Welcome to 2014 in the Seaway

I've been on the water 4 times since the last update and the seaway continues to fish very well. I fished the morning sessions on Monday 23rd and Thursday 26th, and the afternoon sessions on Monday 30th and the 2nd January. This time of year it is super important to remember your tides and fish based on them. It saves you time and money to fish the peak feeding periods and your results will improve.

Water temps are up and holding between 23 and 25 degrees. Plenty of bait around, some frogmouths and there are big schools of small white pilchards around the 4cm mark as well. Boating traffic over the break was high but there were some good fish to be caught if you put in the effort.

Greenbacks have finally showed up with some nice fish in the low 60's caught this week on surface lures around the north wall during the low light periods of dawn and dusk.  There are lots of tailor around the 34-45cm mark around the North Wall as well and a few fish around the mid 50's.

Kingfish have been feeding along the pipeline and in close to the south western corner of South Stradbroke on the morning run-in tides, how they feed depends on the weather and the bait that they are feeding on.  If they are feeding on the small white pilchards it's alot tougher to get a strike than if they round up a school of frogmouths.  There is also a few around the North Wall but not enough that you can target with any effectiveness.  They do make a nice surprise though.

Bigeye's are around in numbers and when they do feed as a school they'll hit anything, with surface lure's they were getting airborne on the strike which was awesome.  When they aren't feeding as a school there are a few random fish to be caught around the North and South Walls as well.  They have been feeding aggressively around the end of the North Wall right as the tide starts to push in so make sure you are there at the right time.   To make sure I recommend getting there no longer than an hour after the official bottom of the tide.  They have shown up a couple of times on surface after dark near the pipeline but it's a bit random.

Plenty of dart around the North Wall Flats as well, but only when there is a bit of swell or waves running.

There is some excellent surface fishing opportunities at the moment so get those surface lures out and use them.  It's quite possible to get good fish on surface in the middle of the day so don't restrict them to just the dawn and dusk periods.  Use small thin profile surface lure's no bigger than 9cm.

Give the fish something different and you might get a fish that others don't.  For example, the kingfish shown below was pulled off the end of the North Wall on a surface lure on my second cast at 7.30 in the morning on Boxing day after other boats had been throwing slugs at the wall for hours.

It's also important to 'Rest' an area.  If you have cast at a certain spot on the wall twenty or so times, move elsewhere then come back an hour later and you might be able to pick up some more fish.  Resting an area gives the fish a chance to get back to normal behaviour.