Bundaberg

BUNDABERG Luke Truant

We have had a few good weather windows over the past month or so, and the fishing has been amazing, just as you would expect for this time of year.

This 80cm bar-cheek trout couldn’t resist a well-presented yellowtail scad.

Like last month, the sharks have thankfully still given us a fair reprieve. While they have still been around, they have been taking only a few fish a day.

Interestingly, the fish that we’ve caught have been either really shallow (less than 20m) or over 40m. Both depths have been yielding good results.

There are fewer middlesize species around (e.g. sweetlip, large hussar, tuskfish) than you might expect for this time of year. However, the extra-large reds and coral trout have more than made up for it. When you catch a 10kg red or an 8kg trout, you don’t spare a thought for your lack of hussar!

Live baits have been the standout winner again over the past month, primarily yellowtail scad. At this time of year, the livies are easy to find – you can literally see schools of them feeding on the surface. The surfacefeeding schools are harder to target because they tend to

move away from your boat, but nearby there’ll often be another school hanging down on a bit of rubble, and these sub-surface schools are less likely to move. They’re the easy targets. There’s the odd bigger 20cm+ scad amongst the smaller ones, and you shouldn’t assume that 20cm is too big to catch fish. It’s not too big by any stretch.

The trout have been in the shallows in good numbers, and they have been biting well. We’ve been focussing most of our efforts up in the shallower flat sections, fishing individual bommies/coral heads (the drop-off areas have not been as productive lately). You’ll find that a Spotlock electric or good anchoring skills will pay dividends.

Reds are still in the deep water, and interestingly they’re becoming really scattered. For this reason, I have been sounding off fringing areas of reef in 40m+ looking for small shows – just a couple of pixels of colour on top of sand. Live baits have been doing most of the damage, although drifting hasn’t been as effective as anchoring. When you’re anchored up in a place like this, bear mind that you’ll often need to catch a couple of picker fish first (e.g. hussar, iodine bream, whiptail etc), before you catch a big red fish. The pickers can be helpful, as they create a commotion that gets the big fish’s attention, and fires them up. After you first drop down, if you haven’t gotten any bites from pickers in five minutes, I recommend moving to a different spot.

If you do start catching reds but they’re only small, don’t give up. Just because you’re catching small reds doesn’t mean there’s not a monster amongst them. On some days you may catch over a dozen smaller reds in a particular spot before you get a fish over 10kg.

Although most of our fish have been coming on live baits, we always send down at least one dead bait, to cover all bases and create a bit of smell in the water. Ideally, you want your dead bait to be a ‘hard bait’ (firm bait), i.e. a flesh bait that is hard for the fish to get off, rather than a soft bait like a pilchard. The reason for this is that your bait needs to withstand the pickers for long enough for a big fish to find it. To illustrate how durable these flesh baits are, a client recently pulled up three hussar simultaneously on a single hook (a 7/0 Elkat). Two of the hussar were hooked in the mouth, and the third was foul hooked, and all were legal size.

If you’re using a hard bait and you’re getting little picks, don’t strike unless you’re content to catch smaller fish. If you want a larger fish, just ignore the picks and leave your line alone, or feed a bit more out. Large fish don’t want to see jumpy baits or swinging sinkers, both of which look strange and unnatural.

Eventually your tough bait will probably get whittled down to a flap of skin, stubbornly clinging to the hook, resisting your efforts to remove it. At this point you may be tempted to just leave it there and put another bait over the top, but I’d advise against this. In my experience, old skin sitting next to a fresh bait catches fewer big fish. So, get the knife out, cut off the old skin, and get back to fishing.

The estuaries have been fishing really poorly, particularly the Burnett. At the time of writing, it’s only just finishing another round of freshwater flow, which I

believe makes it six times flooding so far this year. By the time you read this, the fishing should be going back to normal and it definitely will make the fishing in late spring really good. In the meantime, while the fresh is flowing it keeps the fish out of the river, as they retreat to the mouth to escape the dirty freshwater.

Normally you’d fish for bass up the top of the river, but good numbers of bass have been showing up in the salt, out to 8nm. There have also been some big specimens in the mix, up to 60cm. If you catch bass in the salt they are very good to eat, with gorgeous white flesh – very different from the taste of freshwater bass. Pound for pound they’re a great fighting fish, as good as any fish you’ll find. We generally get them as a bycatch for jacks. Like jacks, bass can be voracious predators; at times they’ll eat just about anything, especially large baits and live baits.

Mangrove jack fishing won’t really kick in until around October-November, but you can still catch them this month. You can try targeting them at night with live baits fished near rock walls or near heavy snaggy structure. The bigger the structure, the greater chance it has of holding multiple fish.

The flathead season which is upon us will be epic, and concentrated around the river mouths. I would target the areas in the little eddies close to shore, near the river mouths. A good way to target flatties is with a sprat that’s rigged like a live bait (hook inserted under the chin and up through the top) on a running pea sinker rig. Work it with a slow retrieve for best results. Alternatively, you can do well using 3-4” grub-tail plastics worked slowly, interspersed with pauses. Hop it along the bottom in small movements – a maximum 30cm per hop – and stop it on the bottom between bounces. The flathead will usually bite while the lure is paused.

Surprisingly, some rivers have continued to produce crabs through winter. It has since died down a bit, but there are still some really good crabs showing up, probably due to the freshwater flows in the river. The Skyringville area is one such spot that has

Two fish in two drops on a livie session.

Chris was happy with this nice tuskfish. still been crabbing well still. If you want to catch a few crabs this month, try dropping your pots in at the mouth or, if it’s a larger creek, in a back eddy.

Spanish mackerel are still being caught in close to the coast, in extra-large sizes (up to 36kg). They have been mostly taking live baits. Don’t be scared to use an XOS live bait – a 50cm livie is a good size for tempting a large Spaniard.

SEPTEMBER FISHING

September is tied with October as the worst time of year weather-wise, so you need to take full advantage of any weather window that presents itself. On the plus side, the sharks locally tend to be quieter at this time of year, before they ramp up again in October/November. When they come back in force, anglers fishing in the deep for large fish often experience disappointment on the way up.

We are nearing the tail end of the live bait season locally, but there will still be live baits available in the coming weeks. These, along with butterflied dead live baits, should catch plenty of good fish this month.

When it comes to areas to target in September, I recommend targeting the 35-45m areas for reds and trout. The trout will still be up in the shallows too, but if you want a bigger class of fish (up to 80cm+), your best bet is that deeper water. • 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.