WHERE ARE ALL THE JEW FISH GONE

When I was a kid, my mate and I would go to his fathers place, a little house, smack bang on the Hawkesbury River at Spencer. On night fall, we would set ourselves up in a small fibreglass boat called 'Jimmy John' about the size of a bath tub.  Our tackle comprised of handlines as thick as bail twine, the biggest nasty hook in the house, lead to match a house brick, a few whole mullet and a set of rowing ors. Tides meant nothing to us. We selected the tide that made easy rowing to our destination and returned home when the tide brought us back. Simple stuff. Our desitination was the mouth of a small creek outlet. We fished here because we were told to by the old blokes.  Almost every time, we would hook up to that monster jew. Some we handled well and fit them into our bath tub. Others not so good and they pulled us and our bath tub around the River for what felt like hours. These Jew fish were easy catching. At least that was what I thought back then.

I stopped fishing for a while. When I returned, I was in for a shock. Where's the Jew? Things were alot harder. The bath tub had been updated to a boat with room to move, but I found myself going fishing over and over again and catching NOTHING. It took the next five years of pain and suffering before the penny dropped and I bagan to ask some questions, Why then and not know? What was unique about then as opposed to now?  It was time to begin a study campain on the target. What type of fish were they? How do they feed and on what? When did they feed? By knowing this, finding that perfect Jew fish spot become a whole lot easier and 25 years later I now knew why the spot we fish as a kid resulted in Jew fish catches.

Firstly, it is important to understand, that the Mulloway is a preditor. In an estuary environment, he is the great white shark. His targets are those smaller bait fish which make up the estuary system. In most estuary systems that is mullet. And in most systems, they are in large numbers. So based on this, any area that was most likely to produce Mulloway, was the area where the mullet congregated in numbers. Thus, a study campaign in mullet was in order to locate these places and what was unique to those places that held them. Of course the bait supply will change from location to location and in ocean environments, the bait could be squid, or yellowtail. It is of most importance that you identify this factor in your chosen location.

I figured that if the Mulloway were anything like humans, they would conduct their life with the least amount of fuss and physical exersion. If we wanted an ice cream, we would most likely be located at a milk bar or similar outlet which supply that product. We would not be found wondering the Simpson Dessert. To do this would severly reduce the chances of obtaining that ice cream, and would result in a lot of bloody hard work. The mulloway work no differently. They go to place where their chosen food supply is in numbers. Further, being a preditor fish, that place also requires a bottom formation or structure that provides that perfect ambush scenario and adequate holding qualities that attract the bait. This in effect means the Jew can feed well using the minimal amount of fuss and excersion. It is important to quickly identify the features and begin thinking structure rather than just water under the boat. This is what will make one spot reliable and other spots a complete dud.

The mouths of creeks  and tributries produce good results when fishing. They proved a secure holding place for bait fish where the water characteristics shelter them from the main estuary tidal flow and preditors by holding in shallow water. My favorite spot is a place we call the drain. It is a large body of water that is held behind the Mangroves and forms a Lagoon on high tide. Bait fish, and in this case Mullet, take shelter in here from the tide and preditors such as Jew Fish and flathead.  As the tide falls, the lagoon races out a narrow entrance into the river. Over years of this feature, it has carved a large moon shape drain on the bottom of the river bed which runs out. Baitfish and other forms of food are forced to come out through this drain as the Lagoon runs completely out. At the end of the drain, the preditor waits to receive an offering. This principle is what make most junctions worth fishing and in most cases, reliable.When fishing these places, make sure your bait selection is as fresh as it comes because the fish your are after will have a good selection. If it is not fresh and enticing, your opponent will disgard it and move on to something better. Many anglers will have Mulloway swimming right under there boat and never know it because they have used baits which are not fresh and well presented.

So as you can see, food, location, structure, and tide all come into play to create the perfect Jew spot. I have found that this system works best on a big runout tide of about 1.7 - 1.9m. These tides are found twice a months during new moon and full moon periods. These moons also attribute to a large amount of bait fish movement.

Make sure your hooks are sharp and you select the correct rigs for your chosen area. Once again, sloppy attention to rigs, knots and line results in lose of fish. It is no point coming this far, spending hours finding and fishing that spot, and catching the fresh bait, only to loose your opponent because of that 1% factor and sloppy attention to detail. Many other species you catch, you may well get away with it, but I guarantee a Jew fish will make very short work of poorly maintained gear. How many times have you heard anglers talking about something big on their line that broke off. They didn't even see it and I guarantee they experiences only 30 seconds of a jew fish fight. Chances are, they were using completely wrong gear and if their gear was up to it in size, lack of attention to maintaining it was the direct result in 90% of cases.

So what is the best time to catch that Jew. Day or night. Many will say that to catch a big Jew you have to be out at night.  The biggest Jew I have ever had beside by boat  was at 1.00pm on a sunny day with a run out tide in 6 metres of water in that drain. He attained a respectable weight well over 15kg. This location has produced large jew for me on 90 percent of trips, both day and night however on many occasions day time has been more reliable and depend largely on when the tide will activate the principle which the Jew is waiting for to feed. The long and short of it is this, day or night does not matter as long as the principles of your chosen location are supplying a feed to the fish. The only difference I have encountered is that during the night, a Jew fish is more likely to roam alittle for a feed using darkness as his ambush cover, making it a chance to catch him in a spot that may never see another Jewfish again. Daytime, he will be held up in the deeper holes and bait supplied drains using these as his ambush cover. Make sure that you take particular attention of your location an identify the principles that attributed to the catch. It will help you determine if that location has good prospects or is a dud yelding a one off lucky roamer.

There are a number of DVD videos available on catching Mulloway. All have there good points but the best by far is the one you will most likely see listed beside this guide. 'Secret Silver'. This DVD is awesome in providing you with information on how to catch your bait and in turn Mulloway. It will highlight most importantly the care your need to take in bait presentation, rigs,  selecting locations and equipement in order to land one of these fish. The two fishos who made this are chararcters on there own and have done an awesome job in passing on some very good stuff. It is a credit to them. Let me tell you, it is worth every cent to buy this DVD before you look anywhere else. It will apply to any area where Mulloway are located.

Once you apply these principles, prepare yourself for a good jew fish catch and also some good by-catch of Flathead. But the hardest principal to apply is patients. You will need alot of it. And when you have that monster Jew on your line after applying the above, you are only 10% there. The other 90% is experience and ensuring that your gear, maintainance of same and knot tying practices are as good as your opponent on the other end.

Good luck

Mark SIMMONS