SMITHY’S CHARTER PROMISE PAYS OFF
Luke Bradnam’s weekly look at the Coast fishing scene
IT’S a bold claim for a fishing charter guide to promise if you don’t catch a fish you don’t have to pay.
In fact I only know of one guide confident enough to do it. His name is Brad Smith, better known on the Gold Coast in fishing circles as Smithy.
He has offered that guarantee for 25 years and so far has never had to refund money.
Brad left school at 15 and started work as a commercial mackerel fisherman off Palm Beach and other Coast reefs.
After a stint as a barramundi guide in the tropics he returned to his hometown to start an estuary charter business and has become a regular sight on the Tweed and Nerang River since the early 90s.
Other than his “no fish, no money” promise, the other thing setting Smithy apart is he doesn’t use bait ... ever.
He only uses lures. My obvious question of “why” is met with an even more obvious answer of “lures catch more fish”.
With weekend weather not looking the best for fishing offshore and warmer weather on the way, now is a good time for picking Brad’s brain about targeting Mangrove Jacks in estu- aries. Few Gold Coasters, if any, have caught more.
“Unlike some of the systems in the far north of the country, the Gold Coast and Tweed River systems do not hold plague proportions of jacks, but it is believed the small concentrations of fish in our area hold a number of the largestsized fish in the country” Smithy says.
This is of course great news for us anglers given the aggressive fighting capabilities of these big fish, but it also means we work harder to catch them.
Here is Smithy’s top five tips for chasing Jacks here on the Gold Coast:
Fish the tide changes, especially if they occur in the early morning, or late in the afternoon.
Fish structured areas, you need to get your lure or live bait right in the middle of any structure.
There is a spike in Mangrove jack activity in the week leading up to a full moon.
Mangrove jacks are more actively feeding with a rising barometer of 1020 or more.
Recommend you use nothing less than 30-pound braid and 40-pound leader.