BIG TIDES BRINGING QUALITY
Hi everyone, hope you have all had a good week, the weather has certainly come good this week with some nice conditions on offer seeing mostly light winds and only a few showers making heading out on the water much nicer than last week.
The water quality has been on the improve thanks to some very large tides this week pushing plenty of clean ocean water into the system on the incoming tide. At the time of writing my report the weekend was looking pretty good with light winds, the chance of a shower or two and a smaller swell. Just make sure you have the latest forecast before heading out on the water. Let’s have a look at a few options as we head into the weekend.
Finding some clean water to fish in this week has been the key to anglers’ success around the Broadwater and Jumpinpin with some good catches being reported. The main deeper channels close to the Gold Coast Seaway and Jumpinpin Bar entrances have been holding pretty good schools of bait in turn a variety of species of predators have been landed in these areas as they hunt for a feed.
Reports of tailor, dart, big eye trevally, giant trevally and a few good-sized school jewfish have been the main species local fishos have landed this week. The incoming tide has produced the best results with the clean ocean water that has been pushed in by the southerly winds last weekend working its magic.
Once the tide starts to run out the water quality gets pretty bad with plenty of freshwater run off making its way out of the local rivers. Try drifting the main channels on the last couple of hours on the incoming tide. I recommend working a variety of soft plastics, soft vibes and metal vibes around the bait schools. This method will work well as the fish fire up closer to the bite time around top of the tide change. Drifting live baits will also work well. Herring, silver biddies, garfish, mullet or pike are all good baits depending on what you can catch.
Whiting are still a good option to target if you are chasing a nice feed. The incoming tide has been the best time to target these fish in the rivers and local fishos have been scoring some good catches this week.
Once the tide starts to run out and the dirty water shows up, unfortunately so does the undesirable by-catch of catfish and heaps of undersized bream being flushed out of the system. The Nerang River, Coomera River, Logan River, Jacobs Well, Cabbage Tree Point, Bedrooms and Wave Break Island are some good areas to have a look around.
A light whippy estuary outfit is all you need, run 6 to 9lb main line, a long 6lb fluorocarbon leader, 3 to 5 ball sinker and a size 6 short shank baitholder hook if you are using worms or a size 2–4 long shank bait holder hooks if you are using yabbies. A good tip is to leave the rod in the holder and let the fish bite and they normally will hook themselves.
If you are tempted to strike at the fish you will nine times out of 10 pull the hook away and not hook the fish. Live blood worms are the best bait followed by beach worms and yabbies.
Some good hauls of mud crabs have been taken this week throughout the Broadwater, Jumpinpin, Logan River and Russell Island areas which is a great sign as we get closer to Christmas if you are on the lookout for some fresh seafood for dinner.