Baits take centre stage

BUNDABERG

Luke

Truant

In the last month we managed to do only a couple of trips just due to weather, but on both trips the fishing was outrageously good.

I fished areas that I can’t fish very often, because these areas require good weather aligned with the right tides. As a bonus, the shark gods smiled on us too – the sharks stole only 5-7 fish per day, which is a massive improvement on why the predators were turning up their nose at larger baits.

MACKEREL We have had plenty of school mackerel and plenty of Spanish around lately (charter boats had an exemption during the closed season in March). Bear in mind there will be new bag limits introduced on 1 July this year. The recreational possession limit will change to one fish per person, or two fish per boat with two or more recreational fishers on board (the boat limit in the Bundy area. I recommend making them a primary target, and you can find them around the edges of any reefy areas in that sandy margin where you might normally catch iodine bream. Usually in April you’ll tend to get really good sweetlip catches in those fringy areas, in depths from around 10-50m.

Grass sweetlip will take a wide range of baits, but they love big squid baits in particular, and they like their squid to waft around a lot. To that end, it’s best to leave your squid the usual 30-plus fish at this time of year.

The species we caught were a mixture of goodsize tuskies, big blue Maori cod, and heaps of just legal red emperor.

The best bait, bizarrely, was mullet. We had heaps of gorgeous fresh local squid, and put them out whole next to small pieces of mullet, and the mullet was out-fishing them. It just shows the importance of bringing a variety of baits… and that you can’t discount old mullet.

We put down 15 goodsize live baits throughout the day of varying species, but surprisingly only got one or two strikes and missed hook-ups. It was a similar story with hussar fillets and large flesh baits, which also were also not particularly effective. It seemed that the predators were only focussed on smaller baits, and ignoring big baits.

I’m not sure what the reason is. I did notice that the Maori cod were regurgitating quite small baitfish as opposed to the usual large wrasse that they normally regurgitate. Maybe that was the reason will not apply to licensed charter fishing trips).

Until then, the bag limit is three per person or six per boat (with two or more people on board).

GRASS SWEETLIP

April is the best month of the year for grass sweetlip (grass emperor) whole, insert your hook in the hood and allow the tentacles to waft in the current enticingly.

When it comes to rigs, you use a ball sinker running down to a swivel and then a trace, or a running ball sinker directly down to the hook. Paternoster rigs are not particularly effective on grassies; you’ll still catch fish but you’ll catch more with a running ball set-up. Paternoster rigs work better on red emperor and other large species in the depths.

If you haven’t targeted grassies before, you can catch them on pretty much any of the fringing reef along the coast between Agnes Waters all the way down (provided it’s not in the green zone, of course). April is by far the best month along that stretch to catch grassies, and best of all you don’t need a big boat.

The average size grassy is typically around 1kg along the coast, and maybe 1.5kg out wide. You may also encounter a bigger one around the 5kg mark if you’re lucky. Your best chance of catching a bigger specimen is to use big baits.

It’s a more expensive way to fish, but you’ve got a better chance of catching one of those photo-onthe-wall fish.

MANGROVE JACK

This month should still be able to encounter jacks in a range of locations, including the Burnett and Kolan rivers, and in Baffle Creek. They can be caught on live bait, dead bait or lures. You should focus your efforts around heavy of exasperation. Sometimes a surface lure can get crunched immediately, but at other times you’ll be doing a lot of casting. As a bonus while you’re targeting jacks, you may pick up a barra as bycatch. If you hook up to a freight train that zooms off away from the snags, it may well be a little barra.

• Truansea Charters specialise in 10-hour day trips chasing prized reef

It’s a good time of year to target grassy structure, and I recommend fishing fairly heavy; I generally use 40lb fluoro trace on 40lb braid. If you go much heavier you’ll put them off, and much lighter and they’ll bust you off.

A range of lure types will work on jacks. At this time of year I like to use 4” paddle-tail plastics, rigged on a fairly heavy jighead to get down amongst the structure. I use a mediumpaced retrieve, with a few pauses and jiggles along the way.

If you want to target jacks with lures, be prepared to wait a while for a bite on some days. It can take some time to annoy a jack long enough for it to strike out 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 $330pp (or $300 pp 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.

SaqSas TECHNOLOGY