Liam Fitzpatrick
Youtuber and SE Queensland Fishing Personality
Liam is a Southeast Queensland based angler who’s lived and breathed fishing in this area for most of his life. That’s given him plenty of opportunity to figure out some top fishing spots for each season – and winter is one of his favourites.
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 Southport 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.
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, Sommerset, Hinze 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.
Recent Bream Episodes
Episode 582: Botany Bay Bream With Karl Stait And Andrew Death
Karl Stait is a long time kayak and tournament bream fisher and a fierce competitor. In todays episode he and Deathy drill down on some tips for targeting bream, plus using electronics to maximum advantage.
Episode 574: Andrew Death’s “Aha!” Bream Moments In 2022
Andrew Death has become part of the furniture here at the ALF podcast and has interviewed multiple big names in bream fishing circles over the past 12 months. Today he shares the top things he’s learned from each conversation.
Episode 569: Lake Macquarie On Lures With Dan Guilfoyle. Part 1: Summer.
Lake Macquarie might cop a lot of fishing pressure over the summer months, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t some great opportunities on offer for those in the know about how, when and where to fish! Dan Guilfoyle shares a lifetime of local knowledge for those keen to hit the water in the coming months.
Episode 565: Jamie Mckeown and Andrew Death On All Things Bream Fishing
If you love your bream fishing then this is a must-listen! Deathy and Jamie Mckeown chat for an hour about strategies, tips and techniques that have brought Jamie massive success on the tournament bream scene. But it really doesn’t matter whether you’re a tournament fisher or just target bream for yourself, this is an incredibly informative and helpful interview.
Episode 563: [Featured Guide] Mallacoota Bream With Chris Jordan
Mallacoota offers exceptional southern estuary fishing opportunities and as the area’s only sportfishing guide Chris Jordan is looking forward to introducing more and more anglers to everything the area has to offer!
Episode 557: Corio Bay & Geelong Fishing Spots With John Didge
John Didge Radio Personality, Sponsored Angler John has over 40 years experience fishing Corio Bay. He's co-hosted various fishing radio shows for the Geelong region for over 30 years, written articles and presented fishing from stage. John is a soft plastic lure...
Episode 556: Bream With Scotto James And Andrew Death
Scotto James’
Episode 555: Mallacoota Bream With Nikki Bryant
Mallacoota is a location endowed with exquisite and near-pristine natural environments – but most of all with tons of estuary fishing options that include massive flathead and bream. Nikki has fished the area for years and is well known for her competitiveness in tournaments and her commitment to helping others get into lure fishing.
Episode 582: Botany Bay Bream With Karl Stait And Andrew Death
Karl Stait is a long time kayak and tournament bream fisher and a fierce competitor. In todays episode he and Deathy drill down on some tips for targeting bream, plus using electronics to maximum advantage.
Episode 574: Andrew Death’s “Aha!” Bream Moments In 2022
Andrew Death has become part of the furniture here at the ALF podcast and has interviewed multiple big names in bream fishing circles over the past 12 months. Today he shares the top things he’s learned from each conversation.
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