The past few weeks have been interesting on the rivers, with virtually no rain the water is clean and clear and the fishing is very up and down. A couple of weeks ago I was quite easily finding large schools of small bait with the odd fish hanging around them but this past week there doesn’t seem to be much around, all my usual haunts where I know plenty of baitfish generally gather, I haven’t seen much at all – but we have still normally managed to find fish. Maybe they are doing the same thing as me, heading to the usual spots and then cruising around like a lost idiot saying ‘wheres all the baitfish today??’
This week has been the lead up to the full moon however and although thats normally not a bad thing, Im feeling a little like the lack of rain, higher tides and clear water, combined with clear weather and bright moon lit nights has maybe got all the fish a little more cagey than usual. Maybe over the next 2 weeks as we head towards the dark nights things might change.
The fishing has still been reasonable however, it just seems to change day by day and you have to stay on your toes. For example a few days back we went out to get some extra flathead footage for promotions for this years Berkley Urunga Sportfishing Flathead Tournament. We found a stack of small flathead in a number of my normal spots and also managed 1 good fish of 76cm. However I took clients back the very next day and fished the exact same spots, on the same stage of the tide, with the same howling winds, using the same lures and techniques, and couldn’t catch a flathead to save ourselves… But the trevally, well they were there to save the day (and steal a few lures too), so it was still an awesome fun days fishing, but totally different to what I was expecting considering all conditions where the same as the day before.
One of the other things that I think is also having an affect on the rivers is the sand build up at the mouth, its getting worse and worse and right now I can definitely say its the biggest build up of sand I can remember seeing and it definitely makes the tides act a little different. To me, the tidal flows seem to be changing a bit, geographically. What I mean by that is certain spots in the rivers seem to be flowing faster or slower than they have in the past. Im talking down close to the mouth in areas I commonly fish, 1 spot in particular that Im thinking of used to get a specific current flow at a certain stage of the tide and it hasnt been flowing the same lately – it flows slower and hence the eddies dont form the same. But ive noticed other spots that used to flow a little slower have new or different currents and faster flows now.
This would all be changing from the movements and displacement of sand around that mouth area of the river – the slightest change of depth and that sand maybe then deposited in a different location can be enough to make a massive change on currents and eddy’s.
Basically Im not really sure what I think Im getting at here, but maybe what it is if you are finding the same, have a hunt around and maybe start looking for different eddy’s, currents and fish holding locations.
Ive got a few new products everyone should absolutely check out too!
First up is a new old one however – the Berkley Powerbait Nemesis, but its been redeveloped. The Powerbait nemesis was originally just in a 4″ size (I think dont quote me on that) and had the minnow body profile and curly tail, all of which they’ve retained, but they’e detailed up the body a lot and added in extra ribs along it length ways. I don’t really know if it would make much difference but honestly they look freakin good and have been catching fish for us lately. Also they are in 3″, 4″ and 6″. Like I said I think the powerbait version (not Gulp) was previously only in 4″ (can anyone confirm that for me?), but now theres the other sizes which is cool. If you look closely the flathead above that Dayne caught was on a new version 4″ Nemesis 😉
CHECK THEM OUT HERE.
The second one is actually a totally new product – the Live Target Fleeing Shrimp.
Anyone who loves prawn and shrimp imitations as much as I do is going to look at this thing and just flip out, its that realistic. Being a product thats big in the US market, some of the colours are maybe not up our alley, but theres some bloody good ones too. And hey I’ve been listening to Greg ‘Doc Lures’ Vinall a lot lately, his podcasts relating to fish senses such as vision and colour are well worth a listen! Along with all his others too.
Anyway getting sidetracked there, have a look at this for a lifelike shrimp/prawn!!
I dont really do much prawning in the traditional sense, but thanks to a greedy bass/relentless eating machine that I have at home, I spend a fair bit of time plucking shrimp from the shallows around the ramp of an evening when I come back in and I come across plenty of prawns as well when doing it. These things really look the goods and if you dropped them in the water side by side it would be hard to tell the difference.
The only kinda bad thing I can say about them so far is they aren’t a fast retrieve through the water type lure. They’ll spin/roll over. Get them to the bottom, flick them, bounce them and hop them, with the odd slow slide along the bottom – now you’re shrimpin’.
CHECK THEM OUT HERE.
On a side note if you don’t believe me about how realistic Live Target Lures look, give me a shout and I’ll show you some footage of my local Currawongs stealing a Live Target Mullet & Live Target Pin fish out of my boat. Now everyone says birds have incredible vision, so if it fools those buggers they must look the part! Their missus’ they were stealing them for better have bloody appreciated it too. Forty bucks worth of lures the pricks stole probably just to impress some other bird. I used to think they were cool birds too…
Last one for now is the Atomic Arrowz Rods. I got a hold of a heap of these from the legends at Frogleys earlier in the year and have been sticking them in plenty of peoples hands, and catching loads of fish on them and they are performing really well. I actually cant remember if I gave these things a plug a while ago but if I did Im doing it again because I am impressed. Ive only been using the light to medium bream and estuary models, but they’ve been catching everything up to decent size GT’s, flathead and jew and doing it with ease. Not to mention they are honestly fairly forgiving when they are in the hands of someone a little bit more loose. Unfortunately running a charter its all part of the deal that occasionally gear gets thrown around in the chaos, dropped, kicked out of the road and then theres the occasional sword fight. But even with all that going on, the Arrowz have been holding up, feeling good and they are in the working fisho’s budget.
At the time of writing this the Arrowz were on sale at MOTackle too – CHECK THEM OUT HERE.
One last plug for me this week which ive already done earlier in the week but I will again, is a massive thank you to North Coast Boating Centre. These guys look after the boat for me and they do a damn good job, but even still occasionally failures occur. The other week I had the gear selector cable snap basically as the boat was coming off the trailer for a trip. Now on a weekend, with that type of pain in the ass breakage, a lot of people would end up dropping the boat off and getting the call later in the week when it was repaired, not the boys at NCBC but – I lobbed up on there doorstep and Charlie had everything pulled apart and repaired for me in a couple of hours so I was back on the water for the afternoon. Talk about service, Dayne even cooked me a bacon and egg roll.
Seriously, go buy a boat off them or something, tell them I sent you – https://northcoastboatingcentre.com/
