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VOLUME 13

18 DECEMBER, 2015

HoHoHo!! A very festive welcome to one and all! �ank you for tuning into the December edition of JTSM, your local sport�shing news. We appreciate the reader feedback as always and encourage everyone to send in their favourite pictures; or stories about the one that got away. In addition to our usual �shing reports this edition has an insight to a range of new products along with Christmas gift ideas. Pour yourself a glass of mulled wine and enjoy this month’s JTSM.

Local anglers are again blessed with the amazing run of juvenile black marlin that have returned to the pristine waters of Platypus Bay. �ere are only a handful of locations around the globe where a light tackle enthusiast can sight cast to small marlin in less than a few metres of water. �e interest on social media surrounding the �shery has

been nothing short of astounding, folks travelling from all corners of the globe to the sleepy bayside town of Hervey Bay.

Unfortunately the lack of knowledge surrounding the safe handling practises is equally as astounding. Images are circulating the modern digital grapevine displaying baby marlin removed from the water as some sort of fashion statement in an endeavour to earn “likes” and “follows”. For the month of November “the marlin hug” became as fashionable as the “bearded hipster”. �e time is now to educate each other in safe handling practises, stop hugging baby bill�sh and don’t destroy what we came to enjoy. Follow the link to �e Bill�sh Foundations website and read up on the safe handling tips to improve mortality rates for the future of your �shery. CLICK HERE

Steve KellyEDITOR

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Kai’s are highly sought after by international crews. To view a range of Polu Kai models, or to order your own custom colours, drop down and see the crew at Jones’s Tackle.

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At a risk of sounding like a broken record, once again the weather has been very patchy throughout the Southeast corridor. A mixture of sti� Northerly winds has not only forced the surface sea temperature up, it’s continued to fuel the heatwave we are experiencing throughout the greater Brisbane area. Whilst it’s been a shock to the system for anglers, the migratory black marlin relish in the warmer waters close to land. Hervey Bay is once again experiencing a sensational run of these gorgeous little acrobats as they move on down the east coast. Attracting anglers from all parts of the country and as far away as the US and the UK, our “baby billies” have turned it on again. Spotted mackerel, longtail and mac tuna are also in excellent numbers right throughout Platypus Bay and the northern end of the Great Sandy Straights. �ese pelagics should continue to improve in size over the Christmas period; the bait balls the region is known for are arriving as we speak.

Closer to home we have seen a positive start to our bill�sh season with many sail�sh tagged and released throughout the month of November. �is stunning caped speedster will now make way for the juvenile blacks as they continue down the coastline. Mahi Mahi (so nice they named him twice) and wahoo have both been caught o� South Passage and Cape Moreton providing light tackle fun and �ne barbequing. Beautiful bull dolphin �sh have been knocking on game boat doors whilst trolling the blue marlin grounds. Fingers crossed we see a long season with these stunningly marked speedsters moving toward the light tackle grounds as the month progresses. �e rumour this month surrounding our bill�sh �eet is that of a local boat reportedly weighing in a blue marlin above the thousand pound mark. I’m hopeful we can con�rm this report and provide a few more details in the next edition of JTSM. Weighing in a grander blue captured in SEQ waters will really put our location on the world map.

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OffshoreREPORT

Long time customer and mate Carl Nicholson with a beauty of a triple tail on his new G Loomis NRX

An impressive 170kg blue marlin caught this week o� the Gold Coast by Peter Ayoub

Bottom �sh have been a little quiet this month, the winter species are subsiding and much of the attention has surrounded the pelagic scene. Squire and tusk �sh are starting to show positive signs on the shallow reefs surrounding both Cape Moreton and Point Lookout. Anglers are best served focusing e�orts around the tide changes or moon above and below times, especially when these coincide with dusk or dawn. Floated �ve to seven inch long soft plastics on lightly weighted jig heads down through the bait schools is still a favoured technique. Micro jigs and pirate style jigs continue to shine, especially in waters ranging from thirty to seventy metres. Good locations throughout December are typically the Halfway and Seven’s reef systems in the south, up through the northern 29’s and the greater Shallow Tempest area. Don’t discount the shallow co�ee rock areas on the eastern beach at Moreton Island or the shallow rock in six to eight meters surrounding Cape Moreton. �ese typically overlooked locations continue to produce some of the better cobia, Spaniards and grassy emperor each summer. Here’s hoping big Hughie (the wind god) shines on us this holiday season.

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slippage during your winding. It also features a hard zirconium ring at the tip that reduces heat and friction by allowing the braid to run smoother under tension.”

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Mum’s not the word…mackerel is! It’s been several long summers since the toothy critters have graced Moreton Bay with their presence, but �ngers crossed, early reports are favourable. A number of excellent spottie mackerel have been captured from the bottom of “�e Paddock” green zone to the east of Mud Island and down through to the western entrance of the Small Boat Passage. �ese �sh have moved into the southern bay early and, �ngers crossed, the warm water continues to steer them our way this month. Schoolies and the odd cobia have been frequenting the markers throughout the northern bay. Focus interests on the four beacons and the main shipping channel markers to the west of Tangalooma and Cowan Cowan Point. Like o�shore, there’s been very little chat surrounding the bay snapper thus far. Relatively poor numbers haven’t re�ected summer seasons past. Grassy and spangled emperor have started to frequent the southern bay island reefs, showing a distinct liking for a well presented prawn style soft plastic. Lightly weighted jig heads and long casts well away from the boat are a great way to have a little fun and tempt an emperor this summer. �ese �sh have historically shown preference towards the island fringing reef �ats that display positive weed growth. Mixing with any of the emperor species using light tackle in the shallow water sure makes for entertaining �shing. �ese �sh are renowned for hitting baits and lures hard and heading straight back towards the structure.

Western Rocks has been one of the more consistent locations in the northern bay; beautiful Spanish mackerel favoured the area right throughout spring. �is much-overlooked location has a good mix of clean water, current �ow and rock upwellings that always attract bait and predators alike. Some of the largest longtail tuna, cobia and Spanish mackerel caught in Moreton Bay each season come from Western Rocks and I’m con�dent it’ll be no di�erent this summer. A large portion of the lure sales in early December have been deep diving 100-160mm long trolling lures for mackerel. Lures like Halco 160DD and Rapala CD14s are accounting for quality mackerel when trolled along the exposed co�ee rock throughout the channel edges in the northern bay. As the nutrients push o� the shallow sand banks and into the shipping channels on the falling tide, mackerel and tuna roam in search of an easy feed. Trolling these channel edges throughout the northern bay is a fantastic way to �nd exposed rock, wrecks and reefs to add to your arsenal of reef �shing locations. �e run up to Christmas usually provides plenty of �shy opportunities throughout the bay; here’s hoping time and weather are on our side. .

Moreton BayREPORT

�e Ima Gun jig is one of the �nest light jigs available on the Australian market, and an absolute favourite here at Jones’s Tackle. Ima have added these four new colours to the limited edition series and are sure to impress both

anglers and �sh alike. �ese colours are in stock and are available in weights; 20, 30 and 40 grams, perfect for �lling a stocking this Christmas.

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With many folks heading away to a waterside location for the festive season, local estuaries certainly endure lots of tra�c during the Christmas period. Anglers keen on �icking a few lures about, should look to work the early morning and late afternoon tide changes. Flathead will continue to bite right throughout December and January. Many of the larger specimens will venture to the ocean front gutters and river mouths. With the spike in holiday tra�c I would look to target �atties in the deeper channels and along the rock walls with silent lures. Popular lure choices have been the brightly coloured 5” Gulp Jerkshads and the ZMan paddle tails. If trolling the channel edges and rock walls look to a 60-100mm silent lure that dives to approximately 3 meters. Bream tend to be a little quiet during our warmest months, the better quality �sh typically hiding in the shaded water under manmade pontoons or cruising along the mangrove lined edges at the high tide change.

REPORTEstuary

Reidy with a quality late season river mouth jew �sh.

Jelly and small greasy prawns are starting to move throughout our estuaries, enticing summer whiting to hunt along the shallow sand �ats. Estuary �ats that are dry at low tide and have a good mix of rubble and soldier crabs are perfect to �sh on the �ood tide. Anglers �shing the falling tide should look to target the slightly deeper �ats with pockets of weed, or those that support populations of yabbies or worms. Lots of fun can be had running surface o�erings across shin deep water, highly recommended for folks visiting busy estuaries systems over the festive break.

�e Brisbane River has continued to produce thread�n salmon throughout November and into the early part of December. When the bulk of the population heads up river towards the city reaches and beyond, it’s a great time for land based nocturnal anglers to target their favourite structures and light lines. Larger threadies and jew �sh are being encountered towards the river mouth with the recent spell of North Easterly winds making it tricky to �sh locations on the southern side. December and January in years gone have said goodbye to our local migratory jew�sh population, these beauties should be back to play the game sometime in early autumn.

A relatively slow start to our much anticipated mangrove jack season this summer, numbers starting to improve as this article went to print. �e likely locations down the Gold Coast will attract plenty of anglers this jack season, but don’t discount systems on our doorstep. Recent years have seen our northern bayside waterways like Scarborough and Newport produce quality mangrove jack amongst the manmade structures. To the south, the greater Raby Bay waterway also holds quality jacks throughout summer and a lot less knowledgeable anglers targeting them. �e modern revelation of fast rolling a large paddled tailed soft plastic on a heavy jig head is a fantastic technique for targeting pontoon residing �sh. Don’t underestimate the e�ectiveness of a deep diving 90-120mm barra lure around rock walls and bridge pylons. Last summer had local anglers brawling with mangrove jacks exceeding 60cm in our local estuaries. Here’s to a bumper 2016 season!

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Brisbane’s best butcher and quality sport�sho Jason Andrews with a river mouth thread�n salmon, caught with yours truly almost ten years ago.

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�is month’s feature video is titled “Flying �sh hunt” a small teaser taken from episode 4 of “�e Hunt” series produced by Alastair Fothergill and his team for the BBC. �e series is currently airing on BBC One in the UK and is due to hit our screens courtesy of channel 9 in 2016. With nature’s true wordsmith, Sir David Attenborough, narrating and the production crew that brought us Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Plane, this will be series not to miss. “�e most exciting behaviour in the natural world is predation, but it has always been portrayed in the same way on screen: bloody teeth, marauding sharks, nature red in tooth and claw. Predators have always been perceived as impressive but aggressive animals, and in particular the kill has been the thing – in the past if you sent a crew out to �lm a predation sequence, the �rst thing that the Executive Producer would ask the director is, ‘Did you get the kill?”“Yet actually the kill itself isn’t interesting, because once animals have killed, the story’s over. What is interesting is the build up, the strategies adopted by both the predators and prey. �is has never been looked at in detail, and that is the aim of �e Hunt”(AlastairFothergill – Executive producer)

Flying fish hunt - The Hunt

FinalWORD

Steve KellyEDITOR

Folks, that’s about all from the editor’s desk this month. Time’s come to put down the pen and go and earn my keep in the store. With Christmas approaching, we have a broad array of gift ideas and lots of 2015 closeouts, so come down and grab yourself a bargain! From all the crew at Jones’s Tackle we wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a happy, healthy and prosperous 2016. It’s been our absolute pleasure to assist you in the store this year and we hope it’s a very �shy kind of year ahead. Here’s hoping the weather gods shine on us over the holiday period and �ngers crossed you get a chance to spend some time with loved ones in the great outdoors. It’s been my privilege to bring you the sport�shing news on behalf of Jones’s Tackle in 2015 and I can’t thank you enough for your continued support. All the very best, hooroo.