Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – August 2023

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August was a great month for winter fishing in the lower reaches of the Clarence River. The mornings were cool with mainly light south westerly winds. The water temperature was a degree or so warmer than August the year before averaging about 20.5 C.

Flathead injury

The warmer waters may have been attractive to the flathead. I caught plenty through the month in virtually all sections of the river. I caught the occasional bream but it has definitely not been a good bream year. There was plenty of bait and the cormorants and pelicans herded it around in the shallows.

Out on the rocky headlands there were plenty of tailor. There was ample bait schooling up and when the tailor were biting they did not much mind what lure I threw at them. Quite often I was fishing for a jewfish/mulloway with a big soft plastic when a tailor grabbed the lure. Sometimes I landed it and sometimes it just ate its way up the plastic and then bit through the leader. Either way I would then swap to a hard body and a few casts later I would get another one.

The resident eagle at Woody Head is getting increasingly bold when it comes to stealing fish. On one occasion he picked up a tailor that was still hooked. I had loosened the drag and thrown the fish in a rockpool while I went in search of my pliers. The eagle saw its chance and grabbed the fish and flew off. I heard the screaming drag, grabbed the rod and after a brief tug of war, it dropped the tailor back in the water with the lure firmly in its jaw. It was slightly easier to land second time around.

I could not find any jewfish in August. They were no doubt there but I was away for a week or two at the end of the month, so I did not fish as much as usual.

Iluka -The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – July 2023

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July brought more cool mornings but quite consistent south westerly and south easterly winds. These usually turned northerly in the afternoons. The month started off with sea temperatures a degree or so cooler than usual at around 18.0 C.  We had a few quite misty starts. We started the month with a full moon and a pretty wet week.

The tuna were still visible, jumping around out beyond casting distance. The pro fisherman thought they were hanging around because there was a huge school of pilchards in the area. I have hooked a few but never stopped one.

When the swell and wind was light enough I had some great rock fishing sessions, particularly in the lead up to the full moon at the end of the month. I caught tailor and mulloway. The mulloway took soft plastics and the tailor ate anything I threw at them.

Tailor
Tailor on small Noeby sinking stickbait

The small tailor were everywhere in the Clarence River and the trevally were marauding around. There were still plenty of flathead in close to the banks, feeding on tiny jelly prawns.

Iluka – the Clarence River and headlands – June 2023

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In June, winter finally arrived on the Clarence River. We had plenty of bright and calm sunrises. The early mornings were the time to fish with light south easterly and south westerly winds, first thing.

I fished the rocky headlands and caught plenty of jewfish/ mulloway, trevally but only very few bream. Whilst the mulloway definitely prefer certain spots to school up, they seemed to be everywhere in the half an hour between first light and dawn. I caught smaller fish on all the headlands but could only land the bigger ones at Woody Head.

Some nice gutters had formed on Ten Mile Beach and I caught some good sized flathead in the wash using soft plastic lures. The run out tides seemed to be the best time to fish. There were also plenty of flathead and juvenile jewfish/ mulloway in the river.

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Iluka – The Clarence River and Bundjalung Headlands – May 2023

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The weather cooled but very slowly in May.  The water temperature dropped quite quickly and averaged about 2 degrees C cooler than May 2022. We had a few misty starts on the river and some spectacular sunrises.

The swell settled and I managed a few rock fishing sessions at Iluka Bluff, Fraser’s Reef and Woody Head. I landed a few jewfish using the GULP Crazylegs Jerkshad and Squidvicious soft plastic lures, mainly in the nuclear chicken colour. The dangling legs of these patterns often seem to attract a strike when other shapes are not working. Only two of the jewfish/ mulloway that I caught in May were big enough to keep. Both were around 80 cm long.  There were a few tailor around but not many bream.

The flathead were still hard to find in the river even though there were plenty of jelly prawns hatching on the new and the full moons. The trevally were still marauding around, especially at dawn and dusk.

Iluka – The Clarence River – April 2023

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March and April are traditionally excellent months for flathead fishing in the Clarence River. In 2022 after the catastrophic floods the fishing had bounced back very quickly and I had caught good numbers of flathead throughout the system. But in 2023, April was less successful than it had been the year before. Perhaps the shift from the La Nina to El Nino weather pattern had something to do with it. There was definitely a little less bait around despite comparatively warm water temperatures.

Bait prawn trawling in the Clarence River has been suspended due to an outbreak of white spot disease in the prawn farms that are adjacent to the river. The disease was detected in August 2022 and then again in early 2023 so all of the prawn farms destroyed their stock and and have stopped operating. Its very disappointing for the local economy but it will allow the river bed to recover its weed beds and other fish habitats if the trawling ban stays in place.

I still caught plenty of flathead, a good mangrove jack and a few good trevally. The juvenile jewfish and tailor were also always on the bite around dawn and dusk. The bream, however were noticeably absent (even around the full moon).

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Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – March 2023

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In March 2023, I was able to spend a bit more time fishing the rocky headlands of the Bundjalung National Park at Iluka. The swell came down to around the 1 metre mark on a few days and this meant I could safely fish in very close to the base of the various rock ledges at Woody Head, Frazer’s Reef and Iluka Bluff. I think the jewfish are always around, but when the swell is light you have much more chance of getting a lure in front of them for long enough to entice a strike.

I caught plenty of jewfish/mulloway through the month. I was mainly successful around the tide changes, particularly when these coincided with dawn or dusk. In one of the best sessions I caught five mulloway, all of which where over the 70 cm size limit. After a quick spell in the recovery rock pool I released them all. I often keep a fish for dinner but find the smallest fish (i.e. those closest to 70 cm) tend to taste the best. A 70 cm fish will yield about 1.2 to 1.3 kg of boneless fillets and I also roast up the frames and wings for a good meal. The head is usually given away to a neighbour for his crab pots.

The biggest mulloway that I managed to stop and land was just over 90 cm. I caught it at Woody Head, using a 5 inch GULP Crazylegs Jerkshad soft plastic in the nuclear chicken colour on a 3/8th ounce 3/0 hook jighead, 40lb fluorocarbon leader and 30lb braid. I was fishing with my Daiwa Saltist MH962 rod and Saltist 3000 reel. The moon was in the waning crescent phase and was 47% full. The tide had been running in for about an hour.

Mulloway
mulloway
tailor

There were also a few tailor around as there usually are at this time of year and I caught quite a few spinning metal slugs around the rocks.

jelly prawns

The fishing was also good in the river with jelly prawns and herring lining the banks. I caught plenty of flathead, small jewfish, bream and a few flounder.

Flounder Clarence River

Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – February 2023

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January rolled into February and we had a bit of rain and a south easterly blow. After the massive floods the year before everyone was on edge. But the rain did not last long and there was to be no repeat inundation in northern NSW.

The river was full of jelly prawns and other bait schools and fished well for flathead. The small tailor were everywhere. They were a pest when trying to fish for flathead with a soft plastic lure. You would feel a bump and grab on the drop and pull up a munched and now useless soft plastic.

Tailor
tailor

I caught plenty of flathead and had a few good fishing sessions on the flats nearer the mouth of the Clarence River at Yamba. On one occasion I hooked a small flathead that was then eaten by bigger one at my feet. I dropped the rod tip and waited for about 30 seconds and when I took up the slack, sure enough the bigger fish took off. I pulled it around for about five minutes and then it either regurgitated the fish or just spat it out. I reeled the little one back in it looked completely unharmed. I took the hook out of its lip and it swam off.

Clarence River flathead

I was able to get out to fish the rocky headlands on a few days. I caught plenty of small jewfish/ mulloway at Woody Head and Iluka Bluff, but none of February’s fish were big enough to keep. There were also a few tailor schools hanging around at dawn and dusk.

Rudra Jerkbait Pro

Iluka – The Clarence River – around Goodwood Island -January 2023

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The weather warmed up and the flathead fishing was excellent in January, 2024. Everyone was catching them over the holidays and cardboard roast turkey, piles of ham and excessive Baileys consumption (more of a desert than a beverage – really) were soon only a faint memory.

tailor

We had a few storms and the swell stayed up. The northerly wind blew up most afternoons but the fishing was good in the Clarence River, as the water started to warm up. One morning wading in the shallows I came across what I assumed was a dead water dragon, floating in about waist deep water. It was completely rigid when I picked it up, but half way back to shore it leapt back into the water and swam away. It had done a good job of playing dead.

landangler water dragon
lizard
Clarence River Water Dragon
swimming lizard Clarence River

There were plenty of juvenile prawns around now and the small tailor and bream were smashing into them, everywhere. There were also still some small schools of big mullet roaming around.

flathead landangler

The highlight of the flathead fishing was catching and releasing a monster flathead on a 3 inch Powerbait Rippleshad soft plastic lure. She was sitting behind some rocks as the last of the tide ran out in no more than 50 cm of water, less than 5 metres from shore. I only had my very light Samaki Zing Gen III SXL562 extra light rod and 12lb leader so I took the fight slowly and fortunately found a sandy spot to ease her ashore. I took a few pictures and measured her – approx. 86cm . She had a head like a shovel. I pushed her back in and she swam away – what a fish!

Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – December 2022

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The swell was up and down again in December. I managed a few mornings fishing on the rocky headlands and caught quite a few juvenile jewfish on my favourite GULP Squid Vicious soft plastics. I can pretty much no longer find the lime tiger (green and orange) colour so I have switched to the nuclear chicken (red and green) colour. When the mulloway are hungry they don’t much seem to care which soft plastic you use, but I think the dangling legs of the squid pattern can tempt them out of hiding, when they are reluctant. I also believe the GULP scent makes a difference.

sunrise Woody head
GULP Squid Vicious
Jewfish
mulloway Iluka
Woody Head tailor

There were also a few tailor around, particularly at dawn and dusk. I caught them on the surface and with the soft plastics I had intended for mulloway. I found plenty of flathead, fishing the Clarence River around Iluka and Browns Rocks.

catching flathead

There was a hatch of prawns and when the jelly prawns were in the shallows close to the rocks, so were the flathead. I swapped through a few different Powerbait Shrimps and tried the Berkley Shimma Shrimp soft vibe. They both caught fish but so did any soft plastic minnow, worked slowly along the bottom, close to the bank.

Iluka – the Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – November 2022

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I was away for the second half of November and the swell had picked up again meaning that the rocks were largely unfishable. In the first half my son came down to fish with me and he caught his first mulloway on a soft plastic. It could not have been any smaller but he is off the mark! We caught plenty of good flathead and a few bream in the Clarence River, fishing at Browns Rocks. There were lots of very small jewfish hanging about in the holes or next to the drop offs but they only ever seemed to bite before sunrise or after sun set.

The swell picked up again but there were plenty of flathead in the Clarence River, fishing around Browns Rocks

Iluka – the Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – October 2022

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My fishing diary is now so far out of date that posting pictures may seem superfluous. But in the interests of trying to maintain and approximate record of what I caught and when, I will post some pictures for each month and try to catch up.

There were lots of flathead in the river in October and loads of junior jewfish. I only managed one rock fishing session and landed one just legal size jewfish / mulloway. Everything was caught on soft plastics.

Iluka – the Clarence River and the headlands – September 2022

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The wet winter continued in September with eleven rainy days through the month. The weather was generally a bit warmer than average. Further south, the inland of NSW got a complete drenching which resulted in serious flooding.

On the safe swell days I caught plenty of small jewfish from the Iluka headlands. On one morning I managed to put eight in the rock pool,in the space of an hour. However they measured between 60cm and 70cm, so I released them all. Over the next few days I did manage to get a couple of keepers, which were both around 85cm long. I was using my latest favourite jewfish soft plastic which is the GULP Squid Vicious in the Nuclear chicken colour. I had it rigged on a 3/8 ounce or 1/2 ounce jighead and 40lb fluorocarbon leader.

After some really heavy rain upstream, the Clarence turned pretty dirty late in the month so I went down to the mouth and fished the Iluka rock wall. In the first session (on the inside of the wall) I caught a couple of GTs on a jerkshad and then a 73cm jewfish. I decided to go back the next day. The water was brown and soupy which is just how the jewfish like it. I started just after dawn and soon found the fish. This time they were schooled up on the outside (ocean side) of the wall. I cast out the GULP Squid Vicious soft plastic and it was slammed on the first drop. I hooked six sizeable fish but just could not get any of them close enough to gaff.

I finally realised I was truly out gunned when a fish just grabbed the plastic and charged off with it straight towards New Zealand. I gradually tightened the drag and it slowed a couple of times but it never turned. I watched the line disappear off my spool and finally tightened right up. There was a momentary pause then snap and the line went slack.

By this time a couple of other fishos had arrived. I moved over to the other side of the wall and after a few casts, was on again. This time I hung on and with the aid of some expert gaffing assistance, pulled up an 85cm jewfish / mulloway.

The birds – particularly the cormorants – were patrolling the river every morning looking for the small tailor that were chopping through the bait schools. I caught a few bream but had more luck with flathead. The juvenile jewfish were ever present especially at dawn and dusk. There was lots of small bait in the river particularly the tiny jelly prawns that the flathead so love.

Jelly prawn Clarence River

Iluka – the Clarence River and the headlands – August 2022

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July rolled into August and although the La Nina weather pattern persisted, we did have a few cool clear days. There was plenty of bait in the river and a few mullet but according to the professionals the floods had killed the traditional autumn/ winter mullet ‘run’.

The birds would show me where the bait was schooled up and I would plan my fishing around their focus, whenever I could reach it. I caught plenty of flathead in the run ups to the new and full moons. In this river system when the bait is up close to the rock walls that line the bank the flathead are usually sitting directly underneath. I like to fish from high tide down to about half way out but I have caught them at any point in the cycle.

There were lots of junior jewfish in the river

With plenty of bait, the mini tailor were around in big numbers and so were the small jewfish. In some sessions it was hard to catch a flathead because these two species would always beat them to the soft plastic lures

The bream were also a consistent catch. Soft plastics, hard-bodied lures and a variety of fresh and frozen baits all seemed to work. On angler even claimed the only thing they really liked is chicken breast marinated in curry powder. I live and learn.

The big swells put the rocky headlands out of bounds for all but a few days of the month. However, when I could safely fish at Woody Head I caught a few tailor and a couple of legal sized mulloway / jewfish. The lure of choice for the jewfish remained the GULP Squid Vicious soft plastic in the nuclear chicken colour.

Iluka – Woody Head and the Clarence River – July 2022

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July had its fair share of windy days but was also a good fishing month. The mulloway/ jewfish were all around the ledges, when I could safely get at them and I caught plenty of keepers.

When the swell is up I focus on land-based fishing around Iluka and Yamba. If you have a pair of waders the options are pretty much endless and you can always find a spot to get out of the wind.

Fishing with my light rig and a 12lb fluorocarbon leader I caught plenty of decent flathead on soft plastics and small hard bodies. I also caught a few bream and tailor on these lures. The best tailor were caught working hard bodied minnow lures along the riverbanks at dusk. I got bitten off a few times like this. The biggest tailor I landed from the river where about 40cm long.

Iluka – Iluka Bluff, Woody Head and the Clarence River June 2022

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June was a cracking fishing month on the headlands and also pretty good in the Clarence River. The bream fisherman where getting good catches.

I caught plenty of jewfish at Woody Head, Iluka Bluff and Frasers Reef. The start of the incoming tide seemed to fish best for me and the GULP Squid Vicious soft plastic in the nuclear chicken colour, rigged on a 3/8th ounce, size 2/0 hook jighead worked best. I was generally fishing with a 40lb leader.

When fishing for jewfish I often caught some ambitious, chunky, bream. They are often lurking in the wash at the base of the rocks. I also caught some decent tailor and trevally, when I was casting metal slugs around at dawn or dusk.

Iluka – The Clarence River and Woody Head – May 2022

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By the beginning of May the Clarence River was fishing pretty well. The water was clear on the higher tides but wading around quickly stirred up the newly laid sediment. The floods had washed away a lot of sand and sediment from the rocky bottomed areas and dumped it in new spots. The rain continued but not on a scale that would cause more flooding.

A keeper sized Mulloway

The junior jewfish started to school up around the overhangs and drop offs in the river and sometimes I would catch 5 or 6 in row on lightly weighted soft plastics. The biggest of these junior mulloway were about 35cm long. The little mulloway love soft plastics but strike in a completely different way to flathead. Flathead smash the soft plastic with a hard and noticeable thud, where as the mulloway seem to slowly mouth the plastic before trying to swallow it.

The weather was cool and so was the water. I caught bream, flathead and some small trevally in the river. There were plenty of small jelly prawns and the bream were often to be found feeding on these, as they schooled up in the stingray holes on the flats. On several days I caught a bag limit of five flathead and kept the fish to feed the family.

Lots of variety fishing in the Clarence River in May 2022

The swell dropped off for a few days in the middle of the month and I caught several keeper size jewfish at Woody Head. I also hooked a few giant trevally on big soft plastic minnows. I had one session fishing the rock platform at Shark Bay on a falling tide. I caught a couple of small tailor just on dusk.

A few good fish from the Bundjalung National Park headlands

Iluka – The Clarence River – Post floods – April 2022

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For most of April the Clarence and Richmond Rivers continued to run completely brown. The rain kept coming in bursts. There were no more floods but the displaced silt and sediment washed around. Towards the end of the month a little clarity returned on the higher tides. The flathead were back quite quickly, in their usual spots, even when the water was still pretty murky.

By about the 20th the catfish were thinning out and the flathead were solid. I did best fishing with high contrast and dark coloured soft plastics stirring up the bottom with a 1/6th ounce, 1/0 hook jighead. A few bream re-appeared. There were quite a lot of zombie fish with sores on them but the flathead all looked ok. Perhaps they are hardier than the bream.

I could not get out to fish the rocky headlands as the swell was constant, but I presume the jewfish were also out there.

Catfish

Brunswick Heads and Ballina – Fishing post floods – March 2022

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I say fishing post the floods – plural because a few weeks after the first floods we were hit with another one. The torrential rain came through and the flood plains of northern New South Wales all filled and the rivers burst their banks again.

The Brunswick River is fairly small and started to clear up on the incoming tides within about 10 days of the original flood. As the water cleared it was immediately apparent how the floodwaters has scoured out the riverbed, creating a much rockier river bed.

I had a couple of sessions fishing the beginning of the run out tide with various soft plastics and found a few flathead. There was plenty of bait in the shallows. The flood washed so much sand away that it revealed a wreck near the river mouth on the north shore.

Brunswick River Wreck
Sunken wreck Brunswick River

I also decided to try fishing the Richmond River at Ballina. This was a different story. In such a big river there was filthy water pushing down for much longer and even on high tide the water was still a chocolate soup full of debris. On the flats in front of the Aquatic Centre I did manage to catch a decent flathead. But after a long walk out to the end of the South Ballina rockwall, I could only raise a few dart.

Large chunks of river bank came floating down as I fished. With the sewage treatment systems knocked out in most of the are I decided to release everything.

Iluka – Woody Head and the Floods – February 2022

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We had plenty of rain through early February and there was not much fishing to be done in the muddy brown waters of the Brunswick, Richmond, Wilsons or Clarence River.

In the middle of the month the Clarence River started to clear up a bit and I fished the flats at Browns Rocks, near Iluka. I saw quite a few big flathead lies so they were definitely back in the river after the deluge. I fished my light rig with minnow and paddle tail soft plastics and a 10lb fluorocarbon leader. I was mainly using 1/8th and 1/6th ounce jigheads. I caught a few flathead and a lot of small jewfish. The tailor were also a constant and I had a few snip offs.

The Clarence River began to clear up after lots of rain in mid-February

On the 20th the swell eased off and I had a fish on the rock platform at Woody Head in the Bundjalung National Park. I started with soft plastics on my heavy set up and caught a few bream. I moved around, casting until the tide started to run in and swapped to a GULP Crazylegs Jerkshad in the Lime Tiger colour. I was using a 3/8th ounce jighead and 40lb fluorocarbon leader. After a couple of drops I felt the weight of a good fish. I pulled its head out from under the ledge but it was too heavy and kept thrusting its nose back down into the cunjevoi. The swell wasn’t big enough to help me and soon my leader was tightly tangled. The fish swam away leaving my jighead firmly lodged in the rocks. It had felt like a jewfish but trevally are also good at using this technique to free themselves.

I tied on the same set up and threw it out again. Three casts later I was onto a fish again. It was not as powerful as the first but it still tried to get under the ledge. I let it run a little way but when I put some pressure on it swam out rather than in and I was abled to subdue it. It was a decent school jewfish about 65cm to 70 cm long. I took a picture and speared it back into the water pretty quickly.

There are so many sharks in this zone that I am not sure whether these released fish have much chance of survival. Hopefully they swim straight back under the ledge.

A nice jewfish from Woody Head

After a few more river fishing sessions the rain set in again. This time it just did not stop and the soaked river catchments could not absorb it. A low off the east coast dropped solid rain for three days and nights and the whole Northern Rivers area of New South Wales suffered the worst floods in living memory. Lismore was completed wiped out and Broadwater/ Wardel/ Mullumbimby/ Ocean Shores/ South Golden Beach/ Brunswick Heads, Fingal Head and many more areas were completely flooded and rendered in accessible for days.

Telstra and the NBN, it transpired, had chosen to route their entire regional telecommunications backbone through a basement telephone exchange at Wardell which was 5m under water. This made local communications next to impossible, severely hampering rescue and recovery efforts. The devastation was complete. People dragged their flooded belongings out onto the streets and the clean up began.

On the Clarence River the flood waters cause massive fish kills. Dead mullet, mulloway, flathead, bream washed ashore along the banks, unable to survive the sudden deluge of fresh and filthy water.

Miraculously, the flood levee held at Maclean

Iluka – Clarence River – Browns Rocks – January 2022

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I had a quick fish at Iluka in the beginning of the New Year before the weather turned wild and stormy in early January. The flathead and small jewfish were still in the river. I did best fishing the run out tides before we had some really heavy rain that turned the river brown in the middle of the month.

For the rest of the month I escaped Australia for a visit to my relatives in England. The UK seemed to have already moved on to living with Covid and although restaurant and pub staff were still masked up, everybody else was over it. It was bloody cold and I caught a stinking cold but regular RAT and PCR tests refused to say it was Covid. The plane was already packed with travellers keen to reunite and the additional Covid checks and paperwork made the tedious process of long haul travel more miserable than ever. I was glad to get back to Australia for some fishing in February.

Wild weather coming in – Clarence River