Seaway and Broadwater Report 30th November 2011

Moved into the seaway at 2.30am, the tide was halfway through the run out, a 1m ENE swell made things a bit lumpy.  Wind was light from the east, water visibility looked ok.  Had a look around, plenty of fish on the sounder but nothing was interested.

Moved back into the broadwater had a look around, found some fish holding in an area about 4 metres deep.  Tried a few lures but wasn't until first light that a few bigeyes started to hit the surface.  Managed a few hits before dad landed one around 40cm on a popper.  Unfortunately that put the rest of them down so we headed back out towards the seaway.

Back at the seaway we pulled a couple of tailor on minnows around the wall but it was quiet.  We spotted some birds working just behind the breakers along south straddie.  Turned out to be feeding schools of tailor & dart and a quick switch to sea rocks in 14gram had us hooking up every couple of casts, the tailor were around 35-40cm and the dart between 30 & 40cm.  We spent an hour or so catching those before heading back to the seaway for the start of the run in.  Had a few casts around with minnows and poppers but had no hits.  Dad managed a couple of nice tailor around 55cm fishing 7" jerk shads on the bottom.

We moved back into the broadwater and found some queenfish feeding on the surface, managed a couple of those around 40cm before they too shut down.  Had another look around saw a few decent bait schools entering the seaway during the run in tide but nothing eating them.

Around 8.30am we moved back to the wall and spied some birds diving on feeding fish, turned out to be more dart and we caught another 10 or so of those.  While that was happening I spied a couple of decent bustups right in close to the wall, and I do mean close they were feeding right on top of the submerged rocks no more than a metre away from the rock wall.  I threw caution to the wind and chucked a slug in there and it was hit as soon as it landed, and the fish screamed off and launched itself out of the water.  Looked like a big tailor well over 60cm, after a torrid fight the hooks pulled close to the boat... bummer.  Got back to the spot and had another cast and it was monstered again as soon as it landed this time it stayed connected and after another excellent fight on 6lb braid I landed a quality greenback at 65cm.  Moved back to the spot and switched lures to a 115mm Luckycraft Sammy(surface stickbait).  Next cast It was monstered probably about a foot away from the rocks and the fish took off thankfully away from the rocks dragging me into the tidal flow and I landed it 10 minutes later about 100m away, that fish went 64cm.  Next cast it got smashed again right in the rocks and I landed another tailor at 60cm.  The next dozen or casts went unmolested so we moved again and soon hooked and landed another tailor at 55cm.  Dad managed a couple of mid 40's fish on vision 110's.  After that it went quiet tried a few different lures and areas but they had switched off for the day.

So a pretty good day overall, plenty of fish landed, a bit of variety and a couple of decent fish in there.  Plenty of bait behind the surf on south straddie but not much in the seaway itself or the broadwater. There were a few schools of bait that came in with the tide though so I'd expect baitfish numbers to increase substantially in the days ahead.  Not many bigeyes in the seaway which is surprising for this time of year, plenty holding in the broadwater but they weren't in a feeding mood due to the poor tide.  The next lot of morning run in tides should fish very well weather permitting.

A SE blow is due Thursday afternoon so hopefully that should bring the warmer water in close and bring in more bait and hopefully the mackerel and tuna will come with it.  Water temps were 23.3-25.6 degrees.