In early March tropical Cyclone Alfred crossed the Queensland coast over Moreton Island. Fortunately for me I was out of Australia. I flew in late in the month to find a very dirty Clarence River at Iluka. The cyclone had dumped over 800 mm of rain on some of the upper parts of the Clarence River catchment.

Despite the wind damage and the dirty water coming down the Clarence River, the fishing was surprisingly good. The deluge of rain, particularly upstream from Maclean seemed to push some big flathead down towards the river mouth. Local fishermen had been catching plenty of bream and flathead in the silty water.

I decided the best strategy would be to fish the rock wall at the Clarence River mouth on the top of the tide, when the water would be cleanest. This paid off on a few mornings and I caught some school jewfish, mostly just under the legal 70 cm size limit. The water can never be too dirty for jewfish / mulloway.