December 7, 2020
What an amazing stretch of water the Maroochy is…one month your up to your armpits in whiting, then the next month you might as well be fishing in the Gibson Desert. It certainly has a way of bringing you back down to earth with a thud! After one of the best October months for a few years I had 4 trips in November which produced 6 whiting in total. Admittedly they were all good fish from 35cms to 40cms, but they were few and far between. I am not saying that there are no whiting in the lower reaches at the moment but there are a lot of factors that have reduced them to a trickle.
Firstly, whiting are a shy fish that spook very easily, and the river water is crystal clear right down to the last 2 hours of the runout tide. They are alert to every movement, shadow or noise that occurs and because it is so clear, they have no natural cover or camouflage and will take off at the first hint of a threat. They become very suspicious of their prey and will not touch a bait unless it is well presented and even then their bight goes from aggressive to extremely cautious. During November, I lost a dozen big whiting on the fight back to the boat because they were only lip hooked and they are experts at dispatching a hook when hooked in the mouth.
The other factor to take into consideration at this time of the year of course is the Man Factor. On my last trip at the end of November I was besieged by the Zombie Dickhead Jet Skiers who turned my river into a boiling, noisy speedway not fit for man or fish to survive on. Unfortunately, things only go from bad to worse for the next 2 months as the holiday population increases ten-fold over the Christmas break.
Okay…so a couple of things must happen if you hope to catch a fish during the holiday period. Currently most of the big whiting have spread throughout the length and breadth of the river searching for food and trying to avoid the human chaos that is engulfing the river right now. Hope for a deluge! We need a significant wet weather event to drop at least 300mls of rain in the Maroochy catchment. This will flush all those elbow slappers back down the river to the lower reaches near the bar mouth. Fish of a night-time! About the only chance you have of catching a feed is to venture out when all the Zombie Jet Skiers have retreated to their caves for the evening. Work the parts of the river where 6 knot speed limits apply…from Cotton Tree caravan park up to Picnic Point. There is plenty of good whiting and flathead water to be found in this stretch on both the run in and the runout tides. You can pump plenty of yabbies and gather soldier crabs all around the sand flats of Goat and Channel Islands. If you are land based you can get yabbies along the Picnic Point Esplanade and around Chambers island.
For the flathead fishos there have been millions of herring congregating on the deeper western side of Channel island. If you can throw a cast net you will have all the live bait you can possibly use for a nice big lizard. There are some deep channels around Chambers island that are bound to have a flathead or two waiting in ambush.
To all my readers who follow my ramblings, I hope you have a Merry Christmas and a great New Year. Contact me anytime on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
October 27, 2020
Every now and then the combination of weather, moon, tides, and local knowledge combine to give a perfect 10 out of 10 fishing trip on the Mighty Maroochy River
As I was launching my boat at 11.30am on the day of the New moon Oct 16, I could almost smell whiting on the gentle 5km Northerly breeze. Low tide forecast was 3.20pm and I could see that the water had already started to pour off the sand banks putting a bit of colour into an otherwise crystal-clear river. I reckoned on an hour until the soldier crabs would start to come out so went straight to spot Y with a few yabbies to fill in some time. The river was still unfishable here because of the floating seaweed deposited by recent big seas. Around midday I gathered enough small soldier crabs for a session, then headed across the river to Spot Z (my new best favourite spot).
Now I am not going to tell you the exact places I fish in the river, but this is the type of country you look for. Fast running water about a metre or less deep that forms undulations and washouts and tapers from a bold sandbank into a main channel. There are heaps of places like this in the river and if you persist long enough you will start to work out which ones produce big whiting.
Okay…so now we are getting close to 1pm and I have settled in at spot Z with 2 rods on the left side working the water back to the sandbank and 1 rod covering the other side more towards the channel. One of the left side rods gets an enquiry, I lift and strike, but I am too slow. I start to retrieve, when something grabs the other end of the line with much gusto and heads off. It is a big fish, perhaps a flathead has grabbed the moving bait? As I gain line on the fish I can feel the head shakes and tail thumps coming thru the braid line. This is no flathead…I can see its body now in the murky water…the adrenaline starts to pump; this is a bloody big whiting! More ducking and diving and head shakes and then it is beaten. I lift it gently over the side and it measures 40cms…one of my biggest whiting this year. An enquiry on the other rod before I can take this one off the hook and I am locked into battle once again. This does not feel like a whiting…more like a block of flats. Not so many head shakes but I can feel a big tail, thump, thump coming down the braid. Soon I see a big silver flash behind the boat in the murky water. Not a whiting, maybe a grunter? Not till I am about to lift it into the boat do I realize it is a big yellow fin bream (40cm) in prime condition. Unfortunately, it is gut hooked so I place it on the ice and grab the third rod which has another hot performer, ducking and weaving and bobbing on the end trying to throw the hook. I land another elbow slapper whiting a smidge smaller than the first at 38cms.
The red-hot bite slows as the tide drops, but by 2pm I have 9 fish in my esky (all whiting except for the bream) and not one of them is under 30cms.
Two days later I returned to the same spot and caught 6 beautiful big fat whiting to 40cms, once again on the last of the run-out tide with soldier crabs. All my reliable fishing sources have had great catches of whiting mixed with good sized bream, fishing at night with blood worms and daytime with soldier crabs. Unfortunately at this time of the year we are plagued by incessant Northerly winds gusting to 40kms which make some daytime fishing trips almost impossible. I will be watching and waiting with hope for a few good days coming up to the next Full moon on Nov 1.
Your 10 out of 10 fishing trip could be waiting just for you, so stop procrastinating and get out on that Mighty Maroochy soon. You are mad if you don’t!
See you on the river soon! If you would like to share your fishing experiences, feel free to send me an email.
October 16, 2020
Travelling downstream from the motorway bridge, the areas of the Maroochy that I fish soon come into view. On the right-hand side is Chambers Island which is surrounded by channels and sand banks. On the same side of the river you have the esplanade foreshore of Picnic Point, a kilometre stretch that lends itself well to land based fishos. Proceeding further down we come to the joined islands of Channel and Goat Islands. These islands split the river into 2 streams…north arm which sweeps wide through channels and sandbanks hugging Twin Waters and the south arm which forms a narrow, deeper channel down past the high rises and Cotton Tree. Both sections join only 500 metres from the bar mouth. This whole region of the river is the home of many different species of fish depending on which season you are fishing, but it is where I catch all my elbow slapper whiting.
Just before the October New moon the tides were lining up nicely for a session on the runout, but of course the Weather Gods were indicating strong winds to 30kms and showers. It had been 6 months since I had landed a whiting, so I was not going to let the weather sway my decision to hit the river. I arrived at spot X and the wind was so strong it would blow a dog off its chain. I moved to spot Y where it was no better. The only consolation was that my favourite whiting bait (soldier crabs) had just emerged from their underground homes. I grabbed enough crabs for a session and set my stern anchor to hold me into the stiff sou easterly. I could see countless pieces of weed swirling past my boat on the fast ebbing tide (a product of big ocean swell a few days ago) and within minutes it was piling up on hook and sinker. Bugger!!! I was going to have to try somewhere else.
Moving across the river I could see that the weed was no-where near as bad on the Twin waters side. The spot I chose to fish had fast running water, a metre deep with profound undulations stretching over a 300-metre section next to the main channel…perfect place to ambush big whiting! I fish with 2 rods at once resting on a padded cross bar across the back of my boat. When I am searching for a patch of fish I will start off with 3 rods then drop back to 2 once I have found a school. You must check your bait regularly in strong wind because you quite often miss a gentle whiting bite with the gusts twitching the rod tip all the time.
I retrieved 2 lines and both baits had been robbed without my knowledge. There was no weed on the line at all…this gave me hope. The rod tip on the far right soon gave that unmistakable twitch that I had been waiting 6 months to see. I grabbed the rod and gave a swift lift, setting the hook…Contact! Straight away I was locked into a big whiting. I took my time and it dictated terms early as it cleaned up my other 2 lines and almost took out the stern anchor. I steered it to the side of my boat and lifted it and the 2 lines gently over the gunnel. I had opened my summer whiting account with a 38cm elbow slapper…How good is this? Over the next half hour or so I landed 3 more prime whiting from 31cm to 35cm and missed several more because of the shocking wind conditions. I waited an hour or so for the tide to turn to fish the run-in, but a band of big black clouds in the south told me it was time to hightail it for home.
Two of my readers have sent me photos of the good whiting they have caught over the past 2 weeks at night-time on blood worms. Another pulled up beside me while I was fishing and said he had been landing some nice flathead on plastics and lures. So there you have it…if you are prepared to battle the elements, the rewards will come your way.
See you on the river soon! If you would like to share your fishing experiences, feel free to send me an email.
September 30, 2020
We now move into my favourite part of the year on the Maroochy River…WHITING TIME! With a Full moon on October 1, its time to start chasing some serious summer whiting. I always try to plan my fishing trips around the Full moon or the New moon. These are the times when the tides are biggest at high water and smallest at low water. This means that a greater volume of water is moving in and out of the river during the tidal period. Over the years I have found that the faster the water is running; the more active whiting are on the bite. I have fished the neap tides which occur in between Full and New moon and the pace of the water is very lazy in comparison and whiting become lazy on the bite. My simple fishing rule is…slow water, slow bite…fast water, hold on tight!
I use the internet weather, tide and moon forecasts when planning my next outing. In particular, the Willy Weather, Maroochy River – Picnic Point, predictions have proven to be the most accurate. All my fishing is in the daytime. Because I am retired, I rarely fish weekends (too much human traffic). I like to plan my trip so I can gather yabbies or soldier crabs from the sand banks on the falling tides, fish to the bottom of the tide, then fish the first 2 hours of the run-in. Alternatively I will gather my bait the day before and keep it alive overnight to fish the run-in tide right up to the top. Willy Weather is my Bible and I have found it to be an invaluable asset to my success rate.
Let us talk about the right bait…to catch big whiting you must use live bait. The number one bait for sand or summer whiting in just about every estuary and river in Australia is blood worms. Beach worms will work in the rivers close to the mouth but cannot be compared to the impact bloodworms have on whiting. There are quite a few variations of blood worms depending where you live, unfortunately they are hard to come by on the Sunshine Coast. Some tackle shops do sell them here, but they are expensive.
Mother nature has given us a bountiful supply of alternative bait on the Maroochy. As I mentioned earlier, yabbies (or nippers, as they are called south of the border) can be pumped at just about any sand or mud bank that is exposed at low tide on the river. The best way to find them is to go over the banks when the tide is in and search for the holes where they live. In the lower reaches you will find them around Chambers Island and along the Picnic Point esplanade foreshore. Channel and Goat Islands are joined in the middle of the river by mangrove tidal flats and the sand flats of these islands are home to the healthiest yabby banks in Queensland. Although I have indeed caught some good whiting on yabbies they tend to attract lots of little pickers and pest fish which brings me to my favourite bait for elbow slappers on the Maroochy…the humble little soldier crab.
Soldier crabs are prolific in the river on just about any mud or sand bank. From half run back tide they pop out of the ground and team over the banks, churning up the sands surface as they feed on the millions of microbes and bacteria that live here. On a nice sunny day they stay out till the bottom of the tide then disappear as if someone waved a magic wand. Elbow slapper whiting are absolute suckers for small soldier crabs. Okay…enough about bait. In my next report I will cover some of the locations big whiting frequent. The river is still extremely clear, but with the Northerlies already coming in hard, the water will dirty up a bit as it runs back on the receding tide giving the whiting some cover.
See you on the river soon! If you would like to share your fishing experiences, feel free to send me an email.
September 10, 2020
After a much-needed service on my 20-year-old 40HP Mariner, I launched my boat and fished the run-out tide just after the August full moon. I knew it was far too early in the season to expect any whiting of substantial size or numbers, but I was hopeful of catching a few bream, still hanging around during the cross over from winter to summer season. Once the tide started to come off the sandbanks, it was a good time to check out how the river has altered over the last 4 months of winter. By altered, I mean how the channels have rerouted, new sandbanks have formed and where deeper channels have silted up and become shallow gutters. The river is forever changing, and all these things affect the big whiting habitat for each ensuing summer season.
As the tide approached half run out, I could soon see a vast number of additional washouts or undulations that have been formed right around Chambers Island and Channel / Goat Islands. These are the places that the bigger whiting lay up in, out of the current, on the run-out tide, waiting for a sweet morsel (yabby or soldier crab) to wash their way. There are so many new sites to try, my mouth was salivating at the thought of big, elbow slapper whiting.
When the soldier crabs made a show on the sand banks I grabbed enough for a short session and fished some of the washouts hoping for some early season whiting. Unfortunately, I never had one whiting bite but did score a couple of small bream around 25cms. Moving downstream I came across a large submerged tree that had lodged in deep water not far from my favourite whiting spot Y. I guessed it had been there all winter and I reckoned that if I was going to catch a bream anywhere, this had to be the spot. I anchored 20 meters upstream from the snag and cast 2 lines loaded with soldier crabs right up to it and set my burly bucket. I was baiting a 3rd hook to cast out when one of the rods bent in half as a fish hurtled off into the snag wrapping my line around it, never to be seen again. The other rod fired up and I soon had a beautiful fat, 30cm bream on board. I had just released that fish when my 3rd rod went off and after a ding dong battle I gently lifted another 30cm bream in prime condition over the side. In half an hour I landed 4 quality bream to 30cms and got pulled back into the snag and busted off twice. All fish were released, and I realized that if I had fished that snag during winter I could have caught a boat load of bream.
By all reports there have been some exceptional greenback tailor, Jew fish and oversize flathead caught at the motorway bridge on live baits and lures. The deeper water here and pylons of the bridge provide a lot more shelter than in other parts of the river for the bait fish to congregate in numbers…so providing a regular supply of food for big toothy critters to feed on. There are some nice bream around the 30cm mark left over from winter, if you can find some good structure to fish.
One of the problems coming into summer will be that the river is crystal clear, and all species are going to be very man shy until we get sufficient rain to dirty it up a bit. When that happens it could prove to be a bumper whiting season. October is traditionally one of the best months for big flathead in the Maroochy, but once again the clarity of the river is such that the big flathead will be spooked unless we get rain, or you try live baits at night. Well I’ll be! As I am writing this report, we have had 60mls of rain in the past 24hrs. The weather gods have answered my call to arms. If this keeps up there could very well be an early whiting bonus. If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences, contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com.
August 27, 2020
Hi! It has been a while since my last report…3 months in fact. There are a couple of reasons for this. Firstly, my true passion when it comes to fishing is whiting fishing. By whiting I mean big whiting…30cms plus. As most of you serious fishos know, whiting take a winter vacation from the Maroochy and head to places only they know about, during the colder months of May through to the end of August. Normally I would still fish through winter for bream and gar and other local cold weather species however I have a new pastime that has been consuming a lot of my time. I purchased myself an Epic V8 Ocean Surf Ski, so now I am enjoying the health benefits of paddling kilometres offshore in glassy ocean conditions or chasing waves and wind swell when the wind is getting up around the 30kms mark.
So back to the fishing. I have now been doing The Maroochy River report for 3 years on behalf of Qld Fishing Monthly Magazine and this report is in fact, report number 63. One of the best things for me to come out of my reports, is the fact that I now have a perfectly accurate log of all my fishing activities on the Maroochy for the past 3 years which I can refer to at any time. Fish have very cyclic patterns which they repeat every season, every moon phase, year after year. They are effected greatly by natural events such as rain and dry spells, water temperature and the wind. By referring to my past Maroochy ramblings I have an extremely helpful guide about the best times to fish the river for the different species that I target.
For example, in 2017 the whiting were terribly slow to return from their winter break. The river was truly clear, and it took a 100mls of rain in late October before I caught any serious whiting over 30cms. In 2018, I had caught no whiting until mid-October then, after 300mls of rain in only a few days I was pulling in fish to 38cms and in 2019 I was pleasantly surprized when I caught nice whiting to 35cms around the September full moon. So when the last of the cold westerlies come through late August I know whiting season is almost upon us.
I used to prefer the incoming tide for whiting, fishing the sand banks as the rising water covered them. Whiting follow the tide in as it rises, foraging over the sand for yabbies, soldier crabs and prawns. They become quite aggressive and will attack lures with gusto when they are hungry. Over the years however I have come to appreciate the outgoing tide more, and I like to fish for them in the channels and washouts as the water recedes from the sand banks. My reasoning is that they have extra areas to spread out over when the tide is in, so you must search around more to find where they are schooling. As the tide drops they have no option other than to fall back into the channels that form as the water pours off the banks. I will cover some of my favourite places in the river to fish for whiting when we get closer to whiting time.
The best bait for whiting in the Maroochy is mud or blood worms as they are called, however they are ridiculously hard to come by on the Sunshine Coast and are expensive. There are plenty of places on the river where you can pump your own live yabbies and collect small soldier crabs which form a major part of the whiting’s diet. I will also let you know where you can collect your live bait in my next report. So there you have it…with September just around the corner I can feel the anticipation building. It is almost time to dust off the winter cobwebs and get ready to chase some significant whiting. If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com . Good luck!
June 18, 2020
My Best mate Gilligan, came up from BrisVegas to spend a couple of days on the river with me chasing garfish. 5 days before the June New moon we pumped 100 yabbies and headed to one of my favourite gar spots on the ocean side of Goat island. We had to fill in an hour or so till the run in tide began so we went out to the bar mouth to have a look at the progress of the giant sausage sand bags they are using to build the retaining wall on the southern entrance of the river at Cotton tree. They dig out the base, fill these huge tough bags with sand, that must weigh tons, then cranes place them on top of each other forming a wall. Aesthetically, they look very neat and I guess time will tell whether they can handle the fury that the Ocean is going to throw at them.
Anyhow…back to the fishing. With our burley streaming behind the boat on the incoming tide our floats were soon doing their thing as quality gar to 36cm started to quaff down the half yabbies we were using for bait. Although they weren’t exactly biting their heads off, in a couple of hours we had caught 40 quality garfish for the session. Next day we went back to the same spot and sat there for 30 minutes without a gar inquiry so moved 150 metres upstream but closer into the sand bank. After yet another 20 mins of no action, we were about to move again when the burley started to do its trick. Soon we had a school of mixed quality gar working the burley and our first yellowfin bream for the winter season also joined in for a feed. We ended up with 30 gar and 2 nice bream at 29 & 30cms respectively and released 3 or 4 smaller ones at legal size. Finally the annual winter migration of yellowfin bream into the Maroochy river system has started. All the bream we caught were in absolute prime condition.
As we were travelling to our gar spot we passed a bath tub sized tinny with 4 young dudes standing up casting lures and baits. One of them was lifting a nice flathead over the side as we went past. How they maintained their balance in this small boat is beyond me. Two old codgers who chase black bream every year at their favourite spot (I won’t say where) were also playing a couple of fish as we passed…so I can only assume the black bream have returned once again for the winter.
Back at the Picnic Point boat ramp one of my readers happened by and showed me some recent photos of big yellowfin bream he had been pulling off his favourite snag somewhere near where we were fishing for gar. He also showed me a video on his phone of a monster bream of snapper proportions that went 40cms and he said that he dropped an even bigger one at the side of the boat. He was using flesh baits and live prawns he caught in his cast net. While we were cleaning our fish, a massive school of sea mullet were lazing about on the incoming current right in front of us at the filleting table. I’m talking about thousands of huge, silver sea mullet rippling the glassy surface of the river like an invisible sea breeze…what a wonderful sight. Something to keep in mind if you are going to launch at the Picnic Point boat ramp. It is very badly silted up with sand and you will have extreme trouble getting away from the ramp, anywhere near the bottom of the tide.
Tailor usually follow the sea mullet into the river, so you keen tailor fishos had better get to it.
The annual run of all winter species has begun in earnest, and should only improve as the water temp gets colder. If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
June 3, 2020
It is great to see the winter weather pattern finally reach us. Expect SE to SW winds followed by calm balmy days to dominate the next 3 months as the huge high-pressure systems work their way across Australia. Without a doubt this is one of the best times of the year to fish the Maroochy river.
I have already mentioned in my last report that the winter migration of eastern Australian sea gar has begun, and I have had a couple of trips where I have bagged out (50) in the last couple of weeks. The quality of these little beauties has been terrific with many of them reaching 36cm to the tail fork. The fillet size has been so big, I have been taking home 2 X 2 litre ice cream containers of boned, sweet eating gar fillets from each trip. Most people think that gar are just too hard to process because of their size, but once you have mastered the art, the rewards are well worth the effort.
The annual run of yellow fin bream has not really begun in earnest yet. A sure indication of their presence is when they take over the burley stream when I am fishing for gar. So far this winter I have not caught one bream at the back of the boat in the burley trail. I put this down to the fact that the water temp is still very warm, and the bream do not usually show up in great numbers until the cold winter current works its way onto the coastline. With a few cold fronts working their way towards Qld this could all change soon. As a rule of thumb, the June Full moon usually signals the start of their winter run so they should increase in size and numbers over the next couple of weeks. Although I do not personally target bream, they are still a lot of fun on light tackle. A burley bucket hanging over the side of your boat with a slow release burley will increase your chances of nailing some good fish. Bream will travel a long way to your boat once they get a whiff off burley floating on the tide. Fish as light a sinker as you can, drifting it back from your boat on the current. They are scavengers by nature cleaning up the river as they feed. Live baits are best, with yabbies or soldier crabs a good choice. They will also accept just about any other fish flesh bait you want to throw at them especially, chunks of herring or WA pillies. I was fishing with a Kiwi mate once, who plonked a piece of saveloy, ‘red sausage’ as he called it, on his hook and reeled in a 34cm bream much to my disbelief. So take it from me, they will have a crack at anything when they are hungry.
Best spots for bream are around structure such as floating trees that have run aground during rain events, jetties and pontoons that abound on the high-rise side of the river and the bold banks around Goat Island. They like to congregate in the deeper channels away from prying eyes, as the river is always at its clearest during winter. Of course the cod hole and the pylons around the motorway bridge are a favourite spot for big bream on lures and live baits. Flathead should still be around in fair numbers for the next 2 months also, for lure and live bait fishos.
For those of you who like to fish the beach there are some exceptionally good gutters along the Kawana Waters section at the moment holding some reasonable sized dart. I spoke to a fisho whilst walking my dogs the other day and he showed me a photo of a big mulloway Jew he had pulled out of a close inshore gutter at night on a pillie. There are plenty of beach worms (if you can catch them) in the same area which are excellent bait for all species.
Anyway after being cooped up in your caves for the past 3 months avoiding the dreaded virus you should all be busting to get out and give em a go. If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
April 24, 2020
It has been 2 months since my last report and a lot of water has passed under the bridge during that time. The deadly Corona virus escalated, turned the world on its ear and changed the world as we knew forever. The only good thing to come out of this turmoil as far as I am concerned is that the Maroochy river has not changed one bit. The tide still comes in and the tide still goes out every day and its inhabitants flourish as best they can.
The run of summer whiting has pretty much drawn to an end as we move into the cross-over of seasons. The month of February produced more whiting for me than any other month over the summer period, due to the huge volume of rain we recorded at the time. The muddy conditions and the fresh state of the water forced them down to the bar mouth and produced some of the best whiting fishing for me that I have ever experienced on the river. The river is now crystal clear and you can see the bottom in the deepest parts of the lower reaches, even on the top of the tide. It is still a little too early for the annual run of yellow fin bream, but the winter cycle of gar fish has begun in earnest and these delicious silver specimens are congregating in all parts of the lower reaches. Recently on the April new moon I bagged out (50) on gar in a couple of hours fishing. There were a lot of smaller fish among them (no size limit) which I kept as they are ideal baits for both surf and outside fishing when packed properly and frozen down immediately after catching.
For those of you who have not tried fishing for gar, they are a lot of fun on light tackle and can keep the kids (and the big kids) entertained for hours. The best rig I have found to use is a luderick style float with adjustable leader for hook and sinker. The gar sometimes vary the depth they are feeding at, so you must be able to adjust your bait to suit. Absolutely critical for gar fishing is to have a burley bucket over the side full of your homemade or commercial burley to attract them up to your boat. A Mustad Blood Worm Long Shank No 10 is a perfect size hook, baited with a small piece of prawn, squid or yabby. The trick is to drift your float away from the back of the boat on the current in the burley stream. Your float should be perfectly balanced so that as soon as a gar starts to swim off with the bait in its mouth the float slowly sinks under the surface. This is the signal to lift your rod tip, set the hook and enjoy the battle as the gar tries every trick in the book to throw the hook.
Gar love clean, clear water and work the channels on the incoming tide moving over the weed and sand banks as they cover with the rising water. The water was so clear the other day I could almost select the fish I wanted to hook as they worked the burley trail behind the boat. They are best fished on the run-in tide, but you will hold them on the run out for an hour or so with burley before they head back out to the bar mouth to await the return tide. Although they are very finicky fish to fillet because of their size, with a good sharp knife and a bit of practice you will reap bountiful rewards of sweet eating flesh to rival any other species.
In the next month yellow fin bream will begin to show up in better numbers and size as the cooler winter waters fill the river. On my return to the Picnic Point ramp last trip, I was quite surprised to see a lot quality whiting around the 30cm mark still hanging around the shallow banks. For those of you who like to fish for flathead with lure or live bait you should do well over the next few weeks.
If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
March 6, 2020
Just as the river was starting to clear up after the early Feb downpour the heavens opened up once more with another 150mL of rain on Feb 24/25 and the river went to chocolate colour overnight. I knew straight away that the whiting would be forced back down stream around the lower reaches because the water was just too fresh for them to survive anywhere else.
On Feb 26, with a low tide prediction of 5.45pm, I launched at Picnic Point ramp at 2pm, pumped a few yabbies plus a few small soldier crabs that came up in the yabby pump and headed for spot X. I had landed some quality fish here on my last trip and I was hopeful. The tide was really tearing out, so I went up to the next size sinker (No 4) to try and keep the bait down in the Strike Zone. It is important that your bait is not floating too high if the current is running strong.
I soon landed a nice whiting @ 34cm on a yabby and using a soldier crab bait, I threw out into the middle of a series of washouts or undulations that I have mentioned in previous reports. I immediately locked into a 37cm ripper whiting which joined it’s mate in my esky. I never had another bite for 20mins, so headed to spot Y where I gathered more soldier crabs and moved to a position where the water runs over a sand spit at about 2 feet deep, then runs into the main channel. With only an hour and a half to low tide I knew I was running out of time to find a good school of whiting in the thick muddy water. Little did I know that I was about to enjoy the best hour of fishing that I have ever had on the Maroochy River.
When I first set up, I usually use 3 rods spread across the back of the boat covering a line of 180 degrees. If I get more interest on one rod compared to the others, I concentrate in that area. In this case the starboard rod had first enquiry and I was soon locked into a quality fish. This was quickly followed by the middle rod and at the same time the portside rod. I dropped a 35cm whiting on the floor of my boat and began playing the middle rod which was another 35cm whiting which joined its mate on the floor while I grabbed the other rod and landed another 35cm whiting (all gut hooked). That’s when you know you are definitely in fishing heaven, when you have 3 monster whiting jumping around the floor of your boat and you haven’t had time to take a hook out. I rebaited with crabs as quick as I could and before I could throw the second bait out, I was on again with the first rod. Another whiting over 30cm was soon in my boat and as I threw the next bait out, Bang! I was on again with a another big fish. And so on and so on it went…for an hour. I landed 19 whiting in an hour and only 5 were under 30cm. By now I knew I would be cleaning fish till 8pm so I upped anchor and left just before dead low tide with the whiting still on the bight. Wow! what a session (see esky photo). One of my contacts Troy, took advantage of the fresh conditions in the river to score an exceptional catch of whiting on the Feb neap tides (see sink photo).
The river is already starting to clear and the big whiting will soon disperse throughout the river once again, but if you work the big tides on the March 10 full moon you may be handsomely rewarded. There are also some good sized grunter bream working among the schools of whiting. How quickly your luck can change on the Maroochy river. You just have to keep on doing what works best for you and the rewards will come.
If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences, contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
February 19, 2020
The lower reaches of the Maroochy River are teaming with way above average sized whiting. This has all been brought about by the fact that a year’s supply of rain has fallen in the catchment area over the past fortnight. The upper levels of the river are so fresh that it is impossible for most saltwater species to survive, so they all head down to the river mouth seeking clean saltwater from the ocean. Whiting congregate in the channels surrounding Goat, Chambers Island and the Cotton Tree at this time, working the tides as the clean water pushes the dirty water back up the river on the run-in. And believe me, they are seriously hungry, searching for yabbies, soldier crabs, prawns and anything else that whiting eat.
One of my readers Troy, who swaps info with me on a regular basis, fished the river on the Saturday night in the middle of the neap tides between the last Feb full moon and the Feb24 new moon with blood worms. He fished all night and caught a good haul of quality whiting to 37cm. Like me, he rarely fishes the neaps, but when the river is in flood conditions as it is now, exceptions are the rule. Armed with the knowledge of his achievement, I set out on Tuesday Feb 18, still within the moon’s neap tide cycle, confident of a good session. With 40 yabbies that I pumped in quick time at the 6 knots sign on western side of Goat island I moved to spot X where I had success on my previous trip. In very dirty water, I was soon locked into a mystery fish that remains a mystery as it broke me off at the boat when I leaned on it to hard on the drag. A couple of minutes later I landed a 35cm whiting which proved to be my only fish at spot X for the next 45mins, so I moved to spot Y and gathered some soldier crabs which were relishing the newly deposited mud from the flood waters. I fished spot Y for 30 mins or so without a bite so headed back to spot X where I landed my biggest whiting for a couple of years at 42cms. It was so big that in the murky water I was almost convinced that it was a good-sized flathead. It was however a loner, so I headed back to spot Y to fish the last of the runback where the water was the colour and consistency of thick treacle.
With only half an hour to go before the advertised low tide mark I was kept active with a school of whiting that you only ever dream about. I caught 5 fish ranging in size from 32cms to 35cms and dropped just as many on the retrieve or at the boat. There was hardly any run and the water was swirling with mud, but they just bit their heads off…amazing! I really had to pinch myself, was it a dream? Was I fishing in the twilight zone?
Even more amazing was the fact that all my early whiting I caught were gut hooked as they had just gulped the bait down like there was no tomorrow, but all the latter fish were mouth or lip hooked…amazing. I waited for the tide to turn and caught another 2 elbow slappers around 35cms and dropped another 2 at the boat. All the whiting I caught except for 1 were caught using soldier crabs.
Just to add something else into the mix, 50% of the fish I caught at spot Y were a clean, silvery gold colour like when you pull them from the surf and the rest were very dark skinned indicating they were from up-river…amazing! I know I’ve repeated that word 4 times, but it truly was an amazing session. With the new moon coming up very shortly on Feb 24, if you are ever going to experience the shear exhilaration of a session on ELBOW SLAPPER WHITING…NOW IS THE TIME TO DO IT!
If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
February 12, 2020
Finally! I have something to write about.
This summer has been my leanest whiting season since I started fishing the Maroochy 12 years ago. Apart from the holiday traffic that has besieged the river for the last 2 months the continuous hot dry weather since October has contributed greatly to this event. My theory is…when the river becomes crystal clear the whiting in the lower reaches spread throughout the full length of the river, ranging right up into the creeks and deeper channels, up past Bli Bli, seeking food and shelter. It takes one hell of a downpour to wash them back down around Goat Island, Picnic Point and the Cotton Tree reaches. I got excited in mid-January when we had 200mls over 4 days, but the land was so parched only half of it reached the river, so it barely changed colour. Then came Feb 4 to Feb 7 when the skies opened in the Maroochy upper catchment and Yandina received 350mls overnight. This made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck…this meant my beloved whiting were about to be washed back down stream to home base.
February 10, the day after the full moon…the stars have aligned, and the signs are indicating a perfect storm (of whiting) is building on the Maroochy lower reaches. As I launch my boat at Picnic point ramp, there is a billion litres of Coca Cola coloured water flowing down the river on the out-going tide, today is the day.
I pumped 40 yabbies near the 6 knots sign on the western side of Goat and hoped that I could keep them alive long enough (because the water was so fresh) for the soldier crabs to come out. Poking around in a couple of places where I have had success before, I only attracted the interest of a few juvenile whiting and bream. As the tide started to come off the bank I slipped over to spot X which hasn’t been working for me all this summer. I tried hard up against the bank first without success, then decided to move over to some undulations that were working in mid-stream. First the tell-tale inquiry on one rod, a quick lift to set the hook and I’ve just gone to heaven. I can tell straight away I’m into a solid whiting and play it diligently back to the boat. I drop my first whiting on to the floor and my other rod goes off. I play it back to the boat and a pigeon pair of 36cm elbow slappers are tucked safely into my esky. Over the next hour I land another 4 whiting @ 32cm and 4 smaller ones just keeper size at 25cms. Also in the mix were bream and tarwhine all released except for one that was bleeding from the gills and would probably have died, had I thrown it back. All fish were caught on live yabbies as the soldier crabs did not venture out for a feed, for reasons known only to them.
Old mate, who pulled up just as I landed the first of my whiting, told me he had not had a bite on his previous trip. He took one look at the size of my first fish and couldn’t get to his favourite spot around the corner quick enough. I never saw him again, so I can only assume he was doing well where he was. It is so different, catching big whiting in very dirty water compared to crystal clear. Once they are hooked they are quite content for you to lead them in like a dog on a leash until they are right beside the boat, then all hell breaks loose.
My faith (in my ability) is now restored…it’s amazing how your confidence dips when you have a couple of poor trips on the river but how quickly it all comes back when things go to plan. While the river maintains its run-off colour from the recent rains, I am confident these big whiting will hang around in the lower reaches. So here is your chance to get a nice feed of elbow slappers in the next week or so. If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com any time. Good luck! Mal McKinlay
January 8, 2020
It has been a month now since my last report and unfortunately there has been no significant change to the dry, hot weather or conditions on the river. The river is just about the clearest I have seen it and there is so much traffic on the water it is almost impossible to find a place to fish. Every nook and cranny has all conceivable types of water craft invented by mankind floating upon it.
On the December new moon using yabbies for bait, I fished the run up for a mixed bag of bream, grunter and flathead all released and managed one keeper whiting at 30cms. I dropped 2 very big whiting in the elbow slapper range (35cms plus) right at the boat. They do perform once hooked, head shakes, ducking and diving, twisting and turning, all manner of tricks to throw that hook. When the hook pulls out on a good fish I always have a flash of disappointment but I appreciate and respect those fish who have escaped my clutches and lived to fight another day.
These 2 good fish encouraged me to try again 4 days before the January Full moon. Fishing the run back, I used yabbies while waiting for the soldier crabs to come out and caught a couple of very good bream to 30cms and a small flathead to 45cms all released. The soldier crabs were late coming out to feed so I only had a couple of hours to have a good crack at the whiting before dead low tide. I tried at least 6 different places that usually produce fish without losing a bait. With barely an hour left till the tide bottomed out, I moved back upstream to the western side of goat island to a spot I hadn’t fished for over 12 months. This spot produced a school of whiting that kept me busy for 30 mins or so. I dropped a few on the point of attachment but ended up with 4 quality fish around the 30cms mark. I also landed a grunter @ 30cm and 3 legal bream and a blue swimmer crab all released. As always on the bottom of the tide the whiting went completely off the bight. Working on the theory that they would come on again when the tide turned, I hung in for the young flood but did not get another whiting bite all day…the wonders of fishing.
The sand crabs were a nuisance robbing my soldier crab baits on several occasions and if I had been set up with crab pots I’m sure I could have caught a good feed of the buggers (food for thought?). Although I only took home 4 whiting (number 1 priority on my dinner plate), if I had kept all the legal species I caught on the day I would have had a very good mixed bag for my efforts.
When I was launching my boat at the Picnic Point ramp I couldn’t help but notice the flathead lays in the sand beside the ramp. There was at least a dozen or so all congregated right where the night light from the ramp shines into the water. I could only hazard a guess, but I reckon they have been ambushing prawns and bait fish attracted to the light of a night time…might be worth a try?
There are whiting in the lower reaches but they are very hit and miss and I really can’t see things improving that much until we get a calamitous weather event with at least 300mls of rain. I have been quite surprised by the number and quality of bream I have caught for this time of the year. Certainly things will settle down in a couple of weeks when the school holidays finish and all the holiday visitors head home. So unless you have broken out into a rash from lack of fishing like I do after a fortnight off the river, save your energy.
If you would like to share a little knowledge of your fishing experiences contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
