Gold Coast

GOLD COAST David Green

April is usually a productive month on the offshore grounds off the Gold Coast, and it’s one of the better months to chase blue marlin on the wider grounds. The East Australian current starts to slow down a bit, and large, productive eddies often form beyond the continental shelf. This year the current has been particularly strong, sometimes running at up to 4 knots.

Beyond the 100m line there is always a chance of finding a blue marlin, but most of the productive water is found between the 200 few marlin in attendance as well. While most of the fish in this deeper zone tend to be blue marlin, there are also quite a few striped marlin and some solid black marlin as well as wahoo, yellowfin tuna and dolphinfish (mahimahi). Trolling large skirted lures on 37kg tackle is the preferred method, and most of the blue marlin encountered are around 140kg. These fish have one of the most spectacular first runs you will ever see, grey hounding out of the water as they take several hundred metres of line.

On the closer grounds the black marlin have generally moved on, but there are still a few striped and black marlin to be caught by live baiting the deeper bait schools at Spanish mackerel run should be in full swing this month, and Spanish and spotted mackerel should be in good numbers on the Gravel Patch, Mermaid Reef and Palm Beach Reef. The recent floods will take a while to clear, but when clean water returns there should be good fishing. Deep trolling live baits or slow trolling rigged dead baits is generally the most reliable method of catching the bigger run of Spanish mackerel. If the fish are thick in the surface layers, trolled minnows can also be quite effective at times. According to Fisheries research, Spanish mackerel are at less than 17% of their base stock and it’s likely the fishery will be increasingly restricted in the future. I month to try for wahoo off the Tweed coast. The Nine Mile Reef is the most famous wahoo spot in the area, and when the current is running it can be extremely productive. There are a variety of effective methods, with the first being high-speed trolling using metal headed lures such as Hex Heads. I usually run these at a troll speed of 10-12 knots. The strikes can be spectacular, and most of the wahoo caught in April are solid fish from 12-18kg with the odd bigger fish encountered. Trolling live tuna is another good method, and trolling bibless minnows and hardbodied lures is also effective at times. These fish are also susceptible to spinning using large stickbaits.

Bottom fishing traditionally improves this month as the water cools slightly and the current slows. The 50-fathom reef should produce squire and pearl perch, and closer inshore on the 36-fathom reef there should be a few squire, parrotfish and teraglin. Deep jigging using metals and soft plastics can produce kingfish, amberjack and samsonfish. If the current slows there should be good opportunities to try deep dropping for bar cod and flame snapper. RIVERS

AND ESTUARIES

April is a transition month in the estuaries between summer and winter fish species. As the water cools, a lot of fish start to move up onto the flats and there are generally a lot of prawns found throughout the whole system.

Whiting are a good target species this month. I’ve recently had some good success casting unweighted yabbies on the flats as the fish move up on the first of a run-in tide. It isn’t always easy, but when using 2lb braid and light 3lb fluorocarbon leader, an unweighted yabby can be cast to feeding whiting in the shallows. It is an interesting way to fish and can be very productive. It’s important to give the fish plenty of time to get the bait down before striking. Some of the better whiting have been between over 40cm long. The recent floods are going to take a while to clear but the estuaries should be excellent for fishing when things settle down. As I write this the entire Broadwater is a sea of mud.

April is a good month to chase crabs and prawns. The run of banana prawns in the southern end of Moreton Bay has been excellent up until the recent flood, and the prawns have been quite large. It is also a good month to chase mud crabs in the Pimpama River, and the recent flood has definitely moved the crabs out of the shallows. Sand crabs can also be found in numbers in the central Broadwater, from Crab Island to Tipplers. Work your pots in depths from 4-7m close to the eelgrass beds. Fresh fish frames are the best bait for sand crabs, although mud crabs also like fresh chicken frames.

There should be a few flathead about as the water clears up, and quite a few big fish will be up on the flats chasing whiting and mullet in the shallows. The flathead fishing starts to improve from April onwards. Mangrove jacks start to move towards the Seaway area in April before the bigger fish move offshore. Small live baits fished close to the rocks at the north wall of the Seaway can produce some big jacks this month. There should also be a few school mulloway around in both the Seaway and Jumpinpin entrances.

A quality mulloway caught on a trip with Lucky Strike Charters.

and 400m lines. This marks the start of the continental slope. Schools of striped tuna, flying fish and sauris commonly school in this area, and there are always a spots like Deep Trag and Spot X. As the water starts to cool down a bit, increasing numbers of striped marlin often turn up in April.

Closer to shore the find the conclusions to this study don’t match my observations; there seem to be plenty of mackerel around this year.

April is also a good

Spanish mackerel are in good numbers at the moment.