COLD SNAP WELCOME FOR FISHOS
WE have had our first blast of winter chill over the last week and a few beach fisherman I have talked to couldn’t be happier. Good catches of nice size whiting and dart have been taken in our surf gutters and best of all the tailor have arrived right on cue with the first big westerly wind of the season.
On Sunday morning while most of us were helping the kids prepare breakfast in bed for Mother’s Day there were a group of tailor fisherman at narrowneck beach standing shoulder to shoulder getting some big green backs on raider lures. Some of the fish went over 50cm. As I walked the beach from Main beach to the spit you could actually see large schools of tailor in the surf around Philip Park.
One fisherman I spoke to said he had been fishing Philip Park and scoring nice tailor every afternoon last week on dusk and he had the gutter to himself. In among the big tailor are some queen fish and he had taken a big one over 70cm the night before. I love tailor as an eating fish but some find the flavour too strong.
One fish that everyone agrees is an excellent table fish is whiting and the great news is that we are seeing some big catches on our beaches right now.
The northern beaches of the Gold Coast from Surfers to the spit are the ones that I have had the best reports from but most should be holding whiting at the moment. Most of the fish are around the 30cm mark with the bigger ones being in the Nerang River near the council chambers.
The best bait for whiting is beach worms, I use a small sinker with a 2/0 hook and a red tube leader on 4lb line.
One angler I spoke to had just caught 42 at Main Beach, when I informed him the bag limit for whiting in Queensland is 30 with a minimum size of 23 he told me he was unaware of the limit. Be warned that ignorance of the bag limits is no excuse and the fisheries will fine you if you are caught exceeding the limits.
The great thing about this time of the year is that to catch dinner for the family you don’t need a boat, you simply need a rod.