Moved into the Seaway at 12.30am, there was a small window of opportunity for Tarpon so we concentrated on looking for those. The tide was just starting to come in so we looked at a couple of spots for zip then after a few casts in a new spot hooked a leaping silver demon. Once we figured out where they were holding it was action a plenty with 15 fish hooked and 9 landed from 55cm to 62cm, the usual Ecogear Grass minnow M on 3/8oz 3/0H jigheads.  90 minutes later they went off the bite, right on cue.  We moved around a bit and pulled a few small bigeyes but nothing else.

We moved offshore to try and get some livies but that proved to be very difficult while it was dark, and we only managed a few yellowtail just on dawn.  Back at the seaway we livebaited for a while for nothing.. not even a mauled bait.  We had to leave early today and was back at the ramp by 8am.

Lots of white pilchards holding near the anchored barges and in the seaworld deep hole today, birds everywhere but no fish into the bait.

On the water at 12.30am, we headed straight for the seaway to check out a few spots.  The moon had just risen and the tide was on the last legs of the run in.  Tried a few spots before finding a few small bigeyes around 3ocm on the north wall flats.  They went quiet after a few fish so we moved around a bit checked out a few more spots but all was quiet.  We headed offshore to get some livies for dawn and we managed 3 yellowtail and 3 pike.  Small tailor made a nuisance of themselves though.

Back at the seaway for dawn, I landed a small jewie around 60cm on a yellowtail, while dad dropped his first fish.  Second drop down I hooked up on a good fish with alot of weight, it powered off directly for the wall, 30 seconds later I was busted off just above the hooks.  Next drop I hooked up again straight away, on this time I was busted off in about 5 seconds this time well above the trace.  We only had big pike left after that and while they got mauled nothing wanted to eat the whole thing.

We headed offshore and checked out the inshore reefs looking for anything interesting.  The scottish prince had loads of fish on the sounder but nothing eating, saw some flighty tuna at mermaid and big bait balls just behind the surf at magic mountain, nothing into them though.  At burleigh we found a bunch of fish on the sounder and proceeded to catch a mix of School and Spotted Mackerel, Watsons Leaping Bonito and Tailor, all small fish with nothing bigger than 50cm but fun nonetheless.  We managed about 30 fish before we had to leave.

So not too bad a day overall, nothing too exciting though.  The seaway fish continue to prove they hold the upper hand, I might have to get some heavier gear to get them away from the bottom.

Conditions

• Wind: NW – 10-15 knots
• Preceeding 3 Days Wind : S - SW- NW  5-15 knots
• Swell: 1.5 m ESE Swell
• Water Clarity 1-2.0m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 01.49 am, High tide at 7.29am  ( 0.20-1.17)
• Time Fished: 12.30am to 09.00am
• Moon Phase: 1 day before full moon.
• Barometer 1012.4-1015.4
• Water Temp 19.3-21.7 Degrees C
• Moonrise: 16.24
• Moonset: 05.39

Notes

Clear & sunny, small amount of bait around.  No surface feeding.  Moon up all night.

Report

Rather than head into the seaway and try and get some fish with the double negative whammy of moon plus runout tide we headed to a spot in the broadwater that usually yields a few fish around the full moon.  Once we arrived we started off with shallow running minnows, megabass vision 110's and rapala xr8's.  First cast for both of us and we were on with a double hookup, a tailor of around 50cm plus a jewie around 48cm.  Next cast yielded a bigeye trev around 40cm, then another 2 tailor at 45 & 48cm.   The next 10 or so casts only yielded a few hits so I switched to a plastic, due to the shallow water(3.5-4m)I chose a 1/4 oz 3/0H jighead with a Gulp in Chart/pearl (now renamed 'Shrek'  .. green and ugly).  .  After a few casts I hooked up solid on a missle that got airborne seconds after hookup.  I initially called it for a Tarpon, but as it continued to jump realised it was a good giant herring .  A few minutes later I slid a 65cm Giant Herring into the net.  While I have caught bigger ones before in tidal lakes, this was the first I've caught in the broadwater so I was ecstatic.   More casts yielded nothing so we moved a bit and caught a few more tailor around mid 40's on shallow minnows.

At around 3am we moved into the seaway, had a look around for about an hour with nothing to show for it so we moved offshore to try for a pike or 2.  We managed 6 in an hour but 2 were way too big so we were left with 4 good size pike.  We moved into the seaway for dawn, tried a few lures at first for zip before switching to livies.    My first pike yielded a jewie around 65cm, then dad got smashed by a good fish that took about 50 metres of line before burying itself in the rocks at the base of the wall.  A couple more partial hookups followed but both fish were dropped.  We had a look around for some surface action but there was nothing around so we headed offshore once again and got some yellowtail in quick time before returning to the seaway once again.  Unfortunately nothing was interested, we tried a few locations but didn't lose a bait.  We gave it away at 9am.

So an interesting morning, the giant herring was the standout capture.  The seaway held a few fish but still seems a bit barren. We didn't see any other fish caught apart from bream.

Did a couple of hours on the Broady last night in search of some tailor, took a while to find them but once I did it was a fish a pass or cast. Started off prospecting by trolling some xraps and once I'd found them and pulled a few I pulled up and spun a popper but only managed one as the fish seemed to be hanging deep, tied on a squidgy and was back to a fish a cast, pulled the pin after around 2 doz fish in the 45-50cm range plus 1 lone squire, also hooked the mother of all hairtail which thankfully spat the hook at the boat as I was wondering how I could land it (I had severe misgivings about grabbing this fella) did get another 2 smaller versions and another Tailor on the troll home.
Beautiful night but chilly would be an understatement, only regret was leaving the fly gear at home (option for Saturday perhaps)

Steve.

Reprinted with permission.

Conditions

• Wind: W – NW 5-10 knots
• Preceeding 3 Days Wind : SW- NW  5-10 knots
• Swell: 1 m ESE Swell
• Water Clarity 1-1.5m
• Tide : BOM: Low tide at 07.21 am, High tide at 12.21am  ( 0.24-1.53)
• Time Fished: 12.30am to 09.30am
• Moon Phase: 1 day before first quarter.
• Barometer 1016.4-1018.3
• Water Temp 19.3-21.7 Degrees C

Notes

Heavy overcast, lots of fish in the seaway but few active fish.  Very little bait showing anywhere, no sign of hardys, white pilchards or pike in the broadwater.

Report

We moved into the seaway at about 12.30am, an early start because the conditions were good and there was alot of ground I wanted to have a look at.  We tried all the usual spots and a few new ones but despite the huge number of fish showing on the sounder nothing was eating, we even tried a bit of trolling through the middle where the fish were stacked up.  I decided to up the jighead weight to 1/2oz and try a few drifts through the deep hole but stick with a small bait size to mimic the white pilchards that have been around the last few weeks. Plastic of choice was a Gulp Minnow  in Chartreuse Pearl.  Rather than use the standard hops I used deadsticking, with the only up and down to make sure the lure was no more than 1 metre off the bottom at all times.  On the first drift as we approached the deepest part of the hole I felt a tap, then a solid weight so I hit him.  It felt like a good fish as he powered off and headed out to sea aided by the runout tide.  He slugged it out on the bottom for ages, making a few runs but all of them short, no more than 20m at a time.  The headshakes during the fight had me thinking jewie or snapper.  Once he started to tire I started getting him up and soon had him next to the boat, my biggest jewie yet at 118cm, weighing 15.08kg.  Due to coming up from such deep water he had an inflated swim bladder and stomach area so I had to puncture that and then swim him next to the boat for a few minutes to get his strength up.  Once he started to kick I released him and he swam away.

After that we did a few more drifts though the deep hole for zip so we decided to head offshore and check out the shallow bait reefs while it was still dark.  Ryan's post below(Thanks Ryan) had me intrigued about whether we could get pike from there while it was still dark in preparation for dawn so we checked it out.  It didn't take long before we found the fish but they weren't interested in the bait jig.  What we did find out was that the same rig that pulled the jewie (1/20z 3/0 with a gulp 3" minnow) worked pretty good, over the next couple of hours we managed about 10 pike between 15 and 45cm, 5 barracuda around 40cm and 5 baby teraglin around 30cm. Most of the pike we caught offshore are definitely a different species though, I'm thinking they could actually be Big eyed sea pike compared to the striped sea pike we get in the broadwater.

Just before dawn we moved back to the seaway and chucked down some livies, unfortunately it was very quiet and we only managed 1 tailor around 35cm and had a few baits mauled.  We waited  around for the change of tide to see if the incoming tide would bring some surface feeding but by 9.30am there was still nothing so we gave it away.

So an interesting day, despite the huge number of fish that were holding in the seaway few were caught.  I only saw a couple of bream and one undersize jewie landed by other boats.  The lack of bait could have been the reason. Nice to get a good fish in the boat though.

118cm 15.08kg Mulloway caught in the deep hole in the seaway this morning on 2.7kg braid on a 3" Gulp Chart/Pearl minnow. A new personal best for me, what a fish, what a fight.

Unfortunately work messed with my carefully picked day of fishing this week(wednesday morning) so once it was finished(friday morning) I decided to give the afternoon incoming tide a fish in the broadwater.  The seaway was out due to a monster swell that was slamming the coast, waves were breaking across the entrance and there was alot of water movement inside the seaway itself..  We launched at  around 3pm and spent some time looking for active fish and found some tailor occasionally hitting schools of white pilchards in the channel between wavebreak and crab island.  We managed a few of those around 35cm but they were very flighty.  Just as matter of interest, I cast netted some white pilchards just to see how long they would last in the livewell, after 5 hours we still had 50% alive which was interesting, I thought they may have been a bit more fragile than that.  I might try and get some of those for tarpon fishing once the swell dies down.  As the sun began to set we changed from slugs to minnows and trolled up a heap more tailor with every troll through the school yielding multiple hits and hookups, still not much in size though, biggest would have gone 40cm.  Best lures were the Rapala Xrap in 8 & 10cm sizes. Once the sun had set we moved into the seaway to try for  tarpon but it was just too lumpy for safe fishing so we gave it away.  Not much of a trip but better than nothing, I'm keen to get back into my early morning sessions again.  While afternoon sessions can sometimes be good, most of the time they only yield a few fish and they lack the options that a morning fish can provide.