Fishing Australia

BEACH READING GURU

Where to find certain species is very important, and you can get pretty good at this if you spend time mastering a certain style of fishing.

Mad keen beach fisho Dean Ferguson and family headed up to Port Macquarie recently and the outcome is an example of just what can be achieved.

While cruising down the beach at 100 km per hour,  with 4 cars full of his extended family following, Dean spotted a hole which looked perfect for jewfish and promptly pulled over for a cast.

All of the family are keen fisho's but some of them have not all seen Dean in action on the jewfish and didn't believe he could just stop and catch them. So they blurted something to the effect of 'yeah right Uncle Dean' and headed further up the beach where they knew there was some salmon. 

However Deans youngest Sean and his girlfriend Jess knew better and stuck around to see what the old beach fishing master had up his sleeve.

First cast, a jewfish hookup for Jess within 5 seconds of hitting the water! Of course Sean cast in the same spot a.s.a.p  and he was also immediately onto a jewfish. Deans wife Jan, Ross, Murray and Kayla were soon on to Jewfish a short time later. Ross also threw wide into deeper and different water and hooked up to a few 4 kilo Salmon.

The rest of the family soon came back and they reeled in 9 jewfish between 3 and 7 kilos, and would’ve caught more if they had more bait, sandworms in this case.

Now when ever Dean talks about what to look for and why, the rest of the clan pay better attention!

Now the NSW South Coast doesn’t naturally have as many jewfish as the NSW north coast (although that seems to be changing thanks to recreational fishing havens and better fisheries management) , but it shows that Dean really knows how to read a beach.

He says the secret is having the right sand formations; which gets the jewfish in jam packed school.  

The holes to look for always have an in and out point which allows this big species a chance to get in there and leave when ever they want. 

There is also usually an eddy within the hole which makes it easier to pick exactly where the jewfish sit.  Long beaches are better because for this type of fishing because there are no rock ledges nearby for the jews to hide in.  The beach in question was 12 kilometres long.

Dean has fished the beaches since he was a kid, and this is one of his true loves.  He has also spent time with professional anglers who rod and reel fished for jews off the beach. 

But all this was not enough so he has spent half a lifetime time swimming in the surf to get a better idea of why jewfish (and other species) hang where and when.

Dean says it is easy once you know how and has offered to help me expand my own beach fishing skills-something I look forward to bringing readers of this column!

ESTUARIES

Bream can be found in good numbers in the Clyde, Wagonga, St Georges Basin and Tuross just to name a few. Where there is current they are responding well to nice fresh berley like pilchard cubes or cooked prawn heads, especially at dawn, dusk and at night when smaller pickers go to bed.

Where there is no current spread a few baits out, fish for 15 minutes and if you have no action move.

Lures are also working but high quality baits fished on light tackle are, in general, working much more consistently.

Other species like flathead and tailor are also responding to the same techniques, but lures are as good if not a better option once you have mastered the basics.

A bread and tuna oil berley will easily attract gars and mullet in most estuaries at the moment, especially around weed beds and especially where there is a tad of current to spread the berley out.

In the meantime you can learn the basics of beach fishing on my new DVD which is available at BCF and any good tackle store in the region. Content also includes, amongst other topics, some advanced estuary and freshwater fishing techniques.

Quite a few local stores have sold out already; email me at dvdsales@work.netspeed.com.au if you need help getting a copy and I will point you in the right direction.

See you on the water.

Rob Paxevanos