Tag Archives: Clarence River

Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – December 2024

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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.

Iluka – Browns Rocks – Final Session – 14 August 2010

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Flathead Country
Browns Rocks Flathead
On Saturday the swell from the big low that was moving past offshore, arrived. This was my last day at Iluka. The rocky headlands were a no go area and the key sign that fishing was out of the question was the arrival of all the surfers. I decided to have a lie in and fish in the afternoon.
At about 2.00pm I headed off up the Clarence to look for a good Flathead spot. I crossed the bridge over to Goodwood Island, at Woombah and drove past Browns Rocks and the Norfolk Island Jetty to a couple of weed beds that have produced good fish in the past. It was the perfect afternoon. The tide was running out, there was a bit of breeze and the water was about 2- 3 feet over the weed beds. The water was very clear and I have been told that the wild colours go best when this is the case – so I put on a 5” Lime Tiger Jerkshad and used a 1/6th 1/0 jighead and 12 lb leader. I would usually go lighter, but with all the choppers around, bite off’s are a common problem.
I put the waders on and wandered out until I was about waist deep and walking through the weed banks, up river, parallel with the shore. I was casting up into the run out tide and letting the plastic sink. I would then bump it along the sand beside the weed, at the edge of the main channel. I walked about two hundred yards like this, before I got a hit. I hooked up with a small (30cm) flathead. I released him and cast back in the same spot a few more times. Third time, I got another one, slightly bigger. I carried on for another 30 feet and got a decent, 48 cm keeper. On the walk back to the car I got bitten off by what I presume was a Chopper. I had to get back for dinner but I had that feeling that all fisherman get – if only I could have stayed a little longer the really good fish would have come on the bite!