HOLIDAYS A TIME TO GO FISHING

HI Everyone, hope you have all had a good week. Conditions are looking nice on the Tweed and Gold Coast for getting out of the house and making the most of the great winter weather on offer. Let’s have a look at what’s been on offer for anglers this week.

With school holidays under way this week it is a great time to get the kids out of the house, off the Xbox, phones and spend some quality time trying your luck to catch a fish. You don’t need fancy gear if you are just getting started or want to try something different with the kids. A light estuary outfit with a running sinker rig will work well.

Prawns, white pilchards, worms or yabbies are great bait. Fishing from a jetty or the beach is a great option especially with kids as you can access facilities in most of the local parks. Some good spots to try are Coomera River, Paradise Point, Runaway Bay, Labrador, Biggera Waters, Broadwater Parklands, Marine Stadium, Nerang River and Jacobs Well.

You will mainly be targeting bream, whiting and flathead from these areas and they are a great fun for the kids to catch. Make sure you get a photo of them holding their catch and email it to me to go in the paper.

Jumpinpin has been fishing well this week with a mixture of bream, squire, tailor and jewfish being landed by local fishos. Try the Pin bar mouth on the last of the run-in tide for yailor and big jewfish chasing the bait schools in the deeper water, Crusoe Island, Kalinga Bank and Short Island will also be worth a try.

Some good-sized squire have been landed hanging around the bream schools at the moment, spots to start looking at are Kalinga Bank, Short Island, Whalleys Gutter, Tiger Mullet Channel, Little Rocky Point and the Power Lines.

Brad from Brad Smith Fishing Charters reports it has been a bit of an unusual week with quality more than quantity. Some of the whiting taking the lures in the deep holes have been crackers and the same goes for the bream with the average size being between 35 -40cm. The best lures have been ZX40s, VX45s and Samiki Vibelicous soft vibes and they have all worked equally well. He did not get a jewie this week but there were still a few small but hard-fighting giant trevally in the deeper holes. Trolling along the edges of the channels with Slam 47 and Pontoon 21 Crackjacks also produced some quality flathead around the first hour of the run-out tides.

Clint reports the fishing is amazing in the Broadwater with big daily hauls of up to 100 fish, squid, and crabs. This is the best time of the year to catch a superb feed of fresh seafood.

The big arrow squid have been thick and a heap of fun to catch, not to mention delicious in the pan! Ecogear ZX40s really fire them up, and they then eagerly grab squid jigs.

We have also been getting lots of nice big blue swimmer crabs, winter whiting, bream, bar tail and dusky flathead, tarwhine, and heaps of flounder. Best bait by far are live yabbies.

Gavin from Sea Probe Fishing Charters reports 50 fathoms has still been fishing well with nice size kingys , amberjack, samson fish, snapper and pearl perch.

Hope you all have a good week and stay healthy and safe.