THIS WEEK’S ESTUARY REPORT AND TIPS FROM OUR CHARTERS
TIPS
How to catch winter whiting
Winter or diver whiting are in abundance in the Gold Coast broadwater all year round. They are easily caught on small blades and fresh bait such as yabbies, worms or thinly sliced fresh squid.
They have no size limit and bag limit of 50 per person, and are delicious on the plate, and a great live bait for mangrove jacks. They are heaps of fun to catch, putting up quite a fight for their size.
Winter whiting feed voraciously any time of day when the tide is running. Some of the best areas to catch them are either side of Carters bank, all around Crab island, Ephraim island, and through the entire area between Seaworld and Sundale bridge in depths ranging from 0.5m to 7 metres.
Like their bigger cousins the sand whiting they move constantly to graze, so keep moving until you find the big schools. Best way to fish is to drift, this makes them chase and bite your lure or bait more aggressively.
There are literally thousands of them in the broadwater. On our jack charters we’ll go out and catch 30 of them in the morning then go fish for red devils. They often school along side snapper and sand whiting. Get out there and catch some!
GOLD COAST ESTUARY REPORT
Crazy busy on the water over the past week with the holiday traffic, it pays to get out there early or late afternoon.
The water has been rapidly warming, it has been getting up over 30 degrees up the rivers, and a more stable 24 degrees in the broadwater depending on the tide.
We have been catching nice tuskfish, sand whiting, winter whiting, spangled emperor, grassy emperor, flounder, bream, tarwine, and over 30 squid in the past week. Best lures have been Ecogear ZX40’s, Zerek fishtraps, and best baits yabbies and fresh squid.
The tides are increasing in the coming days, with some good tides for fishing the broadwater as well as jacks up the rivers.
TWEED
Brad has been getting some big flathead despite the hot conditions, with bigger lures tempting them. The surface lures such as MMD Splashprawns have been accounting for whiting, queenfish, trevally and flathead.
The best areas to fish will be upstream of Chinderah, and the deeper holes where the water is a bit cooler and darker.
Cheers and we wish you a successful and happy new year!
Smithy & Clinto
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