I HAVE to make a confession, July and August aren’t my favourite months. Not because there aren’t any fish, on the contrary, if you’re a beach or river angler the fishing is never better. No, it’s because the arrival of July usually brings with it the westerlies. Those cold, chill-to-the-bone westerlies that can test out even the best thermal underwear.
However, whether I like the cold or not, the signs are ominous for what lies ahead. I wonder if the way temperatures have dropped with a vengeance in late May and early June heralds a long, cold winter ahead?
WINTER CHOICES
Actually, the westerlies arrived somewhat earlier this year, which brought the fish in closer to the coastline. This prompted a flurry of activity as beach anglers dragged their surf gear out of mothballs, their waders out of retirement and headed down to Kawana Beach to tackle some chopper tailor. As the old salts usually say, the best fishing times are usually the most uncomfortable and, like any angler worth his salt, I’ll just have to grin and bear it.
On the fishing front, it’s at this time of year that you would be fairly confident in predicting that bream and tailor are going to form the bulk of the fish caught by estuary and beach anglers. The Noosa, Maroochy and Mooloolah Rivers are all producing quality catches. I can’t really single out any one area that is consistently out-fishing the others.
The main thing is to pick your time and tide and look for the usual bream haunts. The year thus far has been an unseasonably wet one and, if the weather forecasters are correct, this trend looks set to continue through winter. This affects the decisions you make when it comes to choosing whether to fish the estuaries, beaches or offshore.
If there is a fresh in the river, you’ll have to make a decision depending on the severity of the fresh. If there has been considerable rain, you are best to forget all about the rivers until the water begins to clear.
I took advantage of some beautiful sea conditions a couple of weekends ago and headed outside for a few hours of afternoon fishing. It had been three or four days since we’d received any rain but the water colour was still a dirty brown, so it appears that the rivers are not really getting a chance to settle down between deluges.
BREAM INDICATORS
Water Clarity
You must monitor the water clarity in the rivers if you want to tackle the bream this season. If the water colour isn’t too bad, you could try the river mouth during the run-in tide, as cleaner water moves into the river. Try to think like a fish and anticipate where they would want to go if a whole heap of fresh, dirty water came down the river.
Location and Tides
Should the water quality be good enough and you deem the rivers fishable, the prime bream spots are shaly-bottom feed banks, mangrove areas, jetties and bridges. There are plenty of ideas offered about which tide is the best to fish for bream. In my experience, the Sunshine Coast estuaries fish better during the run-out tide, providing there hasn’t been recent rain.
Lunar Cycle
Now, I know a lot of anglers say that the full moon is the best time to target bream and I agree, providing you have a certain amount of cloud cover during the night. If it is a bright, cloudless, full-moon night, the fishing won’t be nearly as good. That is why I always prefer to fish the week leading up to the full moon. The tides are building in size, the nights aren’t too bright and, therefore, the fish tend to feed more actively.
OBSESSED WITH BERLEY
This being the case, the best time to fish for the month of July will be from the weekend of the 8th and 9th up to the full moon on the 16th. You would have read in this article, over the years, that my enthusiasm for berley when bream fishing is bordering on an obsession – my wife thinks so anyway. Well that may be so, however, whenever I’m spending time with a line in the water, I want to know that I’m giving myself the best chance.
The berley market has, in recent times, seen an explosion of companies releasing their secret weapons to the angling public. The range of products is a veritable feast of smelly temptations, all with the single aim of attracting fish.
Most fishing tackle retailers will have some of the new breed of berley products on their shelves, as well as the tried and proven tuna oil, as a backup for those of you who are a bit resistant to change. Whichever style you prefer, old or new, don’t go on that next fishing trip without it.
Companies are also making it easier by supplying their berley in dispensing bottles. Seahorse Fishing Products offers a berley dispenser filled with berley. It features a handle, for attaching a rope, plus a screw-off lid for refilling purposes. It has been determined that fish species react differently to certain attractants, depending on their habitat. With this in mind, Seahorse has produced four berley mixtures to cater to all requirements.
The mixtures include ‘Mid to Deep Sea’ for offshore bottom fishing, ‘Estuary’ for bream, flathead, whiting etc, ‘Freshwater’ and ‘Surface to Mid Sea’ for attracting species such as garfish, mackerel, kingfish etc.
FAVOURITE LUDERICK SPOTS
I know of quite a few anglers here on the Sunshine Coast who fish primarily for blackfish and nothing else. Although we are only just into the winter of 2000, there have been some encouraging catches of luderick from the tried and proven areas. The Boardwalk at Caloundra, the downstream end of La Balsa Park in the Mooloolah River and the Black Banks near the river mouth of the Maroochy are all favourite luderick spots.
There is no doubt that chasing these fish can be addictive. When you see an accomplished angler, fishing with the appropriate gear, battling a good-sized luderick, it’s easy to see how passionate one can become about this form of angling. On light line and with a soft, slow taper rod, even a 1kg fish takes on gigantic proportions. So, if you’re in the process of dusting off your gear for the season, good luck.
TAILOR GUTTERS
The other fish to interest land-based anglers is tailor. All open beach gutters should provide great fishing. The huge seas we experienced a few months ago caused considerable sand erosion and will have altered the bank structures. Therefore, it will be necessary for you to take a look at your local beach at low tide to determine where the gutters have formed.
The latest mail on tailor is that good runs have been reported on the northern tip of Bribie Island and around into the passage. Many anglers consider the Pumicestone Passage stretch of water only good for flathead, bream and whiting, however, the excellent tailor catches of late prove the area’s versatility.
LURING OFFSHORE
The offshore grounds have not produced huge quantities of gamefish during the past month, however, the mixture of pelagic and billfish that have been caught is enough to keep interest high. Yellowfin tuna averaging 30kg are moving in the currents east of the Barwon Banks. They are predominantly being taken on pusher-style lures, however, success has also been reported on bib-less style minnow lures.
These high speed lures are an excellent addition to any tackle box. They allow you to troll at speeds far in excess of what you’d normally do if trolling baits. This enables you to cover quite a bit of territory, plus, you can continue fishing if you’ve decided to travel to another area and want to get there sooner rather than later.
Sailfish appear to be the most predominant billfish species about at present, however, if past years are anything to go by, you can bet there will be the odd black marlin about as well.
BOTTOM BOUNCING
Of course, if the surface fishing scene is a bit quiet, then there is always the bottom bouncing avenue to fall back on. At present, snapper, pearl perch, red emperor, amberjack and Samson fish are all giving the bottom-fishing brigade plenty of reason to smile and grimace as they rub their aching backs. Wide Caloundra and the central and northern ends of the Barwon Banks are your best bet if you want some of these quality table fish.
Strong wind warnings have hampered quite a few offshore expeditions lately, so many anglers have had to fall back on the close-in areas such as Gneering Shoal, Murphys Reef and Sunshine Reef.
I ducked out one Saturday afternoon recently just to blow the cobwebs off the boat and flush out the hornets nests in the motor. Bob Mark and his son Ryan joined Hamish and myself. Between us, we proceeded to catch half a dozen red emperor which were two centimetres short of the legal size, so back they went.
These were followed by one leatherjacket, a handful of juvenile sweetlip and the ever-abundant whiptail. One good thing always comes from every fishing trip and the fact that I didn’t have to clean any fish on my return home was a ‘bonus’! Good luck for July. Keep an eye on the river and don’t forget to rug up.