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Fresh and Salt


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Hi Raiders,

Hoping everyone is well, its been a long time since my last confession.

Early this year, i took a promotion which led to me moving up to the gold coast. I live in Hope Island now and have canal access - so ive spent many a night chasing the bullshark or putting in a million casts chasing jacks and cod.

Ive also had the pleasure of fishing some of the impoundments up here, the freshwater sport fishing up here is excellent...still no toga yet though :(

Here is a quick snap shot of some the stuff i been catching up here:

Bream: Most of my bream fishing has been on 3lb, fishing the River2Sea crusty crabs and dragon maggots. Both work really well up here and the key retrieve is a slow but tall lift and drop.

Cod/Jacks: Both Cod and Jacks seem to respond to the same lures when fishing sub-surface. I have been focusing my efforts with a 1/2 ounce jig head on Z-mann 4 inch swimmers in white or natural presentations. Slow rolls and deadstick seems to work on the jacks and slow rolls over rock bars coax the cod out pretty easily. With both these species, i found using a baitcaster is a lot better. Both fish will take lures straight back into the pylons or rocks. I had a few cod which i caught on smaller spin outfits buried their head into the rocks and didnt want to deal with life. simply plucking the line like a guitar had them come out very quickly - i see this working with other species aswell so keep this one in the book. Cod have also been taken on small berkley 3B lures in deep divers, mainly in the darker purple colour and atomic minnow styles lures in the suji shrimp equivalent.

Long-Tom: My canal is full of them, and they are huge. Almost mistaken for cuda or eels. They cruise up along the surface and hang around near you. They respond really well to berkley prawn dogs and River2Sea bubble pops with feathers on the tail. Constant retrieves work, their mouths are very hard to hook so the constant tension of a retrieve makes it a lot easier. I have tried targeting them on fly but had no luck so far. My biggest is over 70cm but the fight leaves you a bit disappointed.

GT: I hooked one and dropped it, but caught another baby one the day on a prawn dog, using a walk the dog styled retrieve. What they lack in size, they make up for in go. Especially on 3lb!

Bass: I have only started chasing them up here. They respond well to Betts spins and Sebile Spin Shads - i am yet to crack anything over 40cm :(

Yellowbelly: I caught my PB yella up here a few days ago. Over 3.2kg and taken on 3lb - safe to say i was happy with that, it wouldnt even fit in my net.

Tilapia: Are quite prominent in the impoundments. They are a pest species and i was told you must kill it, but you cant take it home to eat. im not sure why i think something about egg's being washed back into the drainage systems.

Misc: I had a run-in with a lung fish and almost emptied my spool, these things take lures aimed at other fish. Luckily it spat the lure so i know there was no harm done. There is also a few brown sweet-lip hanging around - they take hard bodies and grubs.

When i first got up here (Feb), i spent a lot of nights chasing bullies from the canal - i had 3 separate runs and lost all 3. One of them, i couldnt stop. i reckon there would be some monsters in there, especially if they are matching the size of the rays in here.

My next targets are mullet on fly, and Toga on just about any lure i can manage.

Gear i been using:

Daiwa Alphas 103 with 8lb Samaki Braid on Shimano raider baitcast

Shimano Stradic Ci4 1000 with 3lb PowerPro on Samaki Zing 5'10"

Daiwa Freams 2000 with 6lb Berkley Fireline (i hate this line), on Daiwa Black Label 7'

Nitro Innovator 6WT with Redington Surge, El Cheapo Fly line which i want to throw away

Enjoy the pics, again wishing everyone well - keen to know who lives up here and wouldnt mind wetting the line.

Stan

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Some good fish and great photos there stan! Gees, I was up the goldy a few weeks ago looking to do some fishing. Would have been great for a local to show me around. Good luck with your next targets. Look forward to your next post.

Cheers scratchie!!!

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Thanks Guys,

Wouldnt mind ticking a cod off the list either. If anyone is planning a northern NSW trip, hit me up id love to tag along.

Scratchie, let me know next time your up, i owe you for the nepean bass tips you gave me a few months back - i ended up with over 20 caught and released each session :)

That treble i had to push through and cut, but looked more painful than what it was.

Cheers!

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  • 2 weeks later...

yeah mate let me know when your up next.

theres a massive golf course up near my way, any chance u were there? (hope island)

na played south port the glades, lakelands and tweed - some decent bream in some of the lakes on the courses and what i think were decent sized tarpon, also saw plenty prawns in one place with bream schooling them up ;-)

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na played south port the glades, lakelands and tweed - some decent bream in some of the lakes on the courses and what i think were decent sized tarpon, also saw plenty prawns in one place with bream schooling them up ;-)

oooohhh what course was this at?! might have to sneak in with a rod in a caddy bag!

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the bream were in the tweed course, the tell tale bubbles of tarpon in one of the others ( we drinking most days so its all a bit hazy, but tweed was the first day straight off the plane) amazed how many bream is such small shallow water, and the little prawns in there, it was very interesting. think there were big real big carp in the water on the 2nd or third hole at the glades

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man i need to work out how to get in there lol.

the tweed course should be easy there is a walk way along the river right next to the course, no need to jump a fence -- i'll send you a map via pm with exactly where i saw loads of bream, its very close to the edge of the course ... around dusk you'd probably have little threat of golf balls hitting you or getting chased off. i think all ponds would be connected via pipes so if there is fish in some there'd be fish in all. i guess i saw so many the bream in one cause it was only a few feet with only one spot where you couldn't see the bottom

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  • 2 weeks later...

the tweed course should be easy there is a walk way along the river right next to the course, no need to jump a fence -- i'll send you a map via pm with exactly where i saw loads of bream, its very close to the edge of the course ... around dusk you'd probably have little threat of golf balls hitting you or getting chased off. i think all ponds would be connected via pipes so if there is fish in some there'd be fish in all. i guess i saw so many the bream in one cause it was only a few feet with only one spot where you couldn't see the bottom

thanks for that map, i am definitely going to give this a bash :)

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Brilliant work Stan and congratulations on the promotion :thumbup:

Nice variety of fish on a selection of lures.

Nicely done and keep up the tremendous work.

All the best

Ian

Thanks Ian! hope all is well and their still biting for you mate?

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