Just a quick fish this morning so I won't put up a complete report. Fished the seaway from about 3.30am-6am, the swell and wind was up and it was too rough to fish the ends of the walls, I didn't go any further out than the pipeline.  The fish weren't quite as active today and I only used one lure a River2sea Bubble pop 65.  Spent most of the time around wavebreak, first up the small bigeyes were active around the wall and I managed about 5 of those.  The tailor also showed up just as the sun peaked the horizon and they fed hard for about 45 mins before  tapering off at around 5.30am.  Still caught about 10 on poppers, great visual fishing even if the fish were a bit small.  Not bad for a quick trip but it would have been nice to get out to the end of the walls, there were loads of birds out there.  Water temp was good,  high 23's low 24's.

Conditions

• Wind: SW-E  5-15  knots
• Swell: 1.5m E Swell
• Water Clarity 1-1.5m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 04.22am, High tide at 11.19am  ( 0.15-1.56) Actual bottom of tide 5.30am
• Time Fished: 02.45am to 08.15am
• Moon Phase: 3 Days before first quarter.
• Water Temp 23.2-23.8 Degrees C

Notes

Overcast, Lumpy E Swell. Massive schools of baitfish (frogmouth, white and blue pilchards)holding between the pipeline and wavebreak.  Some suspended weed around the north wall.  Lots of bird and fish activity offshore but too rough to go out. Bad tide.

Report

Started off in the coomera river this time as I wanted to have a look around in there.  Saw quite a few fish on the sounder but nothing that was eating, moved around to sovereign bridge fished there for a while for zip then moved around the front of sovereign.  Found some large bait schools here and as soon as dawn started to show, small bigeyes started to hit the surface.  Got a couple of them on a Zipbaits ZBL popper then moved down the broadwater looking for bird activity.  Didn't see any until I hit the seaway and found schools of bigeye trevally and tailor busting up on the surface.  Using old faithful(20gram chrome twistie)pulled a few tailor first then chased the bigeyes hunting along the north wavebreak wall with poppers, got a few of them then back for more tailor on the ZBL popper.  All tailor were between 25-35cm so only a few were legal, but entertaining nonetheless.  Noticed some birds working further out so headed up to see if I could get some larger fish.  Got out the big gear and started throwing a 65gram raider.  Well the larger fish were there alright but landing them proved to be a bit frustrating.  Due to the rough conditions and strong E wind I had to cast out -hookup- manouvere the boat- land the fish.  The big tailor were in an acrobatic mood today and most of the big ones got airborne while I was busy moving the boat out of harms way and most of them threw the hook.  The ones that didn't,  threw the hook right next to the boat, didn't really matter as I was going to release them anyway, but would have been nice to get a pic particularly of the 60cm+ fish(and there were a few of those).  I did that for the next hour, the fish were busting up sporadically and I was hooking up nearly every cast.  Lost most of the fish but did land a few around the mid 40's.  Moved back into the seaway and chased the smaller tailor for another hour, probably landed another 15 before spotting some more bigeyes working the very edge of the south wall.  Chased them for about half an hour, landed about 5 on poppers before they went down.  All bigeyes caught today were around the 30-35cm size.  Had to leave at 8am and the small tailor were still at it, pulled another couple before heading towards the ramp.

So that was it, good to see the baitfish have finally arrived.  Not much in size landed but the big boys are there.  The tide today was crap(bottom of the tide.. dirty water), but there were so many fish around it didn't seem to matter.  The bigeyes were mainly hunting right in close to the rock walls and the tailor were on the flats areas with the bigger fish just outside the walls in the rough stuff.  There were tons of birds and fish activity offshore so could be some tuna around out there.  Water temps were good , very stable between 23 & 24 degrees.   The wind is going back around to the north tomorrow so it could bring back the cold water, but that should take a few days at least.  The larger bigeyes should show up in the next couple of weeks.  Not too many fish pics today, you all know what small bigeyes and tailor look like. There will be some video of the fish busting up a bit later.  Better tides starting wednesday....

Massive bait schools, Frogmouth , White and Blue Pilchards. Packs of bigeye trevally and tailor busting up. 4 hours of action packed fishing, what a morning.  30+ fish landed, just as many lost some big tailor amongst them.  Top fun.  Report & some video later.

Conditions

• Wind: WNW 5-10  knots
• Swell: 1 m ENE Swell
• Water Clarity 1 m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 11.11am, High tide at 05.16am  ( 0.39-1.17) Actual top of tide 6.35am
• Time Fished: 02.45am to 07.15am
• Moon Phase: 3 Days before full moon.
• Water Temp 19.2-21.5 Degress C

Notes

Overcast, Lumpy ENE Swell. Cold water temps.  Green dirty water around the north wall.

Report

Moved into the seaway at 2.45am, water temps were way down around 19.5 degrees so wasn't hopeful of any tarpon, they seem to prefer warmer temps.  A little bit of phosphorescence around as well.  Spent alot of time sounding around, found some fish in the middle but getting down to them was impossible with the strong current. Fished around the north wall/south wall/wavebreak/pipeline at dawn with multiple techniques but nothing was even remotely interested.  Moved into the broadwater looking for surface feeeding schools, plenty of birds flying around but no surface feeding.  Checked out a beacon and found some fish hanging in close so I backed off and threw in a twistie and hooked up. Turned out to be a reasonable tailor at around 40cm.  Not long later Dad hooked one around the same size.  We dropped a few more fish but as the tide turned the fish moved away.  We did find them again a bit further out but they weren't eating.  Called it a morning at 7.15am.

An interesting morning, the cold water should clear off with the South Easterlies due on friday, hopefully that should also bring in the now very late froggies.  If that happens, given the amount of tailor I'm seeing on the sounder, the surface season should begin with a vengeance.

Conditions

• Wind: ENE 5-15  knots
• Swell: 1-1.5 m ENE Swell
• Water Clarity 1 m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 02.22am, High tide at 09.30am  ( -0.01-1.68) Actual bottom of tide 4.15am
• Time Fished: 04.00am to 07.15am
• Moon Phase: 1 Day after new moon.
• Water Temp 22.5-23.9 Degress C

Notes

Overcast, Lumpy ENE Swell. Very rough and difficult to fish at the north wall.  Could not fish past the line. Some suspended sand & weed

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This was a trip to test out the new sounder rather than target any sort of fish, I spent some time fiddling and figured out that the auto sensitivity was way too high and the backlight has to be quite high otherwise its impossible to view the screen from an angle.  Any water on the screen tends to make it impossible to view as well.  The chartplotter is a little bit off as far as landmasses go but should be fine with marking waypoints.  Full review later once I've had more of a chance to use it.

On to the fishing, moved up to the north wall and started off casting around some shallow diving minnows but it being the bottom of the tide with very dirty water I wasn't hopeful.  It took a while before I got my first fish a small bigeye trevally.  The swell was lumpy from the northeast making it quite uncomfortable to fish and the constant up down of the swells ended up making me feel a bit ordinary so I moved back into the seaway and checked out around wavebreak.  Here I found a few bustups and soon had another couple of small bigeyes to the boat.  They went quiet after that so I moved south and checked out some diving birds, here I found some small tailor and more small bigeyes busting up.  Not alot of them but enough to have a bit of fun with.   Chased them for an hour or so and landed 3 tailor and 3 more small bigeyes before giving it away.   Considering the tide was the absolute worst it can be the results were pretty good.  Still no sign of the big schools of frogmouth pilchards unfortunately.

Conditions

• Wind: ENE 10-15  knots
• Swell: 1-1.5 m ESE Swell
• Water Clarity 1-1.5 m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 12.21am, High tide at 6.27am  ( 0.07-1.45) Actual top of tide 7.45am
• Time Fished: 02.30am to 07.45am
• Moon Phase: 2 Days before new moon.
• Temps 21-23 Degrees C

Notes

Overcast, rain patches. Very rough and difficult to fish, at the upper limit of safe boating.  Could not fish past the line. Very strong tidal flow.

Report

Moved into the seaway at 2.30am and spent some time checked out a few spots, not many fish around though nothing that was staying in 1 spot anyway, saw some schools moving through but couldn't find them again on the second pass.  At dawn I moved up to the north wall to try some wash fishing for tailor, the was a huge amount of water moving around and I learned very quickly it was not safe out in front of the wall so I stuck to the eddy and the inside edge.  Even here it was very rough but there was plenty of whitewater so I was hopeful of a few fish.  Didn't take long to score my first tailor at 58cm on the system minnow along the face, followed by another 2 around 55cm quickly after.  All 3 fish were taken in the same general area.  Went a bit quiet after that so I changed lures to a megabass vision 110  and began working the edges, wasn't long before I was smashed by a huge fish which proceeded to leap out of the water 3 times in quick succession only to throw the lure on the fourth jump.  He looked every bit of 70cm that fish.  Took a little while before I hooked up again this time landing a  50cm tailor.  One more fish around 45cm followed before it went quiet.   Messed around a bit with plastics while I waited for the tide to slow but the tidal run was so fast even dropshot sinkers were getting stuck on the bottom.  Once the tide started to slow I sent big plastics down for a jewie but got nothing at all, the few times my sounder did decide to work there was absolutely nothing down there.

Today was the last day for my faithful 7 year old Lowrance x40 sounder, its behaviour has become increasingly erratic the last couple of months often losing the bottom signal for minutes at a time.  Its being replaced by a fancy new Lowrance HDS 5.  Will it improve my fishing.. only time will tell.

Conditions

• Wind: NW 5-10  knots
• Swell: 1 m ESE Swell
• Water Clarity 1-1.5 m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 10.27am, High tide at 4.45am  ( 0.27-1.17) Actual top of tide 5.45am
• Time Fished: 04.00am to 05.45am
• Moon Phase: 4 Days before new moon.
• Temps 21-23 Degrees C

Notes

Small amount of suspended  weed, Water dark green colour around the north wall.  Sunny.

Report

On the water at 4am this was a trip specifically to fish the top hour of the tide and to spend some time prospecting the washes for big tailor.  As we are now in November the peak time for greenbacks in the seaway is upon us and we should see more big fish come in until we hit January.  My best so far is 71cm, so a 75cm tailor would be great.  For big tailor I'm testing the Zipbaits System Minnow 15f, so far its caught a nice tarpon and a decent 50cm tailor but no big fish. It didn't take long to get the first hookup and soon after the fish jumped out of the water a good sign of a quality fish as the smaller ones just tend to mess around close to the boat.   The fight was a tough one with alot of difficulty getting him into the net, in the end the free swimming hooks fouled on the outer edge of the net and I ended up getting my hand under the fish and lifting him in.  That fish went 63cm which is a very nice fish on a lure.  Soon after that dad caught a 40cm tailor on a 120mm feed popper.  Lots more casting followed with a few more hits but no hookups.  I changed to a zipvib 90 and began working the current lines and hooked another tailor at around 50cm.

The tide was slowing by this time and the sun was up so we switched to large gulps to target a jew or 2, that didn't take long with a double hookup on the first drop.  One fish went 65cm the other 60cm.  We pulled another 2 fish shortly after that both under 60cm.  I changed to a Berkley Power Shrimp sent it down and soon hooked a nice jewie around 65cm but the hook pulled close to the boat, I'm thinking with such a large hook I might have to set the hook a bit firmer than ordinary plastics.

By this time it was 5.45 and our time was up so we headed back to the ramp.

The water still isn't clean enough for good popper fishing, need some more strong southerlies for that.  However I did see some interesting schools of fish moving through on the sounder, so the fish may be there just need the right conditions.