Episode 515: Five Top Winter Fishing Spots In SE Queensland With Liam Fitzpatrick

SEQ Fishing Spot #1: Jumpinpin

• “The Pin” is a famous winter bream fishery where massive spawning aggregations of quality bream occur. The fishery took a hit decades ago as a result due to massive fishing pressure has bounced back tremendously.
• There are other species available too, such as tailor, jewfish, trevally, flathead and so on. But bream are definitely the prime species.
• If you’re launching from from Jacobs Well ramp look for the cleaner water that starts around Short Island or Crusoe Island. If you’re launching from the Cabbage Tree Point area, start fishing from Crusoe Island.
• This area has all kinds of structure from flats and channels to mangrove edges, coffee rock formations and occasional timber and fish can aggregate in any of them at times, though they tend to stay in deeper sections during winter. It’s not a bad strategy to motor along looking for steep banks that indicate deeper water below.
• Bream here are typically feeding on small baitfish and will hit any kind of baitfish profile lure.
• A white prawn soft plastic, or a vibe such as a ZX or VX blade is a good lure choice, but when they’re aggregated and feeding almost any lure you can get down to them will get eaten. In shallow water small crankbaits and lightly weighted soft plastics fish well.
• Liam prefers not to fish around the full moon and likes the neapish tides and new moons, but reckons it’s important to just gout whenever you can and just give it a go. The start of the incoming tide is always a good time as it pushes back the dirty water and gives the angler sis hours or so of clean water fishing.

SEQ Fishing Spot #2: Brisbane River Mouth

• The retainer walls around the mouth of the Brisbane River​ fish extremely well through winter, especially first thing in the morning.
• Bream and snapper are the prime targets, with the bream aggregating for spawning, much like at “The Pin”, but with quality snapper mixed in amongst them, so carry a slightly heavier rod that can handle the snapper.
• Small hard bodies fish really well in this area, but small blades and lightly weighted soft plastics can be deadly too, especially biobaits such as gulps and crabbies that have attractant built in. The lighter you fish the better as the lure can waft more slowly down to the bottom with plenty of hang time.
• Incoming tide is best, but fish it any day that you can get there early in the morning. There are nice weed pillars with a bench of about 6-8 foot deep water and plenty of fish where the water drops off into deeper areas of 20ft or more.
• Further upriver can fish well through winter too for smaller threadfin salmon on bent minnow, stickbaits and poppers, or even soft plastics around the ferry terminals and in the light pools.

SEQ Fishing Spot #3: Southport Broadwater

• In winter the Gold Coast Seaway stacks up with spawning bream, plus schools of tailor, jewfish, occasional kingfish, jacks, cobia, trevally and in rougher weather, snapper.
• Early morning on the northern seawall is a good option for bream, tailor and jewfish. As the day wears on the bream are thick throughout the flats, rockwalls and structures of the Coomera and Nerang Rivers, including pontoons, boat hulls and bridge pylons. They tend to stay down in the lower reaches of the canals in winter, rather than pushing right upriver.
• On really big tides the seaway can be running too hard, but there are always flats when the wind is not too strong, or hard structures that hold fish – which one an angler chooses really comes down to conditions and preferences.
• For the land-based fisho, bridge hopping is a good strategy, make a handful of casts then move to the next bridge, once the fish know you’re there they won’t bite.
• Gulp Crabbies, Bream Prawns and Cranka Crabs are all safe bets. [Editor’s Note: I like clone prawns for this- Doc]

SEQ Fishing Spot #4: Bass Impoundments

• There are multiple bass impoundments in this area that all fish well in winter, although each dam can fish quite differently. Lake Maroon, Moogerah, Hinze, Sommerset and Wivenhoe are all worth fishing.
• In winter the bass aggregate in deeper water of the main dam basins in preparation for the spawning event that can never happen and are often feeding aggressively.
• The fishing varies depending on the baitfish. For example, Maroon Dam bass are usually feeding on gudgeon and other small native fish around weedy edges, so fish are around the edges taking finesse plastics and suspending jerkbaits.
• At the other extreme, Sommerset Dam bass are more pelagic, feeding on schools of bony bream during the winter and tend to follow around bait balls rather than associate with lake edges. Spoons, tail spinners, fast vibes and so on do a good job of imitating bony bream.
• Hinze Dam, since the wall was raised about 5 years ago, has been invaded by Richmond River herring, which has drawn the fish away from the edges and created more of a pelagic fishery.
• Wivenhoe offers the best opportunity for land-based fishing from rocky points and cliffs in places where boats are not allowed and at times casting spoons and letting them flutter down can be very effective

SEQ Fishing Spot #5: Freshwater Creeks

• The bass closed season starts on 1 June 2022, but if the system you’re fishing on has a weir on it you can legally target creek and river bass right through the year provided you’re fishing above the weir.
• The fish are feeding up for a spawning run that never happens, so some quality specimens can be found.
• The winter creek fishery tends to fish a bit slower than in summer, surface fishing is less effective.
• This is predominantly a land-based opportunity, with some limited kayak access points. Check Google Earth or turn up for a stocking group meeting.
• Chatterbaits, baitfish style hard bodies and so on are still effective in winter but finesse it out and fish white and natural colours slowly.
• Winter fishes well right through the day, compared to summer when the low light periods tend to fish better.