Fishing Monthly Magazines : Watch out for winter mulloway "
Livies are the best bait, whether you’re using mullet, herring or sand worms. The fish will take strip baits of bonito, tailor and mullet, too. They are a very cunning predator known for being finicky. They play with the bait for ages before swallowing it. Patience is the key when mulloway fishing. Some people still don’t know the size and bag limits for a mulloway. They must be over 75cm with a bag limit of only two per angler. The best spots to try for a mulloway are the deep water off the bottom of North Straddie and the hole in Cobby Passage.
Winter is bream time when fishing around Jumpinpin, and that will be the focus of most anglers this month. The bream should be around in bumper numbers for the breeding season, and will be on the lookout for an easy meal. Make sure you use enough weight to get to the bottom and that you can stay there as long as possible to give yourself the best chance at a bite.
Using berley is another great option to stir them up and get them biting. It’s best to berley with the kind of bait you’re fishing with.
Some good spots to try are Kalinga Bank to the Pigsties, the deep water off the bottom of North Straddie, the mangroves south of Slipping Sands, around the base of the power lines, the northern entrance to Cobby Passage or Short Island’s eastern tip. The baits that have been catching the best fish are peeled banana prawns, whitebait, pipis, pillies, mullet and chook gut. I prefer to use a size 1 or 1/0 long shank baitholder hook when chasing bream, because the bait tends to stay on longer and I find I get more hook-ups.
Flathead catches should start to improve, with the water quality coming good around the Pin and starting to clear up in the Logan River as well. This will help the lure fishers as their lures should be easier for the fish to locate. If you are trolling, try working the lure to get as much vibration as possible. I’ve found the harder the lure is worked the more attention it receives.
For plastics it’s the same. Work the lure hard upwards to get the flatties’ attention and you’ll get hit on the drop. The pick spots to try this month are the sandy weed banks and mud flats between Cabbage Tree and the power lines around the three green beacons, on the flats near Slipping Sands, Kalinga Bank, the drains on the western side of Short Island, Cobby Passage and around Tipplers Island. Good quality prawns, small pillies, yabbies and whitebait are the best baits. Then hopefully it will be flathead for dinner.
When fishing for whiting in winter try to pick the bigger, faster running tides. Whiting become more active in the chilly waters. They will feed more on these faster running tides, and this will be your best chance for a feed of whiting. Winter whiting should be around in good numbers as well, easily distinguishable from their summer whiting cousins. Winter whiting are usually smaller, they can get to 30cm, and they have dark spots at the base of their pectoral fins. There is no size limit, but they have a bag limit of 50 per person.
Whiting can be found on the sandy flats of Moreton Bay right down to the Broadwater of the Gold Coast. These fish are great for family fishing outings as they are easily caught on worms, squid, pipis and small yabbies. At the Pin you can find them at Slipping Sands, Tiger Mullet Channel, the Bedrooms, Tipplers and the Never Fail Islands.
The size limit for mulloway is 75cm. Even though this was a great catch, it was only 74cm and had to go back.
In June there are a lot of good quality school flathead getting around.
Levi and Ella out-fished dad again with a great lizard.