Woah – 2015 went way too fast! Feels like only a couple of weeks ago I was in Lucinda battling with some solid fish. With the extremity of the weather, this year has been filled with hits and misses for most fishos. December is up there with my favourite months. The fishing is red hot, and we can take a minute to appreciate the year and look back to see where we can improve for the next!

In December, the weather can seem perfect for fishing. But even a hot day, with plenty of signs of bait, can be shut down if the wind is blowing from a certain direction like a northerly.

Quite a few large fish are getting around – jacks, flathead, trevally, bream, and whiting are all making an appearance. Plenty of bait are holding around bridge pylons and not far behind them are trevally, in this case mainly GTs and brassy. Other fish like Moses perch and bream will also feed and sit around bridge pylons, it’s just a matter of getting through them to get onto the trevally. On a recent session I caught around six Moses perch to one GT (pictured in this article).

For the bait fishos – pilchards, prawns, white bait, and bloodworms are all producing nice fish. Night, early morning, late afternoon and change of tides has been good times to fish with bait. Pilchards, prawns and whitebait can be fished wherever (although they work best around structure) and trigger a response from basically any estuarine species, Australia wide. Keep your gear reasonably light, so your baits will be as natural as possible.

Logan and Tallebudgera River have been the stand out systems lately for me, offering a range of species with natural, mangrove-lined banks that go for miles. Every now and again you will come across a few old and broken down jetties and deep-water rock walls. Two species that are all too common for this type of structure includes mangrove jack and flathead. Try using soft plastics with paddle tails or minnow shaped hardbodies around 100mm. Keep your lure as close as you can to the structure and keep it in the strike zone for as long as possible to give you the greatest chance of a hook up.

Coomera is just starting to show positive signs. The canals near the highway bridge are producing jacks and tarpon, not to mention quite a few other successful canals with jetties in Coomera.

In conclusion, December will be a productive month on the fishing scene. Good luck to all anglers and I wish you all a very merry and safe Christmas!