Calm winter fishing approaches

NORTHERN BAY

The end of autumn saw some erratic weather conditions, which made fishing difficult at times. With winter finally here, however, we prized eating fish.

In the bay there has been a ton of bait getting around, and following the schools of bait has been inshore pelagics like longtail and mac tuna, school mackerel and tailor.

Matching the hatch with your lures and casting them toward or weed beds in 1-4m of water should see you cross paths with a few of these tasty cephalopods. The edges of most bay islands have this type of ground.

Land-based squidders can also have success during June, and there’s good squid ground along Scarborough, Woody Point, Manly and Raby Bay. Timing your trip with a high tide will ensure the water is at its clearest for the tide cycle.

Bay, Pumicestone Passage and parts of the southern bay are ideal for setting a few pots or dillies while you fish. It’s worth staying near your crabbing gear, as theft has unfortunately become a common problem in SEQ.

RIVERS AND CREEKS

The estuary fishing in the area through June is usually fantastic, with calm weather, abundant predators and clean waterways all contributing to a should see more calm days with cool mornings, gentle westerlies, and nice T-shirt temperatures during the day.

The beach action will pick up in June, with the ocean side of our major islands providing the best areas for this caper.

Grass sweetlip will be thick over most inshore rubble patches, and are a common snapper by-catch.

Winter will see a range of different species entering the bay, and open up some great fishing opportunities that haven’t been available for several months. Whether you’re bait fishing with prawns off a pier or sinking jigs down to reefies offshore, June should have plenty in store. Let’s check out what’s been biting!

BAY

By June the pelagics offshore have generally tapered off, save for a few straggler mackerel and wahoo still lurking about. Attention any feeding schools is a good way to get a strike if you can get your boat close enough. If they’re a little spooky, try to position your bot so the school comes to you – keep in mind that tuna and mackerel generally feed into the wind. Stickbaits, soft plastics, metal slugs and flies all work really well, so it pays to have a rod rigged with any oif these whenever you’re motoring around the bay in June.

Snapper and grass sweetlip are the other popular targets in winter, with the reef edges around the bay islands, as well as with any rubble patches in 3-8m of water good places to prospect with lures in about 2-3m is an almost sure way to bag a few flatties, just be sure that your lures are making regular contact with the bottom, and you’re not trolling too fast. A trolling speed of 2-3km/h is perfect, and you only need to have your lure about 15m or so behind the boat. As we progress further into winter and eventually spring, the flathead will begin to group up, and casting lures will become more effective.

Throwing big lures in the dark during winter isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but the rewards can make the discomfort well worth it.

On high tide the squid will be pushing up into shallow water to hunt.

Beach fishing will start to become more popular through winter. The main beaches of Bribie, Moreton, North and South Stradbroke islands will be great places to soak baits for species such as dart, whiting, bream, flathead and tailor. More serious beach fishers will be thinking about mulloway and big tailor, especially as we edge toward to coldest part of the year.

Larger predators like threadfin salmon and mulloway will be chowing down the masses of bait in our local rivers, with the Pine and Brisbane rivers being the busting up in the middle of Brisbane city at times! If you want to nail a tailor, make sure you have a rod rigged and ready with a slug, topwater lure or soft plastic at all times, as you never know when or where they may show up.

DAMS then turns to the bottom fish, and with the ocean currents slacking off considerably, conditions should be favourable for dropping baits and lures.

Our two local dams fished incredibly well for both bass and saratoga during the warmer months, however there are still good options in the dams during winter.

Early and late in the day it can be worth throwing suspending jerkbaits and small soft plastics in shallow water around the edges. Catches can be few and far between at times, but lot of big bass are caught this way in winter. Just make sure you fish your lures slowly, as the fish don’t want to work too hard for their food at this time of year.

Suspending jerkbaits can be deadly on impoundment bass in winter, and it’s always worth prospecting the edges of a dam before searching the depths for schooling fish.

There have been early reports of big snapper and mulloway hanging off some of the popular deeper marks such as The Cathederals, Deep Tempest and Hutchison Shoal. Pearl perch and trag jew should also be starting to show up in bags in June as well.

Floatlining pillies, dropping paternosters with flesh baits, or sending down slow-pitch jigs is a good way to nail these soft plastics. Small grub style and minnow designs with 1/8-1/4oz jigheads are perfect for this shallow water fishing. In some areas it’s impossible to let a soft plastic sink without snagging up, so working the plastic aggressively mid-water is the best approach. Tide changes around sunrise or sunset are ideal for this technique. Floatlining a pilchard in these same areas will be effective as well.

Tiger squid have well and truly come into the shallows in preparation for their spawning later in the year. Working jigs over any shallow reef, rubble

Throwing small soft plastics on standard estuary spin gear into the same gutters that you would usually fish with bait is a fun way to mix things up at the beach. Keep your soft plastics in the 2-3” range, use light leaders around 6-8lb, and you’ll be surprised just how many fish you catch!

Those chasing a feed of blue swimmer crabs can still do so in June, you just need to set your pots or dillies out a little deeper. The deeper weed flats in Deception Bay, Bramble pleasant experience.

Blue swimmer or sand crabs are an option in spring, however pots and dillies will need to be set in deeper water.

Flathead have started to gather in the lower estuaries like Pumicestone Passage, the Caboolture, Pine and Brisbane rivers, as well as the smaller systems like Kedron Brook, Burpengary Creek, and Cabbage Tree Creek. With the fish still a little spread out, trolling is a great way to find concentrations of fish. Trolling small 40-60mm pick for these two species. Threadies and mulloway will also get busy at night, waiting along any light lines under bridges or around lit pontoons to snatch an easy feed, so if you’re willing to brave the cold nights you may come up trumps. A range of lures between 60-120mm will work, but the best results will come on presentations that match the size of the bait, so make sure you gaze into the water and try to find out what they’re eating! Live baits of poddy mullet, herring, prawns and pike fished around structure is another effective way to catch these predators, so if lures aren’t working livies shouldn’t disappoint.

Squid will improve in size and numbers as we get further into winter, with the action generally peaking in spring.

Big tailor have been a feature in our rivers over the last few months, and there’s no reason why June will be any different. Big tailor to 60cm have been found inside the Caboolture, Pine and Brisbane rivers, with schools spotted

During the day, bass like to school up off points and humps adjacent to the old riverbed during winter, and anyone with a decent sounder should be able to find these schools. Getting these fish to eat can be tricky sometimes, so having a range of soft plastics, blades, spoons and tailspinners is handy. Cycling through these lures until you can find what they want on the day is the best way to get into some action. Start your search in 6-9m of water, and head out deeper if you can’t find any schools.

WRAP UP

June often sees very pleasant conditions to fish in across the South East, and this June should be no different. Remember to rug up if you’re heading out early or late, but keep some light clothing underneath in case it heats up throughout the day, or if you fall over board and need to shed clothing to stay afloat.

• For more up to date information on fishing in and around Brisbane call into the guys at Tackle World Lawnton and they can point you in the right direction. The friendly staff at Tackle World Lawnton cater to all levels of experience and offer the widest range of brands at the best prices. They are located at 640 Gympie Road Lawnton (07) 3205 7475 or find us on Facebook and Instagram.