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18 April 2019 fishing report

THIS WEEK’S GOLD COAST AND TWEED ESTUARY FISHING REPORT

TWEED

The mid to upper reaches of the river is the place to be as most fish seem to migrate upstream as the weather gets cooler. 

There are some good schools of medium sized flathead taking the lures in the shallow areas of the river and schools of small trevally busting up around the bridges on the tide changes. 

The bait should start schooling up in the deeper holes as we move closer to the full moon. 

James with one of the quality flatties caught on the day
Owen with his first ever flathead caught while trolling the shallows

Hopefully some nice school jew will be in pursuit of these baitfish and will be willing to take some vibe lures and plastics.

This trevally took an ecogear zx40 on the tide change

GOLD COAST

A week of mixed weather but the fish were biting well most of the time. 

Some great tuskfish have been coming through, we’ve caught over 40 this week on our broadwater charters.

Andrew with a nice Tuskfish caught on an Ecogear ZX40 blade

Also big schools of winter whiting have been prominent, and are very aggressive lure takers and a lot of fun on light tackle.

Fresh dinner from the broadwater
A good haul for Andrew in trying conditions

Some dinner plate size flounder, nice squid, small snapper, tarwine, the odd sand whiting, grassy emperor, and around 20 species in total have made up the rest of the weekly catch.

So many superb eating types of fish, just keep a few per person for a fresh feed and release the rest to ensure there is plenty for the future for everybody.

Jewfish on pink Ecogear vibe

Usually after Easter the weather really settles, May to August is my favourite time of year with good size tuskfish, flathead, flounder, squid, winter whiting and many others around in good numbers.

Luke from Dublin, Ireland with a solid flathead caught on a Pontoon 21 crackjack lure

Some week days there seems to be fish everywhere, wherever we stop and drop a lure or yabbie it’s bang straight on.

The water gets quite clear especially on run in tides, natural colour lures work best, my all time favourite lure in the broadwater is the Ecogear ZX40 in colour 440. 

Big flounder caught on lure

Dab a small smear of Sax Scent goldprawn and rub it all over the lure every 15 minutes. 

I find with the scent when the fish miss the hooks they come back and smack it again until hooking up. For that reason alone it’s worth using.

Some great areas to fish with the lures are the keyhole opposite Seaworld, along Labrador, both sides of Carters bank, the edges of the channel both sides of Crab island, the reef and weed beds at Currigee, and the reef adjacent to Ephraim island. Last two hours of the run out and first two hours of the run in are best.

The beautiful broadwater
Heading up Nerang river to catch flathead

With the bigger tides around full moon this week try venture up the rivers more, when the current is in full flow, and nearer the mouths and deeper holes around the tide changes.

Few fish in the esky after a session

Best lures to use are Ecogear ZX40s and Zerek fishtraps for drifting and casting, and Savage gear 50 XDR shrimps and Pontoon 21 crackjacks for trolling in depths of 1-3 metres.

Use decent quality braid such as Gosen #0.6 which you can get from Sporty’s fishing at Bundall and they will spool it for you too. 

Using 10 lb fluorocarbon leader on 1-4 kg rod with 1000 size reel, results in so much fun and you can still catch jewfish and big flathead.

We are fully booked for the rest of April, some dates are available early May.

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Joke of the week:

A wife got so mad at her husband she packed his bags and told him to get out. As he walked to the door she yelled, “I hope you die a long, slow, painful death.”

He turned around and said, “Oh, so now you want me to stay?”

Cheers and have a happy Easter weekend and holidays!

Smithy & Clinto

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