Happy New Year to everyone!! We trust that you have all had a very merry Fishmas and were able to get out on the water.
So what has been getting caught in the area throughout December and the Northerly blow?
Summer Whiting have been around in good numbers with Yabbies & Worm working the best. Fisho’s that have been sneaking into a few of the small less fished creeks and fishing the tides have been well rewarded with good numbers and sized fish being caught. Mixed in with the Whiting there have been a few nice Lizards & some good size Golden Trevally.
Now if we didn’t talk Mangrove Jack in December it would be a travesty! The water temp is right up there now and this means that the Jacks are firing. I had a water temp of 29.8c the other day while flicking up a creek, it was almost cooler in the boat. A lot of the crew prefer to fish for Jacks at night it seems, with fresh bait being the preference for a lot people. But the lure fisho’s have been getting some runs on the board the last few weeks with the water temps creeping up.
The 4.5’’ Molx RT Shads rigged on the OH1500 Tungsten Swimbait Hooks have been a great seller and are proving themselves as a great soft plastic and hook combo. Running the 5/0’s in a 1/4oz on the 4.5’s for skip casting into the back of the snags has been having good results. Poppers like the Lucky Craft 80mm G-Splash and walk the dog style stickbait like Sugapens thrown into the shadows and overhung mangroves around low light periods can be explosive fishing when Jack is home. If you are keen to give lure fishing for Jacks a go, or any fish, pop in and see our new range of plastics, hardbodies & popper that are pretty Mangrove Jack specific for this time of year. The boys will even show you how we rig them so they swim dead straight.
boating a number of good Mangrove Jacks for the week
On the topic of Mangrove Jack, we are running a two month Mangrove Jack fishing comp that kicked off on the 2nd January and runs until the 29th of February. This is a catch and release comp and there is a 1st prize rod & reel combo worth $600.00 up for grabs. The total prize pool for 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th place will total just over $2000.00. For more details pop into the shop and have a chat to the boys to get registered.
For the nocturnal fishers trying to avoid the heat there have been some good sizes Grunter being caught on squid bait and Mullet flesh in the creeks. Bird Rock has been a popular spot with the holiday makers reporting some nice catches of Cod, Jacks, Bream and Flathead. All taking a mixture of lures & baits. Teebar ledge has been producing some great Tuskfish, Sweetlips and Cod also.
Offshore there are reports of some good Spanish coming over the side and there are large schools of Cobia out there too. Summer Snapper are making an appearance and there have been some cracker fish being caught mid water on floated baits. Have not yet had any reports of people fishing the new FAD off DI. Personally, I’m keen to get out there and pin a few Dollies on the flyrod when it starts to fire up, I’d be happy with a Who or even a small Billfish LoL.
So we also had the Flathead comp running during December. The fishing was a
little slow to say the least.
The Winners were;
Biggest Fish: Ron Cox 66cm
Mystery Length was 49.5cm: Rio Took it out with a 50cm
Lucky Tag Number: #17 Tom Head
Well done guys and thank you to everyone that participated in the Christmas Flathead Fishing Competition.
That’s about it for now Crew so enjoy the rest of your holidays if you are lucky enough to be on them and don’t forget to get in and register for the Mangrove Jack fishing competition!
Find us at the Tin Can Bay Marina, Emperor St for all your boating and fishing needs.
Cheers & Tight Lines
Chris
With this nice Jack Caught on lure