This winter has certainly been unusually wet and windy. We haven’t had many great weather windows to get out on the water and enjoy chasing our winter species. Snapper generally come into the bay in May, are usually at their peak throughout July, and then start to thin out again in August and September. The closed season between the 15th of July and the 15th of August each year covers our peak period, but if we get a weather window either side, you’ll always find me out chasing them, and we really enjoy taking a few home for a feed 😉
Nothing better than a winter glass-out, sunset and a hot snapper bite 🙂
My next winter favourite is the dusky flathead; they’re great fun to catch and, again, very tasty! That combo is a Shimano POISON ADRENA 7’0″ L Spin with a Vanford FA 3000, 20lb braid with 20lb Ocea Fluorocarbon leader 😉
My favourite flathead lure has been the 100 mm Squidgy fish matched with a 2/0 or 3/0 Jig head in 9 grams or 3/8 oz. This season I’ve been fishing with the NEW Squidgy Ridge Shads in 110 mm, and they have quickly become my new favourite. That combo is also quickly becoming a favourite – it’s a New Shimano JDM INSTAGE 7’3″ Medium + spin rod matched with a Shimano Twinpower XD5000 spooled with Power Pro Tenacity in 20lb electric blue with Ocea 20lb Fluorocarbon leader 😉
My go-to colours have been the Silver Fox, Golden Eye and Estuary Prawn – often with a “garlic” spiked ( Spike-It ) tail 😉
The TT Big EyeZ and HeadlockZ jig heads in 2/0 and 3/0 in 3/8oz are a perfect match for the Squidgy Ridge Shads in 110mm when fishing in water without too much run down to 3 metres.
We had some welcome bycatch this winter, with a lot of barred javelin fish or grunter throughout the bay, which will hopefully be a sign of things to come now that large mesh commercial netting has been removed from the Great Sandy Straits.
We also have some fantastic bream fishing throughout the winter months, and you can catch them just about everywhere from the flats to rocky points to mangrove edges. You can target them on a range of lures and techniques; my favourite being the Squidgy 100mm Wriggler in Blood Worm. My favourite combos are a couple of custom G.Loomis NRX 842-2 spin sticks matched with Shimano Stella FK 2500s spooled with Kairiki 8+ PE 0.6 (6lb), with a 10lb/12lb Ocea Fluorocarbon leader.
Whiting are another welcome winter species, with numbers really starting to rebuild since large-mesh commercial netting was stopped throughout the Great Sandy Marine Park in May 2024.
My favourite jig head is the TT NedlockZ, which allows your tail to sit vertically upright when dead-sticking on the bottom, which I imagine looks just like a worm sticking out of the sand. The fish often pick it up on that pause or drop, as they do with most soft plastic lures 😉
You’ll be surprised how many quality flathead also fall for this more subtle finesse approach, and that is why I generally fish 12lb Ocea Fluorocarbon leader 😉
We also see quite a number of beautiful diamond trevally come into the bay throughout winter as well.
And another winter favourite is the Jewfish or Mulloway – with my favourite lures being the Squidgies 100mm fish and Ridge shad, along with the Samaki 85mm Vibelicious and Nomad Vertrex Vibes in 95mm. My favourite combo for this has been the G.Loomis NRX 843S matched with a Shimano Stella C5000 XG FJ running 20lb Ocean Braid with a 20lb Ocean Fluorocarbon leader 😉
Good mate Nath, a great threadfin salmon on ultralight gear more suited to flathead and bream than metre threadfin salmon!
We recently came across a school of these fantastic king threadfin salmon while fishing for flathead, which is another positive sign since large-mesh commercial nets were removed from the Great Sandy Straits in May 2024. They proved great sport on the light flathead gear, and yes, that’s my new favourite Shimano JDM Instage Combo again 😉
I have snuck in a couple of sneaky trips up Lake Monduran, which has also been fishing really well on the barra, considering it is mid-winter. Up until the last couple of years, I truly believed that they mostly hibernated like bears during these cooler months 😊
I have some exciting fishing lined up for later in the year, and I’m sure I’ll fit in a few more trips around the bay beforehand. See his next adventure – Scotto
