Seaway Weekly Wrap Up Friday 29th November 2013

As we say goodbye to November and get into the last month of 2013, the baitfish numbers continue to increase but fish behaviour is still erratic. I fished fairly long days on both Monday and Wednesday rather than fishing a heap of separate days this week.

The fish are there but bite times can be short, or the fish bite for a long time and it's hard to get a hookup.  To be fair the tides were rubbish with middle of the day run-in tides. Next weeks morning and afternoon tides should fish alot better.  The afternoon tides over the weekend should fish ok as well, the morning's might fish ok but the wind looks to be howling, . If you do go out, you won't have much company and sometimes the windiest days can have the best fishing.  Baitfish numbers have exploded, now not only do we have large schools of frogmouth pilchards, but there are large schools of white pilchards as well.  On the run-in tide it's almost one giant stream of baitfish from the mouth of the seaway through to the cross channels just south of Crab island.  Next weeks sustained SE winds look very good as well, if the forecast holds.   Water temperatures are fluctuating wildly, from 21.5 degrees up to 25 degrees and back down again.




As for the fish, there is an element of predictability but also some random behaviour thrown in as well just to make you think real hard about the decisions you make.  Should I go out to the end of the North wall/Pipeline or stick around the Canyon in the hope that the Kings & GT's will begin to feed. For an example, bottom of the tide on Monday around 8.30am the absolute worst stage of tide for surface feeding, the Kings came up at least half a dozen times and on the last time they came up I finally managed to get a decent cast in, only for the Kings to have 5 goes at the skitterbait without hooking up then a 65cm GT grabbed it.

The Kingfish are centered in 3 locations, The Pipeline, the Canyon and the Cross Channels.

The Pipeline is a mix of 60cm and metre long fish.  The Canyon and Cross Channels are all metre long fish.

The Pipeline fish are feeding on the surface on the 3/4 line and up to 100m east of that(3/4 of the way across the seaway from the south to the north)during the run-in tide.  Sometimes they will feed for 15 minutes, sometimes it goes for hours but hooking the Pipeline fish is not easy.  The odd one is getting caught on chrome metals and poppers but it's hard work and frustrating.  On Wednesday  at midday the little kingfish fed for 2 hours at least coming up every 10 minutes or so but only one was hooked on a 25g raider, they were moving fast too so it was difficult to get a cast in the zone.  There is also a chance of a Kingfish in close to the southern end of the Pipeline just on dawn.

The Canyon fish are alot easier to hook(or at least get interested) but they feed less.  They are hunting in the area between the Canyon and the first set of beacons north.  The second half of the run-in tide seems to see them out and feeding every 10 minutes or so but this can depend on the day.  On Monday they didn't show at all on the run-in, but did on the run-out.  On Wednesday they didn't show on the run-out but did on the second half of the run-in(2pm-3.30pm).  They are definitely feeding and will hit a lure but you still need a bit of luck to get a hookup.  I had lots of looks, nudges and follows this week with no hookups.

The Cross Channels fish are located near the two beacons just south of Crab, they are the least predictable and fewest in number but if everywhere else is quiet it's worth a look.  At least if you hook a fish around them there isn't much structure.

GT's are still mixed in with the Canyon Kingfish, but a small school of just GT's did show on Monday morning alongside the North Wavebreak Rock Wall  from the tip to halfway along it just on sunup so keep an eye on that area around dawn.  Trolling and plastics didn't get any GT's at all so it looks like your only shot for a GT is casting into bustups.

Tailor are still around the North Wall in numbers.  They are also feeding erratically, dawn sessions have been ordinary for the most part with only the odd good fish.  They are feeding on the run-in tides along the inside of the North Wall  in the middle of the day but only for very short periods, if you can get a twistie or skitterbait into the area they are feeding then you'll hookup but hooking strays after they stop feeding is rare.  They did feed on the surface along the 3/4 line of the pipeline on the first of the runout tide on thursday afternoon which is unusual.

Bigeyes continue to confound me, I've seen them a few times.  Alongside the north wall of wavebreak up as far as the little cove at dawn, near the pipeline in the middle of the day but catching them in any sort of numbers seems to be impossible.  Hopefully that will change as water temperatures increase.

So overall, its a bit of a mix.  There are fish around and lots of them but if you don't find them feeding you'll end up with nothing(this doesn't apply to livebaiting).  Very few fish are being caught as random catches.  I suspect what is happening is that because of the huge amount of bait around the fish are full and they are just 'topping up' in short bursts.  As always your mileage may vary, with the amount of bait around you might see some random fish pop up and begin to feed so keep your eyes open.

A mixed school of Frogmouth and White Pilchards

Hooked up on a Gt alongside the north wall of Wavebreak

This 61cm Gt took a skitterbait just on sunup along the north wavebreak wall

This 65cm GT took a skitterbait in amongst a school of Kingfish

This 53cm Tailor took a skitterbait at 12pm