Tag Archives: mulloway fishing Australia

Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – May 2025

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Sea surface temperatures remained a degree or so higher than usual at 23 degrees, during May. The wet weather continued. The Northern Rivers experienced significant, persistent, and often heavy rainfall in the latter half of May 2025, leading to major flooding in some areas and a persistent flow of fresh but dirty water in the Clarence River.

In the first week of May the swell eased off just enough to fish the rocky headlands of the Bundjalung National Park. The full moon was on the 12th but the only day that the headlands were really safely accessable was the 7th. We were approaching the time for the mullet to head out of the Clarence River and into the ocean in huge schools. The big jewfish and many other predators usually follow them.

I fished the early morning run in tide. It had been low at 4.45 am. The swell was at about 1.1 metres and the wind was a light south westerly. I was fishing with 40 lb braid and a 50 lb fluorocarbon leader down to a 20 g jighead, loaded with a Gulp Crazylegs jerkshad in the Nuclear Chicken colour. I cast around through the dawn but did not get any hits. At about 7.30 am I felt a grab and briefly lowered the rod tip to let the fish inhale the plastic. When I struck, the fish was on. I let it make couple of runs but prevented it from swimming under the ledge and then brought it up the stepped ledges with the swell. It was a healthy 80 cm jewfish. I decided to keep it for supper. I caught two more smaller jewfish which I released. They were both about around 60 cm long.

The tide was now pushing me way from my favorite ledge so I moved to another spot and spun up a couple of 45 cm tailor on a shallow diving hard bodied minnow lure.

The swell picked up and the rain came in again. The river was filthy but it was still producing plenty of smaller jewfish and some solid sized flathead.

Towards the end of the month I tried a few sessions on the rockwall at the mouth of the river. I fount a few tailor and plenty of smaller jewfish. I only managed to find one keeper size jewfish, on an afternoon session just after the new moon on the 28th.

Sunrise at Iluka

Iluka – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – January 2025

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The excellent mulloway fishing around Iluka continued in January 2025.

In early January the weather was kind and I had a few great morning sessions fishing the rock ledges at Woody Head. The new moon had appeared on New Years Eve and I caught several solid 70 cm plus mulloway / jewfish and plenty of smaller fish in the days following.

On the 5th of January low tide was at about 5:30 am. Sunrise was at 4:59 am.  It was five days after the new moon. There was a light south westerly breeze and about a metre of swell. I did not have any luck fishing with a soft plastic through first light. So just before dawn I swapped to a hard bodied minnow. After a couple of casts I foul hooked a tailor.

I moved along the ledge and cast through a few different spots with a couple of hits from small tailor.

At about 6.15 am I swapped back to a big Gulp 7″ Crazylegs Jerkshad in the orange bellied shrimp colour that I loaded onto a 22 gram jighead. I was fishing with my Daiwa Saltist X MH962 rod and Saltist 10000 reel, 50 lb fluorocarbon leader and 40lb braid.

I let the lure settle on the bottom, a few feet from the base of the ledge. I counted to twenty, letting the soft plastic flail a little in the current and hoping it wouldn’t get snagged. As I went to give it a hop off the bottom, I felt a solid thud. I paused for maybe three seconds,  then struck hard. The rod bent over and I felt the initial weight of a good sized fish before it started stripping line on its first run. It went straight under the ledge and the leader was immediately rubbing. I kept the line tight but eased off on the rod pressure slightly and looked at the swell. As the wave came in I dropped the rod tip for a moment then heaved it back up as the wave sucked the water back out. Fortunately the fish came out with it.

It was heavy and made a few powerful short lunges. I loosened the drag just a little and looked for a landing spot. I had to use the swell but a good set would be strong enough to push it up to the next level of ledge below me. This rod could subdue it but not lift it. I waited and kept its head out of the cunjevoi covered rocks. A big set started to roll in . I was going to get wet. I tightened the drag and kept in contact with the fish as the wave lifted it straight past me, up onto the rocks. I grabbed the leader to stop it washing back in.

I had landed my personal best Mulloway that weighed in at 17.6 kg.

There were plenty of whitebait on the headlands and I caught tailor on just about every lure in the tackle box. I also found a few good sized dart and trevally.It was a great start to the year.

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 – The Clarence River and the Bundjalung Headlands – September 2024

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September was a great fishing month on the rocky headlands of the Bundjalung National Park at Iluka. The winds were often from the north or north west with an occasional south westerly/easterly change for a day or two. The westerly element helped to flatten the swell during the early morning fishing sessions. Through the day the wind built up to a stronger and stronger northerly. This would often dirty the water up and make fishing in the afternoons more challenging.

During the transition through our short spring to summer the fishing can be difficult. There were plenty of flathead, tailor and flounder in the river but the bream fishing was the stand out, both in the Clarence River and off the headlands. As the weather warmed up, the local snake population was also on the move looking for mating opportunities. Apparently, lying in the middle of the road is a favourite pastime for horny pythons.

The mulloway/jewfish were everywhere, especially 40 to 60 cm fish. I am concluding through experience that light and tide changes are a big factor in their decision to feed. Early starts and first light fishing produced the best fish for me. Over the month I caught 12 legal sized keeper mulloway, between 70cm and 86cm and perhaps 40-50 smaller fish. I also missed plenty of fish after heavy runs and pulled hooks. I kept a few of the bigger fish I landed for supper but returned 90% of my catch to the water.

I was generally fishing with the lighter of my two rock fishing rods – the Daiwa Saltist X MH962 matched with my Daiwa Saltist 10000 size reel. I was running 40lb braid and usually a 40 or 50lb fluorocarbon leader down to a 10 gram to 20 gram jighead and a big GULP soft plastic. I am not sure that colour is important but a higher contrast between two colours seems to work well. I think this is the secret to the success of the Nuclear Chicken and Lime Tiger colours that I like to fish with. I like to use the 6 inch Squid Vicious pattern GULP soft plastic out on the headlands.

86 cm Iluka mulloway
82 cm Iluka mulloway
70 / 76 cm Iluka mulloway
82cm Iluka mulloway

The biggest fish I landed came three days and four days after the full moon, respectively. However I tangled with a couple of fish I couldn’t stop just a few days after the new moon at the beginning of the month.

Another great month of fishing in Iluka.

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

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I was away for most of July and some of August. This meant I missed the coldest time of the year which is traditionally very good for flathead and bream in the Clarence River. Unlike 2023, the bream were on the bite with local anglers catching plenty in the river and off the headlands. I got a few while fishing big soft plastics for jewfish.

I eased back into fishing with a couple of sessions on the Iluka rock wall. This is a great place to try when there is a moderate swell on the rocky headlands. Just behind the wave break on the ocean side, I caugh plenty of tailor, school jewfish and a surprise Australian salmon. The challenge here is not so much hooking the fish, but landing them. There are a few spots where you can get quite close to the water but everything is slippery. If you hook something big you need a gaff. Be careful, remember rock fishing can be deadly.

As the month progressed and the swell eased, I fished a few tide change sessions at Iluka Bluff and caught plenty of tailor and the odd school jewfish there, as well.

Towards the end of the month, I had a dawn session with a waning crescent moon (20% full) in light north westerly wind and very light swell at Woody Head. I caught fish from the first cast, before first light, but they were all 45 cm to 55 cm small jewfish. I worked through a few different soft plastics but kept only getting the juniors. In the end it was the Gulp 4 inch minnow soft plastic in the lime tiger colour that caught a keeper. It had destroyed the lure so I put on a fresh Gulp squid vicious soft plastic in the nuclear chicken colour and cast it out. A fish smashed it as soon as it hit the bottom and tried to take me under the ledge. I wrangled it out and had another keeper, this time a bit bigger. Fortunately the first fish was still alive in the recovery pool. As the second fish was bleeding from the gills, I released the recovered fish and dispatched the bleeding one.

It was now well past dawn and just after low tide. I thought I saw a few bait sprays about 40 metres offshore. I swapped to a 5 inch Gulp jerkshad in the orange tiger colour, rigged on 40 lb fluorocarbon leader and a 10 gram jighead and cast out in that direction. The lure fluttered down and I lifted it off the bottom a couple of times, then line started peeling. The fish ran hard, out to sea. I could tell from the tail beats it was a tuna of some kind. After a couple of good runs and a few arcs back and forth in front of me, I landed it. It was a small mac tuna. I killed the fish and bled it and left it in a rock pool, planning on using it for sashimi.

I then swapped back to soft plastics to try for another jewfish. I found a few more little ones. Then I noticed the tuna jumping around again. I tied on a 50 gram no name metal slug and cast it out as far as I could and wound like hell. After about 5 seconds a fished smashed the lure. It was a bigger mac tuna this time and was considerably harder to subdue. I took my time and managed to turn it way from hazardous rocks a couple of times and then landed it.

It was bleeding from the mouth so I quickly unhooked it and speared it back into the water. It looked like it swam away ok. I put my gear down and walked about 25 metres to the rockpool where I had left the first tuna. As I approached I saw the eagle tucking in. The fish was too heavy to fly off with so it had decided to tuck in, in situ. It had helped itself to most of of the fishes belly for breakfast whilst I was catching the bigger one.

Some great fishing but as always, I got a reminder that everyone likes a meal at my expense!