Without a doubt the weather over the past month has been extraordinary, although we did see it coming with that warm winter. Temperatures have hit over 40°C in some parts of the Gold Coast, making fishing easy for some and difficult for others.

Talking about fishing, it too has been hot! All I see now is jack after jack on Facebook, daily. Anglers have braved the hot weather and late afternoon storms to put together good bags of jacks. All this has got me just eager to get on the water. A recent outing saw me with some decent fish, mostly around bridge pylons and jetties where the water isn’t flowing as much. Z-Man 3.5” Trick SwimZ in bad shad are worth a go as these things are as close as you could get to a mullet in a predator’s eyes! There’s a few ways you can fish these; top water, snagless or the usual bouncing along the bottom. Casting these bad boys into thick mangrove lined banks, weedless and weightless is just calling for a screaming reel – hold on!

Some decent whiting have been caught in good numbers on the Gold Coast of late. Areas including the sandbanks in The Broadwater the sand banks in the Nerang River. Look for sandflats where bait would be pushed up onto at high tide where predators like whiting, flathead and bream would lay on the deeper edges waiting for the run-out to attack. A couple of hours before the bottom of the tide will be your best shot. Surface lures, small and light plastics and worms will be the go.

Flathead will be found in the deepest parts of the canals and Broadwater, so be sure to use natural coloured lures. Bridge pylons are also a good place to start the session, as some of the larger models will await any passing baitfish. These fish will most likely lay head into the current around 3m behind the last pylon. Position yourself with your bow of the boat into the current and near the first pylon, where you can easily cast your plastic or unweighted bait along the pylons. Bounce your lure along the bottom as close to the pylons as possible, but hold on, as you may hook something unexpected that also likes the look of your lure!

In the next month or so, we will see lotsww of bait throughout the canals, Broadwater and seaway. We will also start to see water temperatures rise as the weather warms around midday. The best fishing will come from 4-7am and again from 4-8pm. Basically, the hotter days will fish better in the afternoon, where the heat off the rocks along the canals walls will attract most of the bait. If the bait is present, then this should attract larger predators like jacks and trevally.

February is the perfect month for the warm weather species including jacks, flathead, whiting, bream and trevally. In saying that, these fish can be hard to find at times. Just persevere and find the bait! See you on the water.