THIS WEEK’S GOLD COAST AND TWEED RIVER FISHING REPORT
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TWEED
Brad has been finding some hard fighting trevally for his guests. They have been turning up around the shallow weed beds around Chinderah at high tide. There are some decent ones and a real thrill on surface lures and light tackle.
Lures such as MMD splashprawns coated with Sax scent goldprawn imitates local bait very well.
Flathead are not around in numbers with the high water temperature and dry weather. Hopefully rain arrives at some stage, althought the ongoing glorious weather makes for pleasant days on the water.
Once again the best options at the moment are targeting whiting on surface lures on top of sand banks at high tide, trolling for jacks along deeper rock walls, livebaiting for them at night around structure, and teabagging the deeper holes with vibes for flathead and bream.
GOLD COAST
Clint has been getting some great results for his charter guests at the Gold Coast broadwater, catching and releasing over 100 fish some days, and up to 15 different species a day, and 22 different species this week.
The Nerang river estuary system is a light tackle, lure fishing mecca, with an abundance of various habitat. There were islands, weedbeds, huge yabby banks, shallow reef, deeper reef, rock walls, sandy channel edges, and man made structure including pontoons, and bridges.
Some nice flathead have been appearing in the dirty water in canals where dredgers have been operating. In the broadwater the big tides have stirred up some discoloured water. Find a patch of this water and bait on the sounder, drop some Ecogear ZX40 blades and Zerek fishtraps coated in Sax scent, and it won’t be long before you get a bite.
Brad has also done a few charters at the Gold Coast lately, see our facebook page for the latest photos and reports.
Species caught on our charters this week have included dusky flathead, bartail flathead, sand whiting, winter whiting, tarwine, bream, flounder, snapper, spangled emperor, grassy emperor, tuskfish, barracuda, pike, queenfish, squid, cobia, mangrove jack, tealeaf trevally, whiptail, trumpeter, leatherjacket, lizardfish.
Most productive areas this week were the mouth to Bums Bay, Lands End area, Runaway Bay, the hole across from Seaworld, and the hole next to Seaworld.
TIPS
Fishing big tides. We are currently experiencing king tides up there with the biggest of the year. They can be tricky to fish with a lot of water spread around at high tide, but let’s explore a few options.
The main channels and river mouth run hard and clear when the tide flow is at it’s peak, they are best fished an hour either side of the tide changes.
When the flow is fast try moving to the edge of the channels away from the main stream. It is here fish will be gathering to comfortably get a feed.
Another option is heading far up rivers to areas that don’t normally get much rain, this is where some baitfish and jelly prawns will be found, and in turn predators following them. The run out fishes better with less water around, compacting fish schools more.
Lastly try pumping yabbies just after low tide, and flick them and live worms unweighted as the run in tide water quickly covers the yabby banks. Whiting, flathead, and bream will be right in the shallows waiting to access the banks to forage.
Surface lures such as MMD splashprawns, and Bassday Sugapens will work well too in the clear, shallow water. The big sandbanks between Southport and Grand Hotel are all great spots that attract plenty of fish.
This coming Australia day long weekend will be one of the busiest of the year, so get out there as early as you can, or fish in the evening. This is when the bigger whiting will be active and in bigger numbers.
Cheers everyone and we’ll chat next week,
Smithy & Clinto
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