Isn’t life great!
It’s getting hotter by the day, the beaches are packed and you can smell salt and sunscreen everywhere. Not to mention all the bikinis around. This has to be the best place on earth. Summer is the best time, even though it rarely gets down to maybe 6 or 7 celcius on 1 or 2 days a year.
Summertime is Pelagic time and over the next few months bait will increase around the river mouths and the last of our winter birds will leave and fly south for the summer. They will be replaced by the smaller terns and that will signal the arrival of the first schools.
Last week we found quite a number of schools of Frigates & small Mack Tuna in Mooloolaba Bay. It seemed they were only up feeding hard when the wind was from the south and they only feed early and on the tide change. They are a stack of fun on a 5wt. These schools will increase in numbers as the temp goes up. The bigger Mack Tuna will show up more regularly out wider at this time of the year especially if you hear a warm current has moved in close to the coast.
Keep an eye out for bait balls at this time of the year as it’s a good time for Cobia. They are already showing up behind the spanner crabbers working the 50mtr contour. Other places to check are all the blinkers, wave buoys and harbour markers up and down the coast. All you need to do is throw a handful of cut pilchards in the water and if anyone is home they will come out fairly quickly, especially if it’s full of rat kings. Good fun and don’t forget the finger stalls.
There are a lot of rat Kingfish in the washes up and down the coast, they are mainly small but really good fun. We’ve been throwing larger Clousers on Wettip fly lines and use a fairly steady doubled handed strip. At this time of the year you get plagued with northerly winds so be on the water early and you’ll get the best of it. The shallow reef areas around Moffatt Reef, Rapier Shoal, Brays Rock to the south and Stumers Rocks, Arkwright Shoal and the Nation Park have all produced at one time or other during the week.
Rule of thumb with the weather, a northerly will blow harder in the afternoon than in the morning and probably be lighter 20 miles offshore due to the hot air/cold air transfer from land to water. If it’s blowing 10 knots at 7am and you are one mile off the beach, you can bet it will 20 knots by early afternoon, maybe even lunchtime. Actually it’s a great time to hit it early and siesta in the mid afternoon with a cold beer.
We had a nice session during the week on Bream around the edges at Brays Rock and also in The National Park. They hole up here in the washes every year after spawning in the river mouths fattening up before they head back up the rivers. When you find one you’ll find the school. Also at this time of the year you’ll run across some nice Giant Trevally and Golden Trevally in the same areas. Last year at this time we had some good Queenfish on the rubble reef on the northern tip of Bribie Island.
There can be a lot happening and the secret is not to travel through an area too fast. Pick an area where you think some fish might be holding up. Sound that area and look for bait or fish shows. If there’s a lot of current, then anchor and fish a particular structure and if there is no current then drift. If there’s no current and a bit of wind then drift with a drogue out.
The dams have been tough from all reports, I’ll try and get some info for next report as the Saratoga should start eating now. The only report I’ve heard on Bass is that there have been some big Bass coming from Borumba Dam on lures.
See you on the water
Gav
