Luderick

Broadwater and Seaway Trip Report 6th July 2010

Conditions

• Wind: sW 5-10knots NW 5-15kts
• Swell: 1m SE Swell
• Water Clarity 7m
• Tide : Low tide at 08.58am, High Tide at 02.37am  (0.31 -1.06)
• Time Fished: 02.30am to 07.30am
• Moon Phase: 1 day after last quarter.
• Occasional drops of rain, Temps 13-18 Degrees C

Notes

Negligible run in the tide, little swell and clear water.  No fish around the north wall after first light.

Report

Went for another fish down the Broadwater and Seaway today, first spot we fished we managed a couple of hits on poppers but nothing else, so we moved on.  Was lots of pike or barracuda hanging around the boat at one stage, they'd make ideal livies for big Jewfish.

Next spot we found the tarpon, I was testing dropshotting plastics to try and increase the retention rate and it worked though needs a bit of modification to be really successful.  While it retained most of the fish it hooked, the hookup rate was poor, I'm thinking a smaller plastic should do the job.  I have some grass minnow S, that i will be trying next time.   We landed 8 tarpon, lost 5 at the boat, and had about 10 jump off.  Best tarpon landed went 58cm with most around the mid 50's, we did lose a few 60cm+  fish at the boat including one monster that looked like it might of nudged 70cm. Tracked the movements of the tarpon over the morning, interesting that they moved from shallow water into deeper water as first light appeared before disappearing.  Also trialed Berkely Gulp minnows in Smelt colour which worked just as good as the Ecogear grass minnows  we had been using.

They went off the bite just on first light so we moved to into the seaway and didn't take long to get a nice jewie of 65cm and a small bigeye trev both on Eclipse Heavy Slight in Glo Mullet.  Dawn was upon us and the Zipbaits vib 80-25g claimed another new species, a 42cm Luderick, hooked in the mouth too but that was all.  With calm conditions and clear water the seaway is not fishing very well for us after sun up so we called it a day.  A solid mornings fishing overall and some interesting tarpon habits to add to the knowledge bank.