CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT FOR MARLIN
Hi everyone, I hope you have all had a great week.
It’s been another pretty nice week on the Tweed and Gold Coast with moderate winds making fishing inshore waters a nice option. Offshore the large swell has stuck around most of the week with only the most experienced anglers trying their luck. Unfortunately, as we head into the weekend the south-easterly wind is tipped to kick and another big swell will move in making sheltered waters the best option until the weather eases. Let’s have a look at what’s been biting this week.
Due to the large swell hanging around offshore, fishing has been left up to the most experienced anglers the past week with a few nice catches coming in. Paul Wilshire (see photo in report) decided to try his luck with a quick trip offshore early on Monday morning which paid off nicely landing a great sized Spanish mackerel around the Palm Beach area, trolling a dead bait.
The Gold Coast Game Fish Club ran their light tackle masters comp on the weekend with teams doing well on the Saturday managing to tag and release a few Black Marlin on live baits and trolling lures. Due to the Tsunami warning Sunday’s fishing was cancelled due to safety reasons.
After the next south-easterly blow settles down and the swell eases it will definitely be worth chasing a marlin as the clean warm water will be pushed in closer to the coast. Most reefs and usual marlin haunts like Spot X have been holding large numbers of bait fish, which should bring the predators in good numbers for the rest of summer season. Other pelagic species such as dolphin fish and wahoo are a big bonus for those anglers keen to chase a feed while out looking for marlin, try your luck around the fads or any debris you may see floating around in the ocean as it can quite often hold good schools of predators.
The best two methods when using live baits are slow trolling or dropping down a weighted live bait. Slimy mackerel and yakkas are the best options for live baiters. For those keen to have a go at trolling I’d recommend you try trolling a range of skirted lures from 15cm to 25cm long, which should get a fish interested if you are working the right area.
Leader size from 36kg to 54kg should work for most fish you would normally encounter. Just make sure you have the most up-to-date forecast before heading out.
After the recent big swell offshore, the fishing in the Broadwater adjacent to the Gold Coast Seaway area has been great with a good number of different species being landed this week. Fishos reported catching tusk fish, snapper, grassy sweetlip, Spangled Emperor, small mouth nannygai along with bream, tarwhine, lesser queen fish and flathead.
Try drifting the main channel area from the Seaway entrance towards Currigee and Crab Island, these areas contain plenty of gravel and rubble patches of reef areas which hold good numbers of fish feeding in the area.
Drifting baits will work well, yabbies, prawns, white pilchards, mullet fillet, WA pilchards, live herring and silver biddies will make great baits.
For the lure fishos working, soft vibes, metal vibes, micro jigs and soft plastics can be very rewarding and a great way to fish the area.
If you have any great catches or photos you would like to share, please email us and let us know how you went. brett@coomerahouseboats.com.au or brett@fishotackle.com.au