Hastings

THE HASTINGS Mark Saxon

castawayestuarycharters@bigpond.com

October is probably the month when I start to make a serious attempt with surface lures in our local river. Yes, sure you can catch fish on surface all year, but October you can really be confident in chasing quite a few species such as bream, bass, whiting, flathead and trevally. Let’s look at reasons and scenarios that will get the ball rolling, and a few techniques for those starting out.

Whiting are a very entertaining fish to chase on surface lures, and places to try in the Hastings are Pelican Island, Limeburners Creek, the Maria River mouth, Freemans Bay and Big Bay. By the end of September, the water temperatures should be starting to rise, and I have always enjoyed whiting fishing with the temperature around 24°C, which seems to switch them on to a surface bite.

The other thing is the appearance of prawn activity, and this month it usually starts to increase. Find a sand flat with some weed patches and you have a good starting point.

What to use? You can cast poppers and walkthe-dog style surface lures, but if there is a better or more consistent lure than the Bassday Sugapen I’m yet to find it! Sure, there are days for others, but if you’re keen, grab this lure your catch rate. The smaller 70mm model works, but bigger can be better for casting.

For best results, cast your lure out and commence a constant, splashy retrieve.

Mary Anne and Michael with a great bag of whiting, all caught on surface lures.

Andrew Death loves chasing mega flatties on surface lures!

Who doesn’t like a feed of whiting? and start casting the flats!

Looking at retrieves, firstly if there is any breeze, get it blowing from behind you, because in most cases the longer you can cast, the more ground you will cover and the more fish you will catch. Why? Because whiting can follow a fair way on certain days and miss your lure a few times before hooking up, so long casts catch more fish on the flats.

In recent years I’ve been using the 95mm model Sugapen, as it has more weight and does not lower My advice for beginners is do not stop your retrieve, keep it going, even when fish are splashing on it. You will catch fish! Now before all the YouTube gurus say you can catch them on the pause, yes, you can, and we have been for many years. However, it seems to be only on certain days when this happens, whereas a lot of time if you stop the lure, the fish following will depart to the depths. You will have to experiment with that one. Remember too that sometimes if bream are on the flat and following your lure, stopping your retrieve will see them climb all over it!

Flathead have been the craze over the last couple of seasons, and surface fishing for these is right up there in the adrenalin stakes. Firstly, keep in mind that you can catch some great flatties with your whiting lures in the

places already mentioned, but if you want a big girl to explode on your lure more regularly, you should use a big bent minnow style lure, which is a proven performer on big flathead.

The retrieve can vary, but I like to land it down loud in the shallows, meaning less than knee deep, and then I swim it out with a few jerky rod movements, pausing the lure intermittently. Beware the commotion a big flathead makes when coming up to eat lures off the top; it can make the heart race!

Bass and bream can be unreal fun, and are often caught in big numbers this

The author with a great bream taken on the surface.