PRACTICALLY every summer the north-east coast of Australia is bombarded by one or two raging
cyclones. These cyclones are usually accompanied by days, sometimes weeks, of torrential rain.
A great deal of this rain finds its way into northern NSW, swelling the rivers and causing extensive
flooding. When this happens the average weekend angler probably sits at home with a can of beer
in his hand and a sulk on his face. Not so the north coast jew fisherman, who eagerly prepares his
gear in well-founded anticipation. Nor the knowledgeable Sydney jew fisherman who frantically tries to reorganise his annual vacation for the fortnight after the rains have stopped.
These men know that the floods will invariably result in massive hauls of big jewfish from the breakwalls at the entrances to our various northern rivers.
This phenomenon can be readily explained as follows: when the river floods its ratio of fresh water
to salt is substantially increased. As the flood moves towards the coast the river gains momentum
and picks up sand, dirt, rubbish, even trees get caught in the rush to the river mouth.
Understandably, the fish population of such a river, conditioned to clear salt water and placid
surroundings, could not survive in this new environment. Their only escape is to swim with the river, down to the mouth and into the far more comfortable surroundings of the Pacific Ocean. The bulk of this fish population is made up of schools of the smaller species, mainly mullet. The schools break up and the fish head up or down the coast.
Once the rain stops and the river height begins to drop, these schools will slowly congregate around the river mouth again, waiting for conditions to improve enough for them to get back in.
The presence of acres of small fish must naturally attract predators, and on the north coast of NSW this means jewfish!
For the two or three days that the mullet school around the breakwalls during a fresh, the jewfish
literally go berserk. Their feeding frenzy can only be equalled by a school of tailor ravaging a school of pilchards, only the jew are more spectacular. When this takes place, some incredibly large captures are made.
Now that I have your tongue hanging sloppily somewhere around your knees, let me explain a few
of the basics employed, to catch these monsters. First requirement is a very heavy outfit. Light,
sportfishing tackle is a complete waste of time on a breakwall. You’ll get all the thrills you want
watching a fifty-pound fish flapping around on dry land, knowing he’s yours.
The rod should be at least eleven feet long and heavy, with a lot of guts. I use a Sportex 3904 with
the tip cut off, but a nine-wrap Butterworth or one of the heavy Conolons will do the job admirably.
Line should not be lighter than forty-pound breaking strain and lines over fifty-pound are the rule
more than the exception. The reel should be a sturdy one and capable of holding at least three
hundred yards of line. I use an old wooden Ajax centrepin, and this type of reel is used by many of
the locals on the breakwall at Stockton. Any of the big Alveys will perform as well, though.
The actual rig used on the breakwall will depend on the tide, the bait, the depth of water, the
amount of rubbish in the water and, more importantly, on the jewfish themselves. When bait fishing
you can either fish the bottom or you can fish with a floaiting bait under a bobby cork. If the fish are chopping at the mulJet on the surface, then the logical approach would be to use a bobby cork rig and fish shallow. It is interesting to note how each breakwall has its standard method of fishing a fresh.
At Stockton, the locals all use bobby cork rigs, yet at Yamba the standard rig is to fish bottom
with lead to suit the run and the position of the fish. I plug for the use of a bobby cork, if only
because you know where your bait is at all times.
On the subject of bait in a fresh, the first choice must always be live mullet. Remember, though, any live bait is better than a dead bait.
The technique is to throw your bait into the mouth of the river from the front of the breakwall and
let it drift out with the current. If you haven’t hooked a fish by the time your bait has come right
around and out of the drift, then wind in and repeat the movement. It is important that the bait is
wound in once the bait has stopped moving around as tangles will inevitably result when more baits move out of the current.
The accompanying photographs were taken during the heavy floods experienced earlier in the year.
All the north coast rivers were flooded at the time and jewfish were taken in numbers from at least
half a dozen different breakwalls.
This story was originally published in the May 1974 edition of The Australian Angler (Fishing World).
