Christmas 2013 Silly Season Recommendations

Silly Season is approaching. Between December 21st - January 5th will see heavy traffic in the Seaway and Broadwater. It can be a testing time for boaties with water rage incident's, inexperienced boaties, massive cruisers flying through at top speed and jetski's by the hundreds. That said, the fishing can be excellent if you know what to look for and where to be at what time.  I'm not planning on fishing alot during this time, I'll probably only fish on the worst weather days(20-30kts SE or NE with the right tides) so for those of you who have time off and want to get on the water I'm going to make some recommendations.  Remember that tides do matter, as does the weather and you should allow for that on the day.




General Tips

• Look for birds and specific bird behaviour - Birds will indicate feeding activity probably 75% of the time.
• The early morning is consistently the best time - most  fish haven't eaten for 10+ hours so they 'should' be hungry.   Afternoon's can yield some good fishing but tend to be very tide dependant. If the tide turns to run-in after 3pm, look for surface feeding by Kings or Tailor.
• If there is fish feeding behaviour on surface but they go down, look for the school on the sounder and try dropping metals to the bottom and burning them back to the top.
• First light is around 3.45am with sunup at 4.45am.  Just before the sun pokes over the horizon is the peak time for the dawn bite, so be on the water ready to fish no later than 4.30am.
• Some fish prefer to feed when there is more light(Kingfish especially) so you might see another surface bite after the sun is up from 5am through til 8am.
• Look elsewhere, although the top spots in the seaway consistently hold fish, sometimes looking elsewhere away from the crowds can mean you find fish that no-one else knows about.
• Fishing after dark is not for everyone, but if the crowds are proving to be too stressful during the day a dusk session into the night can yield some nice fish without the agro. Check the Nocturnal Seaway Fishing article for information on that.

Locations

North Wall - Currently only holding Tailor & sometimes Dart - Minnows, poppers, stickbaits, metals - Dawn or Dusk + run-in tides.  Fish with surface lures if they are busting up otherwise go for a metal.  Minnows still work from first light til sunup.  Microjigs can work fished near the bottom during the day.

South Wall - Currently holding Bigeyes, Kingfish, Tailor, Dart.  Bigeyes are erratic, use metals or poppers if they come to the surface, at night stick with minnows or poppers/stickbaits.  Kingfish can be found anywhere along the wall depending on the day, look for the birds figure out where they are holding and wait for them to come up.  20 gram twisties or stickbaits work on them.  Tailor and dart are only found around the end of the wall, metals work the best.

Pipeline - Kingfish, Bigeyes. Wait for the fish to bust up and throw metals or stickbaits at them.  Run-in tides or the first couple of hours of the run-out tides only.

Canyon and North Wavebreak - Bigeyes and GT's, Big Kingfish - Erratic, sometimes they show and sometimes they don't.  Be there at sunup or the hour after for your best chance, look for bustups.

Remember that things can change by the day, so keep your eyes open and keep changing your techniques if you aren't getting anything.