Mulloway beach fishing tips

When-
Tide changes are important when fishing for mulloway on a beach especially fishing a high tide, the best times are 2 hours either side of the peak, this allows the maximum amount of water in the gutter and the mulloway are able to stay undercover to prey on small bait fish.If a high tide coincides with dawn or dusk and 2-3 days before and after a new or full moon, this is a recipe for success.

Where-
Gutters and deep holes along a stretch of surf beach, these deep water spots create a place where the currents push all forms of food into, allowing the mulloway to feed on easy prey.
To find a gutter you need to look for the calmer water in the surf zone, a good pair of polarized sun glasses makes the job alot easier as they minimize the glare on the waters surface. This allows you to spot the deeper darker areas. The gutters will normally run parallel to the beach with a wave crashing on the back edge of the gutter then 'smoothing out' over the deep water in the gutter, then the waves reform and will crash onto the beach. If the gutter has a good entry and exit point over the sandbar and into the deep water this will be your best spot to try.

What to use-Bait-
Mulloway are an ambush opportunistic predator and will feed on most fish,Prawns and squid.
yellow tail,tailor,mullet,mulies,whiting,and salmon trout being some of the best baits for mulloway and are normally easy to obtain.Fresh is best and live is better, remember if you decide to use tailor or salmon trout as mulloway bait you must still adhere to the size limits, 30 cm is the legal minimum size, i would recommend dispatching tailor and salmon trout and using a fresh fillet as a 30 cm+  fish is difficult to cast.

-Gear
There are several options when it comes to beach fishing for mulloway, either a 6-8000 size spinning reel or a 20-50 size over head reel spooled with at least 200m of 20-30lb main line, i prefer to use braid lines as it allows a much better casting distance and with little to no stretch you feel every bite. for beach rods a 10-13' rod is perfect for casting the distances required and graphite is the better option, graphite is much lighter then fiberglass rods so your arms don't get tired when casting and retrieving baits all night. match a rod to the line class you are using and a rod with the ability to cast at least 150 grams which will equal a 4 oz sinker and a bait.
hooks and trace line are important when fishing for mulloway as they can be very timid at times, the smaller and lighter the better, i fish two 5/0's snelled on 60lb trace set about 6 cm apart.
when fishing in heavy surf conditions or there are several people fishing close together to stop your bait from sending up 200m down the beach i recommend using an impact sinker.these sinkers are available at all leading tackle shops, the idea with an impact sinker is you hook the small piece of wire on the sinker onto your bottom hook thus allowing your bait and sinker to travel as one, increasing your casting distance tremendously, when the sinker and bait hit the water they separate and the sinker sets its 4 prongs into the sand anchoring you bait in place. allowing your bait to float around waiting for a mulloway to engulf it.

impact sinker

Black magic bait buddy is a beach fisherman's best friend, this white roll of cotton can be the difference between catching fish or going home empty handed. the cotton is wrapped around your bait and hooks stopping your bait from flying off while casting, mulies are the worst for that, bait buddy also helps to combat pickers.

black magic bait buddy

the most important thing to remember is BURLEY, i can not stress enough how important burley is when it comes to beach fishing. a few small cubes of mulie thrown into the white wash every 10 minutes or so is normally enough to get the smaller bait fish feeding in your area, you can then target these bait fish
for fresh and live bait. Activity creates activity as the smaller fish are feeding on the burley this will get the attention of any larger predator fish, leading them to your bait.

if you use some or all of these tips you will soon find your catch rate increasing!

catch ya next time
corey

Squidding

The squid is a family favorite they are very tasty and great fun to catch,  whether you're out just trying to catch some fresh bait or looking forward to some salt n pepper squid rings,
winter is a great time to catch a feed, cockburn and warnbro sound hold some great numbers of squid. mangles bay in cockburn sound has to be one of my favorite places to squid, as there is alot of weed in shallow water 1.5-3.0m in close to shore which allows small craft and kayaks the opportunity to get a feed,

or collect some fresh bait.

if you walk in to your local tackle shop you will be confronted with a wall of squid jigs that is very overwhelming to a new angler trying their hand at squiding, the price range of these little lures is astonishing ranging from $2 all the way up to $40, alot of the packages are written in Japanese with names like yamashita yo-zuri being two of the most popular jigs, along with shimano sephia jigs which are a little easier on the wallet.
the reason behind most jigs being designed and made in japan. is that the Japanese love squidding they call it egi and its like an art form to them, watching a Japanese person use egi techniques is something that must be seen to be believed check it out on youtube! the way that they violently jig the squid jig you almost think that if any squid had hold of the jig he would soon loose his head!, but it WORKS and it works well!

i have several different colors and sizes of the shimano sephia jigs and they work great, i use a nice white and orange 2.5 and always catch, i set up the boat along the edge of the weed bank and drift along with the sea anchor out to help slow the boat down. casting with the drift and retrieving the jig back to the boat, with quick short sharp jigs and give the jig time to sink back towards the seaweed. squid hide in the weed and ambush any small fish or prawns that swim by so by keeping your jig in there face then quickly making the jig dart away, really makes squid fire, i find most squid will hit the jig while its sinking and when you go to work the jig again you come up strong with a nice squid.
this is why a nice 6'6"-8' light graphite rod is essential not only does it help in working the jig nicely, but when you hook the squid the rod takes alot of the shock out of the strike and wont pull the jig out of its tentacles.
squid have really good eyesight but are color blind! they actually see UV rays so colored squid jigs don't matter in that sense, what matters is how well they display UV light. as most of a squids prey emits UV lighting.
i recommend  using a quality fluoro carbon leader and no swivel. just tie the jig to the leader with a perfection knot.

cleaning the squid is a job i hate! but i was shown a method that works incredibly well,
get a scaler bag from any tackle shop normally retail around $20 cut the tip off the hood of the squid and the head just behind the eyes, can keep for fresh bait or cut the tentacles off and eat them too!
put the squid in the scaler bag tie it to the back of the boat and tow them around, the ink sacks will bust and the stomach will fall out of the tube, the skin will rub off on the bag, after a few minutes pull the bag in to check the squid, if you leave them in the water to long you will begin to cut and damage the tubes with the bag.
but if you get it right the squid are clean, the house is clean (the wife is happy) and you have a fresh feed of squid!

i hope the info will help get you out on the water chasing a feed of squid!

catch ya next time
corey

Winter Tailor

With the cold weather upon us its time to rug up and nut up! get out there and get fishing!
winter brings some of the nicest weather in regards to winds and low swell, but with that comes very low temperatures, this is when a great pair of thermals comes in handy, (available in any good tackle/camping store).

My PB Tailor
there is nothing better then heading to your local beach, rockwall or jetty before sunrise and fishing a hot bite for some large winter tailor, winter sees some large specimens being taken regularly, so i decided to brave the cold and headed out on saturday the 29/06/13. I was up at 530am with the gear packed in the car headed down to point peron, my local reef system armed with a Shimano Stradic 4000 ci4 spooled with 20lb tufline braid matched to a 9' shimano starlo classix spin stick, set up and walked along the beach towards the reef platform that looked so fishy i  was guaranteed a fish! i climbed down some rocks and stepped onto a reef platform about a metre and half from the waters edge, the suns now rising  and the water is looking fantastic with the waves crashing over creating a lot of white water, the hardest decision was where to cast first, i had a 40 gram knight metal and belted it across the edge of the reef along the whitewater......about 10 casts later and no fish i decide to change lure and put on a storm shallow diver, the suns has now lit the water up and i spot a very nice hole in the reef about 3 metres from where i am standing, i cast the lure to the outer edge of the hole about 15 metres away start winding and twitching the lure when i see a large tailor shoot out from under the ledge and engulf the storm lure, i set the hooks and the tailor goes nuts, jumps clean out the water with some big head shakes, then dives hard trying to get under the ledge, with some quick footwork i was able to get around and pull the tailor back out, now the hard part getting the tailor in close enough to be able to get down lower to the waters edge and land this fish safely! the surge is pulling the tailor along the front of the reef ledge and i have no chance of muscling it back my way and the tailor is using this to his advantage, i was able to let the surge take the tailor and follow it around to a lower edge and managed to pull it up onto the rocks. My personal best land based tailor at 60 cm's i got a quick photo removed the lure and released him to fight another day.
i spent the next hour casting and retrieving all sorts of lures from poppers, divers, metals and soft plastics but it was just the one fish, but being my personal best i was not complaining, i went home a happy fisherman and thats what its all about, enjoying a sport you love, so get out of bed throw on some warm clothes and go for a fish!

catch ya next time
Corey