Mother's Day weekend on the Gold Coast came down to a single window. Saturday morning before lunch, before a 20-knot south-easterly stripped the offshore card, was the only realistic shot — and Doug Burt's Tackle World told viewers exactly where to spend it.
The shop's weekly fish report, posted to YouTube on Friday 8 May with stand-in host 'D' calling the bite, opened with a swell warning. Four metres of sea had already kicked in out wide by midday Friday, and although the seaway was still workable, anglers planning to push offshore were urged to sit on the bar and watch the run-out.
"Tomorrow's the 9th of May. We're looking at sort of around about 10 knots up to about 1 o'clock, and then it does come in pretty windy after that, around 20 knots from the south-east," the host said. Sunday, he added, was a 20-knot blow with showers — "not really worth going offshore."
For those who could get out before the breeze, snapper was the headline. Fish had been thick from the 18-fathom line through 24 fathoms north of the Seaway, with a second band stretching across to 36 fathoms east of the Seaway and north-east of Jumping Pin. Float-lining small pilchards on gang or snelled hooks under the smallest sinker that would reach bottom remained the standout. Bottom-bouncers were running paternoster rigs with squid and pilchard halves under 8 to 16 oz of lead.
Further out, the FADs were holding. Doug's son Jack had bagged out 10 dolphin fish on the Tuesday morning, fishing pilchards and small skirted lures. "They got their 10 of dollies, and they're reasonable size," the host said. Pocket-rocket yellowfin tuna were sharing the structure, and a few mackerel were marking on Diamond, Focus and the 18-Fathom reef — but a heavy shark presence had spooked them off baits.
Inshore, tailor was the other standout, with fish to 60 centimetres pushing the north-eastern corner of Crusoe Island, the Slipping Sands and back towards Tipplers Channel. Twenty- and 30-gram metal slugs in two profile sizes had been doing the damage on the high tide and the first of the run-out.
The big-fish play of the week was mulloway in South Stradbroke. Doug Burt's Tackle World was directing anglers to the eastern edge of Klinger Bank, fishing the front of Swan Bay outside the green zone in 6 to 16 metres of water. The catch — anglers had to troll up live pike on small sinking minnows over the South Stradbroke weed banks first, then drop them on big ball sinkers and snelled hooks. "These are big jewies," the host promised. "We're talking metre-20." The same ledge, he warned, also held sharks.
Flathead were biting on Wilson Wild Shrimp, Squidgies and Samaki prawn-imitation soft plastics through the Broadwater. Pandanus Island banks, Tipplers Channel and the Cab Street Point to Rocky Point bank were the standouts on the run-out. Whiting on worms or yabbies came good around the southern side of Hottinger and the swimming enclosure at Southport, particularly after dark.
The shop also flagged a snapper-on-lures seminar booked for Thursday 21 May covering down-rigging, slow-pitch jigging, soft plastics and mechanical jigging.
For the Mother's Day weekenders, the message was straightforward: hit the snapper grounds early Saturday or stay home with mum. The bite would come good again the following weekend.