Tackle Tactics » Tips-Techniques » Bay-Harbour » Luring Whitebait Feeding Mulloway
Luring Whitebait Feeding Mulloway
By Cameron Cronin
As the days shorten and the hoodies come out of hibernation, there's no doubting that winter is well and truly on the way. Throughout many of our estuaries, the change of seasons has the cogs of the wheel turning, with many fish species beginning their annual transition away from summer holding patterns. My favourite species, the mulloway, certainly fits the bill here and a drop in water temperatures will often see a huge surge of school sized fish begin to move upriver.
However, mulloway aren't the only fish on the move, with autumn signalling the beginning of the whitebait run in many temperate estuaries along the east coast of Australia. Generally ranging from 2-5 inches in length, whitebait form dense shoals in open water, offering an easy meal to any predator nearby. With such a large influx of mulloway into the rivers at this time of year, this creates the ideal feeding scenario for these traveling fish and you can bet that whenever the whitebait schools are found, the mulloway will never be far behind.
This year in particular has played host to an exceptional run of whitebait in my home city of Sydney, and I've had loads of fun getting into great numbers of school fish on the lighter gear. With double figure jewfish (mulloway) tallies not out of question and plenty of bycatch to keep the reflexes sharp, this fast paced style of fishing is always a blast and a great way to get into some fish over the cooler months. In this article I'll run through exactly how I locate and fish whitebait schools, as well as my favourite gear and lures for this style of fishing.
Firstly, let's kick things off with locating whitebait schools. Admittedly, there is no cookie cutter approach here as every system differs slightly in the regions that hold the greatest numbers. In your average river, the best place to start looking is just up from where the river meets the ocean or bay, in reasonably clear water. If it hasn't rained for a while and the water is very clear, it might be worth trying a bit further upriver instead.
Wherever you decide to look, keep an eye out for pelagic species slashing up bait on the surface, which will be a dead giveaway that the bait is in the area. If the surface activity is scarce, sometimes the slightest disturbance on the surface can represent the metaphorical tip of the iceberg, revealing a huge school of whitebait below. This is where a sounder is crucial, and a few slow passes of the area can quickly determine whether any predators are in the area. In general, whitebait will appear almost cloud like on a sounder screen, not too dissimilar to the cavitation interference you get from passing boat wash. Mulloway show up very well amongst the whitebait and will usually be a larger arch or blob sitting underneath or behind the bait school, usually close to the bottom. If you see anything at all of that nature, deploy the electric motor or start your drift, as they will very rarely be alone.
Some days you have the opposite issue, where there is so much bait and surface commotion around that it can be hard to decide where to fish! In these situations, not all bait balls are equal, and I use a few criteria to quickly narrow down where to focus my efforts. Firstly, if you can find an area that the bust ups are consistently occurring in, it can pay to focus on that area. Even better when the species involved are toothy species, like tailor and bonito, which leave plenty of fish scraps behind for the mulloway to clean up below. While it can be tempting to go zipping around following busting up pelagic species, the jewfish (mulloway) will not move at anywhere near the same speed and will often linger around the areas with the most activity, even when there are no bust ups occurring.
Next, using your sounder, look for areas where the whitebait spans the water column where possible, or is hanging relatively close to the bottom. Whilst there are some exceptions, mulloway prefer to hang around bait schools that are lower down in the water column, so pay extra attention to your sounder for larger marks when you find a bait school of those descriptions. Whilst whitebait schools are often found in open water, well away from any structure, they can often be a great indicator of fish on nearby structures and banks. If I'm finding plenty of bait and bust-ups in an area, I'll always have a look around nearby points or rock walls, which can often provide current breaks and eddies that hold plenty of whitebait under the surface. As these bait schools are trapped up against structure, they will generally move around less than open water schools, with the same going for the mulloway that feed on them. This makes it a lot easier to catch a few in quick succession as it takes less effort to relocate the school after fighting a fish!
Now that we know how to locate and fish the whitebait schools, its time to gear up. I'll be the first to admit that mulloway aren't always the fussiest of fish, however lure selection certainly seems to play a part when they are feeding heavily on whitebait. Lately I've been having great results alternating between the newer ZMan 4" Scented Jerk ShadZ and the ever popular ZMan 5" StreakZ, depending on the situation.
These lures both match the profile of whitebait very accurately and they seem to routinely out fish anything else that I send down for that reason. With so many toothy tailor hanging around the bait schools, the 10X Tough ZMan ElaZtech construction of these lures is a real asset, and will save you a lot of money in chomped tails when compared to other similar lures.
When picking between the two, I prefer the smaller profile of the Scented Jerk ShadZ for fussy fish that I can see marking up on the sounder but are reluctant to bite. I like to run a TT Lures HeadlockZ HD 3/0 hook in this lure and I'll use a 1/4oz-1/2oz jighead, depending on the water depth. The larger 5" StreakZ mimics a large whitebait very well and has a unique pin tail design, with exceptional movement for a jerk shad style lure. This lure casts like an absolute bullet on a TT Lures 1/2oz 5/0 HeadlockZ HD jighead, which is my go to. Sometimes in amongst whitebait schools there can be a lot of sub 60cm mulloway about and using a lure that is a bit bulkier seems to draw a few less strikes from the little ones, giving the larger fish in the school a chance to track the lure down.
With both lures being a jerkshad style, I find that the best way to fish them is with a couple of aggressive rips, which gets the lure flicking well off the bottom and fluttering back down again. There's no hard and fast rule with retrieves, however you generally want to give them a lot more action than you would a paddle or grub tail lure. Colour wise, I usually do well on natural, translucent colours, such as Opening Night, Baby Bass and The Deal, although I've also caught plenty on more 'out there' patterns, such as Bubble Gum, New Penny and Space Guppy, especially on cloudy days or in slightly dirtier water.
To fish these lures you won't need the heaviest gear and I normally find 10 pound braid, a 2500 size reel and a 3-6kg rod to be ample. Leader wise, you can certainly go very light around the whitebait schools, with many anglers opting for 10-14lb leader in these situations, due to a general absence of structure around open water bait schools. Personally, I prefer to use 20lb leader as it gives me added security if I decide to search in closer to rock walls, while also being more resistant to the numerous toothy bycatch species that you often encounter under the whitebait schools, such as tailor and XL flathead.
Speaking of bycatch, one of the most enjoyable elements of fishing whitebait schools is that a bite is usually never far away. Aside from the plentiful mulloway, you can expect good numbers of flathead, bream, snapper, trevally, kingfish and other pelagic species amongst the same bait schools, which keeps the reflexes sharp and provides a pleasant change from some other styles of mulloway fishing, which can be more of a grind to get a bite of any description. I've always found the slimmer profile of jerkshad style plastics to generate more bycatch than other plastic styles (especially on pelagic species like kingfish and salmon) which is just another reason why I love fishing with the abovementioned lures in this scenario.
With the whitebait run still in full swing, grab a few packs of ZMan Scented Jerk ShadZ and StreakZ, get out there and give it a crack. With a bit of practice, it won't be long before you're in amongst some of the hottest light tackle action you can have over the cooler months!
Cheers, Cam