Sea surface temperature was about 24 Celsius through most of November 2024, well above the long term average of around 20 Celsius.

The weather was kind with not too much rain and light seas. This meant I was able to fish the rocks on both the full and new moons. There was a new moon on the 1st and another new moon on the 30th with a full moon on the 16th, in between the two.

I caught plenty of tailor through the month. They would often destroy my soft plastic when I was trying to catch a jewfish. They were generally quite big, ranging between 45 cm and 60 cm. When I swapped my lure to a big surface popper or garfish shaped stickbait, I tended to catch bigger fish.

I also caught plenty of jewfish (approximately 35 over about six sessions on the headlands). I usually found them when I was fishing close in to the base of the rocks with big GULP soft plastics. I was set up with 50 lb fluorocarbon leader down to 1/2 ounce or 3/8th ounce jigheads, depending on the amount of swell. I used to favor using the lightest jigheads possible but I have recently been fishing heavier to make sure my soft plastics hit the bottom fairly quickly. When things are slow/tuff I often go lighter with both jigheads and leader, to get the strike.

The best jewfish / mulloway fishing session was on the 5th, just a few days after the new moon. I caught three keeper size (all over 75 cm) and 5 smaller ones. I caught the two bigger fish in quick succession, about an hour after low tide.

I caught a few smaller jewfish around the drop offs in the river. The trevally were also marauding around, particularly at dusk and dawn. As ever, I also caught flathead and bream too.

November had been another great fishing month on the Clarence River at Iluka.