Nerang River

[hodges4]

Started the day off buying a couple of packets of bloodworms at Jacob's Well on the way to Southport. If your really relying on worms, it's a good idea to order them in advance. There's a competition on at the 'Pin this weekend and as I hadn't ordered in advance I was very lucky to get any.
The idea was to catch some of Youngy's whiting so we launched at Sundale Bridge and headed upriver. Low tide should have been 8:30ish.
Anyway following Youngy's directions I was to fish the deeper water at the edges of the sandbanks.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong but I couldn't find these elusive hotspots. Some help sure would be appreciated as I didn't catch a single whiting or for that matter find a decent bit of deep water next to a sandbank.
What we found was an expance of rock close to Chevron Island opposite TSS. This produced a good feed of 6 bream and a morwong for the mother-in-law, which I believe they are created for.
Quite a few good fish were lost to the rocks. I'll have to remember this spot for winter fishing for bream. It fished well on the outgoing tide and slackened off around low tide.
Anyway, as I said before, any help finding Youngy's typical spots would be appreciated.
What do I look for on the sounder for instance. I was expecting sandbanks out of the water at low tide to show me where they are but they didn't exist.

thanks
John

[chief]

G/day John, I had one of those Morwong the other day ,bled it and I was surprised .It wasn't that bad. 6 bream is a nice haul.Shame about the whiting though mate, Youngy had some top fish,well worth trying to find the area.Next time ,Cheers

[youngy]

John sorry you didn't do so well, the area on the southern side of sundale bridge fishes reasonably well but it is just a big open area we call this the paddock,no sandbanks just got to move around a bit to find where they are feeding in this area.
You are right the nerang does not have many sandbanks that come out of the water at low tide but they are there normaly a metre under water dropping into 2 metres,traveling up river the chanel markers are the best indication of these and it is good fishing around these, from now on the fish will be starting to move back up river after spawning i like to move up river with the tide trying different spots and usualy end up past isle of capri at this time of year, in winter they will be much further up.
Hope this helps Youngy [Wayne]

[hodges4]

Thanks Youngy. In winter, how far up river do you travel. The 6 kn limit would be a real pain or does it revert back to normal further up. If I use the channel markers as a starting point, should I be anchoring just off the drop off and casting onto the bank or into the deep water, or trying both until I find where they're feeding.
One last thing, is there anywhere on the GC where I can buy bloodworms, thinking of camping down there for a couple of weeks.

thanks
John

[laney]

the 6 knot limit ends at the council chambers. any of the markers in the nerang will have a sandbank almost next to it. as you get into the faster zone past the council chambers heading up river there is a large shallow area near a green nav marker.

keep heading up river and you'll go under the isle capri bridge and there is a green marker not far from there and at low tide and gets shallowish . keep heading further upstream towards carrara and there is a couple of sharp bends with red markers and these two have a pretty large drop offs from shallow water i believe.

even without a sounder these banks and drop offs are pretty easy to spot towards the low tide even though the banks aren't actually visable out of the water. i used to see lots of people fishing these areas when i was on the water every weekend, and im pretty sure they hold your normal estuary fish

good luck mate

[tailorboi99]

Mate, great work. Those Morwongs have been hanging around.

Cheers Tom

[loophole]

geez sound like the nerang is coping a flooging lately.

really its all about finding a spot that produces and keeping it secert.

[youngy]

John what LANEY said about the river is all acurate, the 6 knot zone is only from west cheveron island bridge to the council chambers so unless you own a boat over 8 mtrs it is not a problem, in summer i fish from sundale bridge to the isle of capri, in winter i fish from isle of capri to ross st bridge depending on how much rain we have had.
As for anchoring i prefer to anchor in the shallows, this can be up to a metre and a half deep and fish into the deeper water at the back of the boat if i am fishing along the edge of the sandbank i will anchor on the drop of and fish both the shallow side and the deep side, the main thing is to keep moving till you find them and even then they wont stay long, a normal trip will involve an average of 9 moves.
Bloodworms unfortunatly are not available down the coast any more, paradise point bait shop did have them but his supplyier retired,Alan is trying to find another supplier now, until then Rex at jacobs well bait shop is the closest.
Hope this helps Wayne.

[hodges4]

youngy, your a beauty. Thanks heaps for all the help you've given me and I'll leave it at this point otherwise it'll be standing room only on the river.

thanks
John

[timor 2]

hi hodges4 i find i get most of my whitting on dusk and night time but looking at youngys advice he is on the money and he lives on the coast so he has a good advice.

cheeers Sean

[Mad one.]

HI Sean,

Good to see you still onto them, where abouts are you picking them up at all the old spots????

I have not fished the nerang for years was only talking about it yesterday

Regards,

SK

[goggles]

Hi was at Palm Beach over christmas and the Bait shop at Currumbin Crk sold live worms. hope this helps. Wayno

[FISHAWN]

southport fishing and dive centre centre sell good bags of live worms. Its on the gold coast highway just south of smith st. they open at 6am.

[Jackinthebox]

Goggles & FISHAWN - i think you'll find that they are beach worms. Still work alright. I'd rather catch the buggers myself though.

I love standing on the beach taking my fish heads for a walk in the onion bag, and then explaining to all the tourists & locals alike that I am not mad!

Mick

[RayDeR]

The Southport ones are definitely beach worms. They also sell live yabbies if you are feeling lazy or until the tide is okay for pumping your own.

Ray De R