November is a great time of year to fish the Pin as all of your favourite species will be on offer and none better than the most caught fish in the Pin area, bream.

Plenty of small to medium size fish should be on offer all month, which are great fun if you’re taking the family out for the day because everyone’s happy when they are catching fish.

For larger bream concentrate your efforts towards the last 2 hours of the incoming tide and the first of the run out tide around Kalinga Bank, Cobby Passage, Rocky Point the mouth of the Coomera and the Seaway. Using larger baits like banana prawns, half pillies, strip baits and big balls of mullet gut tends to entice the larger fish.

Jacks and cod will be highly sought after now the water temperature has risen. Fishing for these fish can sometimes prove difficult as they live in heavy snags and fight extremely hard, usually resulting in loss of gear for you. Using heavier line to prevent getting blown away is a good way to start and by using large live baits and flesh baits the pickers are usually taken out of the equation too. This allows your bait to stay in the strike zone longer. The Coomera and Pimpama rivers have lots of rock walls and sunken trees to fish or you can also give trolling lures a go, which allows you to cover more territory and find where the fish are. But any mangrove lined bank with plenty of snags and coverage will most likely house a resident jack or cod: the trick is to get them to bite.

Flathead will still be around in good numbers as their breeding season comes to a close. What a great lizard season it has been and it just goes to show that the size and bag limits are working as I’ve never seen this many juvenile flatties in the estuaries of the Pin system as now. For a few flathead try around the mudflats at the mouth of the Logan River towards the Powerlines and Browns Bay. Kalinga Bank is always a favourite and you can’t go past the top of Crusoe Island without dropping a pilly or flicking a plastic.

Whiting like the warmer conditions as well so grab yourself some bloodworms or beachworms and head out to the Gold and Green banks, behind Diner Island, Slipping Sands and the Neverfail Islands near Tipplers and you can bag yourself one of the best table fish in the Pin.

Now the water temperature has heated up, pelagic species like tuna, mackerel, cobia, Wahoo and marlin will start to show up in good numbers. They will be chasing schools of baitfish so look for surface action like birds diving and fish busting up as the fish feed and you can either try flicking metal lures into the schools or try trolling around the edge of the school with diving hard bodied lures. My favourite lure is a +7m Halco Crazy Deep diver with a white body and red head. The reefs close to the Pin like Sullys, Alfs and the Dragon are always full of live bait (slimeys, yakkas etc) at this time of year so concentrate on jigging at these spots, get yourself some livies and use them to catch these great fighting fish.

Make sure you take the crab pots with you as the muddies and sandies will be in full swing. For the muddies try up in the mangroves at high tide or the mouths of the feeder creeks as the tide falls. For sandies try in the main North/South channels near the Powerlines to Cabbage Tree Point or in Canaipa Passage.

It’s going to be a hot summer so don’t forget to cover up during the day and apply the mozzie spray at night. If you have any reports of fish, any questions, need to order bait or just want to yarn give me a call on 07 3287 3868, come in and see me at Gem Bait & Tackle on the way to the ‘Pin or e-mail --e-mail address hidden-- I’ll catch you next month.