By Carl ‘Cid’ Dubois
Terry and I stood on the ramp in the pre-dawn gloom, gazing out at the whitecaps whipped up by the 25 knot southerly that, according to various websites, wouldn’t be here until the afternoon. Our plans to chase the reported schools of tailor were quickly shattered. Terry turned to me and said, ‘I hear there have been a few jewfish and bream caught in the river,’ and with that simple sentence, we jumped in the cars and hightailed it to calmer waters only a few minutes away.
This location can really fire at times, with a long man-made wall in relatively shallow water that holds good populations of bream and, only 20 m away, some nice deep water with moored boats and even a couple of deeper holes that provide fantastic holding areas for mulloway. Bream were first on our list though, so over to the wall we went.
I cast my Ecogear Cybervib as close to the wall as I could, allowing it to shimmer its way to the sandy bottom. I let it sit for a few seconds then proceeded with a double-hop and drop retrieve. Terry was still tying on a soft plastic when I hooked up. With the rod angled to the side, I guided the fish away from the wall fairly easily and a 27 cm bream said a brief hello before I slipped it back into the water.
Terry was ahead of me now and had just dropped a fish, so I decided to let him continue working the wall while I moved out to the deeper channel, hoping for one of the larger silver denizens that would give me a better run for my money. A quick glance at the sounder showed a few arches that caught my attention, but they could be weed clumps drifting with the current. So I dropped a lure down.
In my eagerness to start, I forgot I was using my bream gear and launched the lure up current. This time I applied a lift and drop retrieve, carefully keeping the line tight as the lure dropped. I continued this technique and finally I felt a bump. Nothing huge but I lifted the rod all the same.
Andrew Death with his first of twelve for the morning. Getting that first one is always worth a smile
A certain thrill shoots through your body when you know you’re onto a good fish and this was one of those times. As I lifted the rod, I could feel the heavy weight, while the head shakes accompanied by a powerful run made me certain I was hooked onto a mulloway. I called out to Terry immediately. As the fish took off down current I had no choice but to follow as the amount of hurt you can put on with 4lb braid and 4lb leader is rather limited!
The fish took me on a bit of a run and we danced around the anchor ropes. At one particular moment I thought it would all end in tears. We were heading past the left side of an anchor rope when the fish suddenly veered and went the right side. I quickly tried to turn but there was no way I was going to be able to follow this rampaging fish due to the current pushing me along and then I felt the line rubbing against the anchor rope. There was nothing else I could do, so I flipped the bail arm and free-spooled it, praying I’d stay attached. Frantically I turned and pumped the Mirage Drive on my Hobie. As I rounded the anchor rope, I desperately wound in and yes, the beast was still there.
The runs weren’t as strong now and I knew that with patience and a backed-off drag, this fish would be mine. Up from the depths it came and into the net (it just fitted) and our Plan B turned out to be A-okay! Ha, who needs tailor when you can catch these brilliant fish? It was hooked right in the side of the jaw and the fluoro didn’t even have a mark on it. Luckily for me it must’ve been the braid that rubbed against the anchor rope. Sometimes you’re lucky, I suppose. At 78 cm total length it was only 4 cm short of my best from the yak.
Of all estuarine fish, mulloway or jewfish would have to be at the top of the ‘would love to catch list’ for any angler. Many have tried for years to land one and their reputation as a frustrating target can at times be well founded. However, some anglers appear to have cracked the code to some degree and they rack up more than their fair share of captures. Paul Bigg from Mt Gambier and Andrew Death and Stewart Dunn from Sydney are in this group and I questioned them to get their low-down on mulloway techniques. Their answers will help many anglers as their in-depth knowledge can be applied wherever you are in Australia.
Paul is well known amongst the many forum regulars and we eagerly followed his trip reports on his quest to land one hundred mulloway from this kayak a few months back. His local spot is the Glenelg River, with his biggest mulloway to date reaching 91 centimetres.
Paul catches fish throughout the year but November to March is his favourite time as he says the fish seem to be more active in the warmer months and they also fight a lot harder with longer runs and more of them.
If you combine this warm weather with a high tide in the early evening and a full moon, Paul is extra keen to get out on the water. Fishing a couple of hours either side of sunset has provided almost non-stop action, with his two best sessions seeing seven and nine mulloway hitting the deck. He says, ‘The fish definitely seem to be more on the bite at the top of the tide in the river. When the flow in the river stops, the fish come out hunting.’
The water Paul fishes is typical of his area. He looks for deep water and sounds out the base of cliffs in the river, searching for where the bottom slopes steeply to the centre. In this ideal terrain he has caught many mulloway on soft plastics, his favourite being a five inch Jerk Shad in Lime Tiger rigged on a size 3/0, ¼oz jig head, but he captures most of his fish on bait using a pilchard rig. Cut in half and rigged on three ganged hooks with no added weight, it’s a simple but most effective technique. Paul uses a Penn Prion 2000 rod and reel combo loaded with 8lb Fireline braid and 12lb Vanish leader. This is topped with a short 40lb shock leader and the 3/0 or 4/0 ganged hooks.
Paul filled me in on how he sets up while on the river. ‘I back the kayak up to the cliff and tie off to a tree with an occy strap that can be released quickly if I have to give chase. I cast out two lines and sit them in my rod holders and let the bait drift with the current. The bream around here will pick the bait to bits in a few minutes so it’s important to check your bait often. When a mulloway takes it, it’ll run slowly at first, but steadily. I’ll then carefully lift the rod out of the holder and set the hook and that’s when they really run, so hang on!’
Paul Bigg with his best to date – 91 cms of pilchard chomping Jewfish.
Andrew and Stewart are two ‘lure only’ anglers (Stewart says he’s too lazy to use bait) that often fish together throughout the waterways of southern Sydney. With a plethora of locations on offer, bridges often factor in the equation of where they’ll target. Being regular travellers up and down the coast though, they fish new areas and they look for certain features to help narrow their search for their quarry.
‘When scouting a new location,’ says Andrew ‘I’ll look for deep drop-offs, eddies and places where bait will school up.’ Stewart added a few other features to this list. ‘It’s worth looking for some sort of structure, like a rocky or reefy bottom, especially on points. I’ll also check Google maps, looking for deep water ambush spots at junctions in rivers and creeks.”
In line with Paul, they favour fishing the change of light at dawn or dusk and have had their best sessions in the early evening just after dark. Unlike South Australia though, it’s the cooler weather that sees them regularly amongst the fish, with May and June being the prime months.
‘The beauty of these times is that often you’ll have the water all to yourself,’ smiles Andrew. ‘Those crystal clear, cool mornings see a lot of the fair weather fisherman stay in bed and the lack of boat activity and noise often translates into a good bite.’
Stewart Dunn with a prime river ‘schoolie’ or ‘soapy’. Note the TT Revhead jighead that is one of his favourites.
When quizzed about tides, the last couple of hours of the top or bottom brought them the most success. Stewart added that he thinks the location is more important than the tide.
‘The best stage of the tide will probably vary for different systems, so what works in one won’t necessarily work in another. It depends on the scenario that you find the mulloway feeding in. For example, if they are feeding on prawns, then the run out during the dark will likely be the go.’
However, this doesn’t mean that they can’t be caught during the day. One of my most memorable mulloway sessions was fishing with Andrew and Stewart in the middle of the day while it was pouring with rain. I’d landed half a dozen fish before having to leave and the boys racked up over a dozen each by the time they’d finished for the day. Dull, overcast days are always worth a shot and often can keep the fish biting well past sunrise.
The gear both anglers use is relatively light, using 4–8lb braid loaded up on Shimano Stradic Ci4s combined with a Lox 2–5 kg Yoshi Rod. Andrew commented on their choice to use light gear. “We mostly use 6lb leader, sometimes 8 pound. Using light gear increases your bites and the amount you can feel, as sometimes the fish will only ‘tap’ your lure and they are too easy to miss on heavy gear.’
The light lines work well with the choice of lures Stewart and Andrew use. A 100 mm Squidgy Fish or a gold Berkley Powerbait Prawn rigged on a ⅜oz TT Revhead jighead that is simply bumped along the bottom with occasional lifts and drops allows the lures to impart their own action via the tails or attached blades. Be ready for the slight taps as these often occur as the lure is dropping.
The biggest tip offered by both anglers is to be sure the hook is set firmly.
‘The only advice I try to drum into anyone fishing for mulloway,’ says Stewart, ‘is to really set that hook. Strike hard and then strike again! Using these light lines it’s essential to make sure that hook penetrates.’
Once hooked, patience is the key. Many anglers panic and go too hard when they realise they are hooked up to a big fish. Andrew says to relax and let the fish run and just keep that line tight. After a couple of hard runs they’ll usually tire fairly quickly. Of course, there is the time when you’ll hook up to that big mulloway and then the kayak plays a big part.
‘I have a very versatile Hobie Outback that, combined with the Mirage Drive, lets me chase after the big fish while keeping constant control of my rod,’ remarks Stewart. ‘This is an important factor when using light gear and many times we would have been spooled had we not have taken off after the fish.’
As is typical of many gifted kayak anglers, Paul, Andrew and Stewart have been extremely generous with the sharing of the techniques they’ve learnt over the years chasing these magnificent fish. They regularly take newcomers to the sport out (Paul’s partner Sarah has recently racked up some impressive captures) and I’ll leave the final comment to Stewart. I’d asked him about the most memorable mulloway session that he’d had and his answer was simple but so typical of the camaraderie that we feel within the kayaking fraternity.
‘My best sessions are where you take a friend for their first trip and you just know he or she will get one. Then they do and you see that look on their face. It’s like they just saw Santa Claus.’
