December 6, 2021
Well, the weather events of last week showed how quickly a few days of heavy rain can change the whole complexity of the river. I hit the river with anticipation on December 1 to fish the run back tide. The river was the colour of coffee, not as fresh as I had hoped for but pretty good just the same. As I drove to the ramp it began to rain, no it started to pour and I did have second thoughts. At the ramp there was a break in the weather and although the sky looked heavy and laden I decided to give it a crack.
My mate Magoo who was at the ramp also, gave me about 50 soldier crabs that he had kept alive from the day before. I had some frozen crabs from a previous trip which I intended to mix with the live crabs until I could gather some new soldiers when they came out to feed. Magoo’s young grandson, Sam Eadie (there’s a fisherman for the future), joined me as my deckie. We stopped at a reliable spot and on our first cast locked into a nice fish. I handed Sam the rod and he played it back to the boat and he soon had a 30cm whiting juggling in his lap. We landed another one the same size then moved around to spot Y looking for some soldier crabs.
Soon, the heavens opened up! It rained so hard you could barely breathe. We were awash…every bucket, container, tackle box, side pouch, anything that would hold water was full to the brim. All of a sudden an enquiry on starboard rod. I lifted the tip and set the hook and thought this is a good fish, but before I could gain an inch on it, the port side rod went off. I grabbed it and handed the loaded rod to Sam.
“ Just keep that rod tip up Sam and keep constant pressure on the line.” I said to him. Meanwhile I worked my fish back to the boat and shortly had a 35cm beauty on the floor of the boat. All this time Sam was doing everything right with his fish. I got him to lead it out wide away from the outboard and used the landing net( I had already dropped 2 monster whiting lifting them from the water) raised a 41cm elbow slapper aboard. It was easily the fish of the day and I think Sam has still got a huge smile of triumph and satisfaction on his face. The rain eased momentarily and we landed another 4 quality whiting all over 30cms. We were on a good school of fish, but the close threat of thunder, lightning and more rain, meant we had to pack up and leave them on the bight. It poured all the way home from the ramp and when I took the back bung out, more than 300 litres of water took 30mins to drain. The lower well was full to the floor boards. On my home rain gauge we had 105mls of rain from 7am to 1pm. No wonder I could hardly crank it up on to the trailer.
I went back the river the next day but it had become a raging torrent with at least a full metre of pure rain water still covering most of the sand banks at dead low tide. I tried all my usual places but the current was so strong there was no place for the fish to hole up. I gave it away after an hour and a half and was heading back to the ramp when I noticed a fisho at spot Z hauling what looked like a nice whiting, over the side. I anchored 100 metres upstream from him and watched as he landed another 2 elbow slapper whiting. He was in exactly the right spot but I couldn’t lose a bait where I was…that’s fishing. Once the river settles down a little, there should still be plenty of elbow slappers to be taken over the next week or so.
To all of you fishos out there who follow my ramblings I hope you survive the Silly Season, have a Wonderful Christmas and a Great New Year. Till next time, good luck!
November 5, 2021
Whiting fishing can sometimes be very hit and miss on the Maroochy River as most of you who target them know. I have had 4 trips in the last month with a very mixed bag of success. Around the early October New moon I fished twice, catching 8 and 6 fish respectively but all quality to 38cm. On the November Full moon I had a day on the water with perfect conditions for fishing but went home with my tail between my legs…not even a bite for my troubles. The main problem on this day was that the water was crystal clear right to the bottom of low tide and I was never confident of doing well, so I wasn’t disappointed.
A week of storms just before the early November New moon dropped just enough rain in the catchment area to give the river water a hint of run-off colour. I launched my boat into the teeth of a building easterly breeze at Picnic Point and by the time the soldier crabs came out I reckon the gusts were hitting 35kms an hour. I can tell you it is no mean feat trying to fish into such a strong wind. The wind was almost stronger than the run-out tide, so I had to work with a stern anchor the whole time to hold the back of my boat square into the breeze. Normally I cast as far from the boat as possible but on this occasion because of the strong gusts I could only get half my required distance. I fished with 2 rods, anymore was just asking for tackle trouble. It is easy to miss a whiting enquiry in strong wind conditions because they bite so timidly on soldier crabs. One of the benefits of using short graphite rods in these conditions is that the rod tips aren’t affected so much by the wind gusts. I continuously worked one of the rods as if I were fishing with soft plastic lures i.e. flick, flick, stop…wind, flick, flick stop…wind. A lot of fishos do not realize that whiting are a predator fish and this action quite often encourages them to attack the bait presented to them. On this particular day I caught 5 quality fish to 35cms…all by this method and each one hooked in the mouth. Considering the difficult fishing conditions on the day, I went home more than satisfied with my efforts.
The only other fisho silly enough to be out on the water with me the other day was ‘Old Mate’ who has been fishing the river for whiting with soldier crabs for years. He puts in many more hours than I do and he said that he has been getting catches of 6 or 8 each trip. He works the river from Bli Bli down to the mouth and has had to work hard for a feed. We both agreed that we need a significant rain event to flush the elbow slappers back down to the lower reaches of the river. I mentioned in my previous reports that I had changed my style of hook from a red coloured Mustad BLOODWORM EX LONG SHANK Size 4 to a finer black coloured Mustad FINE WORM BAITHOLDER Size 4 hook. I am so happy with the hook up rate of this hook that I have switched permanently (see photo).
You know, it does not take much to have a little bit of consideration for others. The state of the cleaning station at the Picnic Point boat ramp in recent times, is a classic example of a fisho or fishos who do not give a rat’s arse about the rest of the fishing community. They have been fortunate enough to score well on big reef fish (possibly mulloway by the size of the scales) on a couple of occasions and have left the cleaning bench covered in blood, guts, gore, scales and crap. It would take them 5 minutes to clean up their mess from this terrific facility provided by council for everybody to use. You have to wonder sometimes what makes people tick.
Until next time, good luck!
October 6, 2021
At this time of the year it is extremely hard to find a day when the prevailing northerly sea breezes are not going to be reaching 30 to 40 kms per hour on the Maroochy River. Usually the wind comes in mid-morning and hits full strength around 2 or 3pm making whiting fishing almost impossible during the daytime. By 7pm the wind is gone, and it is like it never existed. My last trip was on the Oct 6 New moon and with wind predictions for 15kms easterly, I was hopeful.
At the ramp I met my mate Magoo launching his boat. He gave me a couple of live beach worms he had pulled in the morning, and we went and pumped a few yabbies as it was too early on the tide to gather soldier crabs. I went across to spot Z and Magoo disappeared around Goat Island heading downstream. The water in the river is crystal clear and I knew that I would not get any whiting activity until it started to dirty up a bit on the run back. I spent over an hour with surf worms and yabbies for only a couple of juvenile whiting. As soon as the crabs came out I went to spot Z where I had caught some good whiting on my previous trip. I tried all the undulations and channels for an hour without even a bight. Frustrated, I gave Magoo a call and he had fared no better…time to move downstream to spot X.
This is where arse beats class every time. I pulled up on the very same spot where Magoo had moved from half an hour before, because he never had a touch. Straight away I had a nice whiting around 30cm in the boat with more action to come. When I landed my fourth fish I phoned Magoo, who was on the other side of the river, and told him I was on a good school. He motored over and anchored downstream about 200 metres away. I ended up with 8 whiting from that spot and while none of them were elbow slappers they were all fat whiting mostly around the 30cm mark. Magoo and his wife caught 3 quality whiting where they were anchored, measuring 33cm to 36cm (see photo). Just because you haven’t caught any fish at a particular time and place, there is every chance that they could be there later on a different part of the tide. Always keep this in the back of your mind.
I tried a different type of hook on this trip with very satisfying results. In my last report I mentioned the type of hook I used…Red coloured Mustad Bloodworm Ex Long Shank Size 4 because it was the right size to accommodate 4 soldier crabs. I purchased a packet of Mustad Fine Worm Baitholder Size 4 hooks. They are black in colour, about 11mm shorter shank and a much finer hook. The bend of the hook is not offset like the red one. Both hooks are Hi carbon steel, chemically sharpened. The soldier crabs I used on the day were small, so I was easily able to fit 4 crabs on the smaller hook. I had 3 rods set and 2 of the rods had the new hooks attached. I caught all my whiting on the new hooks and did not lose one fish on the retrieve. Only 2 fish were gut hooked and all the others were hooked in the mouth. I was so impressed by their performance I will be getting some more at first opportunity.
For other species, this is prime time of the year for king size flathead and I have seen schools of pelagics, silver trevally working at different places in the river. I even landed a 32cm bream on the last trip, but they are about finished till next season. What we need more than anything to perk the fishing up in the river is a huge downpour.
Feel free to contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Until next time, good luck!
September 23, 2021
There is nothing better than the first of the spring north easterly breezes in September, which indicate ‘whiting season’ is here. I have had a couple of trips this month and although I’ve had to work hard for a feed, I have been able to land quality whiting. One of the main problems now is that the river is extremely clear right down to the bottom of the tide. This gives the bigger whiting nowhere to hide during the day even on the runout and they are on high alert at even the slightest movements happening around them. To compound the problem we are in the middle of the school holidays and human activity on the river is ten times worse than normal.
I have had reports and photos from reliable sources of good numbers and sized whiting, fishing with blood worms at night. When the river is quiet of a night-time they are much more likely to forage for food in their usual haunts than they are through the day. So it all boils down to the fact that if you want to catch a few decent whiting through the day when the river is so busy you must start thinking like a whiting. Look for places in the river where boating activities and in particular jet skis are less active. The other day when I was out on the river I fished places away from the main channels because of the constant flow of traffic. If you are lucky enough to find a couple of good fish keep on trying around that area, even going back to where you started, because the school is moving around all the time. Until we get a decent drop of rain and all the tourists head back home it is going to be a bit of a task putting a feed together during the day. I know that I am probably preaching to the converted but here are a few tips that help me to be more consistent with my whiting endeavours.
Firstly I like to plan my trips around the Full and New moon phases…a few days before and after each monthly event. The tides are always bigger at these times and influence the feeding patterns of all fish species. Of course it does not always work out this way because Mother Nature will always throw a spanner into the works with wild weather patterns. I prefer to fish the runout tide so I can gather my small soldier crabs (my prime bait for big whiting) at half-tide and fish to the bottom. The fish also have nowhere to go as the tide falls, so they are easier to find…look for fast running water with undulations or washouts where they can hole up in the current.
Fish with light tackle of course, I use 6lb main line braid with 4lb fluoro carbon trace at the swivel. You will still need enough lead on to counter the fast-running current as whiting are more bottom feeders than top. Best places to look for are water or channels to a metre deep running beside bold sand banks. Hooks need to be big enough to accommodate their smaller mouths…I use a Mustad Bloodworm Ex Long shank No4. This is a decent size to fit 4 soldier crabs on without destroying them as you place them on the hook. Anchor well away from the spot where you are going to fish and cast your bait to the spot. Nothing spooks a whiting more than the white or silver flash of your boat hull under the water. Start at the top of your run and move down stream with the current until you strike a school of fish. Once they move on…you move on.
The big whiting are only just coming back into the river from their winter sojourn in the ocean, but they will quickly spread to all parts seeking food and shelter in the clear water. We desperately need a big drop of rain to dirty up the water and keep them hanging down in the lower reaches of the river. Anyway, its great to be able to chase them once again and I wish all of you whiting fishos the very best of luck this season.
August 2, 2021
Just a bit of a winter update for the Maroochy River. I decided to throw the boat in, give the motor a run, and top up my supply of gar fillets in the first week of July. The river was running fairly fresh from more than 100mls of rain in the previous 2 weeks, but I do not mind this because I know that the fresh water makes all species in the river very hungry. I was hopeful of a few gar but was sure there would be bream around, as right now is the peak of their winter run. I do not normally target bream as they are such spikey little buggers to handle, and you only get a small fillet from their frame relative to the size of their body because they have such a big rib cage. I also do not rate their flesh as sweet to eat as whiting or gar.
At this time of the year, because of the angle of the earth to the sun and moon, the tides, especially neap or half-moon tides have less than a metre of movement between low and high tide. This means that the run-in and run-out tides are terribly slow moving and most times this reflects on the feeding patterns of the fish that live in the river. Therefore I do not like fishing neap tides, however there are always exceptions to this rule.
I arrived at dead low tide at 11.30am in the middle of the new moon neap tides to fish the afternoon run in. I set up my burley buckets on both sides of the boat to give me a constant stream of burley running away from the boat on the incoming current. Depending on the type of burley you are using it is best to check your burley containers after an hour or so to make sure they have not run dry. As soon as I had movement from the tide I had movement from the fish. When I am fishing for gar I have a small bait dangling about a metre under a float. For bait I use either a piece of peeled prawn or a yabby on a Mustad Ex Long shank size 10 Bloodworm hook. As the float moves away in the current, the fish swim up to it, grab the bait and take the float down.
My first fish was a nice gar around 35cms giving me anticipation of more to come. Next, I had a tussle with a good fish that turned out to be 45cm dusky flathead which I released (see photo), you just never know what you are going to land when fishing for gar. Then it was an endless procession of beautiful fat bream ranging in size from small to substantial fish around the 30cms mark. Each drift, the float had hardly hit the water before it was dragged down out of sight by one of these feisty scavenger predators. After an hour or so I only had a half a dozen gar, but my shoulder was sore from landing bream after bream after bloody bream. Bugger it! I moved 200metres in the hope of landing a few more gar and once again caught bream after bream after bloody bream. Sick and tired of the biggest catch and release session of my fishing life, I headed further upstream where I finally landed a few more gar and of all things, a 34cm mullet, also released (see photo). The strange thing was, that every fish I caught, all day, was hooked in the mouth, not one gut or gill hook up. At the end of the day I took home a nice feed of gar, had a great day’s fishing, caught and released more fish in a day than I can ever remember on the Maroochy, and all in the middle of neap tides…unbelievable!
Whilst I was pumping yabbies a young boy on school holidays came up to me and said his rod had been snapped in half by a metre long flathead…that very morning, while he was flicking plastics. A great fishos tale of “the one that got away”. If you are planning a trip on the river soon she is waiting there for you, with all her glory.
Feel free to email me at malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
June 6, 2021
Reflecting to this time last year, the Covid 19 Virus had thrown Australia into chaos right down to the poor old fishos who were only allowed to launch their boat if they were going to provide a meal for the family table. So far QLD has managed to dodge a bullet as they say, and hopefully as we all become vaccinated the whole country will get back to normal.
From Jan 1 to June 9 this year, by my rain gauge we have had nearly 1000mls of rain spread evenly, except for 2 big drops in April at the beginning of the month and at the end, which gave a total of over 300mls for the month. In the past week I have noticed a drop of a couple of degrees in water temp whilst paddling my surf ski. The good news to come out of these stats is, that the Maroochy river is now firing up on all cylinders with every one of its winter species abounding.
On recent trips for gar, the size and quality of bream that have been attracted to the burley trail have been significant, with my landing of a PB bream just over 40cms a highlight (see photo). This fish took a small piece of yabby presented under my float for gar and took 10 minutes or so to land on 6lb braid with 4lb fluorocarbon leader. Fortunately, it was lip hooked and I released it, as I could tell by its fat belly that it was a big female breeder. On the same day I released another 6 bream all over 25cms and in prime condition. In the mix have been Tarwhine, also around that 25cm mark and a good sprinkling of Happy Moments to keep me on my game. Some of the happy moments have been huge, around frying pan size. They fight so hard on the retrieve they almost turn you inside out. You must ensure you handle them with extreme care, because one sting from their dorsal fin will make you wish you had not been born.
If you would like to try for bream I recommend you get a small burley cage to dangle over the side of your boat and use one of the commercial burleys found at your favourite tackle shop. This will bring the bream from a wide-ranging area to your boat. Look for some good structure such as pylons, jetties, pontoons, bold banks, submerged trees etc. Anchor just far enough away from the structure so the current carries your burley to it, encouraging the fish to leave their safe haven and attack your bait. The lighter you can fish for bream the better. Only use enough weight so that your bait will swirl around in the eddy looking more natural and inviting. There are hundreds of places in the river that will produce big bream if you just take the time to sus them out.
At this time of the year Luderick or black fish can be found at the usual deep water, bold bank places in the river using floats and weed for bait. For land based fishos there have been some good bream and flathead caught from the jetties down near the swimming pool at Cotton Tree using fresh cut baits, live yabbies, and herrings. My mate Gilligan landed a nice flathead @ 52cm on a recent foray on one of these structures.
For the lure fishos, I have seen big schools of pelagics working the bait fish on each of my trips on the river. Although I do not fish for Tailor personally, with the cold weather about to unleash upon us, now would be a good time to them on pillies down near the bar mouth on the run-in tide. I feel certain that no matter what species is your favourite, the Maroochy river will be the place to be over the next 6 weeks or so.
See you on the river soon! Feel free to contact me anytime on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com. Good luck!
May 18, 2021
As we move closer to June, the transition from summer species to winter is almost complete. Early May saw yet another 200 odd millimetres of rain fall in the catchment area, once again turning the river into a muddy quagmire. It has taken the last 3 weeks for the river settle back into its usual clear winter pattern although it is still dirty from the last 2 hours of run back to low water.
I have had 2 trips in the last couple of weeks on Gar with particularly good results both times. There are plenty of gar to be taken with some of them measuring 35cms from beak to tail fork. Mixed in with the gar have been some nice tarwhine and bream in the 25cm to 27cm range. I put these down to the cold snap caused by the early south westerly onset of the past week. This augers well for the winter bream season which usually sees fish from the 30cm mark upwards start to arrive in June.
If you like a feed of fresh fish fillets straight out of the river I cannot speak highly enough of the humble garfish that abound in the river from now to September. 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. The burley trail nearly always attracts other species such as bream and tarwhine which can add to a nice mixed bag on the day.
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 fish 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. When the water is clear you can almost select the fish you want to hook as they work 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.
On my last trip I was fishing beside my good friends in their tinnie when the water erupted all around us as a big school of pelagics (probably trevally) started chopping into baitfish on the surface. They even had a crack at the gar feeding behind my boat and you can imagine my surprise when a 4ft Bull shark joined in the feeding frenzy and leapt completely out of the water in a spiralling arch. With the colder weather now pointing towards an early winter I am predicting that, because of the huge amount of rain falling on the Sunny Coast this year, Fishos are in for a bumper winter harvest on our rivers and ocean beaches. See you on the river soon!
April 13, 2021
April is the first month of the cross over from summer to winter species in the Maroochy. Normally I have found that the big whiting have started thin out now, just before their departure from the river for their winter holiday in the ocean waters. The coastal low and rain trough that developed off the south east coast of Queensland in early April dropped more than 200mls of rain in the Maroochy catchment and gave me hope of a last hoorah on elbow slappers before they headed out to sea on vacation. As I have pointed out on numerous occasions, when the river has a lot of runoff from a deluge the whiting that are scattered all the way upstream are forced to congregate down at the mouth in the cleaner salt water of the ocean. This is whiting ambush time for fishos…the dirtier the water from runoff the hungrier they get.
Two days before the New moon and a low tide @ 3pm I hit the water at 11 am leaving 4 hours of runback tide to fish. The water was a nice cappuccino coffee colour. My long-time mate Magoo, who has just moved to the Sunny Coast to live, was sick of hearing about these elbow slappers I supposedly catch on the Maroochy and was keen to experience them for himself. We pumped a few yabbies and tried a few different places while we waited for the soldier crabs to come out. We could only manage a few small whiting and bream and it looked like any chances of big whiting being added to the menu were not going to eventuate. The crabs came out 3 hours from low tide and we settled in at spot Y, but because it was school holidays we were surrounded by jet skis and human craft of every description…things did not look good. As the tide dropped the water became very murky and you could see the muddy silt floating by in big clouds.
Finally a few enquiries, although we were not connecting with fish there was hope. Then I lifted the rod tip on a good bite, and I was locked into a decent fish. The head shakes and tail thumps indicated it was a big whiting and I soon dropped a 38cm prime specimen into the boat. Magoo’s eyes lit up and before you could say Jack Robinson he was into a good fish himself, which turned out to be his first Maroochy river elbow slapper @ 38cms (see photo). Although they weren’t biting their heads off, over the next hour we landed 8 whiting all over 35cms. It was a nice way to say farewell to the 20/21 summer whiting season.
Provided we do not get any bigger rain events between now and winter, the river should settle down nicely and I believe it could be a cracker of a winter season on all species. For those of you looking for a feed it is a little early yet for the annual run of bream, but the Eastern sea gar should be flooding into the river as soon as it starts to clear. They will be here for about 4 months and are delicious deep fried in beer batter or breadcrumbs. They frequent the river through the winter months in their thousands and are great entertainment for all the family on light gear and floats. I will give a run down on rigs and bait etc in my next report.
Species to target over the next month or so till the colder winter currents take effect will be gar, a few straggler whiting and good flathead which will also appreciate a return to normal river conditions. Try for pelagics like silver and golden trevally which are normally quite abundant in the lower reaches of the river at this time of the year…look for the birds working over the bait schools. From now on the size and quality of yellow fin bream will also improve as we start to get the odd westerly wind sneaking across the Glasshouse mountains.
Feel free to contact me on malcolmmckinlay0@gmail.com Good luck!
March 3, 2021
There are 3 things that must fall into line for me to contemplate putting my boat in to wet a line. My first consideration is the Full or Mew moon phase in each month. In my opinion this is when all species of fish in estuary or ocean are most active and your chances of successful interaction are increased dramatically. The second thing I look at is the tide times. This will influence when I can gather my bait and whether I fish the run out or the run up tide. The third and deciding factor for me is the weather, or more precisely, the wind. The lower reaches of the Maroochy river are open and strong wind, whether it is from the north or south can make life extremely uncomfortable, in fact impossible, in a small boat. So many times 2 of the 3 parts of my equation fall into place but the third refuses to play ball. It is amazing how the weather turns to crap nearly always around the Full and New moon phases.
My favourite time to fish the Maroochy for whiting has swung 180 degrees from when I started 13 years ago. I always liked the run up tide…starting from absolute low, fishing the 6 hours or so of the run in until the banks were covered right up to the top. I would follow the whiting out of the low tide gutters as they spread across the sand banks in search of yabbies, prawns, worms and soldier crabs etc. on the rising tide. Now days I am happy to gather my favourite bait (small soldier crabs) 3 or 4 hours on the run back from the top of the tide and just fish until slack water at absolute low tide. Around about this part of the tide the whiting have receded back off the banks into the deeper channels of the river waiting in the swirls and undulations to ambush an unsuspecting prey (my baited hook). This gives me at least 2 to 3 hours of productive time to rustle up a reasonable feed and not have to spend all day getting burnt to a crisp by the sun or blown off the face of the earth by incessant wind.
For the month of February I fished the New moon in the middle of the month and found good whiting, but they were very spread out, just picking one up here and there. They were quality however and I ended up with 6 fish to 38cms with a few grunter bream and a good flathead in the mix. One of my readers Troy, fished the night after my trip with blood worms and ended up with a bag of superior whiting to 40cms (see photo). On the Full moon right at the end of the month I fished the last of the runout, with low tide at 5pm. Conditions were perfect except that the water clarity was crystal clear…not good when chasing whiting. I tried my usual spots with soldier crabs but could only muster 1 whiting, which was a good one at 35cms. The grunter bream however were almost in plague proportion. I landed more than a dozen, some of them were well and truly over the legal limit of 30cms. I also caught a nice eating size flathead @ 50cms but released it along with the grunters. I really feel that our run of summer whiting has almost finished which is probably appropriate as we have just slipped into autumn and the cross over period between our summer and winter species. If however, we were to get a significant rain event in the next few days from Cyclone Niran hovering in the coral sea, the whiting might be forced to congregate at the river mouth giving us one more crack at them before they disperse for winter.
All in all, it will be slim pickings in the river for the next 2 months or so before the annual run of winter species begins. If you are looking for a feed, there are heaps of grunter bream to be targeted with live yabbies, soldier crabs or flesh bait strips. Also if you targeted flathead specifically on live baits or lures I am sure you would do very well.
See you on the river soon! If you would like to share your fishing experiences, feel free to send me an email.
February 2, 2021
In this report I would like to share some of the things that help improve my strike rate and my chances of success when fishing the river. I have been fishing the river for 13 years and although Human traffic has just about doubled during this period, I have seen firsthand, a huge improvement in the ecology systems of the river. I am not saying that I’ve seen a great advance in the numbers of fish living here but I have seen a vast recovery in the bait resources of the river. I put this down to the demise of the sugar cane farms (pesticide and fertilizer run off) which used to line the banks of the Maroochy but have now been replaced by urban developments. The yabby banks have increased three-fold in this period and the soldier crab population is abundant and flourishing. These are both a necessary and favourite food of all estuary species and most offshore juvenile species as well.
One of the best fishing tools I use is 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. Willy Weather is my Bible and I have found it to be an invaluable asset to my success rate. All my fishing is in the daytime and because I am retired, I rarely fish weekends (too many people on the water). I get my best results on the river fishing around the Full moon or New moon tides. 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.
For most of my fishing life I used long, one-piece whippy 12ft fibreglass rods resting on the back of the boat with Alvey side cast reels and 6lb mono. Since moving to the Sunshine Coast I have switched my tackle to short boat rods as they are simpler to store on board and they make the task of managing a large fish around the boat much easier when landing it. By trial and error, the rods I now use exclusively for whiting are 7’ graphite. Their fine tips make them super sensitive to a whiting enquiry when using soldier crabs. Graphite rods are very strong and transfer a lot of power from the rod butt through the runners right down to the fish. This power helps you control the fish from the moment of hook up till you have its nose lifted out of the water beside the boat.
I use thread line or spinning reels spooled with 6lb braid. My preferred braid brand is J- BRAID X 8 Chartreuse colour. To my braid main line, I splice in about 3 metres of 6lb fluoro carbon leader, then slide a No 3 running sinker on to the leader and attach it to a rolling swivel. Connecting a minimum of a metre of 4lb fluoro carbon trace to the swivel, I place 2 to 3cms of red tubing on it on it to act as a fish attractant, then finish off with a Mustad Size 4 EX-LONG SHANK Bloodworm hook. In faster flowing water I increase the sinker size to suit, maintaining the bait in the whiting’s feeding zone.
I fished the end of January Full moon tide and although conditions were good I only managed 3 whiting around the 30cm mark. The river has lost most of the fresh run off from early January and the whiting are there, but they are super fussy feeders right now. I must have dropped at least 6 good fish that spat the hook on retrieval because they were only lip hooked. With a cyclone hanging around out in the Pacific and a couple of wet weather troughs working their way to the east coast we might be lucky enough to get another good rain event soon to stir things up again on the river…here’s hoping.
See you on the river soon! If you would like to share your fishing experiences, feel free to send me an email.
January 14, 2021
The holiday period is almost finished, and it will not be long before the Maroochy river returns to some semblance of sanity. The good news is that the recent rain system in early January has flushed some big whiting back down to the lower reaches. The tides in January are always the biggest for the year so this gives a huge variation between low and high tide. Combine this with the freshwater run-off from recent rains and you have the right recipe for elbow slapper whiting.
After a layoff of 6 weeks I decided to run the gauntlet with the remaining human traffic on the river and fish the runback tide on the January 13 New moon. With a low tide at 4.45pm I hit the water at 1pm, pumped a few yabbies and settled in at spot Y to wait for the soldier crabs to surface on the fast draining sandbanks. Selecting a spot where I could fish back into some good undulations which were working well on the fast receding current I was soon locked into a nice whiting about 30cms. Within a few minutes I had 2 more on board the same size. Now most fishos would be as happy as Larry pulling 30cm whiting in but I knew from experience, that as soon as I could get some soldier crabs working, the elbow slappers would be lining up.
There was a lot of floating weed in the water making it that little bit harder to control my line. I soon noticed the sand banks start to change their colour…this is a sure sign that the soldier crabs are starting to emerge. As they pop out of the earth they churn the sand or mud up in the process and the whole sand bank changes to a darker shade. I grabbed a bucket of crabs and went straight back to the spot I was fishing, because I knew there was a patch of good whiting working this area. With 2 rods set I was baiting the third when I had enquiries on both rods in the water. Lifting the tip quickly I set the hook on one rod then lifted the other and set the hook on it. I played a beautiful whiting around 35cms back to the boat and started to retrieve another fish that turned out to be the same size. The fish were so hungry they were swallowing 4 soldier crabs on each hook in one gulp. This is not a normal bighting pattern as they usually pick at the crabs one at a time until they have robbed the hook. Only when they have been feeding in fresh conditions for a few days after heavy rain do they attack the bait with such appetite. For the next hour or so I was continuously baiting and retrieving big fat whiting to 40cms. In the mix I caught and released 4 grunter bream, all size at 30cms (kidding they don’t scrap on light line) a tarwhine @ 30cm and 2 stingrays. The water got dirtier from the fresh as the tide receded, but they just kept on bighting until finally they slowed to a dribble, then nothing. I moved further down stream and caught a few more whiting on the edge of the main channel as it dropped off into deeper water.
So there you have it from the horse’s mouth. I was surrounded by jet skis, hire boats, house boats, kayaks and paddle boards, oblivious to the world, as I dropped 16 fat Maroochy river whiting into my esky…one after the other. Just the fact that I was able to do so well under extreme fishing conditions demonstrated to me how bountiful the Maroochy river is, even when it is under extreme duress from Mankind. Of course a little bit of local knowledge goes a long way.
The river water is returning to its normal clarity quickly so those of you contemplating a trip should do so sooner, rather than later. If you can find a spot away from the traffic you should be able to target whiting and flathead with schools of silver trevally working the baitfish all over the lower reaches from the Motorway bridge to Goat Island.
See you on the river soon! If you would like to share your fishing experiences, feel free to send me an email.
