Seaway Report Tuesday-Wednesday 8-9th October 2013

After a 2 week break I was keen to get out to the seaway and see what was around.  Arrived at 4pm to fish the afternoon session, tide was probably as bad as it gets..last of the runout.. swell was down to less than a metre from the SE but the wind was around 20kts from the SE.  Had a quick look at the Canyon(tons of ribbon weed) before proceeding on to the end of the north wall.  The end of the north wall looked alot better, some decent schools of bait along the clean/dirty water line, manta rays, the occasional bustup and lots of mutton birds and terns.  Very fishy. Attempts to fish with surface lures proved impossible as the mutton birds jumped on the lure almost as soon as it landed so I switched to 30 gram twisties.  That had me hooking in to tailor every few casts for about an hour on the north eastern corner, size wasn't anything special though mid 30's to mid 40's.  They went off the bite as the sun set so I moved back into the seaway for the evening session.  Once the sun set I went to work looking for Tarpon, Bigeyes..anything.. I fished the incoming and outgoing tides but try as I might, I didn't get a hit all night. Thats a big change from a couple of weeks ago.




Right on dawn I focused on the north wall again, skitterbaits were being rolled on(the fish comes up to the surface but doesn't hit the lure properly) quite a bit but the fish just weren't hitting with any enthusiasm.  At least until the tide started to push in around 5.30.  As the clean/dirty water line pushed around the front of the wall that was the trigger for the fish to feed and schools of Tailor and Bonito started smashing into the schools of mainly white pilchards. Skitterbaits thrown into the mix were nailed instantly, even the bonito where hitting them(another new species for the skitter).  Size was around 40-45 for both the Tailor and Bonito.  They stopped feeding on surface after about half an hour but there were plenty of fish showing on the sounder so I switched to a new technique..Micro Jigging.  Micro Jigging is basically taking a slug(10-40grams) with a single assist hook, dropping it to the bottom jigging it 5 times then dropping it back down and repeat.  On the second drop I hooked a good fish which turned out to be a 53cm Tailor, thats the biggest Tailor on lure I've seen for a couple of months so that a pretty good start.  I proceeded to hook another half dozen Tailor and a lone bonito off the bottom on the micro jigs so I was mighty impressed and I didn't get stuck once.  Considering I was sinking that slug right into the rocky dropoffs on the edges of the deep hole that was great.  Micro Jigging has alot of potential for the seaway, while it is too early to call it a must do technique, I'll be giving it a fair go over the next few months to see if it has the consistent results to merit inclusion in my arsenal of seaway techniques.    An article will be coming if it proves to be a solid performer.

I had a quick troll over the Canyon and hooked a GT but dropped it, had a look in the broadwater.. plenty of bait but no fish.  Called it a day around 9am.

The bait around at the moment is in a mix of sizes, from tiny eyes(eyes on a clear body) to fully grown white and frogmouth pilchards.  There is enough around now to start getting the fish excited but we are still waiting for some bigger fish to show which could happen any time.  I'm going to call this a soft start to the summer surface season, surface lures have already picked up some good fish and it should only get better from here.  There is bait around the ends of the walls, in the Triangle and in the Northern and Southern Channels leading to the Seaway.  It will be interesting to see what happens on the next lot of morning run in tides on Wednesday onwards next week.  Mutton Birds are a good sign as they usually follow the pelagics around so we might see some schools of tuna and mackerel come through.  There are small kingfish still over the southern end of the pipeline but they are only feeding properly on the first half of the runout tide.

Successful Lure’s Rundown

• Skitterbait – Price $15.00 – Availabilty – SeawayFishing Shop
• Halco 3ogm Twistie - Price $8.00 - Availability - Most tackle Stores
• Storm 30gm Microjig in Chrome - Price $9.00 - Availability - Some Tackle stores

Fishing Gear Used

• SWF Strong LLBC702M/ML 7' Spin rod / Daiwa 3000H Reel /30lb Grey Saltiga Braid / 30lb Famell Super Shock Leader
• Samaki 701SM Spin rod / Daiwa Advantage 2500 Reel /12lb Yellow Spider Braid / 30lb Famell Super Shock Leader

Hooked into a Tailor

Lots of Mutton Birds

Bonito on a Skitterbait

53cm tailor caught on a Microjig

53cm Tailor on the mat

Bonito on a microjig

Another Microjig Tailor coming over the side

Hooked up on the micro