Glenelg river fishing.

[ZooL]

It may just be because its winter atm but the lower glenelg park as a whole seems like such an under utilized area by the general community, there is little mention of it online aside from government parks sites and a few YouTube videos mainly focusing on the on the river mouth in nelson. 

But yea, to my question, I recently moved to an area near the park and wondering if anyone here has any fishing tips or info for the river ,especially night fishing. I have no boat and have been down to the river a few times from some of the boat ramps and caught a few bream and a small mulloway, most undersized including the mulloway, Ive been there at night a couple times including once at a site called battersby where i stayed fishing overnight and all night there were fish jumping all over the place and noticed a few roughed up mullet hiding under the boat ramp so I'm assuming the jumping fish were mulloway but couldn't manage to get any bites from them. 

Was still a good night for the sky alone when viewed from the river, can clearly see a satellites buzzing about and shooting stars all over the place, i also had the company of a friendly possum(that scared the crap out of me by sniffing my ear when i thought i was alone), but yea would be nice to know what this fish are that are jumping about or if anyone knows how to catch them of if they are worth catching.

[Average Joe]

I used to do a bit of fishing down that way ZooL. Mulloway are a bit sketchy through the day, night time is best to land the big ones if your land based. Best bait i have found is squid, it stays on the hook better than pilchards or pippies. Probably the most important factor is picking a change in the tide and being set up and ready for it. The big fish jumping at night are Mulloway 100%. A wire tracer would be beneficial too, we used to pull in Gummy sharks when the Mulloway were on the bite.

[ZooL]

42 minutes ago, Average Joe said:

I used to do a bit of fishing down that way ZooL. Mulloway are a bit sketchy through the day, night time is best to land the big ones if your land based. Best bait i have found is squid, it stays on the hook better than pilchards or pippies. Probably the most important factor is picking a change in the tide and being set up and ready for it. The big fish jumping at night are Mulloway 100%. A wire tracer would be beneficial too, we used to pull in Gummy sharks when the Mulloway were on the bite.

 

Ah ok was pretty sure were mulloway so thanks for confirming, yea iv'e been using pilchard for the most part, when the fish are about it does seem to get cleaned of the hook pretty quick(I usually use over sized hooks because i wanna avoid hooking undersized fish necessarily).

 

But even so, at night it seems no matter what bait i get no bites at all even though they seem so active jumping all over the place, I have been using a runner rig but am wondering if that is to focused on bottom feeding and at night they may be purely surface feeding? Do you have any suggestions for rigging? I was thinking  maybe a float setup but haven't had a float on me when I've been down there. 

[Strontium Dawg]

Mulloway are by nature a lazy fish. They like to sit out of currents where they can ambush prey. Drop offs and holes are excellent spots, where they can sit low and watch food pass by overhead.

They will usually bite on the slack of the tide, top of the tide being best. Nights leading up to a full moon, but not on an actual full moon are good. 

Big sinker to keep your bait down, with a long running trace is a good rig. Plenty of fishing sites to check rigging tips.

They will also take soft plastic lures - check what sort of bait fish are around and try to match something similar looking. Good luck. I've spent many cold lonely nights sitting out fishing for them up here.

[SayN]

I am the worst mulloway/jewfish fisherman here so take everything I say with a chunk of salt.  Its not through lack of trying either.

 

I think the key is, for a start you really only have a small window (tide changes) to actively fish for the big (ie. legal) ones and the fish generally lie in wait for an ambush rather than seek food out.

 

with that in mind, try to keep your bait moving.  (very) fresh bait is best or even better would be live bait. a mullet would be ideal.

 

You want good tackle and your knots better be good too because they'll give it all a real workout. (apparently)

[Halcyon Daze]

 

 

[Average Joe]

23 hours ago, ZooL said:

 

Ah ok was pretty sure were mulloway so thanks for confirming, yea iv'e been using pilchard for the most part, when the fish are about it does seem to get cleaned of the hook pretty quick(I usually use over sized hooks because i wanna avoid hooking undersized fish necessarily).

 

But even so, at night it seems no matter what bait i get no bites at all even though they seem so active jumping all over the place, I have been using a runner rig but am wondering if that is to focused on bottom feeding and at night they may be purely surface feeding? Do you have any suggestions for rigging? I was thinking  maybe a float setup but haven't had a float on me when I've been down there. 

I Would probably give the float a miss mate. You'll be pulling your line in too often to keep it in front of you. Pick a sinker to stick you on the bottom and a nice bit of squid and then patience