Broadwater Quick Report Friday 4th June

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.