GET READY TO TACKLE WINTER FISHING

Last week we talked about April being a good month to target a wide variety of transitional species. By transitional we mean fish species that are dominant in both Summer and Autumn; like flathead, whiting, mangrove jack and trevally.  These species will slowly decrease in numbers by late April and during the same months winter species like bream, tailor and jew should increase in numbers.

If you read last week's article, it discussed the importance of what bait to use and where to go to target the transitional species that live in local Sunshine Coast waters.  Tackle is equally important and the following is some tried and tested set-ups to use in this part of the year.

Now to keep costs down, it is worth your while to look for a multi faceted rod that could be used for both summer and winter species. Not a lot of people can afford to have a bream rod, then a flathead rod, a whippy whiting rod and also a solid tailor rod.These days tackle companies have come to the realisation that general purpose outfits to target a range of species are on the up and up as we need to continuously tighten our belts with rising interest rates and the cost of living.

Last year the Swan Boat Hire team designed a rod/reel combo for specific use as an all round light to medium estuary combo. The "Silstar Estuary Special" combo is ideal for bream, whiting and flathead with increased strength in the butt to also target tailor and trevally. The two piece (3-5kg weight range) rod was available to be purchased on its own for $29.95 or coupled with a Jarvis Walker Mirage 350 spooled with 10lb suffix mono to form a well balance combo at only $49.95. The combo's walked out the door rapidly at that price and this winter we will have a few more in stock for the financially savvy angler.

Big tackle companies have followed suit in designing some more wallet-friendly rod, reels and combos that can be used for a variety of species. A lighter set up to target bream, whiting, flathead and grunter bream on soft plastics or small hard lures is the ATC 1-3kg 7ft spin rod (imported by Wilson and Co) with a SureCatch Ovation 25 reel.

Already sneaking into tackle shops around Australia are a bright and glittery range of winter lures. To name a few that have caught the eyes of yours truly are some great new colours in Berkley 3inch PowerBait Minnows, Slam 3inch Curl tails, River2sea Baby Rover 50's, TT Switchblade ¼inch lures and shiny Citer Blades in 1.5inch and larger. These all retail under $15 and will work a treat with bream, flathead, trevally, jacks and the hungry whiting.

If bait fishing is preferred then try the new-to-the-market Wilson 7-9ft Foreshore rod with a SureCatch Ovation 35 reel.

A heavier set up which will put you in good stead for tailor, big sea bream and jew is the ATC 4kg Rack 7ft spin rod with a SureCatch Ovation 35 Reel for lures or the Wilson 12ft Foreshore rod coupled with a 7000 size spin reel or 650B Alvey reel for superior casting into deep gutters.

More substantial surface lures for the beach and deep water that have angler's tongues wagging include the Exude 5inch SW RT Slugs, Reidy's B52, Tropic Angler Poddy Mullet Deep diver, Trollcraft Pelagic #4 and personal favourites SureCatch Knight's in beautiful green, pink and red shades in 20g and 40g.

The main idea when targeting fish with surface lures is to try and match the lure size with bait size your target species is feeding on at the time. This will ensure a much better chance of a hook up. With this info in mind, hopefully you will be prepared for a good Autumn and Winter fishing season.

LOCAL FISHING REPORT

Noosa:  Long tail tuna and Mac tuna in the bay along with some sweetlip on the reef patches. Whiting and bream along Noosa North Shore. Flathead to 60cm and a few Whiting from the river mouth. Trevally on live baits from Munna Point and Woods bay.

Maroochy: Tailor to 3kg from the river mouth over night. Tailor in the cod hole just on dark. A 1kg jack from Bli Bli.  Bream, estuary cod and school jew to 5kg between Yinni Street and the Cod hole. Flathead throughout the river.

Kawana:  Flathead, bream and whiting along Buddina Beach. Squire and sweetlip on pilchards from Point Cartwright. Estuary Cod, Bream and trevally along La Balsa .

Caloundra:  Bream and flathead off the boardwalk. Trevally and jacks in Pelican Waters.

COOL CHANGE APPEALS TO ALL SPECIES

April is a nice mild Autumn month, with the odd cool night, but now that the Easter Bunny has been and gone, we can expect winter conditions to sneak in over the range in the coming weeks.

April is a great month to target a variety of transitional species. By transitional we mean fish species that are dominant in both Summer and mid Autumn like whiting, mangrove jack and trevally.  These fish will slowly decrease in numbers by late April and from now until late September the winter species like bream, tailor and jew will be on the bite.  We need a really big cold snap for the best part of the bream season to evolve.

Flathead will remain strong until the water temperatures in the river become too cold to swim in – if the water doesn’t appeal to us any more, the same goes for the flathead. So if you still want to target flathead in the coming weeks, fish in the shallower water which will warm up in the Autumn sun faster than the deeper channels will.

Flathead at present are readily taking soft plastics as well as well presented prawns, small blue sardines, frogmouth pilchards and squid strips.  Flathead in Autumn can be likened to a Hoover vacuum cleaner and perform a ritual similar to that which I do on a Saturday afternoon – large sweeps of sand banks, ahem, I mean carpet looking for scraps and debris stirred up from the week’s activities.  Though unlike the flathead, I don’t rely on this survival skill to keep my species alive.

The flathead are aiming to fill up as much as possible to survive the colder temps in winter as many of them go into a hibernating-like state.  Reports and weigh-ins have proved that flathead catches increase after April and often by June they drop significantly.

Bait preferring anglers know that presentation is a must especially in transition periods, because not every hook-up is a greedy guts who will bite just about anything.  For anglers who are experimenting with soft plastics, we can give you a few tips that will hopefully point you in the right direction. Assuming that most anglers will be fishing in the rivers and/or close inshore waters 3” or 4” plastic minnows or double tails will be sufficient. It pays to use light jig heads, that can still be cast the intended distance and sink the intended depth required but won’t sit on the bottom as you get your motion happening.

We generally use 1/8oz or 1/4oz chemically sharpened jig heads and they are amply for depth in the river and with a graphite rod and light braid will cast for miles in ideal low wind conditions. In the upper reaches or any areas where the water is brackish or brown from fresh water run off it is generally better to use brighter or more metallic colours. We use 3” Berkley PowerBaits in Pink lemonade and Ginger Beer colours, which both included silver glitter scales inside the plastic. For cleaner water it is good to use 3” PowerBaits that resemble baitfish like Watermelon, Pearl blue shad and Emerald shimmer. Pumpkin seed is really good all rounder for bream and flathead as well. Also hard bodied lures like Lively Lures Micro Mullet, Predatek Min Min and a Bubble Pop 35 would be worth a try when targeting bream, trevally or bigger flathead.

Trevally and the odd tailor are beginning to enter the rivers from the surf beaches and are chasing bait as far up as Bli Bli in the Maroochy, McKenzies Bridge in the Mooloolah and the Tewantin Ferry in the Noosa River.  If you are not into soft plastics – invest in some decent gangs and work the pilchards and strips of mullet flesh in amongst the bait fish schools.

It is well worth fishing on the lead up to the full moon on the Wednesday 28^th of April.  Fishing 3 days either side of the full moon in the deeper holes of the Maroochy River is common practice in the ‘transitional months’. This is conveniently close to the Anzac Day long weekend!!!