Time to catch XOS fish on live baits

BUNDABERG

Luke Truant

May is traditionally a windy month, so you’ll need to make the most of every weather window that pops up. You may not get another chance for a while.

On the upside, there is some great fishing to be had

You won’t regret it. I like to run 44lb stainless wire for the Spanish; it’s so fine that it’s almost like having mono. Don’t use plasticcoated wire, because the mackerel’s teeth will cut the plastic and create burrs, which generate drag in the water and affect the lure’s action. In this unwelcome scenario, you will get far fewer strikes.

If you have ever been frustrated by storing and untangling sabiki rigs – and who hasn’t – you can solve this problem by spending $70-$90 on a hollow Sabiki rod. It will change your life. You can pre-rig them at home, and when you find the bait, just open the bail arm and you’ll be catching livies in the first 10 seconds. When go to YouTube and search for ‘sabiki rod’. reeling them in. most of them will have moved a bit deeper. At this time of year, they tend to like depths of around 30-40m, with a scattered reef/rubbly bottom. On a sounder screen, this kind of bottom appears as just one or two pixels of colour on top of the sand.

You want to cram as many yellowtail into your tank as you possibly can, without them dying. You’ll need a lot of water flow to keep them alive – I have never seen a tank that can have too much flow. I use a rectangular tank, which is generally assumed to have higher death rates than a rounded tank, but I have a very low death rate because of the high flow and circulation.

If one of your yellowtail does die, scoop it out and butterfly it. A butterflied yellowtail is a great dead bait, often working better than a pilchard.

Brenton has been getting stuck into the coral trout. on a range of bottom species, both inshore and offshore. As always, if the sharks show up, just up and move to another spot that’s a good distance away. If you stick around you’ll just keep feeding them.

One of the best things about May is that the cooler conditions entice the snapper to head north to our region. May is the month where you start catching big knobbies, in a range of depths.

A good place to start fishing for snapper is in around 15m of water in rubble areas, and even the artificial reef. The best time of day is the hour before sunrise. Once the sun is up, your chances are slim. If you like to fish gentleman’s hours, you can target the snapper late in the afternoon, up to an hour after dark. In my experience though, the evening bite isn’t quite as good as the morning one.

Interestingly, every big knobby I’ve ever caught has been off the surface. So, if you’re bottom fishing for the likes of red emperor, send a livie out the back and you may be lucky enough to tempt a big snapper.

These same surface livies can also entice a Spanish mackerel. There are plenty of decent-size Spanish getting around at the moment, and you can specifically target them trolling Laser Pros, X-Raps or Pacemakers, or whole garfish. If you haven’t done much trolling for Spanish mackerel before, I highly recommend that you teach yourself how to rig thin, single-strand wire trace. Hop on YouTube and look up how to tie a wire to mono knot.

May is also the time when you can start sourcing good numbers of live baits, which are irresistible to XOS fish. In the coming weeks you will likely experience the best fishing for big demersals for the whole year, if you use live baits.

If you haven’t gathered livies before, I would start at the end leads (the east cardinal mark out from Bundaberg), and drop your sabiki rigs down around there. You’ll nearly always find them there at this time of year. If they’re not there, they’ll be on the leads before it.

The main bait you’ll be catching here is yellowtail. Most yellowtail will be fairly small this month, around the size of a pilchard, so use a sabiki rig with smaller hooks for maximum efficiency. You can use larger hooks in winter, when the yellowtail are bigger.

You won’t need many dead baits this month if you have a tank full of livies. At other times of the year I like to have half the people on board using dead baits, to create a natural berley and commotion down below, and the other people using livies (and rotate so everyone gets a turn). However, in May, the big fish are so dialled into livies that dead baits are not recommended.

You can expect to catch big red emperor and trout on your livies, which is awesome, but you’ll also get large goldspot cod, which isn’t so great.

There are good numbers of prawns on offer at the moment. You can catch the prawns in the deeper holes near the river mouth, just be sure to use a top quality, top pocket cast net.

May is traditionally a great month for crabbing. At this time of year, the majority of crabs tend to come from shallow water – shallow enough so that your pots get close to drying. There are good numbers of mullet around, so it’s not hard to get some mullet frames for crab pot bait, and save the fillets for strip baits.

buying one of these rods, make sure it’s long enough so the whole jig fits inside. If you want to see one in action,

You don’t want stand there soaking a dead bait and have the fish turn their noses up at it, while other anglers are

Catching a single gold-spot cod is OK, because they’re great on the plate, but when you’re catching one after the other, you’ll get worn out pretty quickly. There isn’t much you can do about the cod problem besides catch your breath and drop back down again, in hopes of catching a red fish.

Big cod can suffer from barotrauma, so you’ll want to vent their air bladder with a syringe, and use a heavy release weight to get the big fish back to the depths. I have made my own release weight using dive weights and a 12/0 hook with a crimped barb. I insert this into the fish’s top lip, and when the weight reaches the bottom, the fish pops off easily.

In the weeks ahead you should still be able to catch some good-size grassy sweetlip (grass emperor), but

Anglers fishing around the rock bars have been picking up mangrove jack and barra on both dead and live baits. There are some decent grunter and flathead getting around too, taking baits and soft plastics.

• Truansea Charters specialise in 10-hour day trips chasing prized reef targets such as coral trout and red emperor, as well as arm-stretching pelagics like Spanish mackerel. The maximum number of anglers is 6, so you’ll never feel crowded. The price is $350pp (or $330pp if you book the whole boat), which includes all gear, fuel, bait, ice, chilled water/soft drinks and laughs!

You’re welcome to bring your own reef fishing gear if you prefer. Other charter options include half-day reef trips, half day river trips and private guiding. To find out more visit www.truansea.com.au, or you can Like them on Facebook or call Luke on 0423 015 490.