Well the modifications to the site are coming along nicely, still alot to do but I'm very happy with the result so far.    The forum keeps breaking so I have disabled it for now. Profile pictures are now available too, just to to your profile and upload an image(there is an issue with blurry profile images on the forum which I am working on).

Rain is coming.  We have had a very long stretch without a decent flood or storm event but it looks like we will run out of luck this weekend.  Over 200mm of rain is forecast and that is enough to flood the gold coast rivers and turn the seaway into a muddy brown mess.  It all depends on how quickly it falls, if its a slow steady drizzle we should be alright, but if its a sustained heavy downpour expect things to get messy.  Swells of 4-5 metres are forecast as well so use caution if you are in the seaway this weekend.

In other news I have a new camera to play with, a Gopro Hero 3 Black.  This camera will be used to take higher quality pictures, more video and take you places in the seaway you have never seen before.  The capabilites of this camera are unmatched. Watch this space..  Here's the promo video for it, the music is awesome...

Into the seaway at 2.30am, wind was initially 5kt SW swell was 1m SE, tide was running in due to top at around 5am.  Started off testing some new lures, a zman 3" pearl Blue Glimmer on a 3/8oz 3/0 headlockz jighgead.  I have avoided zman plastics until now because I hate messing around supergluing plastics to jigheads however the new headlockz jigheads do a damn fine job of keeping them secure and the hooks used are ultra strong without compromising penetration.  Anyway worked the walls for a while but no joy until we managed  a couple of hits around the dropoff north of the north wall.  Kept casting but nothing else happened until a heard a surface hit somewhere in the distance so I decided to change to a 9cm skitter pop.    First cast with that and I had a few hits, there was a bit of phosphorescence in the water and as I got it close to the boat could see the fish swimming underneath it.  Next cast it got smashed and after a short fight up popped a bigeye around 45cm.

Dad changed to a popper too and soon we had double hookups with fish smashing the popper on nearly every cast.  The wind picked up to 15kts from the SE which made things a tad rough and tricky but the fish just kept on biting but all around that 40-45cm size.  Just on dawn the wind eased off and I noticed a massive hit on the popper which didn't connect.  Next cast though we had a double hookup on bigger fish which turned out to be a pair of bigeyes at 52 &57 cm.  The bigger fish stayed biting for another 15 minutes or so then disappeared.

We looked for tailor and pulled a few on the flats on twisties and poppers but they were a bit small around 30cm.  Moved around to the south side and soon had double hookups on tailor on poppers, all around that 35-40cm mark though I did see a much bigger fish give one of the poppers a nudge before following it back to the boat.  That lasted about 20 minutes before they too disappeared.   Tried some plastics on the bottom, had a few hits that didn't connect.  Had a quick look offshore but didn't see anything of interest before heading back in to look for GT's.  No joy on that front either, had to go at 8am, didn't see much bait in the broadwater this time.

Some damn fine popper action there this morning and plenty of fish landed, good to see some bigeyes above 50cm for a change.. geez they make a big hole in the water when they go for a popper.. awesome.  The zman's remain unproven at this stage but will do more testing on future trips.

Started off at the seaway at 4am. Minnows and slugs thrown at the wall landed 6 tailor. All between 30cm and 35cm. Sunup came and with that, so did the birds. Too many birds, stupid mutton birds flying everywhere made it near impossible to find the birds that were following fish. Eventually found a few schools of tuna but couldn't get close enough for a cast. They were very surface shy and by 7am the winds picked up considerably and we decided to head back in. Back into the broadwater and in search of surface action on the incoming tide. No luck so we threw a few plastics around the rock wall and landed 2 small moses perch and a cale cale trevally. My 1st ever I've caught so a new species for me.

Into the seaway at 2.30am ran straight into some bigeyes occasionally hitting the surface over the pipeline.  Landed one about 40cm on a 85mm squidgy slick rig then proceeded to drop the next 5, just one of those things.  They weren't as active as the other night and were quite widespread but if you could get your lure into a bustup quick enough you were guaranteed a hit.  Had a quick fish for Tarpon, hooked one and it jumped straight off.  And that was it for them.

 




Dawn arrived and I picked up Wade from the ramp and we tried the pipe again(nothing) then moved out to the wall.  Found the tailor hiding in close under the suds and proceeded to land numerous small tailor between 30 & 40cm on twisties and poppers.  Did a drift alongside the inside of the wall and picked up one 45cm tailor on a popper.

Moved offshore and had a quick look around, found some bonito but soon got tired of them and went looking for tuna.  Did a circuit and found a very small school of striped tuna in close to south straddie, hooked and landed one about 60cm.  Came back in around 6.30 to check for GT's/kings.  Waited until 7am but nothing around.  Had to take Wade back to the ramp so he could get to work.  dropped him off and came back, determined to wait around until 9am, just in case.

Sure enough at around 7.20 the first school of fish popped up in exactly the same spot as the other day(I thought they were kings, now I know they were GT's being fussy), chucked a twistie at them but no takes.  I put the slug rod away and got out the rod rigged with a split shot and a nosehooked 3" flash J plastic in glow silver.  Next school that popped up I drove right up to it and cast that plastic right into the area with the heaviest bustups.  As soon as I closed the bail arm I was on the fish took off once I put the pressure on.  Landed the fish about 10 minutes later a nice GT of around 65cm.  I had the schools to myself for the next 2 fish as well and landed 2 more going 68 & 70cm.   Interestingly I drove right up to those schools and drifted right into them with the motor idling and it didn't bother them one bit, they kept feeding for another couple of minutes after that.  Many times I had fish busting up within a metre of the boat(which was awesome by the way), I have video of that incidentally but its pretty rough.. hard to fight a fish and take video at the same time.   Anyway another boat turned up and joined in the fun.  I landed 3 more GT's between 60& 67cm over the next 45 minutes or so before more boats arrived, unfortunately after that the tide started to run in and the GT's tapered off.  I had to leave at 9am so I'm not sure if they reappeared after that.

The split shot rig proved itself again today but position of the cast is critical for an instant take, it must go in the area of the heaviest activity so positioning according to wind direction is very important.  Incidentally I don't reccomend driving right into a school of fish like that with other boats around, they are likely to get cranky but if you have the schools to yourself it is an awesome thing to try.

A Pictorial

Well I decided to change things up a bit, the morning sessions haven't been working for me so I decided to do an overnight session and focus on hitting the important tide changes and times of day for target species, being in the right place at the right time in other words. Got on the water at 2.30pm Tuesday, tide was bottom half of the runout, swell was 1.5m ESE so a bit lumpy but fishable. Wind was 15kts from the ESE.

Had a quick look in the broadwater but nothing there so went to the end of the north wall and fished the bottom with a grass minnow on 3/8thoz head. Got 2 tailor and a couple of small maori cod. At 5pm I had another look in the broadwater and went up as far as the top of sovereign , saw heaps of birds but no fish. Back to the north wall by 6pm and chucked a twistie on pulled a couple of tailor then switched to a popper, and from then on it was action aplenty with acrobatic tailor smashing the popper and getting airborne on every cast. Size wasn't great best fish going about 45cm, smallest about 30cm but plenty of them must of landed well over 15, lost half that. Did lose a big tailor on about the 5th jump. It was rough though, very difficult to stay upright, great fun.





Once the sun had set around 8pm I switched to tarpon and back to the grass minnow, on about the 5th cast I hooked up but the tarpon threw the hook on the 2nd jump, pity it was a big fish. Hooked and lost one more and that was it for the tarpon, even tried a slick rig but no go. Just not enough tarpon there at the moment, just the odd fish.
Had a fish around the pipeline but nothing biting so had a look south of wavebreak, plenty of bait there but no fish. Came back had another go for tarpon, managed one hit but that was all. Time for a break and relax, next important time was at midnight and the target was bigeyes.   At midnight I headed back to the pipeline and sure enough the bigeyes were on the job, the next 2 hours were top fun with bigeyes hitting plastics and poppers with wild abandon. Size was around 35-45cm I did hook 2 better fish but both times I got sharked and I didn't even get the lures back. They just left me with an abraded trace and a sliced curling end. Scratch two limited edition chrome rapala skitter pops. The fun ended with a pod of dolphins coming through chasing the bigeyes putting them down. Had another go for tarpon but got zip. Took another break until 4am, dawn.

Went back out to the north wall and had another shot at the tailor, they were on the job again but weren't real interested in poppers though I did manage one decent one, they were hanging deeper and preferred twisties and minnows. Size was similar though, fish a cast for about an hour and a half.

Once the sun was up I headed into the broadwater for the next opportunity, surface feeding GT's on the last of the runout. Didn't take long to spot some fish but they looked like kingfish towards the end of the northern most point of the wavebreak sandspit but were refusing all offerings. I tried all manner of lures and eventually put on the smallest slug I had a rios slug about 2cm long. 2nd cast with that and I hooked up and the fish took off, because of the lightweight hooks on such a small lure I had to take it easy and it took about 15 minutes to get him to the boat, unfortunately not the kingfish I was expecting it was a GT about 68cm, nice fish though. They only came up a couple of more times then the tide changed to run in. I moved up towards wavebreak and spotted some more kingfish busting into schools of large white pilchards, threw lures at them at least half a dozen times but not even a looker, bloody fish. Called it a day at 9am. So a pretty good overnighter probably near 50 fish landed overall even if there weren't many big ones. There is tons of bait around and plenty of fish if you are in the right place at the right time.

There is 2 sizes of bait at the moment, the larger white pilchards around 5-7cm long and small ones around 2cm long. If the fish are chasing the smaller stuff you might need some tiny slugs to tempt them so keep that in mind before heading out.

Arrived at the seaway at 4am and had a scout around the North wall. Casted minnows the whole length down the inside of the wall till dawn without a touch. Soon spotted birds making their way towards bait just in front of south straddie. We weren't far behind and  the 1st surface action we came across was mainly small bonito (millions of them). Gave them up pretty soon after catching a few and decided to chase the smaller faster moving bustups. Finally got within range and 1st cast with a twistie got nailed by a 55cm striped tuna. Landed 4 more striped tuna for the morning. Biggest going 57cm. A few smaller mac tuna in the mix aswell. They slowed down at about 8am. The 1m swells, NE winds and dark skies didn't help our cause, as alot of our cast were untouched when the cloud cover was really thick.

Went back in to look for GTs and spotted them just once in front of crab island. Only a few came up for 10 seconds or so,we did manage two cast with no strikes. That was at 8.40 so i'm not sure if they were around and feeding earlier on the run in tide or there was too much boat traffic and it kept them down. Waited till about 9.30 before calling it quits.

Into the seaway at around 2am, swell was around 1.5m from the SE, wind was 5-10kts ESE.  Had a scout around but all was quiet so decided to do some prospecting with a 3/8thoz ecogear grass minnow on 10lb braid, not even a hit on that so decided to go a bit deeper with a 1/2 oz with the same plastic.  A few casts after I had changed I got a hit and next cast in the same area I got smashed and this thing took off like a rocket hell bent on getting to the other side of the seaway, for the next hour this thing went from one side of the seaway to the other at least 4 times and each time I followed before it decided to slug it out down deep in close to the edge of the north wall.  By this time I had pretty much ruled out every possibility but a big eagle ray or a big shark.  After redlining my 10lb tackle I finally managed to get a look at it, it was an eagle ray around 1.5m across the wings probably about 20-25kg,  I got it to the side of the boat took a couple of pics and cut the line.  Thats one big ray on light gear, one hell of a fight, hooked in the mouth too.




Needed a break after that and first light was showing so I changed over to a minnow.  worked the walls for a while, landed one 40cm tailor on a vision 111 but it was pretty quiet.  The bigeyes came up once about 100m off the front of the north wall and I landed one of those around 45cm on a twistie.  Had a look at some birds offshore but there was only tons of small bonito under them.  There was alot of boats around the pipe, I think they were catching a few bigeyes but too much hassle for me to bother with so I had a look in the broadwater, saw quite a bit of bait but no fish.  Tide wasn't real good for that anyway.  Watched some birds for a while but they weren't over fish so called it a day at around 7.15.  Knowing my luck the fish probably showed at 7.30..

Quite a few boats around still, seems to be a bit of bait around most of it near crab but it looks small around 3cm.  Haven't found any significant numbers of fish the last 3 trips, there have been alot of bigeyes around but word is they are feeding more aggressively in the early evening rather than in the morning.  Tailor numbers have dropped right off, probably have to wait until another school comes through.  For anyone who's going out there is apparently lots of striped tuna along straddie at the moment as well, just head north and look for the birds.  I did see alot of birds out there on tuesday but it was too rough to head out there in my boat.

Thanks to Ryan Pearson for this shot, taken last weekend.  A good shot of a school of bigeyes and sends a message as well.

Into the seaway at around 3am, wind was light SW, swell 1.5m SE-E.  Had a look around, plenty of scattered fish on the sounder but none biting.  Tried casting around a bit and hooked a good tarpon which bent the jighead and threw it back at me.  Next drift I hooked up again and lost another Tarpon at the boat.  Very unusual to see Tarpon in the seaway at this time of year, first time I've hooked them any earlier than march.  Dawn was upon me by now and I moved out to the north wall with poppers, had a few hits which didnt connect but managed to land 1 tailor around 45cm. 

Saw a school of bigeyes come up and landed one at 40cm on a twistie but they didnt resurface.  Switched to a pearl slider on a 1/2oz jighead and landed a small moses perch.  With a long cast along the front of the face I hooked a good fish which turned out to be a tailor at 57cm.  Had a quick look in the  broadwater but saw nothing not even any birds & the jetski's were beginning to stir so gave it away at 7am.  I did see some fish busting into bait around the grand hotel ramp while retrieving the boat, the bait was quite small less than 2cm long but there was alot of it, had a few casts but got nothing so went home.




Another average report there, next week the boating traffic should ease as everyone goes back to work so hopefully the fish should become more active.