Hi all
First post on this forum, been watching for awhile and finally have a question!
Staying at Yamba on the NSW North Coast at the moment... getting into fishing (haven't done much since I was a little fella). Went and bought a 75cm bait pump today in the hope that I can both cut down on bait costs, as well as catch more fish by using live yabbies! However, I went out three times today and couldn't find any signs of yabbies around. Went once to the mud flat near the Hickey Reserve carpark just after low tide this morning, pumped all over the shop and found nothing (very few air pockets around too). Then at high tide (the lower of today's high tides - 1.2m instead of the normal 1.5m) I went there again then to Whiting Beach. At Whiting Beach, there were a lot of tiny holes at the top of the water line but pumping those revealed nothing. Then at tonight's low tide, I went to the same two places and still no joy. Whiting beach was covered in white-looking crabs that were very angry at me. The mud flat was covered in little blue crabs. Then I went underneath the Oyster Channel bridge and more of those blue crabs.
Am I looking in the total wrong place? Any hints where in Yamba I might be able to find live yabbies?
Thanks!
Brett
do you have a boat? If you do, there are heaps on the bank opposite the tavern, it gets a bit muddy on the tavern side of the bank so try pull up one of the ends or the other side. They are pretty much in all the sandbars through there. Other than that, we used to be able to pump a few on the beach behind Peninsula court
Dad reckons fishing is 10% brains and 95% muscle, the rest is just good luck.
Nah no boat unfortunately. Is the attached pic the beach you're talking about? If so, how do you get down to it? Thanks!
Brett
Yep that's it. You used to be able to walk straight down to it around the townhouses. Go down at low tide for a look. If that doesn't work ask the guys at the bait and tackle shop
Dad reckons fishing is 10% brains and 95% muscle, the rest is just good luck.
Perfect, thanks for that. Yep found the walkway there at low tide this morning and went down... had to walk about 300m to get past the millions of soldier crabs still running around the beach (can yabbies and soldier crabs live under the same sand? I presumed not so just walked until there was no sign of crabs). Eventually found sporadic holes, started pumping them, and ended up with about 10-15 decent sized ones over the next hour or so.
Thanks muchly!
im glad you found a few. You will get the crabs and yabbies in the same sand, but the soldiers are normally a bit higher up the sandbank in drier sand. Ive stayed in those townhouses a few times, we used to just go down to that little beach and pump enough for a fish off the rocks behind the houses. From memory there was always a few more if you walked a bit further round.
Never got a lot , but there was always some there. Caught some nice fish there , bream , blackfish , flathead , trevally ,cod at times.
Where have you been fishing?
Dad reckons fishing is 10% brains and 95% muscle, the rest is just good luck.
If you walk along Whiting Beach at low tide and go round the corner to your left, you should find some flats there. We always got a lot there. Always worth a throw in while you're pumping them.
TOL
It took about 3 corners but I found where you were talking about! Grabbed some more yabbies this morning. This morning was my first time out fishing while here. Did whiting beach and the river behind it (same carpark). There were plenty of bream out and caught an undersized flatty as well. Going to try further up the Clarence this arvo. Might go back to Whiting again later and try throwing a line in near those sand flats, ran out of time after yabbying this morn though. Never seen soldier crabs before, they are funny little buggers that are everywhere here. Have to try throwing some out as bait later on...
Soldier crabs are good bait but come off the hook easily. Use the little dark grey/black ones, not the bigger blue ones, and put 3 or 4 on a hook. Put the hook in through the back leg on one side and out through the back leg on the other side. A fine net is good for scraping them up off the sand....just run along amongst them draging the edge of the net along the sand to scoop them up. Get heaps in a short time instead of a few at a time using hands.
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