This week’s Gold Coast and Tweed estuary fishing report and tips from our charter boats, with Big Hit Fishing.
This week’s tips:
Northerly winds and barometer drops. These can make fishing tough but a change of focus can result in big rewards.
While fishing for flathead can slow down, try chasing mangrove jacks and big whiting. The hot weather really gets the jacks going.
The besy way to target them is in the evening and into the night on lures, or live baits and dead baits. They can be caught through the day however, if you put in the hours and find your own special spots that produce.
Some good areas are around structure such as rock walls, pontoons, boats, wrecks, mangroves, trees, and where there is good tidal flow in rivers and creeks. Even the smallest creeks hold jacks, as do lakes.
Casting and trolling large soft plastics, soft vibes, hard bodies, and surface lures all work well. You have to get in close to the structure though so practice your casting! Red lures imitating baby jacks, white lures imitating mullet or whiting, and natural colours in clear water will give you a good chance.
Our local Tweed, Coomera and Nerang rivers are all home to big fish. Don’t go too light on gear or you will get busted up in seconds. Using a bimini twist is a good idea as a shock absorber, and upgrade your hooks, Jacks have no trouble straightening cheap ones.
Whiting are ravenously feeding to fatten up for spawning, get out there with surface lures and a non stop walk the dog retrieve for best results. Bassday Sugapens and MMD splash prawns will both catch heaps of good fish for us this summer.
If you’d like some pointers book a trip with us and we’ll run you through some effective techniques.
Fishing report:
Tweed river:
The Northerly winds and barometer crashes have been a pest but Brad has worked his guts out to put clients onto some great whiting on surface lures around Chinderah.
See pics below of some nice fish on Sugapens and MMD splash prawns, Ben Cole had a fun session with Brad.
The odd Mulloway, flathead, and a Mangrove jack the season opener, has made up the rest of the catch.
We’ll see a welcome cool change come through over the next few days, and SE winds. Get out there over the weekend and get amongst some quality estuary fish. The jacks might slow down temporarily but fish still have to eat.
Gold Coast:
Clint on Southwind has been doing some charters for families, as well as one or two fishos at a time. Again the Northerlies have made it tough, but we have been working our arses off to get a result for our guests.
Giant Trevally On 6lb gear have made for some adrenalin filled sessions in the Nerang river, as well as some Mulloway, flathead, bream, whiting on vibes, Ecogear ZX40 blades, and hardbodies.
In the Broadwater all around Crab island we have found some nice Tuskfish, as well as squid, flounder, winter whiting, sand whiting, dusky flathead, and bartail flathead all on lures.
Smearing some Sax scent on your lures every 30 minutes or so definitely improves the catch rate and size.
With the bigger new moon tides this week we’ll be heading upstream, and having a go for big jacks in the Surfers paradise area during the hour each side of the tide changes.
December and January charters will book out so get in touch to secure your spot.
Till next week, cheers and happy fishing!
Smithy & Clinto
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