ANGLING’S AS GOOD AS IT GETS
HI everyone, how good is the winter weather on the Gold Coast? It’s probably been the best run of great fishing conditions we have seen for a while.
Our Coomera Houseboat Holidays customers have been spoilt with fantastic winter days and great fishing. Let’s see what’s been biting:
Coomera Bait and Tackle customers have reported some great catches of tailor this week, the calm conditions have allowed anglers to see the schools of tailor busting up in the distance, making finding fish a bit easier.
Some good spots have been the Gold Coast Seaway, Curigee Channel, Crab Island, Paradise Point, mouth of Whalleys Gutter, Tiger Mullet Channel, Jumpinpin Bar entrance and Cobby Passage.
Keep an eye on the sounder for bait and schools of tailor to see what depth the action is, this will help you to choose the best method to try to land a fish. A good method is to troll around shallow diving lures like Rapala and Storm hard body, while looking for action until you hook up. If the school is moving around quickly, trolling is the best way to follow the action. If the fish hang around, throwing metal slugs will account for plenty of quality tailor.
With a small swell hanging around beaches, fishing conditions have been good with some nice catches of tailor coming from the gutters around Narrowneck north to the Pumping Jetty and South Stradbroke Island.
Reports from offshore have been promising, with some good catches of snapper, pearl perch, sampson and amberjack from the 50 fathom line NE, the 36ers is also fishing well, with a good mixture of species being caught. The 18 to 24 fathom reefs off the Seaway are producing some fantastic feeds of jewfish, snapper, cobia, moses, tusk and trag. An early start is the best option when chasing snapper to maximise the dawn bite time.
Late afternoon and early evening is prime time to target jewfish, if you can time this with a tide change you should be in with a great chance.
Just mix up your baits a bit, live yakkas, slimy mackerel or tailor are great for jewfish. If the bite is slow try filleting the bait and use a slab of fresh fish – that may do the trick.
Good-sized whiting are on offer during the winter months on the Gold Coast. Local whiting guru, Wayne Young (pictured), has done well finding some top quality fish in the Nerang River lately on live worms for bait. The North and South arms of the Coomera River, Pimpama River, Tiger Mullet Channel and the Logan River have all produced a tasty feed of whiting lately.
Brad Smith Fishing Charters have been catching their customers some quality flathead, working a mixture of Vibe lures on the Tweed River.
Hope you all have a good weekend and get out for a fish.
At the time of writing this report the forecast looks like a great weekend on the way, with light NE winds on Friday. Saturday will see light W/NW winds before tending light SW direction on Sunday. Offshore conditions will be great over the weekend, with a small swell predicted. Just make sure you have the latest weather report before you head out on the water.
If you have any great catches to report or fishing photos please email them to brett@coomerahouseboats.com.au Good luck with the Fishing. Brett