Seaway and Inshore Report Monday 20th December

Conditions

• Wind: W  5-10  knots
• Preceeding 3 Days Wind : NW & SE 5–15 knots
• Barometer – 1000.9 rising to 1001.8
• Swell: 0.5m E Swell
• Water Clarity 0.5-3m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 00.31 am, High tide at 07.27am  ( 0.08-1.60) Actual top of tide 08.00am
• Time Fished: 03.45am to 08.00am
• Moon Phase: 1 day before full moon.
• Water Temp 23.2-23.9 Degrees C

Notes

Sunny & overcast,  Good water quality at the top of the tide, large schools of bigeye trevally and tailor feeding on the surface on the north wall flats.

Report

On the water by 3.45am, we had a quick look around before heading to the flats on the north side of the north wall.  I decided on this location because the swell was down, the water temp was up and previous trips have shown alot of fish are holding there during the calm weather although not many fish have been caught to date.  Once we arrived there the sounds of fish hitting the surface greeted us.  First cast with a 100mm feed popper and I was on with a nice bigeye trevally of about 55cm.  Two more quickly followed before the first rays of dawn started to show.  From then on it was action packed fishing for the next hour as schools of Bigeye trevally and tailor gorged themselves on the many schools of bait.  From single fish to massive schools of hundreds of fish all you had to do was get a cast in there and you were on, hooks that pulled were immediately hooked up again as fish fought for the lure.  Most fish were around 35-45cm but a few fish went over 50cm.  As the sun came up the fish went off the bite and we moved into the seaway and over the pipeline we found more bigeyes busting the surface, we landed 5 more fish here including one big fish of 62cm.  Unfortunately the camera battery was flattened filming the earlier bite so no pics of that fish.  We moved back to the north wall and tried poppers again and hooked up immediately with 4 more good tailor from 45-55cm, and some more bigeyes around 40cm.  After that we moved offshore looking for tuna, we found some scattered fish down around mermaid reef but they refused to eat anything we threw at them. We messed around a bit after that but gave it away at around 8am.

So an exceptional day, lots of fish landed with a few nice specimens, both slugs and poppers worked well.  I love summer seaway fishing! Not many still shots as the camera battery went flat after filming early action.