Fishing after rain

[QuinnyII]

Hi All,

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on fishing after the rain has cleared.

Is it best to leave it until a few days after the rain? - or will be the fish be on the "bite" as soon as the rain has stopped?

Cheers

Quinny

[kingtin]

Hi All,

Just wondering what peoples thoughts are on fishing after the rain has cleared.

Is it best to leave it until a few days after the rain? - or will be the fish be on the "bite" as soon as the rain has stopped?

Cheers

Quinny

Depends where you are, and what you target I suppose. The jew will be holding at the mouth of the rivers waiting for a feed on the other fish escaping the fresh and looking for salt.

kev

[Scalem]

Fishing will again become very ordinary, and it will take a while for regular species to return to normal feeding patterns. I thought the same as Kingtin with regard to Jew at river mouths, but I think everything else will take a while. A mate of mine works for the DPI, his view is that the run off, apart from being fresh water, also will be carrying polutants and sediment, both things fish try to avoid.

Scalem

[Gold_Coast_Chaser]

Hey,

I agree with Kingtin, it depends on where you are, and the amount of rain/runoff, if you are upstream and theres only some rain i think it stirs the water up a bit and the fish get excited, but if the water is really dirty (coffee-ish) i dont think its any good, if your fishing near an ocean entrance (e.g seaway) and the water hasnt changed and is pretty normal i dont see why it would be much different.

Personally, I would give it a few days, let it settle back to normal.

[kingtin]

I'm also thinking back to the "Save our bay" boat rally. The Brizzy river was absolutely filthy then and that was (if I remember rightly) about 5 days after the rain.

The current rain isn't as heavy as back then but I still reckon that even if it backs off tomorrow (which isn't likely as there's more showers towards weekend), then it'll be at least 5 days before the salinity is back up. We went down to the tweed the day after the boat rally and there was a brown slick about 1k out to sea from the bar.

kev

[whatscracken]

With the big tides at the moment things should clear up faster than usual after the rain. Things might fire up once the fresh disappears.

[Reel Nauti]

I disagree. At the mouth of the rivers, look for where the coffee coloured meets the 'clean'. Those situations are often very productive, fishing in or close to where the two meet.

Cheers

Dave

[rockfisho]

once the swell and the wind drops, im heading straight up the beach, targeting jew and tailor. The fresh water has hopefully flushed a few mullet, and pushed them into the beach zone. and the predators will hopefully follow.

we often tend to to well after rain

cheers

Owen

[Slider]

The mouth of the Noosa used to absolutely fire with big tailor as soon as the dirty water started pouring out the mouth. Gts, big eye trevally and bream would often also be present in numbers and feeding aggressively. For example, when cyclone Wati caused the Noosa to flood a few years back, I was getting tailor all 8 - 10lb while the wind was still 40 -45 knots and the seas huge. We've always found that the dirtier the water the more likely the tailor would be there and they'd go off the chew when the water cleared. However the last few floods have only delivered fish kills and there were quite a few dead mullet, bream and catfish at the mouth yesterday afternoon.
The mullet and bream will be looking to spawn with this fresh and the netters will be well aware of that and waiting for them to come out the mouth.

[nigelr]

At least it will be good to get outside and have a go!
Interesting point Slider, I think there is a lot more sediment coming down my local river (the Bellinger) in periods of flood these days than say, 20 - 25 years ago.
Land-clearing, possibly? Can only speculate on the reason.
I recall the surf fishing adjacent to the rivermouth immediately post-flood used to be significantly better in those days than now. Don't know whether its' due to more sediment/chemicals in the run-off or just less fish...........
Cheers.

[MeePee_99]

Hi,

Often at times the water may look dirty from the surface, but a metre or so below the surface the water is clean saltwater. Looking at your sounder will show you the line between dirty freshwater and clean saltwater, look for a line across the sounder know as a thermacline. This will tell you the depth of freshwater and saltwater and you will be able to fish areas were other people believe by looking at the surface the water is too dirty, and catch some quaility fish!!!!

[the gecko]

I agree. The line where the dirty meets the fresh is very productive, so fish around river mouths and the bars.

The dirty fresh water does sit on the surface, and down deep, it is quite clear and salty.

Andrew

[Poodroo]

I will let you know tomorrow.
I am going to treat it like a boating trip for fun and if any fish are biting and decide they want to join me in the boat that is just going to top the day off nicely.

Poodroo

[bluefin59]

Well guys i went out today and did o.k so i will be going out again tomorrow see you out there poodroo ...matt

[Poodroo]

Well guys i went out today and did o.k so i will be going out again tomorrow see you out there poodroo ...matt

Will definitely see you tomorrow Matt. I will even be bringing a an Ausfish deckie on this one.

Regards,

Poodroo