Is anyone else sick of these winds? If so there is a light at the end of the windy tunnel. The forecast for the weekend is looking very promising.
It’s time to dust off the heavy gear and get out to the outer reefs for the beginning of the pelagic season, if you do remember that most boats will be trolling lures at varying lengths behind them. Don’t travel too close to the boat in front of you and don’t cut across their wakes, lures are expensive. The fish that you can expect to catch this time of the year on the trolling grounds are dolphinfish (mahi mahi), mackerel, tuna (longtail and yellowfin) and marlin.
Coming back into the passage look for summer species like whiting, moses perch and mackerel along with the standard species like bream and flathead. The best places to try for the whiting is now in the passage as the bigger fish have moved into the mouths of the creeks. Moses perch will be sitting on any sort of structure like the ripples and the drop off near the mouth of Pacific Harbour mouth. The early season mackerel will be around the surf and at the southern end of the passage in the open water.
The staples of the passage, bream and flathead are in good numbers at the moment but the size varies at this time of the year. The bream range from undersize to 40 cm and the canal system is the best place to try for the bigger fish. They tend to hang around under cover out of the sunlight and ambush bait swimming past; this is why soft plastics work well with these fish. Flathead on the other hand will use weed banks for cover so they are more of a bottom feeding fish. This is the reason their eyes are on the top of their heads so they can ambush bait that swims above them. Their size is not overly large at the moment but can get to around 60cm.
With the lack of rain it has made the 4×4 tracks soft and powdery so it is essential that you drop your tyre pressures down to 18 PSI so that you stay on top of the sand and not cut into it. Camping is still booking out on a Saturday so if you know ahead of time that you want to come for a camp book ahead as much as possible so you are not disappointed.