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.
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.
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.
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.
From about the 12th to the 17th December, the big swell and northerly winds were replaced by a tropical low. The rain was relentless for the best part of five days. I sat watching tv in my cabin. As I could not fish I drove down to Motackle https://www.motackle.com.au/ at Coffs Harbour to replace my broken ultralight spin rod. I tried everything – there was a G.Loomis XMS I liked the look of, but then there always is! With no job and a rapidly dwindling savings account I would have to settle for something a little less pricey. The team at Motackle were great and found me a Samaki Zing Gen II SZG 562 SXL for about $130. Its 5′ 6″ with a very fast action and so far I love it.
Eventually, I ventured out when there was a break in the rain. In the first few days the river stayed surprisingly clean and on the top of the tide I caught a few more very small flathead. There were a lot of jelly prawns in the shallows.
Another round of very small flatheadInitially the water stayed quite clean
By day three the water was a brown muddy soup full of debris. The big tides had coincided with the torrential rain and the occasional whole tree floated by. Below is picture showing the water colour and level, before and after the rain at the Goodwood Island Wharf.
I could not catch anything once it turned this murky.
The wind and swell was unlikely to drop off and the river would now probably be dealing with all the fresh water run off for a couple of weeks, so I decided to quit the fishing and head home for Christmas.
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