Seaway and Broadwater Report Wednesday 15th December

Conditions

• Wind: W  5-10  knots
• Preceeding 3 Days Wind : SE 10–20 knots
• Barometer – 1009.1 rising to 1011.1
• Swell: 1.5m E Swell
• Water Clarity 0.5-1.5m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 9.21 am, High tide at 03.37am  ( 0.53-1.07) Actual top of tide 4.30am
• Time Fished: 03.00am to 07.00am
• Moon Phase: 6 days before full moon.
• Water Temp 23.5-24.4 Degrees C

Notes

Sunny, schools of bigeye trevally in most locations, small bait schools.   Good water quality at the top of the tide.

Report

On the water by 3am,  moved into the basin and found some active bigeyes, got 2 small ones on ZBL poppers before they shut down.  Moved back into the seaway for dawn, moved up to the north wall and started off with a Rapala Xrap XR12 and worked the edges.  Didn't take long before it got smashed by a good fish which turned out to be a 57cm Bigeye Trevally.  Nothing after that tried a few different lures around the edges but moved back into the seaway to the pipeline.  Found some more bigeyes there busting up sporadically and cast some 20gram twisties at them.  Soon hooked up on a good fish which screamed off, a good fight and about 10 minutes later a good bigeye (60cm+)was circling the boat, one last lunge and the hooks pulled!.  Never mind, back to the action, fish were still coming up every now and then and I managed 3 more fish over 50cm in the next 20 minutes before they shut down.  Moved back to the north wall and tried plastics for a while, had one chopped in half but other than that it was quiet.  Moved around the front a bit and found a good school of fish and quickly caught 3 more bigeyes between 40 and 50cm before they shutdown.  Moved back into the broadwater and searched for fish, found some further up that were active and caught a couple more small ones before moving on.  Called it quits after that.

Not a bad day overall with some good fish caught but its a pity I couldn't find a school that stayed active.  All the schools shut down after a few fish were caught.  Plenty of bigeyes around though and some really massive schools.  Tide still wasn't quite right though, next few days should fish well for them with early morning runins.