During 2024 I had caught record numbers of mulloway while fishing in the Clarence River and out on the headlands of the Bundjalung National Park at Iluka. I presume over the years I have got better at finding them and landing them, but I have no doubt that the population is as healthy as it’s been since I started fishing in this area 20+ years ago.

I have consistently caught many juvenile jewfish up river as far as Maclean. I have also had many rock fishing sessions where I caught and released more than twenty mulloway. I find that if they are given some time to recover from the trauma of the fight, in a freshly filled rockpool, the vast majority of smaller fish I catch swim away looking pretty fit.

I attach a link to a full gallery of most of the jewfish/mulloway I caught in December. I took a measured photo whenever possible during the month . I estimate I caught approximately 10 more ( eight under legal size, and two over) that I de-hooked and immediately released. So in the month I estimate I caught 32 mulloway of which six where over 70 cm long. I also tangled with at least four fish that I could not stop, most of which I also suspect were mulloway.

View the full gallery via this link https://photos.app.goo.gl/GYcDyZqV8MaovbKG9

The tailor were always hanging around the headlands, wherever there was plenty of bait. I had several great sessions where they would hit anything I tied on. The biggest fish were about 50 cm long. As usual, I had my most consistent sessions in the half hour between first light and sunrise.

When the swell was too big to fish the rocks I focused on wading the flats and fishing the rockwalls of the Clarence River. The bream fishing was excellent as it had been for months. I caught bream around all the usual drop offs especially when I dropped down to fishing two and three inch minnow/ shrimp pattern soft plastics on 1/8th ounce, size two hook jigheads. I was generally fishing 8lb braid and 10lb fluorocarbon leader.

I found plenty of flathead in the river fishing mainly with GULP soft plastics. Some of my favourite colours and shapes have now been retired, so I am rationing my remaining favourites.

December was a great month with all species plentiful in the Clarence River. The prawn trawlers made a brief appearance in the river for a few days and then gave up. Although the local river prawn population is declared to have ‘White Spot’, the river trawlers are allowed to work if they cook their catch immediately, on board. ‘White Spot” is not harmful to humans. Previously the river trawlers sold their green prawns almost exclusively for bait. Given the plentiful supply and price of fresh ocean king prawns (they are quite often $20/ kg or less) it seems difficult to believe that they could make any money dragging up two inch school prawns from the river and selling them for $10/ kg but perhaps they like giving the trawlers a run, every now and then.