MULLOWAY
MANIA How To Catch Jewfish On Lures
I n d i re c t re s p o n s e t o t he hu g e d e m a n d fo r m o re n it t y - g r it t y i n fo ’ a b ou t t a rg et i n g jew ie s o n l u re s ( s o ft a n d ha rd ) — e s p e c ia l ly d u r i n g d a y l ig ht hou r s — St a rlo s ha re s a l ifet i m e o n le a r n i n g i n t hi s ex p o s é , w r it te n fo r a l l y ou jew ie n u t s ( a n d b u dd i n g jew ie n u t s ) ou t t he re ! L e a r n ple nt y a n d i n c re a s e y ou r st r ik e ra te o n t he s e c ha l le n g i n g f i s h .
MULLOWAY
MANIA Big mulloway or jewfish are peak predators with strikingly handsome looks. No wonder they’re so keenly sought after. ABOVE
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I
By Steve ‘Starlo’ Starling
M U L L O W A Y
D R E A M I N G
n the filtered half-light of pre-dawn, the school of mulloway slip westward through a series of inter-connected sandy gutters, pushing slowly inshore toward the river mouth; smelling, tasting and feeling the last eddying vestiges of a big runout tide. Several fish in the school have full bellies already, last night’s squid and tailor digesting in their distended stomachs. These successful hunters dawdle near the back of the flowing procession. At the front edge, a lean, hungry vanguard push forward, eager to satisfy the gnawing emptiness inside. Bridge pylons loom suddenly from the gloom, already painted on 50 sets of lateral lines via subtle disturbance to the slackening tidal push. A cloud of juvenile luderick, tailor and bream dash in panic behind the weed-festooned supports, but several are not quick enough. Jewfish backbones crack audibly in the milky water as predators swing hard left and right, jaws lunging and snapping, fins flaring. Dislodges scales twinkle in the dancing light shafts. Several mulloway peel off and carve fast figure-eights around the
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
other pylons, seeking more targets, but the residents are fleeing fast. Small terrified fish bulge through the surface layer in panic and a pair of watchful pelicans swoop from the bridge railing, careening onto the green water, giant bills dipping and clacking angrily. Death strikes from above and below. Within minutes the pylons are deserted of life, save for the heads of tiny brown leatherjackets, peering sheepishly from the kelp fronds like a cast of forgotten extras in a “Finding Nemo” sequel. Upstream of the bridge, the school slide over sandy ridges into a deeply scoured depression. There’s now no discernible tidal movement at all. The jewfish swim in a loose circle, rotating anticlockwise in the hole, moving just fast enough to push water through their mouths and out over their gills, pewter flanks occasionally brushing their neighbours, bellies and fins flicking swirls of sand from the river bed.
The lateral lines and other sensory organs of mulloway are extremely well developed. These fish are very “situation aware” and often highly cautious.
Like the first puff of a southerly change through an open bedroom window, the pre-pulse of a new tide pours over the sandy lip, into the staging hole. It tastes of the ocean… Cooler, saltier, more oxygen-rich than the brackish river water. Several of the hungrier mulloway reflexively snap their jaws open and shut in giant, exaggerated yawns and the swimming speed of the entire school picks up a gear. Two more complete circuits, then a larger fish pushes urgently to the head of the queue. Instead of wheeling left and swinging into another turn, the big jewie suddenly lifts up and over the edge of the hole, belly just clearing some rocks. The others follow, a quicksilver stream of scales, fins and jaws heading inexorably upriver. They are moving faster now, on the very front edge of the new tidal push, fanning out and forming into smaller squadrons. Brains dimly but surely imprinted with the memory of successful hunts lead them unerringly to specific nooks, with the accuracy of GPS units. A gap between boulders where an octopus once found itself caught in the open. A rusting shopping trolley sometimes festooned with baby tarwhine. A current break where mullet hang lazily in mid-water, as if sleeping briefly on the slack water. For the next six hours and more the attacking force will leapfrog each other up the big river, holding for a minute or two here, half an hour there. Some will peel off into feeder creeks, pushing so far inland that startled bass dart behind their snags as the heavyweight hunters pass. A few of these marauders may stay in the upper estuary for days or even weeks, until the next set of spring tides, but the majority will mass up again in some distant staging hole on the top of the flood, then turn and begin their downstream campaign of pillage and death on the run-out. And so the cycle goes… On and on, as it has for millions of years.
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THE REAL WORLD The picture I’ve just painted may or may not be an accurate rendition of exactly what happens on an east coast estuary anywhere between Bundaberg and Barwon Heads on most big tides of the year. Without either access to data from a detailed sonic tagging and tracking program or becoming a mulloway myself for a day, I’ll probably never know for sure! But it certainly feels right to me, and tallies closely with my practical observations in the real world. The more I fish for mulloway on lures—perhaps the most challenging and addictive target on offer in our southern estuaries—the more I see parallels between these great fish and the saltwater barramundi of the north. Physical similarities aside (and there are many), I firmly believe that these two unrelated hunters have evolved to fill similar niches in their home rivers, and that they share an uncannily similar hunting style. My theory is that both species are much more mobile and versatile than many anglers realise. There are good reasons why they are best caught in specific locations on specific stages of each 28-day tidal cycle. Yes, obviously, it’s because they are in those places at those times (and feeding). But the corollary of that theory is that they are somewhere else and doing something different at other times… If I could only work out where and what, I’d be a much better jewie fisher than I am! Meanwhile, let me tell you a little about what I do know:
The big news is that jewies will take lures even in the middle of the brightest, sunniest days... 4
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Jewies have a decentsized mouth and conical, inward-facing teeth to hold and crush lively prey. LEFT
TIME AND TIDE
Some of the things we know for sure and certain about mulloway (and the saltwater barra they share so many habits with) is that they are active nocturnal feeders with an armoury of sensory equipment ideally suited to feeding in very low light and/or dirty water (these include specially adapted eyes, lateral lines and smell/taste receptors). For a long time, I suspect that this knowledge actually clouded our view of how and where jewies can best be caught. That’s because, while they’re masters when it comes to poor visibility hunting, this information certainly doesn’t mean they only feed at those times. That discovery is very good news for people like myself, who prefer to catch their jewies (and barra!) in daylight hours, on cast-and-retrieved lures. The big news is that jewies will take lures even in the middle of the brightest, sunniest days, and that they don’t necessarily require the protection of great depth, dirty water, nor milky wave-induced aeration to do so. Myself and others have proven this many times, regularly experiencing our best lure casting sessions for mulloway between the hours of 8 and 11 AM, and again between 4 and 7PM in the evening, and even catching these fish around mid-day at times. Furthermore, our best results have often come when fishing in relatively clean water with a depth of somewhere between three and 10 metres, and most commonly close to what I’ve come to see as the “magic” six metre contour (around 20 feet on the old scale). To take this to its MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
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extreme conclusion, I have had a solid mulloway eat a hardbodied lure in plain sight less than two rod lengths from the boat in just two metres (yes two) of clear water at sunset. If that surprises you, then join the club… it shocked me, too! Once you break the mindset of mulloway being solely cryptic creatures of the dark and gloomy netherworld, new horizons open up. But that doesn’t make these fish a push-over. Far
What I am about to tell you has taken me a couple of decades to learn, so please do me the courtesy of concentrating:
Catching big mulloway during daylight hours on both soft and hard lures might seem like a dream to some, but it is actually eminently achievable. 6
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
from it… Knowing you can readily catch them in the daytime just makes it harder to accept those many times when it simply doesn’t happen. That’s when you start searching back over past results, looking for patterns. The good news is, those patterns do exist! What I am about to tell you has taken me a couple of decades to learn, so please do me the courtesy of concentrating:
MAGIC MOMENTS
I am nowadays firmly of the belief that mulloway are regular front-edge tidal feeders in many of our south eastern estuaries (and most other places, I suspect), just as I believe saltwater barra are in the north. In other words, they ride the tide change up and down our coastal rivers, and those fish on that front edge are feeders, not lookers. Even more critically, the bigger (spring) tides appear to exaggerate and concentrate this phenomenon, at least with mulloway. Quiz a bunch of reasonably successful jewie fishers on which tides and what related moon phases are most productive for them and you’ll typically get a fairly even split between top and bottom tide fans and full and new moon believers. I’m starting to think that those precise details are less important, and may actually be location specific, anyway. (In other words, some spots fish better on the bottom of the tide or the full moon and others on the top of the tide and the new moon.)
Suddenly, we have narrowed our optimum jewie luring windows down to just eight or nine days of each lunar month. What is more critical, in my opinion, is that the tidal range should ideally be towards the upper end of the scale for the locality you’re fishing. Along most of the country’s south eastern seaboard, that means a tidal variation (the difference between high and low) of around 1.4 metres or more. In other words, there needs to be a decent variation between high and low tide on the day. This might mean a 0.4 m low running up to a 1.8 m high. (Remember, I’m speaking here primarily about NSW, Victorian and southern Queensland estuaries, with maximum tidal ranges of around two metres.) MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
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In this part of the world, that tidal variation requirement instantly directs us to the day of the full and new moon, perhaps the day prior, and a day or two (three at most) following each of those lunar events. Suddenly, we have narrowed our optimum jewie luring windows down to just eight or nine days of each lunar month. We can further narrow this by focussing on the tide changes themselves and subsequent tidal fronts or leading edges. On both the full and the new moon days, there will typically be a low tide in the early hours of the morning (between midnight and 4 AM) and a nice big high tide in the mid-morning. This will be followed by another low in the mid-afternoon. Each day after the new and full moon, these times will be roughly an hour later. (Make sure you carefully read the section coming up, entitled “Chasing Tides”.)
EXCEPTIONS APLENTY
In my opinion, you really need to be concentrating your lure fishing efforts on the tops and bottoms of those daytime tides for the day of the full or new moon and three days thereafter. In my experience, the second and third days after each moon are the absolute pick and, personally, I much prefer the new moon period to the full. So, suddenly, I’ve given myself a two-day optimum window each month; the second and third day after the new moon. We can take this pruning process one step further by defining the magic moment as extending from one hour before each daytime tide turn until one hour or so after… roughly four hours on each of two days… Just eight or nine hours per month of absolute “prime time”. Are you starting to see a pattern forming?
...if I had to put money on the outcome (or book in a film crew to be there and catch the action), you already know which eight or nine hours I’d choose. 8
Before you get too carried away and start thinking you can put a firm appointment in your diary for a date with Mr Mulloway on a Wednesday morning in three months time, let me stress that there are a thousand nuances that can skew this schedule. Massive rains, a flush of ridiculously cold water, a lack of bait in the system, too much boat traffic, a concerted netting campaign by the local commercial fishers… Any of these things and a whole lot more can throw a serious spanner in the works.
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Just as surely, I’ve caught jewies on lures (and baits) halfway through the tide on the first and last quarters of the moon. They have to eat at these times, too! As a result, I certainly don’t confine my jewie luring to just eight hours every month. But, if I had to put money on the outcome (or book in a film crew to be there and catch the action), you already know which eight or nine hours I’d choose; the daytime tide changes on the second and third day after the new moon.
Starlo with a typical daytime schoolie. ABOVE
But let’s look a little more closely at the subject of prime tides: MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
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CHASING TIDES Man-made structure such as bridges can provide happy hunting grounds for mulloway and anglers alike.
ABOVE
You’ll need to start thinking well outside the published tide charts when looking for the patterns I’m describing in this feature. Primary tidal forecasts are typically given for a fixed point in each state (for example, Fort Denison in Sydney Harbour for NSW). Significant variations will be experienced up and down the coast and, even more noticeably, within river systems. Secondary tidal forecasts are typically given for many other locations in each state. Usually, the further up a river you travel, the more the tide change will lag behind that experienced at the river mouth. Just to confuse the issue further, the bigger the tidal variation (difference between high and low water), the greater that lag is likely to be. The good news is that once you work all this out (mostly by personal observation of what actually happens on the water), the more you’ll be able to use it to your advantage. One of the neatest ways of doing this is by chasing a tide front up and down a river. If you have a reasonably quick boat and don’t spend too much time at each spot, it is perfectly
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Gun tropical barra fishers and guides have been performing this trick for years and it’s high time southern jewie specialists caught up. feasible to fish the same tide change at six or seven locations within the same estuary on the same day! Gun tropical barra fishers and guides have been performing this trick for years and it’s high time southern jewie specialists caught up. To give a practical example, you could spend 25 minutes casting to a set of bridge pylons near the river mouth on slack water and through the first flush of the making tide, then run a few kilometres upstream to a rock bar or corner hole and catch exactly that same first flush of the new tide half an hour or so later. Keep your wits about you and you could follow the tide change for several hours, then turn around and do the same thing in reverse on the run-out. Got you thinking? Good! That’s my aim with this issue.
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Tense moments as a decent daytime jewie comes to hand after a spirited stoush. RIGHT
THE NUANCES As I’ve already warned, before you get too excited by these revelations, it’s worth pointing out and stressing that recreational fishing remains a fairly inexact science, at best, and that exceptions to my so-called “rules” abound! As mentioned earlier, flooding rains, very cold water, a lack of bait (particularly small fish and prawns), excessive boat traffic or commercial netting and trawling effort can all throw a spanner in the works and really upset our jewie cart. Remember, if the fish aren’t there, you won’t catch them, no matter how hard or how smart you fish. There are also a bunch of tide-related subtleties and other little nuances that I haven’t gone into yet, but which I’m about to reveal now… are you ready? You’ll need to pay close attention because some of this stuff gets a bit complicated:
Remember, if the fish aren’t there, you won’t catch them, no matter how hard or how smart you fish.
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NIGHT AND DAY
Unless you’re a particularly dedicated student of the tide tables, there are probably a few twists you haven’t noticed about the cycle of ebb and flow in our south-eastern estuary systems. One of these phenomena is the way in which diurnal (day/night) tidal variations fluctuate throughout the year on a regular and fairly predictable basis. Let me explain: From about September onwards (in most years), the biggest high tides (and also the biggest tidal ranges between low and high tide) that occur around each full and new moon phase (called the “spring tides”) take place during the daytime, usually before mid-day. In other words, the highest tides of the month tend to occur in the mornings, within a day or two of the full and new moon. Around March most years, an interesting change begins to manifest itself in that established spring/summer tidal pattern. If you have a look at the published tide charts for NSW, for example, you’ll typically see that the large tidal movements around the new moon in mid-March are almost equal between day time and night time tides. However, by the time the Easter full moon and April roll around, it’s the night tides and nocturnal tidal variations that are biggest. This pattern then establishes itself right through winter, with the highest high tides and lowest low tides occurring during the hours of darkness. This reversed diurnal pattern doesn’t usually flip back to big daytime tides until late September or early October. I have a strong hunch that this is a big part of the reason why daytime jewie luring in the south east of Australia is at its very best from October to March... Have a think about it, and re-read this section if you need to before we move on.
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Big flathead can be a welcome by-catch when hunting jewies.
...mulloway are frequently encountered in very close proximity to aggregations of both tailor and estuary perch.
SUPPORTING CAST Another interesting phenomenon I’ve noted over the years is a distinct pick-up in dusky flathead activity levels at those times when the tides and other conditions are less than ideal for catching mulloway on lures during the day. In particular, bigger flatties are more likely to feature more strongly in your catches on the days of smaller tidal movement, around the first and last quarters of the moon, particularly on the bottom of the run-out tide (the last two hours of the ebb tide is typically best), and also on the first incoming flush of the newly-making tide. It’s almost as if these fish take over from mulloway as the peak predators in the system at such times. In my opinion, if you’re encountering a lot of big flathead (especially fish over 65 or 70 cm) I believe your chances of jewie success are somewhat diminished. However, there are definitely exceptions to this one, as well! While we’re talking about other species, it’s also worth noting that mulloway are frequently encountered in very close proximity to aggregations of both tailor and estuary perch. Whether all three species favour the same water conditions and food sources (highly likely), or because chopper tailor and perch are fair fodder for jewies ( just as likely!), this pattern emerges far too often to be ignored by mulloway maniacs. Keep an eye peeled for it, and an ear to the ground for reports of EP and tailor action… Jewies won’t usually be too far away!
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SOFTLY, SOFTLY!
The other big clue I can give you regarding the capture of jewfish on lures during daylight hours is that these are relatively cautious and easily-spooked customers. There are exceptions of course (particularly in perennially busy city waterways), but as a rule of thumb, mulloway don’t like noise, fuss, boat traffic, rattling anchor chains or even (I strongly suspect) the pinging of multiple depth sounder transducers painting graphic pictures of their submarine habitat. If you can avoid or minimise all of these things, I firmly believe that you will catch more mulloway on lures as a result. This has certainly been my experience. Even minimising the use of an electric motor and taking advantage of wind drifts seems to distinctly improve my chances of success.
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Just because it’s the middle of a bright, sunny day doesn’t mean you can’t tempt jewies to hit lures. LEFT
I love nothing better than arriving at my chosen jewie fishing spot to find no other boats in the vicinity, a couple of pelicans hunting uninterrupted, and squadrons of unruffled cormorants and herons perched in the riverside trees. If I encounter this highly desirable situation, I’ll instantly slip into stealth mode myself; cutting the outboard a couple of hundred metres short of where I intend to start fishing and using the wind, tidal flow or possibly my electric motor (operating at low revs) to creep slowly into the zone. If I know the underwater terrain reasonably well, I’ll even flick my depth sounder off on final approach. The jury is still out on the efficacy of this last precaution but, in tough fisheries, I’d rather be safe than sorry.
Consistently catching mulloway on hard or soft lures during the daytime in our hard-fished south eastern estuaries is definitely one of the toughest games in town. Consistently catching mulloway on hard or soft lures during the daytime in our hard-fished south eastern estuaries is definitely one of the toughest games in town. That also makes it one of the most rewarding. As a rule, those rewards only fall to switched-on anglers who are willing to walk that extra mile in terms of effort, thought, study and innovation… Are you up to the challenge?
TIME FOR A RECAP Let’s take a few moments to recap some of the key points I’ve presented in this issue so far: 1. When targeting mulloway or jewies on lures during daylight hours, concentrate your efforts on tide turns and significant tidal “fronts” accompanying the “spring tides” or larger tidal differences (1.4 m of movement and more). These occur around the full and new moons. 2. Be aware of the cyclic patterns that see these larger tidal movements flip from day time to night time in late autumn and winter. At those times, other strategies such as after-dark luring and live-baiting for jewies may become more productive. 3. On the smaller tidal differences (neaps) around the quarters of the moon, target big flathead instead of mulloway. Over-size duskies can become the peak predator at these times, often feeding best on the last of the run-out and first flush of the incoming tide. 4. Watch for symbiotic and sympathetic relationships between different fish species. In particular, look for mulloway alongside or in close proximity to schools of tailor and estuary perch. 5. Employ subterfuge, finesse and cunning whenever you’re hunting mulloway, especially on lures and during daylight hours. Minimise boat noise, hull slap and other signals that telegraph your presence to these highly situation-aware and cautious fish.
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WHEN IT ALL COMES TOGETHER
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Andrew’s solid daytime mulloway, pulled from the front edge of a big tidal pulse.
Seven casts… That’s how long it took for my mate, Andrew ‘Woof ’ Badullovich, to lose his jewfish-on-plastics virginity; more years ago now than either of us care to remember. Oh sure, he’d had a dabble or two at it before that, but this was the first time he’d set out to actively target a mulloway during daylight hours on rubber. Rather cheekily, I’d nominated the day and even the two-hour sweet spot three weeks earlier. I told Andrew to lock it into his diary and to butter up his boss to get the morning off. It all came together. Even the weather was on our side, for once. Some things are just meant to be, I guess. And so, just seven casts into our opening spell, as Andrew was still loosening up, it all happened…
I was modestly confident, but I also knew there were absolutely no guarantees. Forty minutes earlier, as we’d sat sipping coffee and eating donuts, I could see that Andrew was a little nonplussed by my casual approach. It was already after 8AM. He felt that the morning was slipping away. I could see from the way his fingers nervously tapped the edge of the table that he figured we should already have been fishing for a couple of hours by then. I took great delight in slowly finishing my donut, draining the last of my coffee, sitting back and stretching languorously. “Okay,” I finally said, brushing some stray crumbs from my beard. “We better throw the boat in the water and go get your jewie, eh?” I was having a bit too much fun with all of this. The truth is, I was modestly confident, but I also knew there were absolutely no guarantees. There rarely are in fishing. Least of all in jewie fishing. Andrew was already a mulloway gun in his own right, MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
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and he’d landed more of these frustratingly addictive fish than most anglers I know. But up until that point (quite a few years ago now), they’d all been taken on bait, and they’d all been caught at night. I badly wanted to show him the other side of the coin. And I had a really good feeling… I heard his muffled curse when he missed the first fumbling bump on that fateful seventh retrieve, but before he even had time to tell me about it, Andrew’s lure got belted again and he loaded up against a heavy fish. It swum out of the five metre deep country he’d pinned it in towards the eight metres or so of water we were over, shaking its head angrily. It still might have been a big flathead, but I doubted it. Then the mystery fish came past us into mid-river, pulled Andrew’s rod down flat and ripped light braid off his spool in several ragged, determined bursts. “That’s a bloody nice jewie,” I offered, trying to keep my voice level so as not to spin him out with the magnitude of it all.
Decent jewies never fail to stir the blood of serious anglers. Even their smell is special! 1 8
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Part of you fears it will just turn to smoke at any moment and BELOW A schoolie neatly vanish. It can’t be true. pinned in the corner of the jaw. It’s just too good! To his credit, Woof kept it together very coolly, despite obviously being very excited by the whole deal. But I knew the first good look at the fish would get him. It always does. Jelly knees. Clammy palms. Knotted guts. It’s all very different at night, when you don’t really come to terms with what you’ve just achieved until the prize is lifted aboard in the net or on the gaff. An alien creature of the darkness, wrestled from its mysterious underworld and deposited, as if by magic, on the carpeted deck in a white pool of artificial light. That’s neat, but it’s also different to what was now happening. At 9.15 AM on a sunny Tuesday morning, it’s a tad surreal to see a metre-plus, bronzed-flanked dream fish with little silver portholes blazing down its lateral lines come twisting up through the green water. Part of you fears it will just turn to smoke at any moment and vanish. It can’t be true. It’s just too good! But it was true. I pinned Andrew’s first daytime soft plastic mulloway in the chin with the gaff and swung it aboard, feeling its solid weight through my arms. His lusty rebel yell of a war whoop startled a couple of oyster farmers working their racks half a kilometre away. My grin was just as big as his as we highfived each other like soccer players after a goal. I don’t care how much fishing you’ve done and what mythical leviathans you’ve wrestled from the briny. If the sight and smell of a solid daytime jewie doesn’t stir your soul and make the blood course hard through your veins, then you should probably be on life support. They’re a very special and highly charismatic fish, in much the same way that big snapper and barra are. To take one on a soft plastic, a vibe or a hard-bodied lure and the kind of tackle many anglers would happily use to catch bream, whiting and flathead makes the experience even more memorable. Trust me, you’ll never forget your first. If you’re anything like me, I doubt you’ll forget your fiftieth either, assuming you ever get that lucky… or that your mojo is strong enough.
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...there’s an incredibly fine line between edging a ball to a slip and being dismissed while still in single figures, and being dropped before going on to amass a match-winning century. To my mind, that fine line is where mojo lives.
MOJO RISING There’s nothing wrong with keeping the odd one for a meal, but we need to fish for the future. Mulloway stocks today are only a shadow of their former glory. 2 0
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Related to other famous “croakers” from around the world, such as the American redfish, our mulloway are a priceless resource deserving of careful management. Things will need to change if our grandkids are to have a hope of tangling with fish like this.
Originating in the African nation of Cameroon and transported to the New World via the slave trade, the term “mojo” referred to a small good luck charm or amulet. These were often carried in a flannel or cat skin bag by followers of voodoo, in order to protect themselves from evil spirits and misfortune. One colourful account from 1940s New Orleans claimed that a mojo was often “the leg bone of a black cat that’s been killed in a graveyard at midnight”. Later, the word came to mean a more general form of magic or personal magnetism. It gradually crept into popular western culture in this form, thanks to the lyrics of singers as diverse as Muddy Waters and his Mojo Blues Band, and later The Beatles (there’s a line about a mojo filter in their song “Come Together”, along with a reference to muddy water). But it was the late, great Jim Morrison of The Doors who cemented the phrase “mojo risin’” into our modern vernacular with the band’s 1971 hit “LA Woman”. From there, mojo was briefly hijacked by the psychedelic drug culture and used as a euphemism for various mind-altering substances, before gradually regaining its sense of being about power, influence, magnetism and advantage. The concept of mojo is one I’ve referred to before in relation to recreational angling. I’ve come to think of it in much the same
way that many other people view “luck”. Luck or chance definitely plays a role in fishing, especially when results are measured over a short time frame. In the longer run, luck (which is really statistical anomaly) tends to even out. It’s also said that talented anglers make their own luck, and I believe this to be the case. While similar in some ways to luck, mojo is a subtly different phenomenon, and appears to run in longer, deeper and more cyclic waves than mere chance or statistical aberration. It affects all manner of pursuits and is especially powerful in certain sports, none more so than cricket, where it’s frequently referred to as “form”. A world-class batsman like test and limited overs great (and mad-keen angler) Matthew Hayden doesn’t suddenly forget how to hit a ball, but he can and did experience prolonged spells of well-below-average run scoring. These form slumps are tough to explain, but the underlying truth is that there’s an incredibly fine line between edging a ball to a slip and being dismissed while still in single figures, and being dropped before going on to amass a match-winning century. To my mind, that fine line is where mojo lives. When your mojo is up and risin’, you make runs. Or take catches. Or land fish. When it dissolves, heaven help you!
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Profile of the peak predator in our southern estuaries.
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FALLING FROM GRACE Back in the first years of this new millennium, my mulloway mojo began to run hot. The modern generation of soft plastics were big news and, along with my mate Bushy, I’d played a major hand in establishing, refining and popularising them. We were catching nearly everything that swum on these newage rubbers, often in numbers we’d never dreamt of before. Mulloway or jewfish were no exception. Prior to that golden era, I’d struggled to catch jewies on anything like a regular basis, and regarded them as one of the most challenging, effort-intensive targets living in our temperate southern waters. Modern plastics turned all that around and within a season or so I began scoring jewies on softies with a regularity that astounded me. In my best couple of years, I must have landed in the order of 30 to 35 mulloway on plastics in a single season, as well as putting many friends onto their first ones. Those numbers may seem modest to some, but they were a big deal for me then, and they still are. The fact that these fish averaged better than 7 kg apiece and that I was catching them on light spinning tackle in daylight hours from heavilly-fished southern estuaries made it a memorable couple of years. But in the end, I fell for the biggest mistake any angler can make. I grew cocky. I decided I was pretty damn good at this jewfish-on-lures caper. I had it sussed! Wrong. When my mulloway mojo ran out it didn’t just dribble away. It went “pop” and vanished completely. I can even nominate the precise moment it happened: when I fumbled the net shot on a modest 4 kg specimen right on dark and knocked the fish off my Squidgies Slick Rig. My mojo sunk into the black water like a stone, right behind that fleeing jewie,
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and was lost deep in the mud and weed of the lake bed, like Gollum’s precious ring. I have to say this next bit quickly because otherwise it hurts too much… But I didn’t catch a single jewie for the next four years! Not one. Zip. Zilch. Nada. Nothing. Over the past few years, I have finally re-discovered a sliver of my missing mulloway mojo. That magical morning when I was fortunate enough to put Andrew onto his first one on a soft plastic was part of a major turning point. It didn’t hurt that I went on to nail two lovely fish myself in the hour after we boated his! I wasn’t going to say “I’m back!”, but my mojo was
MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
These days, I have my good months and my bad months on the jewies. Red-letter seasons and very average ones. But I never, ever take the catching of these wonderful fish for granted.
My mojo sunk into the black water like a stone, right behind that fleeing jewie, and was lost deep in the mud and weed of the lake bed, like Gollum’s precious ring.
There are those special times, like landing three beautiful jewies (the biggest measuring 110 cm and weighing 11 kg) and also putting my wife Jo onto her first, all in just a few hours. And there are the tough times and the long spells of blank sessions. It goes with the territory. Catching jewies on lures during daylight hours is no push-over. That’s one reason it feels so good when it works.
My message to you, my fellow jewie addict, is quite simple. Catching mulloway is always a remarkable and wonderful thing. Daytime jewies on light tackle and lures are extra special. Never, ever take them for granted. Never assume you have them “sussed”… And when your mojo rises, treat it with the respect and humility it deserves… because nothing lasts forever.
definitely rising once more. I felt my batting form returning. I was seeing the ball in flight again.
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Stinger hooks can sometimes help with hookups, although the stinger clearly wasn’t needed here.
THE FUTURE OF MULLOWAY STOCKS Finally, no feature about targeting mulloway would be complete without a look at the current status and future prospects for stocks of these marvelous fish, and some thoughts on ways that anglers can play a positive role in assuring that our kids and their kids will be able to enjoy the thrill of tangling with one of these amazing critters. At the beginning of June 2017, I was invited by the NSW DPI (Department of Primary Industry) to attend a meeting of recreational fishing stakeholders intended to discuss the ongoing mulloway recovery program in that state. A similar meeting of commercial stakeholders was scheduled to take place shortly afterwards. Participants in both meetings were to be presented with a paper (which you can read here). This was accompanied by presentations from several DPI researchers. Below I’ve attempted to convey the “guts” of this meeting in simplified terms that I hope most anglers can relate to. But please don’t take my word as gospel on this critical issue! Read the paper as well, and search out the literature it quotes. This subject is too important to take for granted or gloss over. If we don’t do something, we face the potential demise of one of our most iconic saltwater species.
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
OVERFISHED
In NSW, mulloway or jewfish have been officially classified by the Department of Primary Industry (DPI) as “overfished” since 2004/05. In November 2013, a recovery program was implemented in an effort to rebuild mulloway stocks. This program involved, amongst other things, an increase in the species’ minimum legal length from 45 to 70 cm for both recreational and commercial fishers (with a significant exception that we’ll look at later), and a reduction in the recreational bag limit from five (5) fish per angler per day to two (2) fish per angler per day. Unfortunately, ongoing monitoring of stocks since the implementation of this recovery program indicates that mulloway are still in serious trouble throughout NSW, despite some better-than-average spawning years. Recent scientific estimates of the total size of the mulloway biomass in NSW indicate that it’s down to somewhere between 5% and 20% of its original (un-fished) size. Even worse, most of the scientists involved were of the personal opinion that the true figure was likely to lie at the lower end of that range: probably somewhere around the 7 or 8% mark, according to several researchers I spoke to... In other words, potentially around 92-93% of the state’s baseline mulloway stocks (as they would have been at the time of European settlement) are now gone from our waters! Furthermore, while it’s known from the analysis of otoliths (ear bones) that mulloway can live for at least 34 years in the wild; relatively few fish make it past the 4 to 6 year mark these days. So, jewies are not only stock- or populationoverfished, but also seriously size-overfished.
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Your first jewie on a lure is always memorable, regardless of its size. RIGHT
This was the age frequency of mulloway sampled between 2002 and 2005... the dramatic lack of fish over 4 years of age sounded real alarm bells and was one of the triggers leading to the implementation of the recovery program. ABOVE
By 2014/15, the age spread of mulloway in NSW looked slightly better, but there should still be a lot more fish in the population older than 6 years. (NB: The vertical scale on this graph is different to the 2002 - 2005 graph above.
ABOVE
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Since the breaking of the millennial drought (thanks to a series of wetter years between 2008 and 2011), there have been several better-than-average spawning seasons for mulloway, resulting in a noticeable spike in numbers of juvenile and sub-adult fish. This increase in the number of small jewies (often referred to as “soapies”) has been widely reported by both recreational and commercial fishers. However, relatively few of these small fish are surviving to become large fish, and to spawn multiple times. Here are a few important facts about mulloway biology: — Female mulloway mature and spawn for the first time at an average length of 68 - 70 cm — Male mulloway mature and spawn for the first time at an average length of 50 - 52 cm — Mulloway grow relatively rapidly in their first few years of life, after which their growth slows and becomes highly variable between individuals and geographic locations
This increase in the number of small jewies (often referred to as “soapies”) has been widely reported by both recreational and commercial fishers. The northern mulloway or black jewfish shares many habits with its southern cousin. LEFT
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WHO’S KILLING OUR JEWIES?
...more than 80% of all the jewies caught by anglers are now released! Researchers believe that these released fish have a very high survival rate (80%+ on average, and significantly higher for lure caught fish).
Mulloway are obviously a highly desirable and sought-after target for both recreational and commercial fishers. Both sectors take large quantities. Declared commercial catches peaked just shy of 400 tonnes per annum in the mid-1970s and have been in general decline ever since. Commercial catches are now back to about where they were at the end of World War Two... and you can imagine how much more effort there is today, and how much more sophisticated that effort it is! Commercial fishers are struggling to catch jewies today as well — especially fish over the 70 cm minimum length. Not too surprisingly, there’s virtually no worthwhile and accurate historical data on recreational catches of mulloway
Mulloway respond very well to soft vibes at times. LEFT Declared commercial catches of mulloway in NSW peaked at almost 400 tonnes per annum in the 1970s and have trended down ever since, with a slight rise since the end of the drought in the “noughties”. The ‘RP’ arrow indicates the inception of the Mulloway Recovery Program. ABOVE
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Starlo never tires of chasing jewies. When your mojo is up, they can seem almost easy… at other times they’re nigh on impossible! RIGHT It’s believed that rec’ anglers release in excess of 80% of the mulloway they catch these days. This includes both undersized and legal fish. Mulloway released by anglers have high survival rates. ABOVE
in NSW, but these catches are clearly very significant, and it’s quite likely that the rec’ catch has equalled or exceeded the official commercial catch in many years, especially since about the early 1990s. Today, the recreational catch is thought to be in the order of 100 tonnes per annum (potentially twice the size of the official commercial catch!).
However, since the increase in the minimum size limit from 45 cm to 70 cm in November 2013, a lot more mulloway are being released by rec’ anglers. In fact, more than 80% of all the jewies caught by anglers are now released! Researchers believe that these released fish have a very high survival rate (80%+ on average, and significantly higher for lure caught fish). Above are the estimated recreational catches (based on creel surveys and other research) for 2000/01 and 2013/14; expressed as numbers of fish caught and further broken down into the percentages kept and released (see above). It should be stressed that the catch statistics for both commercial and recreational sectors don’t include the undeclared, illegal “black market” operations of either sector, which may well be significant, especially when talking about such a high-value target species.
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...we need to act fast to save our mulloway stocks.
SMOKING GUNS
The other two “smoking guns” in the demise of mulloway stocks in NSW are the discarded by-catch of juveniles taken during trawling operations (especially estuarine prawn trawling), and the effects of loss and degradation of nursery habitat caused by bottom trawling, dredging, land reclamation, siltation, pollution, acid soil run-off, damming of coastal rivers, etc, etc. These two impacts are obviously immense, although there’s reason to believe (or at least hope!) that both have been reduced slightly over time. Improved trawling practices — including the implementation of fish exclusion devices and other modifications to trawl nets — along with better management in the form of periodic closures and spatial restraints on trawling, have no doubt reduced the by-catch. However, it’s hard to quantify this reduction without a lot more research. Similarly, more stringent environmental monitoring and tighter controls on polluters and developers are slowly improving the health of many estuaries... but there’s clearly a long way to go! These are things we need to be pushing to fix as a community. However, their solutions are likely to be long term. Meanwhile, we need to act fast to save our mulloway stocks.
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Shad- and fishstyle plastics work especially well on jewies. MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
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WHY HASN’T THE RECOVERY PROGRAM WORKED? From what I saw and heard at the meeting, the 2013 recovery program had two key weak points: Firstly, there was a clause built into the increased minimum length regulations allowing commercial estuary mesh netters to keep 10 undersized fish per day (10 jewies between the old limit of 45 cm and the new limit of 70 cm). This “get out of jail free” card has definitely backfired in a big way! While it was intended to prevent the “wastage” of a few stray undersized fish caught (and usually killed) in these nets, it has been interpreted and applied by many commercial operators as a de facto quota. Not only do many netters intentionally aim to kill their 10 undersized mulloway per day, a significant proportion of operators within this fishery greatly exceed that number on
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MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
Carefully returning a small “soapie” to the water to do some more growing and hopefully spawn at least once. what appears to be a regular basis. In fact, 25% of the netters checked by DPI had retained more than 10 undersized jewies on the day they were checked... and some of these breaches of the regulations were nothing short of spectacular. The greatest number of undersized mulloway found in a single netter’s possession was 189 fish (!), but this was by no means a stand-out exception, as other offenders had 121, 72, 63 and so on undersized jewies in their catch! Unfortunately, I don’t have any information on whether any of these operators faced charges as a result of their blatant breaches. It’s hard to envisage the community at large issuing a “social licence” for this kind of mandated breaking of the rules in any other realm of modern day commercial activity.
...25% of the netters checked by DPI had retained more than 10 undersized jewies on the day they were checked... and some of these breaches of the regulations were nothing short of spectacular.
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Can you imagine a long-haul truck driver being told that he or she was allowed to break the road rules 10 times each day without penalty... and then finding out that one driver had actually done it 189 times? The other anomaly within the changes to the regulations that formed part of the 2013 recovery program was the reduction of the recreational bag limit from 5 fish per day, with only 2 allowed over 70 cm, to 2 fish per day over 70 cm. In other words, rec’ anglers could kill 2 a day over 70 cm before the changes... and they can still do exactly the same today! So there has been no effective reduction in the potential take of spawning-size mulloway by the very large recreational sector. This sounds to me a bit like a “Clayton’s change”... the sort of change you have when you’re not having a change!
one of which may be over a metre (100 cm)... If both sectors don’t bite the bullet and do something very soon, stocks will continue to decline (especially during the next drought period). Ultimately we may be faced with a much less palatable choice... Something, perhaps, like a five-year moratorium on the taking of any mulloway from NSW waters by either sector... What do YOU reckon the best answer is?
NB: Please note that the personal opinions expressed here do not necessarily represent those of other representatives involved in that June 2017 stakeholder meeting. Also, the report above indicates the state of play as it was in the first quarter of 2018. Hopefully, things may have changed for the better by the time you read this!
From my perspective (and I must stress that this is only my personal opinion), the immediate solution involves a little bit of give and a little bit of pain from both sectors: an abandonment of the ridiculous 10 undersized mulloway “by catch” allowance for the commercials, and an effective reduction of the take of larger fish by the recreational sector; either by halving the limit to ONE fish over 70 cm, or allowing 2 over 70 cm, only
Soft plastics with plenty of ultra-violet reflecting tones in their colouration can be super-productive, especially in discoloured water. 3 4 MULLOWAY MANIA — how to catch jewfish on lures
