Seaway Fishing Maps - Map 2 North Wavebreak to The Elbow & Horseshoe Flats

SeawayFishing Map 2 North Wavebreak to The Elbow

To see a larger version of this map, right click with your mouse and choose ‘view image’

We got on the water around 4am to fish the last of the runout, swell was around 1.5m from the SE, wind was about 10kts from the east. With the evening tides coming too late I planned one last trip on thursday morning before the chaos of the easter weekend. The tide was due to start running in at around 4.45am which would mean the water should be clean enough for good surface feeding as the sun rose around 6am.We managed a few halfhearted hits and one small bigeye trevally but other than that it was quiet.  Dawn came and we worked the walls but got no interest.   We headed down towards wavebreak as the sun poked its head over the horizon and we found some fish busting into bait on the wavebreak flats.  Not big fish probably bigeyes but despite a few follows we couldn't hook one.




Getting a bit frustrated now we followed the birds around for a while until I saw what I was looking for, birds that were tracking fish down deep between the yellow x beacon at north wavebreak and the green beacon on the northern corner.    Didn't take long  for the fish to surface, and they were yellowtail kingfish, big ones too.  Now the surface feeding kingfish of the seaway and broadwater have a long and colourful($#@@%#$ kingfish!!) history here on SeawayFishing, they are well known for being very smart and nearly impossible to hook on lures.   Early indications looked like this being more of the same, so rather than just cast out at every boil I decided to concentrate on landing good casts right into the areas of heaviest activity.  This technique works well on GT's that are being fussy, fish that are competing with each other are more likely to hit something that doesn't look quite right.

We met Jonno there and he had his son Jett with him, Jonno picked a spot and Jett dropped his gillies 10gram silver to the bottom and promptly hooked up on a screamer of a fish which proceeded to bust him off about 20 seconds later.  It's not really a good place for 6lb line at the moment with beacons on either side plus anchored buoys and a piled dredge only 100 metres away.  Kingfish are notorious dirty fighters and there's plenty of structure there to make you cry.

Wasn't long before dad hooked up only to drop it shortly after just as the fish got into gear.  I was next with a good cast landing only a metre away from a major bustup, I saw the strike on surface as it entered the bustup though I thought I might have foulhooked him and rather than go hard on him I took it easy.    On 10lb braid there was no muscling this fish so I took it easy, and just lead him to the boat, a few halfhearted runs and a little bit of doggedness around the boat then I had him in the net.  Now a green kingfish is not a good thing to have in a boat, they are quite capable of destroying everything in there when they go berzerk but thankfully this one was very chilled out, maybe he has been hanging out with a bunch of jewies.   A few pics, a quick measure(90cm on the dot) then I had him back in the water, took him about a minute to get his breath back then he shot off into the depths.

The kingfish came up a couple of more times but by 7.30 they were gone, we hung around for another hour of so but they didn't return.  I think there was a school of GT's that came up as well but only once.  We messed around a bit after that but didn't catch anything else and called it a day at 9am.

So only 2 fish for the morning, but I'd take one decent kingie for a dozen smaller fish anyday.  Lots of bait around, mainly white pilchards around 5cm long from wavebreak all the way down to crab.  Being in the right place at the right time is still important so look at those tides before you go and try and pick a run in tide that coincides with dawn or dusk.  If you do use Gillies 15grams make sure you change those hooks, I use Decoy Y-S81 #6.

Successful Lure’s Rundown

1. Gillies Baitfish 15gram in white – Price $4-5 – Availablity Kmart, BCF, Most tackle stores

Fishing Gear Used

1. Samaki Allure SA-701SM 7? Spin rod  / Shimano Stradic ci4 4000 reel / 10lb white Stren Sonic Braid / 30lb Famell Super Shock Leader

Another Fish Alert for paid members, this one could see you landing some very big fish if you are there at the right time. Ideal for someone going fishing over the easter break. On with the alert..

There are schools of big yellowtail Kingfish feeding just off the yellow x beacon of the north wavebreak wall on the morning run in tide. They start feeding just after sunup and finish around 7.30am, that may get later as the tide gets later each day. I'm pretty sure there are schools of GT's in there as well. They are chasing white pilchards around 5cm long. You may say, thats all very well.. but are they catchable????? Well you tell me..

That fish went 90cm. Three were hooked this morning, but only this one landed.  Dad hooked another one but the hooks pulled shortly after and Young Jett hooked one on 6lb but got busted off.  Both of our fish were hooked on 15gram white gillies baitfish.  Report plus video later.

Running behind on the video editing so I combined the last 3 trips into 1 video.

Went out for a quick afternoon fish on Monday, got on the water by 3pm and had a look around. Water was quite dirty at the bottom of the tide, but it cleaned up within an hour of the start of the run in.   Lots of bait holding at the end of the north wall and in close to the south western point of south straddie.  Kept moving between wavebreak and the tip of the north wall, hoping to see some action and finally did so around 4.30 at the end of the north wall.  Unfortunately it was a couple of hits then they went down, that was repeated every 15 minutes or so along the side of the north wall and around the front, not quick enough for the birds or us to get to the fish.  Quite frustrating.  Kept an eye on wavebreak but no fish ever showed there.




At around 5.30 I hooked a tailor around 40cm on a vision 111 on the north wall flats, then decided to do a drift across the front right through the roughest part.  Just opposite rock X about 2 metres away from the boat the lure was inhaled by a big tailor which then proceeded to jump about 10 times around the boat in an effort to get rid of the lure, thankfully the hooks held and I landed a solid green back tailor at 68cm.  Tried doing that again but no more takes.

Just on dusk a big school of fish popped up just north east of the wall and dad got his 20gram twistie in there and was rewarded with a solid hookup which took off and despite some difficulty due to tangles the fish was landed, a solid GT around 50cm.  We went back there again and I cast into the same spot and immediately hooked up again, this time on a real screamer, within a couple of minutes I was looking at the bottom of my spool so we had to chase him, and chase him we did all around the seaway for about half an hour.   Finally I managed to get him up to the boat, a whaler shark nearly 2 metres long hooked near the mouth on a 2o gram twistie, damn good fight on 10lb braid.   Bloody hard work though.

It was dark by the time we had released him so we changed to tarpon gear and had a quick fish, managed 1 tarpon but lost him at the boat.  Called it a night at around 8pm.

Not heaps of fish there, but some decent quality.  There's some real good opportunities out there right now if you are in the right place at the right time with the right lure.

Most of the bait has moved further in the broadwater now down as far as the deep hole and north of the dredge. Hopefully we will see a bit more surface feeding in there soon.

Successful Lure’s Rundown

Halco Twisty 20gram in chrome – Price $5-7 – Availablity Kmart, BCF, Most tackle stores
Megabass Vision OneTen plus One(111) in redhead/silver – Price $25-30 – Availability Samurai Tackle, Ebay

Fishing Gear Used

Samaki Allure SA-701SM 7? Spin rod / Shimano Stradic ci4 4000 reel / 10lb white Stren Sonic Braid / 30lb Famell Super Shock Leader

This page will be used for tracking surface feeding behaviour of Giant Trevally in the Seaway and Broadwater.  It is my hope that by the end of this year the data will show a pattern we can use to more accurately predict Giant Trevally feeding behaviour. The more details you guys share the more accurate the info.

Giant Trevally & Kingfish Tracking

Tackle talk is a new section covering fishing tackle of all sorts but with an emphasis on new lures with seaway and broadwater potential.   Today we will be covering OSP mylar minnows, FishArrow split tail Flash J's and a selection of Lucky Strike Minnows and sinking Stick Baits.

OSP Mylar Minnows

These have been around for a while and are pretty pricey at around US$15.00 a pack.  They have a realistic body shape and flash belly, they are a bit more supple that the Flash J's and as a result have an excellent action in the water.  Ideal for dropshotting or for use on the split shot rig with fussy fish but also can be used with a standard jighead with care.  They come in 2 sizes, 2.5" and 3.5" with the 2.5" the perfect size for the bait that enters the seaway most commonly.  Excellent colour range but nothing that would be a perfect imitation of a white pilchard, some colours come close though.   Overall they look like an excellent addition to the tackle box but due to the cost they will probably only be brought out when the fish are fussy.

Only available through Samurai tackle at the moment.

FishArrow Split Tail Flash J

These are new this year, basically they have taken the original Flash J, reduced the height and width(awesome) added a split tail(awesome) and as a result a much better action in the water. Colour range is quite limited at the moment, the closes thing to a white pilchard is probably the Wakasagi or Kosan Ayu silver.    Only available in 3" at the moment.  They should be ideal for very fussy fish such as kingfish rigged on a split shot rig. Would also work well on a dropshot rig, though it looks too thin to be put on a standard jighead with the possible exception of squidgy jigheads with the wire keeper.  They cost around US$13.00 a pack.

Only available through Samurai Tackle and numbers are extremely limited.

LuckyStrike Lanky 120mm shallow running minnow

The Lanky is a 120mm shallow running minnow, supplied by LuckyStrike Fishing tackle.  The finish is good with some nice detail on the eyes and fairly hard wearing paintjob.  The lure swims well and casts well and has a seductive wiggle that lures in the fish.  In this category its up against the heavyweights of the megabass vision 110 and the Rapala XR10, both proven shallow running lures but I think it has the goods to be a longterm player in the field.  Colour range is limited to Green, Blue, Clear/Black.  Cost would be around the AU$15.00 mark so considerably cheaper than its competitors, so something you wouldn't mind chucking onto a shallow rock ledge or that risky cast.  Pretty much restricted in use to edge fishing the seaway, working a shallow flat or casting into a bustup. Hooks and rings look good quality but restricted to light gear, nothing over about 15lb.  I'll be giving this one more of a go over the next few months so we will see how it fares.

Available through LuckyStrike Fishing tackle: email luckystrikeft@gmail.com or visit http://www.facebook.com/LuckyStrikeft

LuckyStrike Thunder 110mm Sinking Bait

The LuckyStrike Thunder Sinking Bait is a 110mm sinking Stickbait supplied by LuckyStrike Fishing tackle.   Finish is good with some nice detail, seems hardwearing so far.  Stock trebles are weak and need to be replaced, I recommend Owner ST56 #6 or Decoy Y-s81 #6.  The rings look good though and should be strong enough.  This stickbait casts well but as with most stickbaits it depends on the angler to give it most of the action, though it does sink horizontally and have a wobble on the way down.  I prefer the 3 jerk pause for most minnows and stick baits and this works fine with this stickbait.  Colour range is limited to Yellow(pictured), Pink and Blue.  Cost would be around the AU$15.00 mark.  You could use this lure over the flats, edge fishing with care, sinking down through current lines  or casting at surface feeding fish.

Available through LuckyStrike Fishing tackle: email luckystrikeft@gmail.com or visit http://www.facebook.com/LuckyStrikeft

LuckyStrike Thunder 80mm Sinking Bait

The LuckyStrike Thunder Sinking Bait is a 80mm sinking Stickbait supplied by LuckyStrike Fishing tackle. Colour finish is good, and seems to be fairly hard wearing so far.  Once again stock trebles are weak and needs to be replaced with Decoy Y-s81 #8, though the rings are fine.  The lure casts well, and wobbles horizontally on the way down. This one rises to just below the surface quite quickly once you begin the retrive and travels about half a metre under the water though if you added longer pauses it would stay deeper.  Standard stickbait retrive works fine with it.  Cost is around the AU$15.00 mark, colour range is limited to Pink(pictured) or Yellow. You could use this lure over the flats, edge fishing with care, sinking down through current lines  or casting at surface feeding fish.

Available through LuckyStrike Fishing tackle: email luckystrikeft@gmail.com or visit http://www.facebook.com/LuckyStrikeft

After the previous days efforts I decided an overnighter was called for as I wanted to try and get some more tarpon.  Arrived at about 12pm to a blustery 20-25kts ESE wind, the swell had gone around to more of an easterly between 1 and 2 metres as well making things decidedly more rough out the front of the walls.  Still never let it be said that challenging conditons have ever put me off. 




First up I chased some tuna inside the seaway, they were flighty though and soon disappeared.  Saw some bird action out in front of south stradbroke, and headed over slowly.  It was borderline too rough, so much so that I had to brace myself against the seat which has never happened before.  Still the fish were there and there was bait stacked 5 metres deep for hundreds of meters.  I landed a couple of tailor around the 40's and a couple of tuna around 60cm on 15gram gillies baitfish but the wind increased in strength up to nearly 30knots and things just got too hairy so I headed back to the seaway.  On my way back past the north wall I sent a rapala XR10 right into the wash, hooked up instantly and about 10 seconds later the fish got a burst of speed and busted me off on a rock.  Tried a few more casts then headed into the broadwater.

Once in the broadwater around 1pm, the wind was still blowing hard from the east and there were occasional showers.  I checked out some bird activity just north of the dredge in the northern channel, there was alot of bait around so I stuck around for a bit to see if anything would happen.  Sure enough 20 metres away from the boat up popped a massive school of GT's,  First cast with a 15gram gillies baitfish and I hooked up a good fish and soon had a nice Gt around mid 50's in the boat. The school had gone down so I hung around watching the birds.  About 20 minutes later they popped up again this time in front of the north wavebreak wall.  Unfortunately I was still on the northern side of the dredge and remember this is a 6 knot zone now(and the water police are very active through there).  So by the time I had dawdled my way over there the school was gone.   I stuck around there and soon enough the school popped up in the same place, one quick cast and I was on again and soon another mid 50's GT in the boat.  Waited and waited and about half an hour later they came up one last time half way along the north wavebreak wall.  First cast and hooked up again, and this one was a real screamer it took about 100m of line on the first run, then doggedly fought all the way back to the boat that one was in the high 50's but forgot to measure him.   That was it for the GT's, the tide peaked around 3pm and I never saw them again despite hanging around for another hour.

Took a run around looking for anything else but it was quiet, rain got heavier as the afternoon wore on so I trolled around for a while but got nothing.  the seaway was unfishable due to the easterly winds, swell and outgoing tides so I took a break until 11pm, the next run in tide.  At 11pm I got back out there and fished the walls hard for hours but only managed a couple of touches.  Plenty of fish on the sounder in places but nothing biting.

At dawn I moved out to the north wall, swell was down and the wind had dropped right off so I started edge fishing with a megabass vission 111.  No joy with that so I decided to try a new range of lures I have been given to test.  Mainly shallow running lures but there were a couple of sinking stickbaits and a bent minnow type in there as well.  First up was a shallow running minnow type called a Lanky 120mm in a qantas colour.  A few casts around the front of the wall, it swam well and cast well and using a 3 jerk pause retrieve I soon hooked up on a good fish which after a spirited tussle had a nice GT of 45cm at the boat.  Pretty good catch for a new lure, don't often get GT's on shallow runners around the wall either.  Did a few more casts then switched to a Thunder Sinking Stick bait 110mm in a yellow chrome colour.  It cast well and the action on the retrieve was good, cast it into the wash and worked it back with a jerky retrieve and I hooked up again, this time on a little bigeye.   Switched to another lure this time, a Thunder Sinking Stick Bait in Pink and chrome.  Worked the inside edges of the walls using the same jerky retrieve and hooked up again this time on a tailor around 40cm, it gave a spirited fight and managed to tie a knot in the leader.  By now the sun was well up and the action slowed so I decided to head back in the broadwater and spend some time looking for surface feeders on the runout.

Drove all the way up to little crab and drifted back with the tide looking for fish, saw some fish busting up not far away which turned out to be tailor around the mid to low 40's, managed about 5 of those on Gillies 15's before they disappeared.  Nothing else showed itself for the next few hours so I headed out to the seaway for the start of the run in tide.  Didn't see any bait or fish, though there were some sulking on the bottom.  The start of the run in yielded nothing so I headed back to the north wavebreak wall to see if the Gt's would show again.  Unfortunately it was not to be, plenty of bait and birds but no fish.  Called it a day at 3pm.

So overall not alot of fish caught on that last day, the day before despite the foul weather had many more active fish.  I talked to a few others on the last day and they were doing it tough, most had caught no fish at all.  Its interesting to compare the results and conditions on those days.  So far this year, foul weather fishing has yielded some great trips as long as the swell has not been big enough to stir up the weed.  Something to keep in mind.

Successful Lure's Rundown

1. Gillies Baitfish 15gram in white - Price $4-5 - Availablity Kmart, BCF, Most tackle stores
2. Rapala XR10 in Glass Ghost - Price $20.00 - Availability most tackle stores, Anaconda, BCF
3. Lanky 120mm in qantas colour - Price: contact supplier - Availability: email luckystrikeft@gmail.com
4. Thunder Sinking Bait 110mm in yellow chrome - Price: contact supplier - Availability: email luckystrikeft@gmail.com
5. Thunder Sinking Bait 80mm in pink chrome - Price: contact supplier - Availability: email luckystrikeft@gmail.com

Fishing Gear Used

1. Samaki Allure SA-701SM 7' Spin rod  / Shimano Stradic ci4 4000 reel / 10lb white Stren Sonic Braid / 30lb Famell Super Shock Leader
2. Pfleuger Patriarch XTR PPS68ML-XF 6'8" Spin rod / Team Daiwa Advantage 2500A reel / 6lb yellow Fins PRT Braid / 20lb Famell Super Shock Leader.

Another fish alert for you, this one is important. The 2 is just a way of keeping it separate from the other one... Now on with the alert...

Yes, its what we have all been waiting for, the GT's have arrived. I got 3 out of massive surface feeding schools (50+ fish) on wednesday at around 1pm. All schools were feeding between the north wall of wavebreak and about 100m north of the dredge. Bait schools are holding in this area. Size was around the mid 50's. Now before you get too excited, they didn't show today but at least they are around. My brain is fried right now after nearly 30 hours of straight fishing, but I wanted to get this up quick. Full report plus video will come later

Teaser shot..

Well today was not meant to be a fishing day as I wanted to concentrate on doing some filming, I thought some action might happen though so I chucked in the gear as well.  Arrived at 10am, well past any prime time for fishing. Had a look around and found the bait stacked metres deep off the end of the north wall, there were also some bigger fish holding close by.  Numerous attempts with a range of lures told me they weren't feeding so I left there and had a look in the broadwater, bait is really thick around the dredge area but nothing was feeding on it.




Back to the seaway I spent an hour or so getting some underwater footage, all the while keeping an eye on the birds at the end of the wall.  At around 12.30  I noticed the birds all taking off at once so I high tailed it out to the front of the wall.  Sure enough the fish were on the job, schools of Bigeyes, Tailor, Dart and Mack Tuna were smashing into the schools of bait, now pushed up to the surface by the relentless attack of predators.  Over the next hour and a half, I was hooked up constantly, not sure how many fish I landed(around 20 I think) but lost just as many, the tailor in particular were getting airborne and throwing the hooks.  Sizes were around 40-45cm for the tailor, dart and bigeyes, the tuna were around 55cm.  Good fun and great action, had to leave them biting at 2pm.

Water is improving by the day, its clean right the way through on the smaller tides, tons of bait around.  The fish are there but only feeding when they feel like it.  Was a bit rough out the front with the 20kt winds but fishable for the experienced. Lures used were the 15 gram gillies baitfish and the pearl slider on a 1/2oz head.

Welcome to the first SeawayFishing Fish Alert.  These will be posted whenever opportunities for good fishing are found and are likely to be repeated(though I make no guarantee they will be there the next day).  Details such as location, time of tide, species, action and lures will be posted. On with the alert...

Species: Tailor and Kingfish
Location: 100m south of the Cross channels south of crab, east of the main channel.
Activity: Surface feeding by schools of tailor with big yellowtail kingfish hunting them.
Time of tide: Halfway through the run in tide, just in front of the dirty water line.
Notes: Plenty of baitfish in the area.
Lures used: 15 gram gillies baitfish.

Summary, Despite heavy boating traffic, schools of tailor feeding on schools of small (2cm)white pilchards, which in turn are being hunted by large yellowtail kingfish around a metre long. We landed a number of tailor from 30-40cm and had one followed by a large kingfish which chased the tailor around the boat for a couple of minutes until the tailor managed to free itself and hide under the boat. We also saw kingfish hunting tailor schools 50m away from the boat. Action lasted about an hour. If you hooked a tailor and kept one as a livey(35cm +) then threw it out when the kingfish started chasing the tailor schools, you would be in a good chance at hooking a big kingfish.

The seaway has cleaned up alot, weed has gone and water has improved alot from thursday. Still alot of dart around the end of the north wall.

The big swell has whipped up the sand again, dirtied the water and weed is thick throughout the whole system, especially around the north wall. Fishing plastics on the bottom is nearly impossible anywhere, you get weeded up instantly. I imagine livies would be the same.




Fishwise there is plenty of bait hanging between the northern wavebreak wall and the dredge. On wednesday I saw some bustups from big fish(GT's or Kingfish) in this area but as I was in the kayak couldn't get there quick enough. On thursday I didn't see any fish but the visibility was down due to the suspended sand, I did see some hardyheads spraying in the same area so keep an eye out around there you might get lucky.
There are plenty of small dart and tailor along the middle section of the north wall on the second half of the run in tide but you'll need small lures to have a chance at them.

Most fish need to be above average size (60cm for most fish)or rarely caught to qualify.  Most recent fish first.

Kane got this 74cm Golden Trevally on a Megabass Vision 110 on 31/12/13

This 96cm Barracuda took a trolled Bolt Omega on 20/8/13

This 90cm Mulloway took a double shot in the Triangle on 13/8/13

Neil got this 105cm Mulloway on a live yellowtail in the Triangle on 5/8/13

John got this 90cm Yellowtail Kingfish on a Chrome Skitter Pop 9 on 1/8/13

Jayde got this 93cm Mulloway on a live yellowtail in the north wall deep hole on 22/7/13

This 1.5 metre Hairtail was caught on 16/7/13 on a 3/8 Albino Kisu Grass Minnow

Luke got this 122cm Kingfish on a 7" Gulp Jerk Shad on 15/7/13

This 69cm Tarpon was caught on a 3/8oz CCM Ecogear Grass Minnow on 15/7/13

Andy got this 105cm Kingfish on a 2.5" Zman Curl Tail on 3/7/13

John got this 77cm GT on a Flash Pop 9 on 4/6/13

Steve got this 90cm Jewie on a macarthy plastic on 31/5/13

Jayde got this 101cm Yellowtail Kingfish on a Halco Roosta Popper on 31st May 2013

This 80cm GT took a Rapala Skitter pop 9  on 23/5/13

Howard got this 80cm GT on a River2Sea Bubble Pop 7cm on Tuesday 21st May 2013

This 55cm Cale Cale Trevally was taken on a 1/8 split tail flash j on 9th May 2013

Mick got this 65cm GT on a 25gram Gillies Baitfish on 1/5/13

Wade got this 60cm tarpon on a 3/8oz Zman 2.5" grubz in pearl 25/4/13

Wade got this very nice high 60's GT on a 30gram twistie 25/4/13

Andy got this nice GT at 62cm. 21/4/13

A 68cm Tailor caught on a Rapala Skitter POP 9cm

Jonno with a 62cm GT caught on a Halco Twisty

90cm Yellowtail Kingfish caught on a 15gram gillies baitfish

68cm Tailor caught on a Megabass Vision 110

50cm Longnosed Trevally caught on a pearl slider

6kg Blubberlip Bream caught by Thomas from Coastal Sportsfishing charters on a live herring

64cm Golden Trevally caught on a pearl slider

56cm Bigeye caught by Kane

55cm Yellowtail Kingfish caught by Kane

52cm Amberjack caught by Kane

71cm GT caught by Brett

68cm GT caught by Bretts Mate

Trip Video 8th March 2012, taken from a head mounted viewpoint.  A bit rough but you get the idea, youtube removed the audio so I had to use vimeo instead.

So the weathers been bad, really bad.  Wind, big swell, rain and floods have made the last couple of months a bit  of a gamble when it comes to fishing the seaway.  Well if today's results are anything to go by, the seaway won't take long to return to glory once this weather pattern buggers off.  The fish are there, you just need a bit of luck and be in the right spot to have a shot at a good fish. 
I'm preferring the top half of the run in tide at the moment, cleaner water and less breaking waves around the front.  Looking at this week I decided on having a fish on friday, with the top half of the run in peaking just after dawn the water should be clean enough to have a shot at some fish.   On the water at 3.30am headed into the seaway, wind was at 25kts ESE(just a slight breeze..), swell was 1.5-2m from the SE.  Water visibility was around a metre and it was a dark green colour, not great but its been worse. Tide was halfway through the run in.  Weed was gone thankfully.

Due to the wind I decided to do a run along the south wall and see if I could spot anything on the sounder, didn't see anything interesting so went out as far as I could before the waves started getting a bit hairy(about 3/4 of the way up the wall.  Drifted back with the tide and started off casting around a 3/8 zman paddletail in a silver fleck colour. First drift managed a hit, so went back to the top and did it again.  Second drift hookup and a long screaming run, one jump and it was gone..tarpon, felt like a good one though.  Next drift hookup again, this time a smaller tarpon around 55cm came to boat fairly quickly after a couple of jumps then it tossed the hook right next to the boat.

Decided on a change of tactic, off with the zman and on with the favourite, a ecogear grass minnow in silver fleck.  Next drift dad hooked up and after a torrid fight we netted a 58cm tarpon.  I was next with another tarpon around 55cm.  First light was upon us and I hooked up again, this time it was a bigeye around 40cm.  Next drift I hooked up again this time with a solid fish which screamed off and kept making multiple long runs which had me thinking large bigeye.. then it jumped.. but only once..Tarpon but a good one.  I finally netted it and it went 67cm on the mat, equal my biggest in the seaway, a very solid fish.  One more bigeye after that then things went quiet.

Dawn was upon us so a change of tactic was necessary, on with the poppers and over to the north wall, thankfully the wind had eased just a bit so it was fishable.  We worked the edges with poppers, dad managed 2 tailor around 40cm in quick succession while I got zip. Tried twisties and minnows got zip.  Time for another change, we headed down to the pipe but didn't see anything interesting, went for a run down the broadwater, no birds no fish.

Came back to the north wall just after the tide had turned to run out, while the channel was quite ugly(swell against tide) it was fishable right at the front of the wall.  The swell was pounding the flats area hard but it looked very fishy, I thought there would be some fish holding underneath the surf at the edge of the drop-off.  Changed to a 20gm twisty on my 6lb braid outfit and punched out a cast right  into the breaking waves, let it sink to the bottom, wound in the slack and bang I was on, solid fish too, didn't run til it got under the boat then proceeded to give me grief for the next 10 minutes, finally after numerous attempts a nice 56cm GT slid into the net.   Dad pulled in a couple more small tailor after that, then I noticed so shows of fish on the sounder, looked small but I dropped the twistie down there anyway, hooked up straight away and up came a small bigeye foul-hooked, another one followed shortly after.  Tried a few more lures without luck and called it a morning around 8am.

So overall a very good morning, a couple of really good fish and quite a few smaller ones as well.  A good example of what march can produce. As long as this cyclone stays away from us things should continue to improve, water quality goes down quite quickly after the turn to run out though.  Most of the dirty water is coming from the nerang side this time.

More pics are coming but have to capture them off the video, will take a while to put together the video but you should find it interesting as it gives a Craig's eye view of fishing the seaway.

Welcome to the first of 8 detailed SeawayFishing Maps, showing you suggested trolling runs, species that frequent each area and area names that I will be referencing in future reports.  These maps concentrate on the top tier species like Jewfish, Giant Trevally, Tailor and Yellowtail Kingfish but also cover live bait species like herring, pike and garfish as well.   Bread and Butter species like Bream, Whiting and Flathead are not covered as they can be caught just about anywhere. Use the legend below to work out what everything means.  This map may be updated at any time.  Any questions or anything you would like added ask me below.

SeawayFishing Map 1 Pipeline to Wavebreak

To see a larger version of this map, right click with your mouse and choose 'view image'

Full Report now available.  Got out on the water just in time for dawn, tide was last of the run out swell was around 2m from the E with a 1m NE sideswell from the Northerly winds.  Wind was about 5 knots from the NW.  Water was very dirty as expected but most of the suspended sand was gone, visibility was less than 0.5m.
Weed was a problem, not too bad around the pipe but the north wall from top to bottom was a mess, nearly unfishable. Had a look around the dirty water lines in front of the seaway but saw nothing.




Decided to get some lives and see if we could tempt a fish that way, ended up with a dozen herring and drifted them around the pipe and around the north wall.  Apart from a couple of small bigeyes and a few other hits that didn't connect, action was pretty slow though another boat who had pike managed some small jewies.

Gave that away after an hour and decided to  do a run down the coast, recently had the polycraft repaired and wanted to test out the repairs  on a decent offshore run.  Went down as far as mermaid, saw a couple of schools of flighty small mack tuna but nothing we could get close to.  Very few birds around, seemed to be plenty of bait around but it was all down deep.

Came back to the seaway during the second half of the run-in and the water around the north wall was still very dirty but at least seemed to have a bit less weed around it.  Chucked some slugs at the front of the north wall looking for dart, managed a few until I downsized to a 5 gram rios which was the smallest slug I have and that was the slug they wanted, after that nearly every cast was a fish.  Size of the dart was quite varied from 20cm  up to around 45cm.   Ran out of time at 11am and called it a day.

So pretty tough fishing in the seaway at the moment, livies seem your best shot at getting a decent fish but you'll need to stick with it. Especially as this run of rain and strong winds just doesn't seem to want to stop, we will be catching bass in the seaway at this rate.    At least the dart are still around to give us some light tackle fun.  By the way, the rio's slugs worked alot better once the paint is taken off them and you are left with the pure chrome slug.