AS THE month of September rolls on the chill of winter will become a distant memory, even now only the mornings have made it feel quite cold and I certainly think frosts are gone for the year.
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As it warms the summer species will only get more prevalent. The catalyst for how everything will go down over the next few months is rain. Depending on how much we get or if we get any will influence where the bulk of your target species will be in the river system.
Generally speaking, the less rain we have the further up river most fish will move. The reasons for this are varied, but salinity levels and food are the driving factors in my opinion. The bait-fish want to be in the right zone for them and the predators want to follow the bait.
This is all good and well, until we get a good flush of rain into the river which will force the bait out of the upper reaches and often pushes them out of the river all together. With the torrent of brown water then, most of the predators (who have to eat) follow suit, heading into the lower reaches to ambush the confused and terrified bait-fish.
To make things more confusing some fish will be hearing the call to mate, for example flathead breed in spring and this occurs in the lower part of the estuary so obviously some fish go against the idea.
Here is another thought! Bass are done breeding in their winter brackish zones and will be wanting to head up into their summer homes, but if you have seen the freshwater reaches lately you will realise the bass aren’t going anywhere far as the river is just a series of holes with dry gravel in between so they need rain to get moving over the dry gravel beds.
So rain is the key … when will it come and what will it effect? That’s what Riley reckons for this week.