Spring Time Fishing

Well it seems that spring is early this year, rising temperatures over the last week is a sure fire indicator that spring is on its way.  While september can be a difficult time to fish with lots of snot weed, October through december is my favourite time of year to fish the seaway.  Edge fishing the walls on dawn or dusk with poppers, stickbaits and minnows can pay big dividends with large tailor, bigeye trevally and yellowtail kingfish all a possibility.




Water temperatures have been between 18 degrees and 20 degrees all winter and spring should see those water temps rise quite quickly.   Weather will get increasingly erratic with lots more strong southerly winds making fishing the north wall a suitable challenge for any experienced seaway fisherman.  I'll be attempting a few bad weather fishes over summer so it will be interesting to see if I can get a few decent fish out of them.

Fishwise, Bigeye trevally should start to show up in bigger numbers and sizes with 60cm fish becoming more prevalent as we head towards summer.  Poppers and minnows around the walls and slugs near the pipeline on early morning run in tides.  Vibs dropped down deep around current lines should also pick a few good specimens.  Surface feeding schools can show up at anywhere at any time  but generally only during run in tides.  Giant Trevally have been around in numbers for most of the year so it will be interesting to see if they taper  off this month as they usually do.  Mid to late september usually sees a few big schools of bigeye trevally feeding on surface in the broadwater after dark on run in tides, keep an eye and ear out in the main channels leading to the seaway for these  fish.

Tailor numbers should increase with the biggest fish showing around the north wall in October, November and December.  Poppers, Stickbaits, big minnows and live pike will catch the bigger fish, slugs will catch plenty of the smaller fish, look for surface feeding anywhere in the seaway, the broadwater or just off the shore break of south straddie.

As for Tarpon, I haven't seen any large numbers for months now so they have probably already moved up the rivers.  I’ll still have a quick go for them when I go out but I'm not expecting too much.  Australian Salmon have been very random this year with only a few small schools showing up, so its pretty much a case of fish them if you find them.  I have seen them in the seaway in previous years until mid October so they may stick around for a bit longer.

Yellowtail kings should show up in increasing numbers between now and the start of summer though they can show up anywhere at anytime.  The pipeline is a given but getting one up from the pipeline is almost impossible, there should be some hanging around the north and south walls which are easier to land.  Stickbaits and livies work well for the larger fish, twisties and plastics work fine for smaller fish feeding on surface.

Mulloway should still be around and will be able to be caught at the tide changes with vibs, plastics and livies.  Flathead should show up briefly as the spawn in the seaway in large numbers in september, plastics or live herring on the bottom are best for these fish. Dart should show up around the north wall and outside the beach break on south straddie towards late spring and will take small slugs and occasionally minnows.

Offshore, Mack Tuna numbers should increase, we may see a run of bonito and frigate mackerel as well.  Mackerel should show up towards the end of spring but won’t really get going until we are into summer.

Towards the end of spring (usually mid to late november)we should see large schools of frogmouth pilchards enter the seaway and broadwater, this is the cue for some top quality surface action with trevally, tailor, queenfish and kingfish all busting into big schools of bait, keep an eye out for this as it can happen at any time.

Lures I will be using alot over the next 4 months:

• 20 gram twistie
• 40gram Raider
• 9cm Rapala Skitter Pop
• Megabass vision 110 & 111
• Daiwa Dorado Slider 14s