the background. This technique has been used widely with a vertical beam, but we are the first globally to be using an angled beam

processed and it can typically cover depths to a few metres. We can cover around 25km per day, and at 200m range we can reach depths of 20-25m with the full width of the beam. That coverage has allowed us to develop an optimal survey pattern of parallel lines spaced 200m apart in depths >10m and 100m apart for <10m. That kind of pattern

Example echogram with lots of bottom noise.

Sediment typing at Lake Burrendong. Brown = clay, yellow = sand, red = gravel, black = rock, and green = wood. bottom deliberately if we need to. All that noisy data that causes problems in the echogram actually turns out to be quite useful. There are good reasons to go looking at the bottom: the biosonics unit is very efficient at covering a wide territory and sediment type is a key piece of information when it comes to assessing the environment fish live in. For example, in a survey in Burrendong Dam we found carp were more often detected around hard gravelly/rocky bottoms than soft clay bottom, which was counterintuitive to what I had expected.

to cover a larger area. REDUCING SURVEY COSTS One of the key objectives of the biosonics survey process is to reduce the costs of collecting high resolution fish data and that was the focus of new survey patterns developed for the month on the water. In this case we had two big impoundments, Lake Somerset followed by Lake Jindabyne, and anyone who has done social mapping will tell you that is a crazy area to do. The typical alternative – electrofishing can cover 10-15km per day depending on how many fish have to be

Fish, direction of movement lines and sidescan.

allows us to cover large areas, in the case of Lake Somerset 17.7 square kilometres in four days, and Jindabyne 24 square kilometres in a bit over five days. That is a significantly larger sample that can be achieved with any conventional means and constitutes the two largest samples generated anywhere in the world to date. In fact, over the past six months we have reset the record for the largest area surveyed in the world five times. LOOKING FOR SHARKS Sharks are an interesting critter to go looking for, with their lack of the hard skeletons of fish, but typically they have rough

skin and a large surface area. There are good reasons to want to be able to detect sharks via echosounder – from early warning to scientific study. There are shark and ray species that live on the bottom and in the next round of surveys we will be looking closely at free swimming and bottom dwelling sharks. We have reviewed work on tracking sharks via echosounder and we know it’s been done, but as with many things, sharks have been looked at in a ‘can we see them’ sense, not in a larger scale data capture sense. So at this point we will be starting from scratch, and Aaron is in his element

Sample survey pattern. when it comes to solving on the water fish survey issues. As we go, we regularly take time to assess new ways of using the biosonics to solve real world data capture problems. Sharks are just the latest, but I am heading to the US in June to meet with the manufacturer and I expect a lot more challenges to come in the next two years. NEW AND FASTER DELIVERY Crunching the biosonics data has always been a challenge, and the reality is that there are a lot of steps to the processing, from: • Generating the bathymetry • Cleaning up sidescan • Generating the actual datasets which include processing all signals, separating the fish, size

grading, calculating where they are (latitude, longitude, depth), and generating their movements • Generating all the sediment types • Assessing wood habitat In general we try to have data to the client within 24 hours of survey – which is a first draft that provides a snapshot in mapping form. Over time, we have narrowed it down to two key maps that are easy to assess and determine if anything needs to be adjusted in the survey: one that combines bathymetry, survey tracks, fish sizes and locations, and one that combines sidescan, fish locations and depth of the fish. Now that is a lot to do, so we have to be really efficient in sending data from the field as well as in minimising the handling. The other thing that we need to do is then get that to the client and here Mapbox has been a godsend. Mapbox is an online mapping delivery system that accepts a range of mapping data including raster data (important for sidescan). With Mapbox, we can upload the finished datasets and provide maps that are usable on desktop and mobile by the client and survey team. We still have work to do to automate that process, but all the feedback has been really positive – not least because it provides a map of where the fish are within 24 hours. THE FUTURE In the near future we will be able to deliver those rich datasets via apps. While we are still working out the best way/context to do that, it’s pretty exciting to pull together such a complex data collection process and make it simple to use and access. The bonus is once we have the delivery options streamlined, we can start to look at the next generation of technologies that will provide even more insights into what is happening under the water. Next month, I will do a data dive from a survey and highlight some of the questions we are answering and new questions raised by our survey teams. APRIL 2020

Trades, Services, Charter BOAT MODIFICATION & REPAIRS

BAIT & TACKLE Allfly Outfitters – 0428 615 885 Alvey - www.alvey.com.au Bait Tackle Store - www.baittacklestore.com Barambah Lures - www.barambahlures.com Bayside Bait & Tackle – 07 3820 9757 C & Horsey Lures - 07 3275 1881 Chilton Tackle Co - http://www.chiltontackleco.com.au/ Coomera Bait & Tackle - www.coomerahouseboats.com.au Crab’n Gear - www.crabngear.com.au Fisho’s Tackle World - www.fishostackleworld.com.au Gem Bait & Tackle - 07 3287 3868 Halco - www.halcotackle.com Hillies Lures – www.hilliesspinnersandlures.com Hot Bite Fishing – 0427335343 JML - www.jmlaa.com Lazer Lures – www.lazerlures.com.au Nomad Design Tackle – www.nomaddesigntackle.com Tackle Club - www.tackleclub.com.au Southern Cross Lures – 0428 667 550 Sportys Fishing - www.sportyswarehouse.com.au Wilson Fishing - www.wilsonfishing.com

ONLINE TACKLE PRODUCTS FG Wizz – www.fgwizz.com.au

Boat Collar (07) 5441 3636 CMC Marine Sales 0409 910 808 Iconic Boats Brisbane 0475 311 447 Marine Windows and Doors Brisbane (07) 3284 5088 Small Craft Electrics (mobile) 0408 063 064

MARINE MECHANICS

T&S Marine (07) 5546 2599

Brisbane Yamaha (07) 3888 1727

Coorparoo Marine (07) 3397 4141 Cunningham Marine Centre (07) 3284 8805

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FISHING GUIDES CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND Hooked On Hinchinbrook www.hookedonhinchinbrook.com

MARINE TRIMMERS

Reef Marine Mackay (07) 4957 3521

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND Affordable Boat Covers Gold Coast 0419 424 587 Brisbane Yamaha (07) 3888 1727 Rays Canvas & Marine Caboolture (07) 5499 4911 Rowland Street Boat Trimmers Springwood (07) 3208 9511

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• 600km2 of sheltered waterways on the Gold Coast Broadwater. • Fantastic Fishing • Tackle Shop • Bait and Ice

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BOAT MODIFICATION & REPAIRS

FIBREGLASS Brisbane South and Gold Coas t

0410 480 203

Salt-Away www.salt-away.com.au ASM Mobile Welding Brisbane 0409 624 402 Bluewater Windscreens Brisbane (07) 3382 7883

Fish Taxidermist www.fishtaxidermy.net.au or 0428 544 841

Lake Monduran Barra Charters 0407 434 446

www.fgwizz.com.au

• Modifications • Detailing • Repairs JOE BONNICI

FISH TAXIDERMY

Capalaba Boat Centre 04011 728 379

CHECK IT OUT ONLINE

Repairs

MARINE OUTBOARD WRECKERS

Caloundra Marine (07) 5491 1944

Stones Corner Marine (07) 3397 9766

+ 07 5502 6200 + www.coomerahouseboats.com.au

Tinnie Tosser (07) 5498 7339

SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND

allows braid tension adjustment

CALL FOR A DEAL

Spitfire Trailers (07) 0400 866 323T

North Queensland Outboard Wreckers Townsville 1800 812 748

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ORDERS

Sea-Link Special Trailers (07) 3881 3568

Whitewater Marine (07) 5532 4402

Northside Marine (07) 3265 8029

Ideal for braids and leaders large and small.

Oceanic Boat Trailers (07) 5597 0577

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND

GOLD COAST

Holt Marine (07) 3353 1928

GET THE ULTIMATE FG KNOT TOOL

MARINE TRAILERS

• All electric motor brands • Australia wide freight • Quick turn around • Authorised Minn Kota/Watersnake repairer Minn Repairs & Servicing Call Troy 0412 605 080 – W: minnrepairs.com minnrepairsservicing E: minnrepairs@gmail.com

The Islander Retreat, South Stradbroke Island 0420 967 557

FRASER ISLAND Apurla Island Retreat 0437 739 121 Cathedrals on Fraser (07) 4127 9177 Eurong Beach Resort 1800 111 808 Fraser Island Beach Houses 1800 626 230 Waddy Lodge on Fraser 0414 516 364 Yidney Rocks (07) 4127 9167

CENTRAL QUEENSLAND

MARINE MECHANICS // MOBILE WYNUMM MANLY-BAYSIDE Wondall Rd Marine (07) 3396 5633

SAMPLE AD - BUSINESS NAME This is where your copy will appear. You will have approximately 50 words within a 5x2 ad size. $320 + GST for 6 months Email nkelly@fishingmonthly.com.au

Baffle Creek Holiday House 0419 624 833

COOKTOWN River of Gold Motel 4069 5222

MACKAY BEL AIR MOTEL, MACKAY - PLENTY OF ROOM FOR BOATS AND TRAILERS.............PH: 07 4957 3658 FRESHWATER Lake Boondooma Caravan Park (07) 4168 9694 Lake Cressbrook Regional Council 131 872 Yallakool Caravan Park on Bjelke-Petersen Dam (07) 4168 4746 Yallakool Park and Kiosk on Bjelke-Petersen Dam (07) 4168 4746

This section in QLD Fishing Monthly consolidates the trades and services in your area that are relevant to your fishing and boating. Whether you’re a local looking for more options or a travelling angler fishing around the state, this guide will direct you to reputable businesses in the area you’re searching. 80

APRIL 2020

Boats & Guided Fishing Tours Directory CHARTER BOATS

NORTHERN NSW

N O W AVA IL A B L E

Evans Head Deep Sea Fishing Charters 0428 828 835

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Reel Time Fishing Charters Yamba 0428 231 962

BK’s Gold Coast Fishing Charters 0414 293 034 Coastal Sports Fishing Charters Gold Coast 0412 691 929 Discovery Fishing Charters Gold Coast 0427 026 519 Fish The Deep Charters 0416 224 412 Hooker 1 Charters Gold Coast (07) 5528 6469 Paradise Fishing Charters 0403 531 428 RU4 Reel Tweed Heads 0449 903 366 Sea Probe Fishing Charters 0400 312 330 True Blue Fishing Gold Coast (07) 5510 9622

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Wooli Fishing Charter (02) 6649 7100

CENTRAL QUEENSLAND Ultimate Sportfishing Charters 0450 753 726

From

T-Shirts

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22 85

Dave Gaden’s Yamba • Deep Sea

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BRISBANE Big Cat Charters and Tom Cat Charters 0433 430 248 Frenzy Charters Brisbane (07) 3209 4576 John Gooding Outlaw Charters 0418 738 750 Moreton Island Fishing Charters 0413 128 056

SAMPLE AD - BUSINESS NAME This is where your copy will appear. You will have approximately 50 words within a 5x2 ad size. $320 + GST for 6 months Email nkelly@fishingmonthly.com.au

• 6am to 2pm $150pp • 3 boats – holds up to 30+ people • All fishing gear and bait is supplied • No fishing licence req. • Pickup from Yamba Marina or Iluka ferry wharf

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• Chandlery • Boat Sales • Ice & Gas • Bait & Tackle • Trailers Sales & Parts • Charter Bookings Ph: 6646 1994 or 0428 231 962 Email: dave@gaden.com.au

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20 3 3

BORN AND BRED LOCAL GUIDE

Rainbow Beach Fishing Charters 0439 775 070

Get your very own Fishing Monthly shirt, carry bag, stubby cooler, or neck scarf...

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CENTRAL QUEENSLAND (Cont.) Bundaberg Fishing Charters 0429 017 217

MANY DESIGNS TO CHOOSE FROM ON A WIDE VARIETY OF PRODUCTS ALL MADE TO ORDER

Sport Fish 1770 (07) 4974 9686 Coral Coast Game Fishing 0447 347 437 Norval Reef Charters 1800 771 234 Iluka Fishing Charters Gladstone 0414 940 911 Kanimbla Charters Gladstone1800 677 202

TROPICAL NORTH QUEENSLAND Action Charters Mackay 0417 452 346 Cairns Charter Boat 0427 533 081 Cairns Fishing Charters 0427 400 027 Cairns Reef Charter Services 1800 119 044 Eclipse FNQ Weipa Charters 0488 058 668 Fairdinkum Fishing Charters Townsville (07) 4751 5324 Fish’s Fly & Sportsfishing Weipa (07) 4069 9957

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Fishing Charters Townsville 0403 386 722 JC’s Fishing Charters 0438 753 382 Roko Island Fishing Charters 0488 074 593

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Advertisers wanting to be involved in this directory can call (07) 3387 0834 or email nkelly@fishingmonthly.com.au APRIL 2020

WHAT’S NEW BOATING HUMMINBIRD MEGA 1 360 IMAGING

RIVIERA 505 SUV

With Humminbird MEGA 360 Imaging you’ll view fish and structure in a whole new way, with a scanning diameter of up to 250’ (76m) around your boat. The high-frequency beam of MEGA Imaging CHIRPs across the megahertz range reveals the world below in picturelike detail all the way around your boat. You can use it alongside multiple sonar and map technologies, and can also customize sweep speed, viewing area, display info, sonar zoom and colour palette. Range rings indicate the distance to the target, so you can cast directly to it, and mark the waypoint on your 360 Imaging screen. Humminbird MEGA Imaging is now built into select Minn Kota electric motors, for a crystal clear view with no cluttered wires or clamps, and a transducer that’s fully protected. Whether you’re trolling or using Spot-Lock, MEGA 360 Imaging is independently mounted, so your sonar picture remains unchanged as the trolling motor turns. To see underwater footage of structure vs how it appears on the MEGA 360 screen, look up ‘Fishing Monthly’ on YouTube. www.humminbird.com.au

When Riviera’s design team set out to create their newest addition to the SUV Collection, their objective was to make the best of both worlds even better. The result is the Riviera 505 SUV. The same pedigree of a single-level alfresco entertainer with bluewater ability but with the added dimension of the mezzanine: a dining and relaxing space offering privacy and protection from harsh sun and weather. The generous cockpit is low to the water to maximise action and adventure, whether you’re cruising or fishing on the reef. From bow to boarding platform, you’ll experience the handcrafted luxury and operational technology. There’s a full-beam master stateroom, private en suite and walk-in robe, and two guest staterooms with shared bathroom. Topping it off is the Volvo Penta Glass Cockpit navigation system and smooth and economical performance of twin Volvo Penta IPS turbo diesels with joystick control. www.rivieraaustralia.com

CHILL WITH BAR CRUSHER

The new Suzuki DF300B strikes the perfect balance between superior power and thrust, with excellent fuel-efficiency and reliability all in a lightweight design. It features Suzuki’s Dual Prop system – contra-rotating, 6-blade propeller design which provides blistering acceleration and extreme cornering grip. The proven 4.4L block gives tremendous torque, making it the largest displacement V6 on the market. It has been engineered to run on 91 RON fuel, features Suzuki’s Lean Burn technology and 10.5:1 compression ratio. The materials of the new DF300B gears are ultra-strong to withstand high loads, and provide additional strength and reliability. Not only does this configuration record high speeds under heavy loads, it also produces a strong reverse thrust, aiding in greater manoeuvrability. The Dual Louver System keeps the intake air free of moisture and close to ambient temperature for ultimate performance, and the dual injectors deliver both cooling and power. The new DF300B comes in either a 25” or 30” shaft length, can be paired with Suzuki’s Precision Control system, and is backed by a 3+3 year warranty. www.suzukimarine.com.au

Aussie boat builder Bar Crusher has expanded its range of seating options with a new side-mount bolster seat with integrated tackle storage and slide-out 90L icebox. The stylish matte black framework is constructed from heavy-duty 32mm alloy tubing and accommodates three easilyaccessible tackle trays, with hassle-free bungee cord retention (as per the standard tackle storage seat boxes). Along with offering cool storage for food, drinks, bait, fish, and general dry storage for all sorts of gear, the split-lid icebox also provides additional seating, similar to Bar Crusher’s larger king/queen seat boxes. The icebox can be slid forward (towards the bunk) to maximise cockpit fishing space, while a strap point helps secure the icebox when underway. Fitted as standard with a range of features many other boat brands charge as extras, this latest personalisation option is available on both skipper and passenger sides, and suits all cuddy cabin (C Series) and hard top (HT Series) models from the 575 through to the 780. Check out Bar Crusher’s online boat builder to personalise your fishing weapon. www.barcrusher.com.au

BOAT POWERED BY 3 SEAWATER Energy Observer is the first vessel in the world to both generate and be powered by hydrogen, and is designed to test the efficiency of combining different renewable energies. The boat produces and stores hydrogen using seawater, solar panels (21kW peak), wind turbines (2 x 1kW), a traction kite and electric motors (2 x 41kW) of hydrogenation, lithium battery (106kWh), desalinisator, electrolyser, compressor, fuel cell (22kW), and 62kg of hydrogen. Another innovative project under development is a ferry that uses both sun and wave energy to produce hydrogen for propulsion. As renewable technology becomes more efficient, and fuel prices continue to climb, who knows what the boating world might look like in the decades to come? www.energy-observer.org

APRIL 2020

SUZUKI LAUNCHES NEW DF300B

YANMAR 6LF SERIES

PRODUCT GUIDE

Yanmar has announced the release of the 6LF and 6LT series of diesel engines. This advanced six-model line-up extends Yanmar’s portfolio of common rail diesel engines to encompass an output range from 40hp to 630hp. Enabling Yanmar to supply more compact, high performance solutions, the 478hp to 630hp 6LF and 6LT engines are ideal for leisure boats. The two series, consisting of the 3000rpm 6LF485, 6LF530 and 6LF550 engines and 2530rpm 6LT500, 6LT580 and 6LT640 engines, feature Yanmar’s next generation VC20 vessel control system for enhanced onboard comfort and an easier overall boating experience. The global emission-certified diesel engines also offer leading fuel economy and are compatible with a wide range of fuel types. Available as a complete package including engine, ZF transmission and VC20 vessel control system, the 6LF and 6LT are supplied with a full range of options. The 6LF and 6LT series will be available from Q3 2020. www.yanmarmarine.com

5 Please email contributions to: nicole@fishingmonthly.com.au

6 SCAN THE QR CODE!

boats & kayaks

In the skipperâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s seat

Inside story...

Stacer have been making boats for over 40 years, and in that time have gained a reputation for building tough boats to suit Australian conditions. With over 70 models in the range, whether you are after a serious fishing rig, a family fun machine or a budget friendly tinny, Stacer has you covered.

Made for...

Stacer boats are designed to dominate all sorts of waterways. There are boats to suit offshore, in the bay and in freshwater fishing locations.

This month...

Editor Steve Morgan takes a ride in two different Stacer 519 Crossfire models. Check it out on page 92!

84 Taking the yak to Turkey Beach

Ron Hess takes a look at the kayak fishing opportunities in the Turkey Beach area near 1770!

86 The right yak for you

Justin Willmer explains some differences in kayaks and how to find the best one for your needs.

88 PFD knowledge

Wayne Kampe discusses the laws around PFDs, and why theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re important to have aboard.

90 Bar Crusher 615BR

Steve Morgan climbs aboard this ready-to-roll offshore rig, powered by a 150hp Suzuki 4-stroke!

APRIL 2020

Taking the yak to Turkey Beach BRISBANE

Ron Hess

Just 70km south of Gladstone lies the hidden kayaking fishing jewel of Turkey Beach. Whether you’re after mangrove jack, barramundi,

Insect repellent is a must, as the sand flies can pick you up and carry you away some days. When casting in towards the mangroves, be wary of the mangrove wasps and keep an eye open if you happen to get your lure stuck. There are many

out into Rodds Bay with deep channels and sandy banks on the shorelines. These shorelines hold good numbers of dusky and bartail flathead. It always pays to troll as you travel, as pelagic fish are always snooping around in the bluewater.

starting in the morning on the incoming tide to take advantage of the water pushing up into the estuaries. It’s a long haul up to the Eurimbula Bridge where you will be met by a barrage of rock across the river. There are also many other tributaries and branches of the main estuary to explore. It usually pays to have a variety of lures as it may take a while to work out what the fish want to feed on. Yakamito SXY Shads, Rapala X-Raps, Jack Deeps and Zerek Tango Shads are some of my hardbody lures of choice. When it comes to soft plastics, the Happy Rock Softies perform well in a weedless rig as they get down deep and excite barramundi and mangrove jack. Holt Productions Prawns and Z-Man 4” paddle-tails also create good action. As a hardbody tragic, I find that fishing lighter will yield more fish but you risk losing lures on the bigger fish. I generally fish 6lb braid with a 10-12lb leader on a 1-3 kg rod with a 1000 sized

Mangrove jack are a top target at Turkey Beach. flathead, grunter, queenies or threadfin, you can take your pick – this area offers up many different species throughout the year. There is a concrete boat ramp to launch if you trailer your kayak or you can launch from the beach, depending on the wind and tide. This is an area where you have to check the weather before setting out, as the open water can get very rough in a kayak when the wind blows up. White caps and metre swells are not uncommon when heading through the open water out from the boat ramp, so you should always be prepared with your equipment tethered and wearing a PFD. A PLB or marine radio is important, as in some areas there is no mobile phone coverage.

tributaries to choose from, so planning your trip is key. Camping is not allowed at Turkey Beach so you will either need to stay in Gladstone or one of the other nearby towns on the Bruce Highway. Otherwise you could stay at one of the many Airbnb houses available in Turkey Beach. You can access Eurimbula National Park estuaries via one of the many 4WD tracks and the National Park offers a few different areas to camp, so check out the national parks website for more information. It can also be accessed by the water, so if you are the adventurous type load your camping gear up on the kayak and make an overnight trip of it. If you turn left from the boat ramp, you’ll head

The author scored this barra from his yak. of dragging in a big fish and if a monster of the estuary latches onto you, you will

A pikey bream for you and your best mate!

sized reel attached with 15lb braid and 30lb leader, as this will stop most things in the estuaries. Use what you like and feel comfortable with. Some people like fishing heavy using 5-8kg and 6-10kg rods with 4000 series and bigger reels, with 11kg of drag towing 30-40lb braid and 50-80lb leader. Whatever gear you use, make sure it is in top condition, including leader and knots. If these are not up to scratch you will lose every time. Mangrove jack hit hard and fast and they will take you down into the oyster covered rocks and mangrove roots before you know it. There are many deep holes, rock ledges and mangroves that hold

If you turn right at the boat ramp, you’ll head up into Eurimbula National Park. This is best done

The boat ramp at Turkey Beach allows for easy launching.

Nathan Inwood pedals through the open water. 84

APRIL 2020

reel and have caught some good fish on this set-up, but you must be prepared to put your angling skills to the test. It’s not simply a case

most likely lose the battle. When I know the bigger fish are around or I am fishing unfamiliar areas, I tend to use a 2-4kg rod with a 2500

mangrove jack, barramundi and estuary cod. It certainly pays to have a sounder as there are many underwater rocky ledges that are not

visible on the mid to full tides, which is where fish wait for an unsuspecting bait to glide past. If you don’t have a sounder, you will most certainly miss out on a lot of opportunities to catch fish. When cruising the edges make sure you get your lure right up tight to the edge, as that’s where barramundi and mangrove jack are waiting for their prey. Ensure the drag is set right as you need to get them away from

structure as quick as you can, otherwise they will drive you straight into the snags or into a rock crevice. If this occurs, dial the drag back, let out some line and wait for a few minutes. Very rarely, they will come out and give you a second chance. Gold and black-spot cod are common by-catch in these areas. Sometimes they can be confused as mangrove jack because their initial strike can be hard and

fast, but you’ll soon work out what it is as they give up more quickly. These cod are a great fish to catch and offer a fine feed as well. The many sand flats offer up plenty of flathead. If you work the tides out, you can find some big flatties waiting to ambush a well-presented lure. Good flathead can be caught using 5lb braid and 6-8lb leader coupled to a 40-50mm shallow diver flicked along the edges of the

Grunter are one of the many species on offer at Turkey Beach.

The rocks at Eurimbula Bridge are one of the many areas you can explore.

sand flats where the water starts to drop away. The same method will also catch many of the typical estuary species like grunter, bream and whiting. Tagged fish are a common catch as Suntag has a big presence in Central Queensland. If you catch a tagged fish, whether you keep it for a feed or not please make sure you take the details of the tag down and report it via the phone number on the tag or via the

Suntag website. This helps Suntag to learn more about the fish in our waterways. You will receive a certificate for your effort with all the tagging information like where it was first tagged, where you caught it, distances travelled and growth rates. When you’re in Turkey Beach, be sure to stop in at the general store. These little communities rely on the tourist dollar to survive and a couple of bucks can go a long way if everyone

chips in. They might even be able to point you in the right direction for what is biting in the area. You need to be croc wise in Central Queensland. Crocodiles aren’t common or in big numbers but they do venture into these areas. The best advice I can give you is not to fillet fish near the launch areas and if you see one, steer well clear. Read the local papers or head to the DES website as they often update the crocodile sightings. A D V E R T O R I A L

AND THE

SUPERTANK

- livin’ the dream! The ‘dream’ began around 18 years ago. I was running a small stand at the Melbourne 4x4 & Fishing Show when I first saw the Supertank. Being a lifelong angler and a professional demonstrator, I was immediately struck by this amazing tool for fishing demonstrations. The fisherman running demonstrations on the Supertank that day was Brett Thomson, an Australian Bass Tournament champion. When he’d finished his presentation, I approached Brett and discussed the idea of working together as a team. I suggested that with me working with the crowd down on the ground while he cast lures into the tank from the upper platform, showing the lure action and how the fish react to them, we could achieve big things together. And so began our

partnership, and a path to an extraordinary life travelling the country to demonstrate lures and fish. MORE THAN I THOUGHT We decided a new rig was in order to begin our adventure. Like all new projects, we completely underestimated the cost and our humble $40,000 budget turned into a huge $150,000! Nevertheless, we were delighted with the end product and knew the fishing industry would love it too! And they did! Despite hitting a few set backs, it didn’t take long for leading brands to understand the value of this tool. Sponsors included Yamaha Outboards, Kokoda lures, Platypus line, Mako sunglasses, Frogleys Agencies and Gamakatsu Hooks. FIRST SHOW The first show we presented was at the Bundaberg Field Day, and we were only barely ready.

We had the tank completed, but no boat. Brett had to stand on the truck to cast into the tank. Things have progressed a long way since then! We endured some tough times during the first 12 months, learning how to approach shows and events and how to charge for our time, travel costs and all the other expenses associated with carting a massive tank across the countryside. The small shop we ran in front of the tank between shows helped enormously; from which we sold some of the lures we’d demonstrated. Back then, soft-plastics were brand new and with Thomson the pied piper up on top of the tank, the fish nearly always bit – which is a very convincing argument to buy the lures we were selling. DEMONSTRATIONS It was Brett’s idea to make our shows a demonstration of different types of lures. With fish in the

tank, we could clearly show the audience a view they had never seen before – showing not only how different types of lures work underwater, but also how the fish react to them. Brett showed retrieve styles that triggered strikes – which the audience loved! At shows we often cross paths with some of the best anglers in Australia. They loved to come and watch a particular retrieve and the way the fish react it, or to see a twitch or variation in lure speed. There’s always something to learn, even from the best! INSPIRED LEARNING The idea of the Supertank is, and always has been, about educating the beginner and intermediate angler in the art of using lures. But as anyone who knows us will tell you, we’re really just a couple of blokes having a good time doing what we love and getting paid for it. Livin’ the dream doesn’t get any better than that!

In our travels we have had the pleasure of working and learning from some of the best anglers in Australia. WE NEED ANOTHER TANK! From humble beginnings, the work started to roll in. It was time to buy a second tank. For the next 10 years we were inundated with work. We were being paid to travel all over Australia, from Darwin to Port Lincoln, and everywhere east of that line. At that stage we were doing over 70 shows and events a year, and were still knocking back work because we were triple-booked. I honestly thought the dream would last forever, but then Brett was struck by an out-of-control car while walking along a footpath. Fortunately he saw it coming and jumped up a split second before he would have gone under the car. However, he spent several weeks in hospital and it was more

than 18 months before he’d recovered enough to take on another show. LIKE TO CARRY THE TORCH? This year I’m booked for around 27 shows so far, including most of the major BIA Boat Shows, the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show, 12 caravan and camping shows, numerous agricultural shows, plus Big Boys Toys shows and several field days – with more to come later in the year. I’ll be 68 this year so I’ve decided it’s time to slow down a little. I would love to find someone with the passion and work ethic to carry on the business with our two tanks, two trucks and some great sponsors. If you want to start livin’ the dream please contact me for further information on 0404 141 883 or email cookiesupertank1@gmail. com. – Cookie APRIL 2020

Choosing the perfect kayak for your needs BRISBANE

Justin Willmer Find me on Facebook at Yaks On

Kayak fishing has only grown in popularity! It’s inexpensive, allows you to launch almost anywhere and access new locations, can be relaxing or adrenaline filled, provides the advantage of stealth, has a low carbon

may be a little extreme, but I know many anglers that have two different kayaks in the garage for different applications. If 95% of your fishing is skinny water creek bashing, then purchase a kayak to suit that application. Similarly, if it’s offshore or estuary fishing, this will require different kayaks. Once you decide on your type of fishing, you can

getting into kayak fishing. SIT INSIDE OR SIT ON TOP For many, the first decision is between a sit-on-top or sit-inside. A sit on top is by far the most popular kayak style for fishing as there are many options available, they are inexpensive, easy to get in and out of, feature selfdraining scupper holes so as not to hold water like

A sit-inside kayak is still a good option for smoother waters and skinny water adventures.

This sit-inside kayak was excellent for targeting barra in a small impoundment, as you’re lower to the water so you catch less wind. footprint and offers a level of exercise, often without even realising it. Probably the most common question that I get asked from anglers both new and old to kayak fishing is ‘what is the best kayak for fishing?’ The short answer is the one that best suits your needs, so I’m going to explore the features and benefits, pros and cons, and applications for different kayak types. APPLICATION The first consideration when selecting a kayak for fishing is the application that you have in mind for the kayak. One single kayak will not be the best solution for offshore fishing, bush bashing the creeks, estuary fishing and the many other applications that anglers may have in mind, so it’s important to decide what type of fishing you want to focus on. My passion for kayak fishing has seen up to half a dozen different kayaks in the shed at times, which

APRIL 2020

kayak to keep water out. CAPACITY Most adult kayaks will have a capacity rating from around 80kg up to hundreds of kilograms. It’s

estuary fishing. If I wanted to carry more gear for kayak camping or extended fishing adventures, then I would be looking for a kayak with increased

If you’re fishing colder conditions further south, sit-inside kayaks will protect you from the elements better than a sit-on-top kayak.

Grey nomads geared up with their compact 280x85cm kayaks that are rated to 147kg capacity. start comparing models. Keep an eye out for kayak store demo days, borrow a kayak or even look at hiring a couple of kayaks to get a feel for what is out there and what you need. Kayak forums, magazines and the internet can also assist with your research. It is important to consider the limitations of you and your vessel when

A simple set-up is all you need to get started, however you need to consider the physical size and weight of the kayak, its capacity and your fishing applications. 86

Sit-inside kayaks are therefore preferred for backwater creek fishing where the kayak is often dragged, carried and frequently contacts vegetation and other structure, as well as in colder southern environments. However, you need to be conscious of the open cockpit that can take on

a sit-inside, and landing and handling fish can also often be easier as you can drop your legs over either side to slow the kayak and increase stability, and even turn completely sideways on the kayak to access iceboxes and other items in the rear well. On the other hand, sit-inside kayaks allow you to keep gear stowed securely inside the kayak where branches cannot drag items into the water, while also protecting you from these overhanging branches along with the elements, such as the wind and cold. The hull on sit-inside kayaks generally has less drag than comparable length sit-on-top kayaks, so it glides more efficiently, making it popular for covering further distances when fishing. Longer sit-inside kayaks (sea kayaks) are the choice for long-range sea kayaking adventures/touring.

important to keep in mind your weight plus the weight of the gear that you wish to carry on board with you. I have a small, inexpensive kayak that I load with a 20L

capacity, which would likely also increase the space available for stowing gear, fitting additional rod holders and increase the length of the kayak. For this option, I have

From left to right: the wider, slower sit-inside; a grey nomad’s 147kg rated all-rounder; the author’s all-rounder; and Sheri’s speed machine. water, so for anglers and sea kayakers who are venturing into rougher water a skirt is often attached around the waist of the paddler and around the cockpit of the

icebox, a couple of rods and a dry bag of lures, tackle and accessories. This kayak is 9’ (2.7m) and has a rating of 130kg, which is enough to cover basic creek and

a 12’ 6” (3.8m) kayak that has a weight capacity of 180kg. WEIGHT As kayaks get longer, wider and their capacities increase, generally so does

their weight. It’s important to consider how you will be transporting and storing your kayak, such as whether you will be lifting your kayak onto a vehicle, trailer or storage racks. You need to be able to handle the kayak without injuring yourself or

good to paddle, with its multipiece paddles packing into the compact kit. However, for most anglers the inflation, deflation, drying time and pack up take away from the simplicity of kayak fishing, meaning that inflatable kayaks are usually only chosen by

will often opt for something in the middle, giving them a balance of speed and stability. Remember if the kayak becomes too wide, it can also be difficult for smaller paddlers to paddle the kayak comfortably and effectively.

Sit-inside kayaks are good for skinny water adventures that require some portaging. damaging the kayak. Kayak loading devices can assist in loading and unloading your kayak if you wish to purchase one that you cannot physically load and unload without assistance, but this is an additional expense. It is worth investigating further to ensure you can manage the loading device prior to purchasing both it and the kayak. Otherwise, you could use a kayak trailer. There are high-tec, lightweight kayaks, but the current selection is limited and they generally carry a higher price tag than rotomoulded polyethylene kayaks. Inflatable kayaks are another option and the quality and rigidity of these have improved over time thanks to advancements in materials and drop stitched flooring. Sheri and I have a double inflatable kayak that packs into a suitcase to take with us on adventures and it is stable, durable and pretty

adventurers and anglers with extreme space restrictions. LENGTH The length of the kayak can impact its speed, tracking and handling in choppy conditions. Longer kayaks will generally track better, paddle faster and ride through chop better, while shorter kayaks will bob like a cork amongst chop, take more effort to paddle straight and control in wind and chop, and won’t be capable of the speed achieved in longer kayaks. On the flipside though, shorter kayaks are often more manoeuvrable and lighter, so they are preferred by many for smooth water, skinny water and short paddles to more sheltered fishing spots. WIDTH The width of the kayak can influence stability, speed, handling and capacity. Thinner kayaks generally track straighter and paddle faster, while wider kayaks are slower but more stable and with larger capacities. Anglers

An inexpensive, 2.7-3m kayak is all you need to target bread and butter species. Do your research and stick with a reputable brand.

the kayak and attempting to swing the bow. You can also use the rudder when wind drifting and fishing, controlling drift direction and maintaining your position a cast distance from the edge or structure as you drift, should the wind be blowing in the right direction. PADDLE VS PEDAL Pedal kayaks allow for hands-free fishing, additional distance to be covered and less fatigue, as you are powering your vessel using larger muscle groups. They also provide increased control when fishing as you can hold your position in wind or current. Pedal kayaks often dominate kayak tournaments these days, due to these distinct advantages for anglers. You don’t need a pedal kayak to catch fish, but they do make fishing easier. There are a few downsides to pedal kayaks. The obvious one is the additional cost, but

You don’t need a big kayak to catch big fish. Smaller kayaks can even have the advantage in accessing some areas. My wife is a smaller paddler than myself, so she has a kayak that is narrower, slightly longer and has less capacity than mine, while I require additional capacity to handle my weight along with additional width for stability due to my larger frame. I would be unstable and uncomfortable in her kayak, while she would find my kayak more difficult and heavier to paddle. RUDDER A rudder adds cost to your kayak price but it makes paddling more efficient and steering much simpler. It is often foot-powered, allowing you to focus on a steady paddle stroke and adjust the tracking with a small movement of your feet. Many kayaks come fitted with rudders, while others have the option of retrofitting a rudder. Most rudders are designed to kick up if they come into contact with structure when moving forward, with a simple cord system to flip the rudder up into a stowed position or into the water for use. A rudder allows you to focus on paddling and makes control easier, even in a side wind or when waves are crashing against one side of

if your application involves covering distance or battling wind and tide then it may be worth it. Another downside of pedal kayaks is the space lost in the cockpit area due to the pedal units taking up space; however, over time pedal kayak manufacturers have come up with some creative storage options to ensure that rods and gear are secured safely, so this is less of an issue. Finally, pedal kayaks have the disadvantage of the pedal unit protruding from the bottom of the kayak, which rules them out for many skinny water adventures where the system is riddled with snags and structure. Other than that, if you love kayak fishing, saving your pennies for a pedal kayak may

This is the perfect environment for a sit-inside kayak: cruising through lilies and timber as you’re protected from the elements and everything is stowed securely. be a good choice if you haven’t already made the leap. I have heard a few negative stories about the cheaper ‘copycat’ pedal kayaks that are popping up around the place, so I would stick with the tried and true Hobie or Native Watercraft pedal kayaks until the others have proven themselves. Likewise with paddle kayaks, do your research and stick with the more well-known and reputable brands that have a history of quality, performance, quality fit out and proven accessories. POWER A less common option but one that is available to kayak anglers is to power up your kayak with a small electric motor. Powered kayaks have allowed anglers with injuries and conditions that would otherwise prevent them from kayak fishing to get out there

when selecting a kayak that will be powered include options for mounting the motor, along with the kayak’s capacity for carrying the motor and battery. MAKING YOUR CHOICE Once you have narrowed your kayak search down to a couple of options, it should just be the little things that separate them. This can be as simple as available colours, such as a stealthy colour for skinny water bass or a hi-vis colour for paddling offshore. It may also come down to available storage and its configuration, seating, mounting and attachment points, available accessories and so forth. I hope I have touched on some points that will assist you when selecting your first or your next kayak. Remember that the best fishing kayak is the one that best suits you, so

An important consideration when selecting a kayak is handling and transport, as well as storage at home. and into a few fish. These power options have also been taken on board by those who love the serenity, stealth and overall vibe of kayak fishing, and are looking to cover more water, troll and make the most of short windows of time. Important considerations

take the time to think about the types of fishing and adventures you wish to undertake and what requirements you have for your craft. Try and get out there and paddle or pedal as many options as you can to get a better understanding of what’s available.

Offshore kayaks are generally longer, with a bow designed to ride over and through waves and a rudder for control. APRIL 2020

Do you know the different PFD regulations? conditions, and should be able to turn a fully clothed wearer into a safe breathing position even if incapacitated, and that’s a pretty big call. Most are inflatable, and they are particularly popular with kayakers and rock fishers. Level 275 inflatable PFDs are designed for the roughest conditions, typically for people working on commercial vessels.

BRISBANE

Wayne Kampe wkff@aapt.net.au

I saw an ad on TV with an interesting and accurate message: ‘Wearing a lifejacket has never spoiled a day’s fishing!’ Reflecting on this pearl of wisdom turned my thoughts towards lifejackets (PFDs), the different styles on offer, and whether regulations might vary from state to state. We anglers like to fish in lots of different places; I have run into Victorian anglers while fishing in Queensland barra dams, and Victorian anglers have met Queenslanders fishing in Port Phillip Bay during the snapper run. It’s not hard to hook up the boat and head interstate, so maybe we should think about those PFDs a bit more

open deck of a boat up to 8m long that’s underway, children must wear a Level 50S (or greater) lifejacket. If you’re in open waters, the child’s jacket must be at least a Level 100. On all boats less than 4.8m, everyone on board has to wear at least a Level 50S PFD if: you’re boating between sunset and sunrise; in alpine waters; or boating alone without an accompanying person over 12

Youngsters need their lifejackets on when in a boat less than 4.8m. so brightly coloured. Level 100 As we move out into open waters – bays, estuaries and offshore – there are Levels

two styles of inflatables – one that is manually activated by pulling on a toggle, and the other self-inflating on contact with water. The latter option is

Our Porta Bote is over 25 years old, so even when enjoying smoko on Wyaralong Dam the PFD stays on.

In a good marine store it’s easy to find the right lifejacket for any boating situation. seriously. It makes sense to consider local requirements and different regulations if you’re in another state. AUSTRALIAN STANDARDS Australian Standards demand that lifejackets comply with set criteria regarding manufacture and performance. The current standard throughout Australia is AS 4758, and it outlines the best practice for the design and manufacture of various types of lifejackets. Just like spinning reels come in a thousand increments, the number increasing with size, lifejackets have numbered levels as a standard. These different numbers tell you what level of protection the lifejacket provides, and what conditions it is suited to. Level 50 The first option is the brightly-coloured Level 50 PFD which, although it will keep you afloat, has no collar to keep your head out of the water. Basically, this is a PFD for short-term use where you don’t expect to be in the water for long. Water skiers use them frequently. The 50S pretty much identical, but not 88

APRIL 2020

100, 150 and 275. Level 100 lifejackets have a neck support to keep the wearer’s face out of the water. These PFDs are suitable for most excursions into open water and have a high level of floatation. However, they are not quite as good for use in seas with larger waves as the type 150 and 275 PFDs are. Level 100 PFDs are either inflatable or non-inflatable, and both will save lives. The inflatable 100s rely on a CO2 cartridge to inflate bladders within the jacket. There are

more pricey, but many anglers still prefer inflatable PFDs because of their slim fit and freedom of movement. As a fly angler waving arms about like a windmill while fishing, I favour an inflatable lifejacket hands down. Next is the non-inflatable Level 100, which has foam incorporated within a vest-like shape. It is always ready for use, if a little more bulky than an inflatable jacket. Level 150 and 275 Level 150 jackets are a good choice in rough

QUEENSLAND In Queensland you are legally obliged to have lifejackets in your boat, one per occupant, and they must comply with the AS 4758 standard. You also need to have prominent signs pointing out exactly where those lifejackets are stored (more information on signage is available at www.msq.qld.gov.au). If your vessel is under 4.8m there are two extra regulations. First of all, if you are crossing a designated coastal bar, those aboard have to wear a lifejacket. Also, persons under 12 years of age must wear a lifejacket in any sub-4.8m open boat that’s underway. There is no specification as to which level of lifejacket should be worn. NEW SOUTH WALES New South Wales skippers are required to carry an AS 4758-compliant PFD for everyone aboard, and have their location in the boat clearly marked with an appropriate sign. Children under 12 must have their lifejackets on. When on enclosed waters in a craft less than 4.8m long, or on the

years of age on board. A Level 100 or greater standard must be worn at all times while boating in open waters or crossing a coastal bar. VICTORIA Going boating in Victoria? Down in that neck of the woods waters are significantly cooler, and the lifejacket regulations reflect that. Generally, there’s no boating without AS 4758-compliant lifejacket being worn.

On inland waters you can choose between types 1, 2, or 3. If the boat is over 4.8m and up to 12m in length, occupants must wear Type 1 lifejackets at times of ‘heightened risk’. This applies in the following scenarios: crossing a bar; boating by yourself; between dusk and dawn; boating in reduced visibility; and after a BOM weather warning has been issued. Children under 10 must wear appropriate lifejackets at all times. It is a legal requirement to carry an appropriate size and type of PFDs for each person on board. Lifejackets must be easy to access. TASMANIA The big issue in Tasmania is the water temperatures, and in the popular inland trout lakes it can be as cold as 15°C, even in summer. Any prolonged immersion is a huge life-threatening issue. Imagine trying to put a lifejacket on when you are gasping to say alive! Not a good scenario. For this reason, if you are in a craft under 6m long and underway, a Coast Guard prescribed AS 4758 PFD must be worn. Children under 13 must wear a jacket when a larger craft is underway, unless below decks. Vessels must always carry a compliant lifejacket for each person on board. WESTERN AUSTRALIA In WA, vessels operating out of unprotected waters must carry AS 4758-compliant Type 1

With the water temperature hovering around 15°C in summer, it makes sense to wear a lifejacket in Tassie lakes.

Angler David Falconer on Tasmania’s Little Pine Lagoon. David’s PFD is a 150 model.

In Victoria (and WA), the lifejacket levels are referred to as types 1, 2 and 3. Type 1 denotes level 100 or higher, Type 2 is Level 50, and Type 3 is 50S. In general, those aboard powerboats up to and including 4.8m long must be wearing a Type 1 lifejacket or greater while underway (which includes drifting). This applies in both enclosed waters (i.e. within a port) and coastal waters.

lifejackets. In protected waters, the lifejackets can be Type 1, 2 or 3. They must be stored in easily accessible places and be the appropriate size for each passenger. There does not appear to be any laws dictating when you must wear a lifejacket. Instead, there are recommendations, which include wearing one during times of poor visibility, bad weather,

Type 50 when boating alone, and for children under 10. SOUTH AUSTRALIA In vessels not more than 4.8m, all persons must wear a lifejacket, with the PFD Level appropriate to the conditions

Type 100

(i.e. protected, semi-protected or unprotected waters). In 4.8-12m vessels, the same applies to persons on an open deck or during times of heightened risk. Children under 12 or

weighing less than 40kg must not wear an inflatable lifejacket. ACT AND NT In the NT, all pleasure craft must carry lifejackets, one for each passenger. In the ACT

Type 150

this rule applies to all craft under 4.8m long. In both territories it is suggested that lifejackets be worn, but there does not appear to be any mandatory requirement.

THE NEXT LEVEL In next month’s issue I will discuss which lifejacket best suits different situations, and what the various styles of PFDs offer. Also, because of the popularity of inflatable-

style jackets for a lot of boating situations, it’s timely to have a look at servicing, to ensure they will work when you need them to. Until next month, happy boating.

STACER CROSSFIRE

Have the best of both worlds with the Stacer Crossfire range! There is a Crossfire to suit anyone from beginners to experienced fisherman. With plenty of storage space and fantastic features this range is sure to become a fast favourite.

BRISBANE

SUNSHINE COAST

MACKAY

31 Fox St WYNNUM Ph 07 3396 9777 info@wynnummarine.com.au

2294 Sandgate Rd BOONDALL Ph 07 3265 8028 info@nsmarine.com.au

16 Project Avenue NOOSAVILLE Ph 07 5442 4872 info@lagunaboating.com.au

165 Paradise St SOUTH MACKAY Ph: 07 4952 2436 admin@phoenixpowersports.com.au

WYNNUM MARINE

www.wynnummarine.com.au

NORTHSIDE MARINE

www.northsidemarine.com.au

LAGUNA BOATING CENTRE

www.lagunaboating.com.au

HERVEY BAY

BUNDABERG

GLADSTONE

19 Islander Rd PIALBA Ph 07 4124 6988 enquiries@buccaneers.com.au

28 Ritchie St, BUNDABERG Ph 07 4153 1819 adriansmarinecentre@bigpond.com

103 Hanson Road, GLADSTONE Ph 07 4972 0135 sales@curtiscoastmarine.com.au

BUCCANEERS

www.buccaneers.com.au

ADRIANS MARINE CENTRE

www.adriansmarinecentre.com.au

PHOENIX POWERSPORTS

www.phoenixpowersports.com.au

CURTIS COAST MARINE

www.curtiscoastmarine.com.au APRIL 2020

Bar Crusher 615BR with Suzuki 150HP 4-stroke - SC

TENT -

RE ONLINE MO

DE FOR EX

Main: Is there anything better than a brilliant day on Port Phillip Bay, a Bar Crusher and 150 Suzuki horses pushing you along? Above: The 615BR is Bar Crusher’s first foray into a multi-purpose craft, although Matt Urzia will always find a way to fish in it. At rest the Gen 2 hull’s ballast tank takes on hundreds of litres of water and sinks the chines deeper to offer improved stability at rest. “A lot of our customers want to go out or come home in rough conditions, and the Gen 2 hull lets them do that with maximum levels of comfort,” Pete explained. If you’re thinking that the 615BR lacks some of its siblings’ fishing chops, you’d be mistaken. The bow riding section has removable cushions and a drop-in deck infill that makes the whole for’ard section a flat casting

RPM........ Speed.(km/h)....... Economy.(km/L) 1000 ........................... 3 ............................ 4.0 2000........................... 7 ............................ 2.8 3000......................... 11 ............................ 1.9 3700 ......................... 34 ............................ 2.3 4000......................... 38 ............................ 2.1 5000......................... 53 ............................ 1.6 6000......................... 66 ............................ 1.2 APRIL 2020

retrieve these rigs, even if you’re boating alone. Packages with the 615BR start from high $60K, and as tested, this rig weighed in around the mid $80K mark. For more information, get in touch with your nearest Bar Crusher dealer. You can find where your local dealer is by visiting www.barcrusher.

SPECIFICATIONS

PERFORMANCE

s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

It’s not often you get the head of a company to come out on a boat test, but Bar Crusher’s Peter Cleland showed up at the Launching Way ramp with their first foray into a multi-purpose boat in tow, the 615 BR (bow rider). When questioned about the genesis of the craft, Peter said they wanted to design a fishing weapon that the family could also go out on, to enjoy a bit of fun with some towsports. “We stand at a lot of boat shows talking to people, and this design came from that,” he said. Built on Bar Crusher’s well proven Gen 2 hull, it features a ‘delta flare’, which is like an old style planing plank on a glass boat that gets the boat onto the plane quickly. The chines are wider than their original hulls to deflect more water downwards and the passive water ballast system reduces buoyancy at rest, dropping the chines further into the water and improving stability. When the boat takes off, this water dumps out quickly and you’re not carrying the extra weight around.

Steve Morgan

CON

AN THE

150hp Suzuki displayed the economy that they’re known for, delivering 2.3km/L at 3,700rpm and 34km/h. Drop the hammers and she got up to 66km/h at 6,000rpm at nearly half the economy, 1.2km/L. This rig demonstrably likes cruising economically at the lower end of the planing speeds.

FMG

deck. You can easily add a bow-mounted trolling motor to make this a boat that can easily sneak around any part of the country to cast lures in. The rear cockpit is similarly transformable. Pull out the ski pole and add a bait board to turn this into a classic snapper rig – complete with the windlass up front to pull the anchor for you. Importantly, there’s familyfriendly shade, places to sit, and the ability to get in and out of this boat while on the water, which is all that most of us need to have a good time. Well, maybe that, and a donut to tow the kids around on. We particularly like the generous dash space in Bar Crushers that allow flush mounting of electronics, and that these are viewable from the cockpit easily. With the

addition of the soft top, bow cover and clears you get a pseudo-cabin style feel and ride for when conditions get a little nasty. Performance-wise, the

Length...................................................... 6.15m Beam........................................................2.25m Bottom.sheet ............................................4mm Side.sheets................................................4mm Fuel ............................................................ 140L Min.HP ......................................................... 115 Max.HP ........................................................ 150 Height.on.trailer ...................................... 2.15m Fuel ............................................................ 140L Finally, Bar Crushers supplied from the factory are matched with Victorian built EasyTow trailers and, coupled with their BarCatch system, it’s a foolproof as possible to launch and

com.au or contact AMC Boats, 3491 Pacific Highway Slacks Creek on 3808 7333. You can also email them on sales@amcboats.com.au or check out their website www. amcboats.com.au.

Suzukis are notoriously economical. This 150hp and 6m+ boat delivered 2.3km/L at 34km/h and 3,700rpm, and a 66km/h top end speed.

Inset and above: The Bar Crusher team is always looking at clever ways of using space. The under seat tackle storage here is just one of their additions.

Top: The bait board is simple with a removable Teflon insert. You can swap it out for a ski pole for the watersports days. Above: There’s always plenty of space on a Bar Crusher helm for all of your electronics, so size isn’t an issue.

Bar Crusher’s solution to a rear bench is solid and reliable. It’s simple to deploy and has a smooth finish while stowed.

There is a distinct separation between the front deck and the anchor well, and hopefully no salt water makes its way into your cocktails.

With a bow area covered and locked down, the cockpit is quite sheltered. There are plenty of places to hang onto, which your passengers will appreciate.

If you’re headed off for a weekend of camping there’s plenty of space under the bow cover to stow camping gear.

All of these deck cushions remove to turn the 615 into a fishing platform. Leave the cushions in and remove the centre infill and it’s a lounge.

The 140L fuel tank gives a theoretical range at best economy of over 250km.

Add a bow-mounted electric motor here to really take advantage of the for’ard casting deck.

The slide-in transom door is as simple is it gets.

All this bait tank needs to work is a functioning water pump. It self levels and drains straight onto the duckboard. APRIL 2020

A tale of two Stacers: 519 Crossfire models - SC

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Steve Morgan s.morgan@fishingmonthly.com.au

Coffs Harbour’s Thwaites Marine is a new and proud Stacer/Evinrude dealer. With a history in big boat and inboard servicing, the team have combined their indoor showroom with a range of Evinrude-powered Stacers that are set up for boating in their local area. Ben Thwaites had a great idea for their boat test: he organised their shop boat (a centre console Crossfire 519 fitted with a 115hp Evinrude HO outboard) and a customer boat that they’d recently

for ducking out before or after work for a quick fish or dive, and it’s an ideal configuration for this part of the world. They have added an aftermarket T-top to provide some shade, and there’s very little in the way of accessories. It’s just a big, open work space with a standard elevated front casting deck. In fact, I think that this boat would benefit from a lean seat or some other form of support. The 115 is a powerful engine and it would be nice to be able to brace yourself for the inevitable acceleration. Talking about the power plant, the Evinrude 115HO G2 E-Tec has the same amazing low and mid range torque that

Top: Here are the two test boats – both Stacer Crossfire 519s with 115hp Evinrude G2 E-Tecs. One is Thwaites Marine’s staff boat that they use for fishing offshore. The other belongs to a customer, Luke Strange, who set his side console version up for calmer water activities, from snorkelling and fishing through to tubing. Above: From the gunwales down, these hulls are identical. They both feature Stacer’s Revolution hull, which is a remarkably soft riding and open water capable base upon which to design a build to suit your needs.

On the single axle Stacer-built trailers these hulls will tow identically, and you don’t need a tank to tow them, either. Both are capably pulled by family cars. finished fitting out. This was the same hull and motor but with a side console layout. One is a dedicated offshore fishing and diving boat while the other has fishing, tubing, diving and family good times in mind. Let’s see which one would suit your type of boating best. CENTRE CONSOLE Thwaites Marine set up the centre console rig for owner and staff use. The team use it

we have come to expect from the remaining 2-stroke player in the market. Also fitted with power steering and auto trimming, this boat takes ‘ease of use’ to a whole new level. “For us, this is a great sea boat,” said Rob Thwaites. “We are able to launch it at some pretty ordinary ramps and the rig is light enough to manoeuvre the single axle trailer to where it needs to be.” Cavorting around the

harbour on a lumpy day allowed us to experience just how soft riding these hulls are. “This hull rides really well with a flared bow and moderate deadrise,” Rob said.

And we wholeheartedly agree. Hitting the first few lumps I was bracing for a rough ride, but as the test wore on, I found myself more and more impressed with the ability of the Crossfire hull to take the edge of the rough water. It’s one of the smoothest riding aluminium hulls that I’ve been in. Period! By the end of the test day, I found myself trying to land this hull rough. It is possible, but you need to travel at speeds you usually wouldn’t in any sort of a sea, and you had to get the hull landing flat on one of the hull sheets. It takes some doing. The take-home message is that, driven sensibly, you’ll have the softest ride you can in an aluminium hull – and

SPECIFICATIONS Length.(max) .... 5.37m Beam................. 2.24m Top.Sheet............ 3mm Bottom.Sheet ..... 4mm Max.hp ................... 115 Capacity ......5 persons Hull.Weight ........535kg I daresay better than many larger aluminium boats, regardless of the brand. “When you buy a Stacer boat/motor and Evinrude package, you get a full 5-year warranty on all of these components,” Rob said. This adds to the peace of mind when buying a matching package from one dealer.

SIDE CONSOLE The Stacer Crossfire side console is a new boat to Luke Strange, a Coffs roofer who spent months deliberating whether to go for a tinnie or the bigger Crossfire. Ultimately, he went the bigger boat and doesn’t regret the decision at all. Luke’s fit-out is fairly standard for a Crossfire. His has a side console, and the front casting deck is built in the shape of a standard bowrider. You can sit several people up there to enjoy the day on the water, or you can drop in an infill to use it as a fully functional casting deck for some serious fishing. “It’s been a great experience putting this boat

PERFORMANCE RPM........................ km/h.......................... km/L 650 ................................5.............................. 7.1 1000 ..............................7..............................4.9 2000 ............................ 11..............................1.6 3000 ............................37..............................3.1 3300 ............................41..............................3.4 4000 ............................50..............................2.8 92

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The main difference in driving is that you’re standing upright in the centre console and seated in the side console. The centre console needs a lean seat to take your weight in the nasty stuff but otherwise is a pleasure to ride in.

together,” Luke said. “It took me three or four months to finally work out what was the best way to go. I wanted an all rounder – something to fish, dive, snorkel and use for tow sports, and I particularly liked the fact that the hull and trailer are built just up the road.” Stacer makes its own trailers, and the single-axle aluminium I-Beam that Luke’s rig is cradled on is made in the same complex as the hull. However, it seems as though Luke’s real passion is for the E-Tec on the back of this boat. “The hole shot is amazing,” he said. “It’s less thirsty than 2-strokes of the past but it’s just as economical as slower

The author braced for the first impact and was surprised at the quality of the ride inside a lumpy Coffs Harbour. The best way to experience it for yourself is to go out on a test ride.

Left: The side console version compacts all of the driving and traveling seating positions down at the stern, leaving a massive front deck for leisure activities. This rig will eventually be fitted with a bow-mounted trolling motor. Middle: With Evinrude now having a major stake in Telwater (manufacturers of Stacer boats), it was a given that there would be some kick-ass boat/motor/trailer deals in the Stacer/Evinrude space. The 3-cylinder G2 E-Tec was launched in 2019 and suits lots of Australian boats. Right: Apart from a lack of places to hang onto, the ride of the Thwaites shop Stacer Crossfire was great. We can see why Coffs locals are keen to get into these boats. There’s plenty of space, along with the ability to traverse some sketchy water to get to where you need to go.

Here’s the centre console deck layout – a simple flat floor with a raised bow casting deck. The enclosed anchor well really keeps the ground gear hidden, and gives the owner a mountain of casting space all around the boat.

There are a couple of different seat mounting bases on the side console, allowing the skipper to balance weight if needed. The team found that the rear mounts offered a great compromise between hole shot and ride. Up front, that’s the standard Crossfire bow arrangement. Luke opted for an infill as well, to make the front casting deck full sized when he’s fishing. At other times, the default position is a front-lounge shape.

four-strokes. It really is the best of both worlds.” PERFORMANCE Not surprisingly, both rigs displayed near-identical performance numbers. Between 3,000-3,500rpm was the most economical range, with the Evinrude delivering a frugal 3.4km/L. It was a little lumpy to get wide open throttle figures. Apart from the ride, the speed out of the hole is the most impressive aspect of this rig. The power steering and automatic trim make the experience more like driving a car than an old, cable steer boat. We really did find ourselves with smiles on the dials when it came to running around in these boats and taking the video and photos we needed for the boat tests. To view the full boat test video, head to the Fishing Monthly Magazines YouTube Channel (or by scanning the QR code hereby). You can also find more information at www. thwaitesmarine.com.au, or to keep abreast of what they have in store you can follow them on Facebook (facebook.com/ thwaitesmarine) or Instagram (@thwaites_marine). Package prices as tested were just under $50,000 for the centre console and around $53,000 for the side console with the extras as tested. Get in one – you’ll be as surprised as we were! APRIL 2020

Lots of useable space is a feature of this great boat, so fitting in lots of gear shouldn’t be a problem. Stacer’s standard dash holds all of your electronics and digital gauges. There’s no doubt that this rig has turned plenty of heads at the local Coffs ramps.

There really are plenty of configurations for the side console rig. Like this, it’s easy for an angler up front and one down the back, but if you remove the infill, there’s a lot of lounging space and the seat can swivel around to add to the area.

Transom v transom: the centre console is more clean and open with a full transom, while Luke has optioned his transom up with a bait board and a transom door. 94

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Both rigs have long side pockets to make your fishing gear easily accessible.

You’ll love the efficiency and mid-range torque of the Evinrude G2. Both boats were fitted with the power steering models, which make the steering wheel as light as the one in your tow vehicle.

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