April is a goldmine!

It’s still early in the year, and there is plenty of good fish to be caught! While the average air temperature does decline over this month it’s important to remember that it takes a lot longer for the water temperature to drop. This means you can still catch summer species throughout the month including kingfish, snapper, makos and gummy sharks!

Bear in mind that the end of the trout season is also approaching, so be sure to make the most of the ending!

Last year this time I had a friend who caught a couple of yellow-tailed kingfish and in fact caught more in April than any other month during summer. The method of choice was to find bust-ups of Australian salmon and sink 7” Jerkshads on ½oz jigheads to the bottom of the school and jerk the plastic 1/3 of the total depth, drop it back down and repeat.

Eight times out of ten you will catch a large salmon but every now and again you could be lucky enough to hook into a Tasmanian kingy! Remember to try the salmon hotspots like Wivenhoe Beach, the Cam River mouth, Blythe River mouth and Cooee.

As I mentioned before, April presents last opportunities to chase our beloved brown trout before the season ends and we begin hibernation. Over the years I have found the end of the season to be quite tough around the North West – especially in the lakes and dams.

That being said, there are some that have great success in places like the Guide Dam and Pet Dam by thinking outside the box. Dry flies fished on sunset, top water lures or even small poppers on dark produce some quality trout!

If you’re like me and prefer the rivers towards the end of the season, then wait for big rain and fish your favourite river in the lower, deeper sections after the water level drops back to normal.

I pulled some better than average fish out of the Emu River by using this method with soft plastics. If the water is still a bit dirty then throw something with some scent like the Berkley Gulp range! I recommend the Green Fry. It works wonders fished slow and deep for big trout!