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!