Broadwater and Seaway Report Friday 26th November.. The Froggies are In!!

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....

The baitfish have arrived, the summer seaway surface season officially begins!!!

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.